Yummy Veggie Pot Pie!

I thought this pot pie would be bland, boring, and a general disaster but oh. my. gosh. I don't think I've ever eaten a pot pie more yummy or healthier! My family and I added up all the calories and if you cut the pie into eight slices each slice is around 240 calories! Awesome right? Well it gets better. This pot pie is full of healthy good stuff and here comes the really astounding part, it's filling! Really filling!


Ingredients for filling:
2 Yukon Gold Potatoes, Diced
1/4 Red Onion
6 cups of Fresh Spinach
2 SMALL Crook Neck Yellow Squash, sliced
2 Ears of Grilled Corn
2 Tsp Dried Thyme
1/4 tsp Dry Rosemary
2 cups Chicken Broth
1 tsp Corn Starch or Flour as needed to thicken it
Extra Virgin Olive Oil! or whatever oil you prefer.

Directions for filling:
Place corn on the grill for about ten minutes till it has those hash marks on it. Dice and boil potatoes. Drain and set them aside. Dice red onion. Add about 1/2 Tbsp of some type of healthy oil to a skillet. Add onions and saute till tender. Once the onions are tender add the spinach. Yup, all of it, I hope you have a big skillet! Add the onions and spinach to the potatoes once you're done. Slice the squash and saute with the same amount of healthful oil as before and thyme. Once they're tender add them to the rest of the filling w/ the potatoes. Toss the rosemary in with the rest of the filling too. Put 2 cups of chicken broth in a pot and bring it to heat. Slowly add the cornstarch. Let cook for 1-2 minutes and take off heat. Add some flour to make that creamy colour if you want! Now add it to the rest of the filling! Let it sit and thicken while you make the crust.

Ingredients for Crust: (Altered Galette Crust from Cooking With Julia)
1/3 cup Corn Meal
1 1/3 cup Whole Wheat Flour
7 Tbsp unsweetened butter
1 Tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp sour cream
1/3-1/4 cup Ice water.

Directions for Crust:
Preheat the over to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine dry ingredients and mix well. Cube butter and cut into dry mixture with either a pastry cutter or food processor. In another bowl mix sour cream and ice water. Once it looks crumbly the dry mixture slowly, very slowly add it to the wet mixture. Keep it cold! Once finished split dough in two and roll out dough to fit an eight inch pie pan. Add the filling and roll out the second ball of dough to make the top. Cut the vents into the crust and bake for 30-45 minutes. Let it cool for 20-30 minutes, serve, and enjoy. : )


Magickal Reference Stuff:
Pot pie is just one of those foods that kind of ends up like a garbage can. You get to use up what you need to get rid of while learning how to make what you have work. You can use this aspect of pot pie for a lot of things, it's up to you to think them up! I'm not doing all the work here! It's also a great way to bring balance, unity, and "flow" into your life. For instance, I always think of single ingredients as words or ideas but by bringing them together you make something more detailed like a sentence or a paragraph! Yeah! :D When I think of pot pie compared to stew though, which is another kind of garbage can food, pot pie always seems like a warm hug, stew feels more like an old man in constant thought, like Aristotle.
Yukon Gold Potato: Earth, simplicity, generosity, abundance,
Onion: Masculine, earth, protection, healing, purification
Spinach: Truthfulness, bright beginnings, open heart
Crook neck yellow Squash: Sun, lightening a load, aloofness
Corn: Steadfastness, strength, courage, sun, a sweet demeanor, cycles
Thyme: Cleansing, courage, memories, healing
Rosemary: Memory, concentration, healing, protection, longevity
Chicken Broth: Health, sunrise, mothering, making what you have last
Corn Starch: Creating uniformity, an embrace, bringing yourself to focus when your mind's all over the place.
Flour: Control, revealing hidden matters, consistency
Cornmeal: Earth, fire, maintaining stability and protection, steadfastness
Salt: Ocean, earth, purification, protection, moon energy
Pepper: Fire, cleansing, banishing
Sugar: Sweetens EVERYTHING, childlike joy, friendship, courage
Unsalted butter: Smoothing out relationships, removing harsh feelings, acceptance, forgiveness
Sour Cream: Cleansing, patience, respectability
Ice Water: Calming over abundant emotions, respecting the emotions of others, cooling firey souls

From the Rooster's Mouth: Pico de Gallo

Just so you know I don't actually use measurements unless I'm baking. If this isn't a pastry item please take that into consideration and don't hate me for ruining your dinner party.

