Snow Day!

School is closed do to a severe winter storm...which means no class or work for me today. I have tracked down the recipe for bento-sized chicken pot pies...and I'll do my best to make it as clear as possible! The dough recipe is one of my favorites.

"Crust"
I usually just put the ingredients in a bread machine and hit the dough cycle. But it can also be made by hand ahead of time. I'm sure other "crust" ideas would work as well.

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 tsp salt
1 package active dry yeast (~2 1/4 tsp)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup warm water
1 egg
3 1/2 cups flour

To make by hand:
-Heat milk in a saucepan on the stove until it starts to bubble on the edges. Add the butter, sugar, and salt.
-Dissolve yeast in warm water and let set for 10 minutes.
-Combine yeast mixture, milk mixture, and egg.
-Add flour and knead for about eight minutes.
-Place dough in an oiled bowel, cover with a damp dishcloth, and let rise for one hour.

"Filling"
The best info I got from my roommate concerning the filling is that she added ingredients till she liked how it looked. I know that I would love carrots in mine. So feel free to add items or leave them out depending on what you like...

1 cup cooked chicken (or leftover meat that you may have), cut into cubes or pieces
1 cup peas
1 cup corn
Salt/Pepper to taste

"Sauce"
I'm sure there are multiple ways to make a sauce for the pie filling. I've personally used a cream of soup in the past when making similar recipes. But here is my roommates idea to get you started.

1/3 cup melted butter
1/3 cup flour
1 3/4 cup chicken broth
2/3 cup milk

-Combine butter and flour in a saucepan on the stove.
-Add broth and milk.
-Stir until the mixture becomes thick.

"Assembly Instructions"

-Pinch off a piece of dough and roll it into a circle. Make it big enough so that when placed in a greased muffin cup, some dough hangs out over the edge.
-Add the desired amount of filling, being careful not to fill it too full.
-Spoon some sauce over the filling.
-Roll out another circle of dough and place it on top.
-Pinch the edges of the circles together, then roll the edge in and pinch around it again.
-Repeat until you fill up the muffin pan...or you run out of dough (trust me...it can happen!)

-Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes, or until the pies are a healthy golden brown.

Enjoy! Hope that this is helpful.

Quick Bento (#17)

This bento is just a quick put together of things that I had on hand and need to use up. The little chicken pot pie thing was a creation of my roommate. She basically combined chicken, peas, corn, and a homemade sauce to make the filling. A home made bread roll recipe was also used for the "crust," and the pies were baked in muffin tins. I'll track down the exact recipe sometime this week to share. I microwaved the pie before I ate it, so I'm not so sure how it would taste chilled.

I also am experimenting with frozen portions of spaghetti. This is one of Biggie's speed bento tips discussed on her website. I am pretty impressed with the visual results so far...and look forward to seeing how they taste!

Sandwich Bento (#4)

Leftovers and sandwiches adorn today's bento. I hung out with my best friend yesterday: cleaned house, got pedicures, went grocery shopping, and showed her the latest nonsense I've been into (sushi making of course :P).

We found some crabsticks while running around town, which prompted a session of "roll-play" in my kitchen that evening (ahahaha). I discovered that it was much easier to roll the sheet when there was a firm ingredient in it. We also gave hand building of sushi a try, but didn't have much success. Too much rice was made, resulting in the leftovers in the bento today. Not sure how well the refrigerated sushi will hold up, but here's to experimentation!

I made buns for sandwiches as well yesterday. We have a bread machine and I'd like to try to use it more often. The problem is that we don't have a good way to slice the bread. So I figured I could make dough in it and make rolls and buns for sandwiches and such for now. I used a recipe with wheat flour, so I can't quite tell if I over browned them in the oven or not. Nevertheless, they made a yummy looking chicken sandwich!

In my attempt to be creative, I ended up arranging some carrot curls, cheese, and smoked sausage on toothpick "skewers." Here is a close up: