How to feed a Family- Life Lesson #4,586

 Have you heard about this family of 6 where the Mother became a gestational carrier for her Sister-in-Laws babies? Yeah Babies with an S...- triplets!  No? Hmm...Well this story is true and its pretty amazing!
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As most offices, during the Holidays, employees do some sort of gift exchange for one another. This year we did a white elephant. I ended up with something Star Wars that only Wes would appreciate. My gift I gave to the cause was a box of UNO cards and gloves, new gloves! not old gloves- what kind of person do you think I am?

 I also got this last minute idea to make these reindeer, for those who showed up the Friday before Christmas eve ,also seen on that thing called Pinterest.

For my Boss, though, I really wanted to go a little more above and beyond. He has been one of my better bosses, that's for sure. He also belongs to the ( wait for the big word) aforementioned family, and maybe he mentioned something about the lack of home cooked dinners as of late. This family is busy just being a family of 6- school aged children, a pre-schooler and a pre-toddler PLUS church callings and work. Oh wait- lets add, again, the Mother is carrying her sister in law's triplets. If there was a LOY (Lady of the Year) Award in Hollywood, it would definitely go to Jamie.

I knew I wanted to make more than just one meal for them, so I called  for reinforcements- Wesley's Mom! You know she is amazing! Plus she needed something to do and look forward to during the week, since Scott left for his 20 day work schedule in Elko. She always gets a little bummed as soon as he leaves, so cooking lifts her spirits, as well as service projects.

On my meal plan- Chicken Potpie with a Cheddar Crust and Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies with Mini Rolos, a twist on the Mini Reeses Cookies I did a few months ago.

The first thing I did was get their baking dish from them. I figured it would save some time and money on buying  those disposable aluminum pans, or from baking in my own dish and inconveniencing the family with having to clean it and return it. Jamie was smart, and gave me one with a lid!

 

Grocery shopping I went. I bought enough to make a double batch too, one for them and one for me and Wes. Although, I never got around to making ours. The prep and cook time for one was long enough. Plus I will probably tweak our batch to a more 'family of two' size and freeze the rest. But that's for a later blog post.

I was abnormally excited to use my pots, mixing bowls ,and fancy spoons for this.

First step, separate the meat from the bones on the rotisserie chicken. I love this recipe because you enhance your chicken broth by boiling the bones and skin in low sodium chicken broth, deepening that yummy roasted chicken flavor for the pot pie.

I took it a step further with the chicken broth and added the tips and end of my celery stalk and the tips and ends of my carrots, plus two sprigs of thyme. YUM!

I am just playing FOOD-tographer here, don't mind me...

 

Another thing I like about this recipe is that its mainly done all in one pot, so I took my recent Christmas present- a lovely dutch oven pot, and just threw all the veg into it as I chopped them. The thought I had at this moment in time -   "I'm a genius"

To get to this process took about an hour..no joke..and during my chopping sesh, I realized I forgot to buy cream! I made Wes go get some, of course, and  he decided to go to the 7-11 where all they had was a pint of half and half...so it goes, i used half and half instead of cream.

The recipe says to transfer the mix to the baking dish...my method, again, pure genius. Wes  and I ate the left over bits of pot pie mix in that pot...this recipe won't disappoint, I swear!

 

I can't tell you how fussy this cheddar crust was... I couldn't get the dough to come together for the life of me, I  finally added another 1/4 cup of ice water and it came together at the last minute. This is a process of baking in which scares me- making crust from scratch. But I think it will bake fine,and surely taste amazing- it has cheese in it!

 

The Final Product!

 

It just needs to be brushed with cream and a few slits cut into it and into the oven it goes! Since this was a delivery, I left it unbaked and sent it along with the instructions on how to. 

 On to the Cookies...

I guess I ended up buying chocolate fudge cake mix instead of just chocolate. It ended up darker and , really, fudgier.

 

I baked this for exactly 8 minutes...the caramel in the rolos oozed out and got a little hard, it wasn't quite what I expected, but still delicious...kinda like a bittersweet chocolate flavor with that hint of caramel.

 

If you didn't know, this was my birthday present from Wes. Let me tell you- its so convenient in my tiny kitchen! It cleaned up my crumbs, fallen vegetable pieces, flour, salt, and pieces of chicken. 

The night we had time to deliver our goodies, SNOWMAGGEDDON arrived.
 This picture may be a little dramatic, but driving in this storm- the feelings this picture brings on, they are real!

The storm, at the time of night we were going, really looked like this.

 

 We finally made it to their house! The 3 older kids were already in bed, and this little one was up in her cute penguin PJ's. They are both listening to Corinne talk about what she brought for them. They are in for a treat! Corinne made a pork sirloin roast with a side of veggies and potatoes, pre-made chicken quesadillas and lemon crackle cookies

The cookies were discovered by the little one...and there she goes!

This was a great mini service project we did, and I felt like it will give this family a little relief for the next couple weeks. Plus, they just needed, and deserved it. I printed out reheating instructions for each of the dishes we provided them.  I'm thinking we might do one more like this for them at the end of the month before Jamie starts to take it easy and allows her body to get a little rest and prepare for the delivery of these three little miracles.


Update-

I baked a half size for me and Wes and it was delicious! My crust was really good,  so much so that my inner self did back flips.  And Wes said it was the best pot pie he's ever had! awe!