Jack O’Lantern Cheeseburger Pie

I’m not sure why I’m blogging about cheeseburger pie when I really should be doing the massive amount of work I have to do for school, but it’s probably got something to do with the fact that I just don’t want to do school work.

My apartment complex gives us a cute little newsletter every month with fun facts about the holidays in that month, community info and news, and a random recipe. This month’s was jack o’lantern cheeseburger pie. Of course I had to make that one.

It was helpful that hubby and I were invited over to my brother and SIL’s place on Halloween. It would have felt weird to make this for just us. They have a kid. Granted, she’s only a toddler and had no idea what was going on, but it seemed to make more sense to do something so whimsical if there’s a kid involved.

I started off with some chopped onion, minced garlic, sat, and pepper.

And ground beef.

Just kept stirring it to let it all cook.

When it was almost done, I measured out some ketchup.

And after draining the beef, I added the ketchup to it.

All mixed it, it looked almost exactly like it had before. I really didn’t think this was enough ketchup, but after a little taste, I decided to leave it alone.

Set the beef aside to let it cool.

Next step: prepare the pie shell! I cheated and used store-bough pie crust, though I was better about letting it warm up at room temperature before trying to unroll it.

Then I took some mustard…

And smeared it around the bottom of the pie crust. I told you this was weird!

Take a massive, ridiculous, crazy amount of Monterey jack cheese and put it in the pan with the beef.

As I mixed it in, I had second thoughts about the quantity of cheese and picked some back out. That’s not necessary

Once it’s all combined, press the mixture into the pie shell.

Then unroll the other pie crust so you can play with it!

Basically, I put it on a cutting board and cut out a silly jack o’lantern face with a knife.

The smile was lopsided, but ah well. It still looked cute, right?

I picked the whole thing up (carefully!) and placed it on top of the pie. Then I rolled the edges and used the cutout dough to make a little stem.

Just before cooking, I brushed the pie with a mixture of egg, water, and red and yellow food coloring. I also painted the stem green! Then I giggled at how silly it looked and announced that I would be very sorry if this turned out to be a complete flop.

After baking it for about 20 minutes, I took it back out to baste again. At this point, I filled in the holes with a bit of leftover Monterey jack cheese. I thought about making a foil shield to protect my crust from getting burned, but then I decided that I didn’t care.

The recipe said to bake another 10 minutes, but I think I gave it closer to 5. And then it was done!

I liked that there was a bowl of apples on their table. It make it look more festive.

Luckily, it was really easy to serve. I had greased the pie plate, which helped, and the food stuck together better than I expected. Thanks, cheese! I served it with some potato salad and that was that.

Verdict: Yes, it was reminiscent of a cheeseburger. The ketchup and mustard were both there, but subdued. I’m not a mustard fan, so I appreciated this. I noticed the cheese less from the flavor and more from the texture, which was actually pretty creamy. It was a heavy meal, so one piece was pretty much okay for one person, but it was pleasing enough that some went back for more. The leftovers were just as good, I thought.

Definitely a fun, easy meal. Easily modified for different holidays (or no holiday at all, I suppose, but where’s the fun in that?). Maybe a new family favorite!

Chicken Pot Pie

I have no idea why I decided to try making chicken pot pie. The only time I’d ever eaten it was at the dining hall in college. I had a recipe bookmarked, probably because it was a featured recipe one day, and randomly decided that I needed to give it a try. So I did.

Start off with a pound of chicken breasts, cut into small pieces. With mine, this was something like 2 chicken breasts. The rest went in the freezer.

Then cut up some carrots and celery.

I put the chicken into a saucepan.

Topped it with the carrots and celery

And some frozen peas.

Then I covered everything with water and cooked it for a while.

While that cooked, I melted some butter in a big skillet.

Added some chopped onions and sautéed it for a while.

When the onions were translucent, I added a bit of flour.

