Meatless Monday - Veggie Pot Pie

This week's meatless monday was delicious.  We all liked it so much that I just had to share it.  I can take credit for finding it, but honestly Timmy made the majority of the dish.  I used the epicurious app to find it.  You can also find it on their website by clicking here.

this is the mix before adding into the pie pan

 this is the filling before we topped it with bread crumbs 

The finished product!! Delicious!!

Veggie Pot Pie
4 medium potatoes, preferably russet
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon light olive oil
1 medium onion, quartered and thinly sliced
1 medium carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
1 cup finely chopped broccoli
2 tablespoons unbleached white flour
1/2 cup low-fat milk, rice milk, or soy milk
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley, optional
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
9-inch prepared good-quality pie crust, preferably whole grain
1/2 cup whole-grain bread crumbs

1. Cook or microwave the potatoes in their skins until done. When cool enough to handle, peel. Dice two and mash the other two. Set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and carrot and sauté over medium heat until golden.
4. Add the broccoli along with a small amount of water. Cover and cook until the broccoli is tender but not overdone, 3 to 4 minutes.
5. Sprinkle the flour into the skillet, then pour in the milk, stirring constantly. Cook until the liquid thickens a bit, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the diced and mashed potatoes. Heat through gently. Stir in the parsley, if using, and season with salt and pepper. Pour the mixture into the pie crust and pat in.
6. Place the bread crumbs in a small mixing bowl. Drizzle with the remaining oil and stir until the crumbs are evenly moistened. Sprinkle evenly over the pie. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the crust is golden. Let the pie stand for about 10 minutes, then cut into wedges and serve.
The Vegetarian Family Cookbook
May 2009
by Nava Atlas

Our Engagement Party

As the wedding planning has been going along well, it's time to start celebrating.  We were lucky enough to have my Aunt Colleen host an engagement party for us yesterday afternoon.  While my bridesmaids are from around the country, all of Tim's groomsmen are from here.  We were able to get all six groomsmen, our usher, and both dad's together.

Aunt Colleen set up everything and had a lovely toast for everyone.  She had some bubbly wine for all the adults and sparkling juice for the wee ones.  She had gotten lots of cups and everyone was able to give a toast.  My dad went first, followed by Rich (Tim's dad), and then Aunt Colleen.  Aunt Kathleen chimed in with the last toast which was simple but true.  She said that good marriages are created by people that treat each other well again and again (or something like that).  Either way, it sounded lovely (for those that could hear) and was very sweet.

My dad made arrangements to get a cake from a guy Virgil who works with him.  Virgil does wedding and specialty cakes as a side business. It was a lovely sheet that was decorated with a holiday theme.  It had holly as a decoration and green.  It was white cake and had a pretty frosting that was certainly made.  He also accented it with some of those lil sugary silver decorations.  Yummy!! To top it off, dad also got a "small" wedding cake sample.  By small, I mean it would have served 25-35 people.  This one was chocolate with a minty flavor.  I'm not sure exactly if the chocolate cake had mint in it or if it was the peppermint frosting that was strong enough to make it taste perfectly holiday.  We had a part of the chocolate cake for dessert, after dinner, which was after the actual party.

Thanks for everyone who came to the party !! I hope to get some pictures up shortly.... but I didn't bring my camera so I will have to wait and see who can get them to us.

Lucky Monday

Today I got featured on another blog which is a fun new thing.  If you click the landing page, you will see my post on the http://www.forestparkliving.org/ landing page.  Since this won't last forever, you can go straight to my restaurant review by clicking here.  It has a cute picture of Warren, June, & I at Grandma Audrey's 90th birthday.  


It was a competition for a food review around Forest Park and I won which included an invitation to a special dinner at a "pop up" restaurant.  What is a pop up restaurant?  Well, it's in the line of the new wave of underground restaurants and such.  According to St. Louis Magazine: 
"a pop-up restaurant is a unique and economical way for a chef to either spread his name/brand or test drive a completely new idea. Such a restaurant has a run of one night to several weeks and is held in a location one might not expect a restaurant to well, pop up: a coffee shop, an unused catering space, an unusual studio or office, even, as will be the case here, a vacant restaurant." 


The place we are headed is in the Dorchester, an apartment building right on Skinker.  This pop up is called Demitasse Underground.  The dinner will be a 7 course meal with wine pairings.  It changes every week, which adds to the allure of it.  With our meal we will get to sample quite a few yummy sounding items that will be a challenge to the pallet.  I can't wait to tell you all about it.  To learn more about Demitasse Underground, you can find out what is on the menu through their facebook page.  Click here to see it.

Where's the Beef ?

Where's the beef?
In our freezer!! On Sunday we got our first side of beef.  The farmer, Mark Nagel, delivered it right to our door.  It was $2.75/pound.  His farm is further south in MO roughly an hour and a 1/2 from here.  We wanted to get a 100% grass fed cow.  He said that all of his cows are able to graze and have grass the entire time.  Due to the weather, we were able to get a cow that had been "finished" or supplemented with grain.  The cow still had grass all the time, but then he has a mix of corn and hay that is available for them to eat.  The majority of the diet is still grass.

In terms of scale, I found a "sale" on grass fed ground beef for $4.99/lb.  It doesn't even claim to be locally raised.  We have not only 20+ pounds of ground beef but we also have a variety of steaks, roast, bones & liver to use ??, cube steak, short ribs, and more cuts of beef that I didn't even really ever pay attention to.  We are very excited to try out all the different cuts and try new recipes.  I will keep you in the loop.....

cooler full of meat!! :-) 

We had it wrapped in paper and it is very nicely labeled as to what cut it is.  Yippie!!

Bag of ground beef -- I didn't count, but I know its over 20 lbs. :-D

Dry Dock Farms.... the end!

We were anticipating the excitement of an end of the year fall festival to go out to the farm and meet our farmers, their friends, the other suppliers.  This didn't happen as they had a death in the family.  It was a bummer as we (June, Timmy, & myself... perhaps another straggler or two) wanted to see what our farm was all about and hand't been out to Silex, MO.

As the season has concluded, I am going to take a minute to reflect on our experience.  I feel strongly we received a full cooler every week but one.  I felt like it was top notch produce -- not the "leftovers."  I enjoyed our weekly newsletter and our suggestions for how to use and preserve the food.  With our season being finished, we still have items down in the freezer ready to microwave and eat.  I am planing to participate in a CSA again next year.  There is an option to get pick up across from our house at the Buder School for a cooperative. The downside is that all of the produce is not necessarily local.  Tim and I are leaning towards using Dry Dock Farms again.... June is leaning towards the co-op that you pick up across the street.

Also, through this experience with the farm we've had the opportunity to get locally raised chicken and pork.  It is wonderful.  I have a chicken and some pork downstairs in the freezer.  We have a grass fed cow 'hanging' for us at the processing plant.  The farmer, Mark Nagel, was a guy my dad met up at Kirkwood's farmers market.  We have been waiting for our beef for 3 months or so to be ready and it sounds like we are going to have a delivery in the next two weeks.  We will start working on some of that frozen stuff down in the freezer to make room.