pot pie

Steak & Guinness Pot Pies

March 16, 2016

St. Paddy’s Day is right around the corner, so you know what that means…it’s time to share my annual St. Patrick’s Day recipe. Let’s get excited because there’s still time to switch up those plans you’ve already made. Ditch those boring recipes you make year in and year out and try something new for a change. Last year I teamed up with Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board aka Wisconsin Cheese to bring you Irish Colcannon Mac and Cheese. It was a huge hit, but when isn’t cheesy mac and cheese with bacon and potatoes a good thing? It’s a dream team made in heaven. This year I teamed up with Wisconsin Cheese once again to bring you another classic Irish dish but with a twist. Potatoes and bacon and cheese happen to be involved again so I’d say we’re already off to a great start. I know that bacon isn’t a traditional Irish ingredient, but something about potatoes and cheese just scream bacon to me.

I wanted to switch things up a bit this year by making something new to me, Steak and Guinness Pot Pies. It’s like a traditional Irish beef stew all wrapped up in a flaky pie crust. The thing though is that this flaky crust is studded with crispy bacon and lots of Cheddar cheese, the way it always should’ve been. It’s a new take on a classic dish. So let’s all get in the spirit and be Irish for the day. This is our one free pass to let loose and get as wild as we’d like. So let’s all wear our green and start pinching those that forgot or just didn’t care enough to. Let’s make all of our favorite festive recipes and make everyone around us happy by getting into the St. Patrick’s Day spirit. Remember that no holiday is complete without lots of cheese and lots of fun.

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Jambalaya Pot Pie

January 27, 2016

To celebrate the fact that I’m in New Orleans for the rest of the week, I bring to you this Jambalaya Pot Pie. It’s exactly what you think it is. Jambalaya meets chicken pot pie and they immediately go on a date, because everyone needs love. They hit it off right from the start, and can’t get enough of each other. Then one thing leads to another and before you know it…BOOOM…out comes this mega fusion crazy dish. It has all the makings of a traditional jambalaya, which happens to be one of my favorite Cajun dishes, but with a chicken pot pie look and feel to it. It’s what you serve for dinner when company is coming over and you want to impress them. Or what you serve your family when you’re bored and tired of the normal week to week meals you always make. Step out of the box and spice things up a bit. The people of New Orleans would want you to let loose. I want you to let loose. Explore more in the kitchen. You owe it to yourself.

I’m in New Orleans this week for a couple of reasons. One of which is to eat and drink as much as possible (that should go without saying, though). Whenever I make a trip out here, I have this constant internal struggle of wanting to eat everything in sight, and never having enough time (or space) to eat everything I’d like to. I do try my best though and give it all I have. Most importantly, I’m here to visit and get some work done with my friend Joy—we’re working on her next cookbook (the woman is a machine I swear to you). She’s doing all the work, I’m just here to photograph it, and convince her to stop working so we could get a drink.

I wanted to make sure we could all somehow enjoy the Big Easy together, so I thought the best way to go about this, is to share a New Orleans inspired recipe. In case you’re in need of more Cajun recipes to fuel you for the week, I’ve got you covered. This Jambalaya Pizza is calling out your name for your Friday night festivities. Friday night pizza party anyone? Red beans and rice is my second favorite New Orleans dish and I’ve gone ahead and turned it into portable pastries with these Red Beans and Rice Empanadas. You better believe that I’ll be eating an unhealthy amount of po’boys while I’m here, so why don’t you join me? These Fried Shrimp Po’boy Sliders are hard to resist. Need an excuse to drink in the morning? Don’t we all. These Good Morning Margaritas are inspired by a great restaurant in NOLA, called Elizabeth’s.

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Bratwurst, Beer & Cheddar Pretzel Pot Pie

September 28, 2015

Just in case you were dying to know, the answer is yes. Yes we still a few more days to celebrate Oktoberfest. The good news is that it isn’t officially over until October 4th so there’s still time. Grab your friends and family and throw yourselves a good old fashioned Oktoberfest party. Even better news is that I have the ultimate Oktoberfest recipe for you to try. It’ll instantly become your new favorite fall time dish, without having to rely on the recipes you always make year after year. The bad news is that I can almost guarantee once you try this pot pie you’ll no longer what to eat regular pot pie ever again. Someone will serve you chicken pot pie with a boring crust and you’ll lose it. You’ll flip a table over and start throwing dishes on the floor, and have a good old fashioned tantrum. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. P.S. I’m just going to keep putting “good old fashioned” in front of everything to make it sound more appealing. Let me know if it’s working.

A little fun fact about me is that I took German in high school for a couple years. Don’t ask me anything about it because I hardly remember a thing. In all honesty I only studied it because my sister had taken German for three years at the same school and I wanted to be just like her. My sister is the smartest person I know, and the teacher really liked her a lot because of this, so I figured I’d get a free ride by extension. I got by and enjoyed it, but not enough to remember what I learned. It’s a bummer now that I think about it. It’s like why didn’t I stick with the cello or stick with German? I could’ve been a cello master who speaks fluent German, but no that didn’t happen. All I know now is that I still get excited for Oktoberfest each year, and not celebrating it would be criminal.