Along with salt, pepper, and celery seed.

Then as it cooked, I slowly added both milk and chicken broth, whisking and cooking until it was creamy and thick.

Then I explored my store-bought pie crusts. Should have used homemade, but didn’t feel like doing all that. I unrolled the first without reading the package, and it cracked in the process.

Trying to prevent that, I nuked the second one for 20 or 30 seconds, as per the directions. That was a mistake, as it softened so much that it was impossible to unroll. This is what I ended up with.

By this point, the chicken and veggies were done, so I drained them and put them in my pie shell.

And then I topped it with my cream sauce.

Then I tried to figure out how to get my smooshed pie crust on top of it. I managed to pry it off the cutting board and got it onto a plate.. but then I had to repair the tears and rips, so it was stuck to the plate.

This was my best idea.

I had to use a spatula to get the pie crust on the chicken pot pie, it looked like this. I tried to seal the edges, but cream sauce leaked and ended up on top. I tried to vent the shell, too, but only ended up with puddles of cream sauce. I decided to quit ruining dinner and put it in the oven without any more tweaks.

Not bad, not bad!

Okay, yes, it’s leaking, and yes, it’s a bit dark on the edges, but the golden brown is pretty awesome. If I’d made my own pie crusts, I would have had much more success, but this isn’t bad.

I felt the need to take a picture of the first cut. I guess it was a magical moment.

It was goopy and difficult to serve, but I know that’s because I couldn’t wait to cut into it, like I should have.

But it sure was tasty. Really, really good. Hubby told me that this is how chicken pot pie is supposed to taste, so I guess that means I did it right.

I think I’ll be adding this to the rotation.

Quiche Lorraine

When I was taking French in middle school and learning about French culture, one question on a test concerned the ingredients in quiche. I remember drawing on my knowledge from my mom’s famous tuna quiche and selected ingredients from a bank. My teacher marked it wrong because she said that tuna doesn’t go in quiche. Obviously she’d never had tuna quiche made by my mom. Oh, the injustice.

Much, much later, I decided to look into making a quiche that my French teacher would approve of. I’m pretty sure we learned about Quiche Lorraine so that’s what I went with.

When I made this last week, I started with leftover glazed ham 

and chopped it up.

I made a homemade pie crust and covered the bottom of it with the ham.

At this point, you’re supposed to cover it with Gruyere cheese, but Mexican-blend is all that I had. Totally not the same thing, but go with it.

Next, I turned to the onions. First, mince it up.

Then put it in a pan and work on caramelizing it.

The recipe said to go until they’re soft, but I went a bit farther and got some color in them. I wanted a nice, sweet flavor from caramelization and none of that oniony flavor or texture from undercooking them.

(When I was a child, I hated the flavor and texture of onions. I still don’t like raw onions, but my hatred of them then was extreme. My dad tried to open me up to them by explaining that when cooked, onions get soft and sweet. I knew, however, with the wisdom that children have, that he was just trying to trick me into eating them and I certainly wasn’t fooled. It wasn’t until much, much, much later that I realized that he wasn’t lying to me.)

Anyway, once that’s done, spread the onions on top of the cheese.

While the onions were cooking, I started the custard with some beaten eggs.

And added some salt and nutmeg.

And stirred it all up.

Put it on the stove and add hot milk. If you’re naughty like me, sneak in a little half-and-half (Okay, okay, so we were just about out of milk and I topped it off with half-and-half. Just a little bit naughty, then).

And keep heating and stirring until it thickens up a bit.

When you’re satisfied with the creaminess, pour it carefully into the pie shell on top of everything else.

If I remember correctly, this was too much liquid for a store-bought crust, but it was just about perfect for my homemade one.

I decided to crimp the edges after all. Totally not too late.

Pop it in the oven for wayyy longer than the 30 minutes that the recipe claims, and you’re good to go.

Magnifique!

Great for dinner, even better for breakfast.