I. Love. Pico de Gallo. I eat about 1 liter of Pico de Gallo per week. It's safe to say I have an addiction to this lemony, spicy, tomato relish. I figure I was destined to love this stuff since I've always hated salsa, but to fit the South American stereotype it was necessary that I like some kind of spicy tomato thing! It was such a predicament. I would've been the shame of my family if it weren't for Chipotle. Thank Goddess for the McDonald's industry, right? I went to Chipotle almost weekly just to get my Pico de Gallo fix, because the last thing I want to deal with is withdraw symptoms. It's comparable to the horrors of a meth addict going cold turkey. I could've died!

Ok, in all seriousness, I just love Pico de Gallo. Yeah, I do eat 1 liter of it a week but don't worry, I don't suffer withdraw symptoms if I chose to abstain for a day. On another serious note, don't do drugs! I hear they're bad for you, but I wouldn't really know since I don't want to experiment with them to find out. Just a friendly suggestion from your friendly internet kitchen witch.

I'm wondering how I'm gonna present my recipe on here... oh whatever, I'll just wing it.

Pico de Gallo (Pee-Ko Day Gai-Yo) aka Yummzers (Yummzers):

Makes about 1 liter

2 Lemons, maybe more

3/4 Medium Yellow Onion

2 1/2 Cup Fresh Chopped Cilantro, maybe more

6 Almost Ripe or Ripe Small- Medium Tomatoes

1 Seeded Red Bell Pepper

1/3 of a Small Seeded Jalapeno Pepper, depends on how spicy you like things, if you don't like spicy things at all add 1/4 of a Small Seeded Jalapeno Pepper because it really does change the flavor to have none at all.

Salt Not Too Much, Not Too Little

Directions: Pico de Gallo gets spicier the longer that it sits, so keep that in mind as you're deciding how much you want to make as well as how much jalapeno to add. If you want your Pico de Gallo to be spicy from the very moment it's made juice your lemons first then carefully cut off the the amount of jalapeno desired and remove the seeds. I cut my jalapeno into tiny pieces so that it doesn't get concentrated in any one place, but if you like to get unexpectedly slapped in the face by jalapeno flesh, be my guest and cut it exactly the way you like it. :) Don't lick your finger or rub your eyes after you make this stuff! Bad ,bad idea.Even if you wash your hands don't consider yourself safe. O_O If you don't want your Pico de Gallo spicy right away add the lemon juice after this next step without the jalapenoes then wait till the end to add the jalapenoes.

Next you'll want to move on to the tomatoes, bell peppers, onion and cilantro. Chop up all these ingredients and add them to a large bowl, or if you're as lazy as me add it to a tupper wear container that can hold as much as you plan to make.

Sooo, did you cut your onion up yet? What about the cilantro? Yes? Oh, you're getting to it. Just make sure to peel the onion before you cut it up. x_x When you're done with that add it to your tomatoes and bell peppers and combine please! It's pretty huh? :) Just be sure to not bruise those tomatoes! I may not be a grammar nazi but I sure am a texture nazi.

Pour your lemon juice over the rest of your ingredients and mix. If you have jalapeno in your lemon juice use a silicon mixing paddle to stir your ingredients, if not go ahead and use your hand or a spoon if you want but once you add those jalapenoes you want something that's not gonna soak up the capsaicin, as well as something that isn't gonna burn like hell afterwards (I'm talking about you're hands :P).

Wala! You have now made Pico de Gallo, and you can now expect me over within the hour, tortilla chips in hand. ^^

Magickal Significance:

Lemons: feminine, sun, summer, happiness, clarity, reflection, water, purification

Yellow Onions: earth, insecurities, love, patience, protection, understanding, clarity, the universe, the moon, masculine

Cilantro: masculine, awareness, passion, keeping secrets

Tomatoes: love, feminine, home, intention, prosperity

Bell Peppers:

Jalapenoes: lust, reaction, forethought, masculine, fire, without remorse

Pico de Gallo: Clarity, awareness, cleansing, water, fire, interactivity