I made a great chicken pot pie for two. Sliced a chicken breast and poached it briefly with a scallion, carrot and celery, then cut up the chicken. Then I kept the broth, put chicken mixture into a bowl with 1/3 c sliced cooked red potatoes, a handful of frozen pearl onions and another handful of frozen peas. I wanted to make individual crocks.
There was no cheating here, as it failed as I tried to buy frozen puff pastry to put on top of the individual crocks. The guy at Whole Foods was great and felt really bad he couldn’t help me out. The recipe for my mother’s short crust pastry is ingrained, just not used. You have it on this site. It’s 1 1/2 cups flour, 1t salt, 1 1/2 sticks of butter. After processing that briefly you add up to 3T ice water. I added two, then another, then another. The second half of the dough is still in the frig.
It didn’t roll out well, still too dry in this arid climate. So I took out the tasty stew mix and put it in an 8X8 glass baking dish and rolled out the pastry and patched it on top. Set the timer for 20 minutes because the oven is crazy, and it wasn’t nearly done, so another 20 minutes later the stew was boiling but the pastry was… pasty.
So on goes the broiler to finish the pastry on top. This meal is going south, big time. When it came out it looked halfway decent (nothing I would serve company) and I let it sit for 2-3 minutes. The stew was boiling beforehand but was just warm. And the “sauce” was thinner than I’d have liked but tasty.
Did I consult a recipe before making this dish? No way. This was a seat-of-the-pants deal. My husband says I always make the dish better the next time. No, I ate some for lunch and none has gone to the dog as yet, thanks for asking. Cheers, Dee
Cooking with Dee 
“It’s the altitude”??!!??
Tonight I’m making this roasted root-vegetable medley recipe one of my FB friends linked to:
http://theshiksa.com/2011/04/13/oven-roasted-root-vegetables/
(I’m omitting the beets BTW)
My oven’s temp is 75 degrees higher than whatever you dial up, but at least it’s CONSISTENT…
I read the recipe and she didn’t even peel the beets. That would be a mess at table when diners are trying to pick up a bite-sized chunk of the yummy veggies. She’s right in that golden beets may work just fine. I’m sending you another recipe.
When I speak of altitude with the pastry I mean the dryness in the air. Sometimes the hygrometer says nothing, or 6% humidity or 20%, it’s very different from cooking at 3′ above sea level with high humidity and I should have used more butter or more water, or bothto make it both flaky and pliable. Dee