Recipe for Pot Pie of Love

2 medium onions
1/2 cup butter, salted
1/2 cup flour
1 Tbl Herbs de Provence (or other mix - Italian mix will do)
1 Tbl Dried Tarragon
3 cups cooked chicken, torn into bite size pieces
16 oz frozen vegetables (your choice)
4 cups 2% milk
2- Your favorite recipe for pie crust, or refrigerated pie crust.

Optional: half and half , "Better than Boullion", sinful bacon or sausage fat

Turn oven to 350 degrees.

Dice the onion finely and saute in a dutch oven with 1/4 cup butter on high medium high till medium brown. The brown is where most of the flavor comes from. Yum. Then turn down heat to medium low and add other 1/4 cup butter, 1/2 cup flour and herbs. Cook mixture for another 3 min or so. Turn to medium heat and add veggies. When they thaw, add the chicken and then add milk till it covers solid food by about an inch.

Taste the sauce now for flavor. Add salt and pepper (or herbs) as needed. If your sauce doesn't have enough flavor, the pie will be boring. You can add anything here - mine didn't need anything on Valentine's day, but I like to use "Better than Bullion" chicken sometimes, and I suggested also some bacon or sausage fat if you have some. With the butter and milk already, I try to stay away from more fat, but sometimes for love we must make choices!

After you get the taste right, continue to heat on medium stirring very often till the mixture heats up and thickens. The flour is what makes it thicken, but it does it only when the liquid gets hot. When it it thickened, turn off the heat. You don't want it to boil or scorch.

I used a Pampered Chef large baking dish, but you can use any large dish you'd use for lasagna. My mom arrived for a visit on Valentine's day (Yay!) and she suggested I don't put a crust on the bottom of the pan, only the top. So I did.

Lightly spray the dish, pour the chicken mixture into your baking dish. Then fit the pie crust over the top of the chicken mixture, using 1 1/2 recipes. With the other half of the recipe, cut out heart shapes and place on top of crust. My loved ones fought over these later, "Mama gave me five hearts and you only got two!" Good times. Bake on 350 till crust is golden.

Serve with love, but ask them to share the love, not fight over it!

Snow day #2 and "Snow Cream"

Warning: if you aren't interested in an overly enthusiastic account of the snow, you'd better skip the words. I am smitten.

Pure powder snow for sledding on our second snow day. This is a local homeschooling mom's "secret place" and it was perfect! Here we are, ready to GO!
It is on a levee with fields all around us, gorgeous and pure white. When we moved here they were full of ready crops, colorful and full of promise. They've been dead and sad looking for two months, until now. The lights snows have nothing on this snow!

Here's #2 with the powder flying, and into her face! Soft and glorious!

#3 was all grins.
I forgot to mention the surprising part of the day: I sledded. Over and over, I just couldn't get enough. I had crusted snow all over my jeans and under my jacket on my sweater. My ear warmers and scarf were crusty. I LOVED IT! It was fast and soft and fun!

The train tracks down below is another picture in which I pretend I am a photographer...I just couldn't resist.

No manipulating of the image at all...this is straight out of the camera.

It was dusk and we were going home after hot chocolate and MacGyver re-runs at a friend's house and we crossed the tracks....I actually stopped and reversed in a very snowy road just to get this photo from the car. We didn't get stuck, thankfully. The same lovely homeschooling mom who took us to the secret place for sledding also sent out this recipe for "Snow Cream"
You gather one gallon of fresh snow. Then mix together 1 cup milk, 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tsp vanilla, thoroughly incoroporating the sugar. The pour all over the snow, mixing it very well. Eat...wonderful!OK, hopefully, I'll be a little less enthusiastic tomorrow. I wouldn't bet on it, though.