Let’s talk about this Bratwurst, Beer & Cheddar Pretzel Pot Pie for a quick second. It’s a mouthful to say, but think about how difficult it is for me. I’m the one that actually has to keep typing it out. I didn’t know what else to call this pot pie. Deciding on the title was a bit hard. I wanted to make sure you fully understood how awesome the recipe is right off the bat. I played around with a few titles like, Good Old Fashioned Oktoberfest Pot Pie, but that didn’t really say much about it. Then I thought German Pot Pie, but nah, this isn’t something that is made in Germany and I didn’t want it to be misleading. Then I was like, I’ll list some of the ingredients in the title like Bratwurst, Beer and Cheddar Pot Pie. I was happy with that for a bit, but midway through writing out the post it dawned on me that I really should highlight the pretzel part of this dish too because the pretzel is a crucial component of it. It’s the first thing you’ll notice when you look at the images. Pretzel NEEDS to be in the title. Bratwurst, Pretzel, Cheddar and Beer Pot Pie didn’t have an easy fluidity to it. It didn’t flow naturally off my tongue, so I started jumbling the worlds around until I found the right combination but even then I’m not even sure if it’s the right decision because it’s the longest recipe title ever known to mankind (exaggerating). Bratwurst, Beer & Cheddar Pretzel Pot Pie was the winner. It seemed right. It seemed fair. At the end of the day, the one thing I realized was that it doesn’t matter what in the world I decided to call it, people are still going to love it either way. As long as it tastes good, that’s all that matters.

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Roasted Autumn Vegetable Pot Pies

November 6, 2013

I’ve often wondered what my life would be like as a vegetarian. Would I be the best vegetarian out there? In case you were wondering, I’d be the worst vegetarian. On the planet. Would I have more energy and be healthier? Maybe. I could always use more energy to continue on my quest to take over the world. (I’m only partially kidding about that). I’d definitely be doing my part for the animals. I wouldn’t be terrified anymore that one of them was going to kill me in my sleep. (Not really a fear of mine). Because I’ve eaten meat my entire life, I’m assuming it would be very difficult for me to just become a vegetarian all of a sudden, out of the blue. I’ve grown up on it and I can’t picture myself giving up red meat, chicken and pork forever. Permanently, never again? No way. Don’t even get me started on seafood. I don’t think I could survive life without fish tacos. I’m from California, they’re a staple in my diet. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I eat red meat every single day of my life. What am I, a T-Rex? I wish. I think it would be a problem if I did chomp my teeth into a steak everyday, but every once in a while I do crave red meat. I gotta have it. To be more specific, I crave a really good beef burger with a homemade bun and thin and crispy fries every now and then. I’m probably the only person who suffers from such cravings, right? Have to be. Obviously I wouldn’t be able to eat good ol’ beef burgers if I were a vegetarian, and that makes me really sad. That’s my number one hesitation with becoming a vegetarian. A life without burgers or a nice piece of steak is a sad life for me. In all honesty, most often, I end up eating chicken on a day to day basis. To the point where a good friend of mine refuses to come over for dinner anymore because she claims I’m always forcing chicken down her throat whenever she visits me. “If I eat anymore chicken, I’m going to fly the F out of here.” Total lie by the way. It’s like 95% chicken and 5% other stuff when she comes over, not all the time as she likes to claim. She’s an exaggerator. Now though, I do it on purpose and tell her we’re having something else and then I get her into my house and serve her chicken with a maniacal laugh. She totally likes it.

I know I’d never survive as a vegetarian. I’ll be honest and straight forward with that confession, right off the bat. I love all food way too much for that kind of commitment, but every now and then—a few nights a month because that’s all my body will allow—I like to make a vegetarian meal. It’s nice to get more vegetables into my system, because let’s face it sometimes I really forget to eat veggies (sorry mamma), and it’s the perfect excuse to get out of my comfort zone in the kitchen as well. It forces me to think outside of the box. It also allows me to diversify this tiny blog of mine with dishes that you guys would actually like to try out. It wouldn’t be fair to you if all I gave you were the same meat, chicken and pork filled recipes that were heavy and super rich. Really, I’m just sneakily expanding my net and trying to coerce more people (The Vegetarians) to follow my blog. World domination remember?

So this one is for all the vegetarians out there. Even the semi-vegetarians that say they’re vegetarians but have a soft spot for bacon every now and then when no one is looking. Yeah, you know who you are. I think vegetarian food gets a bad reputation. Mostly because people spread nasty rumors about it being bland and boring. And by people I mean me. I was spreading those rumors, but in my defense, that was before I grasped a good understanding for vegetarian meals. One day while I was eating potato chips disguised in a rice cake bag, I had an epiphany. “Jon, you’re about to have an epiphany,” I told myself. “Vegetarian food doesn’t have to be boring and bland. It can be flavorful and tasty and hearty. Why, you don’t need meat in your life at all!” Then I slapped myself in the face and threw my drink in the air because that was crazy talk talkin’. Of course I need meat. But the first part of that epiphany was totally true. So I decided to come up with some filling veggie-centric recipes that would satisfy the vegetarians in my life, and at the same time fit the bill for those carnivorous animals like myself. So I bring to you, drumroll please, ba da ra rummmmm, VEGETABLE POT PIE!! Wait, I’m not giving it any justice. I present to you, ROASTED AUTUMN VEGETABLE POT PIE. You can thank me now. And by thanking I mean, you can now name your next child after me, if you have one. If you don’t, then you can change the name of the one you already have. You laugh now but when you actually taste this dish, don’t be surprised when you start calling your child Jonathan. Just a fair warning.

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