Chicken Pot Pie and Finals

Final Exams call for comfort food, but none of this ice cream or cheap cookies or hot pocket stuff, as delicious as those can be. Finals are heavy duty and therefore one needs heavy duty comfort food; food that takes you back to family dinners, and reminds you of your mom in a warm, toasty kitchen. Homemade Chicken Pot Pie is the ultimate comfort food; the pie crust is flaky and thick, filled full of grilled chicken and cheese and broccoli. It takes so long to cook that you can avoid studying for your finals for 2 whole hours, but at the end you are still happy because you are eating something warm and delicious. This also happens to be the best pie crust recipe ever. 

Extra Flaky Pie Crust (Adapted from my Mom who got it out of a Pillsbury Cookbook)

2 cups sifted cold flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon vinegar (to make crust flaky)

¾ cup butter

6 tablespoons ice water

Sift cold flour, sugar and salt together.  Grate butter (on cheese grater) into flour/salt and add vinegar. I grate the butter so that I don't have to cut it in with a pastry fork. Mix butter and flour together gently with hands until a crumbly mixture has formed. Add ice water 1 tablespoon at a time while mixing with hands until a ball is formed. Dough should be pliable and hold together but not wet at all. Adding too little water will cause the dough to crack when rolling, and adding to much water will make the dough sticky.  Split in half and roll out both halves on floured surface, then put one half in pie plate.

Chicken Filling

4 oz sour cream (1/2 cup)

3 oz canned/evaporated milk (1/3 cup)

½ cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

1 can cream of chicken soup

½ bunch of steamed/chopped broccoli

1-2 chicken breasts, grilled and chopped into bite size pieces

Mix all ingredients together. Fill crust in the pie plate with filling and then cover with the other pie crust. Pinch sides together to seal. Brush evaporated milk on top of crust before baking for a golden brown crust. Bake at 400 degrees for 45-60 minutes. Invite a friend over to eat. And then take a break from finals and read Part II of this story. 

Part II- In Which the World Turns Itself Inside Out...

*Disclaimer: I know this story is weird. 

 Part II- In Which the World Turns Itself Inside Out...

I dropped the lizard that was in my hand and backed away. Except I guess it wasn’t a lizard, it was a baby dragon. The poor things squeaked as it hit the ground and scurried back into the pile of rocks with the other babies.

“Cynthia!” The old man said sternly, “That was entirely uncalled for.”

“Oh I’m sorry! It’s not every day that someone tells me I’m holding a non existent mythical creature in my hand!”

“Ok ok, maybe this was the wrong way to go about this. Let’s talk”

“Finally” I grumbled as I sat down at the edge of the pool. I was still uncomfortably hot and I pushed off my hiking boots and peeled off my soggy socks. I dipped my toes into the glacial runoff water that the babies were still playing in.

“Alright” said the old man as he took a seat across from me on a fallen log. “Let’s start at the beginning. No, let’s start with some introductions. My name is Glaceau, and you are Cynthia”

“Ummm ok, nice to meet you”

“I am a wizard and you are a dragon keeper”

“Ummm no. You are a crazy old man and I am a student at BYU”

Glaceau sighed and tried again, “That is only partially true. Cynthia is indeed a student at BYU, but she also is one of the greater dragon keepers that Martwa has ever seen. A little suspension of belief here and this would all be easier”

“Ok fine, if I am a dragon keeper, whatever that is, then how come I don’t know anything about dragons?”

“You do, you just need to reach deeper within yourself to access all that knowledge and information. It is in your… subconscious, in a way”

“How is that even possible? I have never seen a dragon before today! How do I know you? Where are we and when is this all going to stop!?” I raised my voice with every question and by the end I was practically shouting.

Glaceau looked exasperated. He muttered to himself about something being worth it and then looked up at me with frustration.

“Let’s try this from a different approach. Cynthia, have you ever been sick? Or been horribly depressed for no good reason? Do you get splitting headaches or feel anger when you shouldn’t?”

“Yes… But I’m pretty sure it’s just hormonal or stress or lack of sleep or something”

“Oh those are all very good scientific reasons, but they are not the real reason. Your mind and body are irrefutably connected to a mind and body in this world. The idea of an alternate reality is sometimes difficult to grasp but I need you to try and accept that there is another Cynthia in this world, another you in this world and she needs your help”

I fainted.

To be continued...