Too Much Goodness, a Seriously Long Post...

To start off this post full of absolutely delicious food, we'll begin with breakfast! The most important meal of the day (so I hear). I think they are all pretty important. This ordinary french toast was made extra special with a coconut coating... along with our coconut syrup and a side of lemon guava! Now thats a great way to start the day.

Next up: my sister and I had a baking day a bit ago where we made some extreme cookies and cream cupcakes for our brother. He sent us a recipe and we delivered. The bottom of these cupcakes has half of an Oreo for the base. The batter has chunks of the cookie with a cream cheese frosting to top them off. I will include the websites where I got the recipes for all of the items that I used a recipe for at the very bottom of this post!

And now for our feature presentation... My dad just left for a long trip and I wanted to have everyone together for a dinner at our place before he left... I asked what he would like to have for dinner... and then I knew I should never have asked. Chicken. Pot. Pie.

Just thinking about it made me cringe... the crust, the filling, the baking... so much work! But it was his request so I did some research, figured out a few shortcuts that saved my life while seriously enhancing the final product. Let me tell you... AMAZING.

Now appetizers are wonderful things. I feel like they encourage chatting and relaxing and hanging out all at the same time. Basically the perfect way to start a lovely evening. I had a ripe pear and cream cheese on hand and figured out a way to incorporate them into what my dinner guests agreed, were extremely addicting little morsels. I sliced a baguette, sprinkled on some white peach balsamic vinegar and broiled them to toast the bread. I mixed the cream cheese with some goat cheese and spread a dollop on each toast. Thinly sliced pear went on top, another sprinkle of crumbled goat cheese, a tiny drizzle of honey, and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Texture, flavor, eye appeal... these had it all!

Now for the PIES... I chose to do individual servings because it is SO much more fun and everyone gets their own crust, which is basically the best part. For my shortcuts: I got a fully cooked rotisserie chicken from the store (the ones sitting under the hot lamps). I always love this chicken because it's salty and seasoned and always moist. This was the perfect choice, I must say. It saved me a pan since I didnt have to cook the chicken, and the flavor it added was ridiculous. (Note: you do have to pull and shred all the chicken off the bones yourself which takes a little time) The next tip is to use store bought pie crusts. I bought a package of 2 crusts and cut my 6 circles out of them. Just be sure to brush the tops of the crusts with eggwash before they bake for that lovely brown crust.

For the filling: rotisserie chicken was combined with fresh carrots, mushrooms, celery, peas, chicken stock, and a roux to thicken it all up. Boy was it thick and creamy!

Being consumed with the pot pies, I forgot to get my salad ingredients at the store. With a case of lovely apples my dad so nicely dropped off from costco... I made an applesauce which turned out to be the perfect side dish! Just apples, lemon juice, water, cinnamon, and I added a healthy pour of molasses... this side dish made the whole apartment smell amazing.

As you can see, that egg wash makes the crusts just PERFECT

This photo is for real... not a spec of food left anywhere!

Once again we had brown bananas that, as you already know, we won't eat. So I found a recipe for banana cake and used my leftover cream cheese frosting from the Oreo cupcakes to top off the moist banana treat.

And just a few more pictures from meals over the past week...

Finally... The End!

Here are the websites for recipes, but as you may have noticed, I pretty much tweak every recipe to my liking, and you should too! Thats the experimental fun of cooking...

Chicken Pot Pie

Banana Cake

Oreo Cupcakes