Chicken Pot Pi

Chicken Pot Pi © 2010 Cameron Blazer // Cottage IndustrialistHappy Pi Day, friends! What? You don't celebrate 3.14? The day devoted to all things circular, mysterious, and immutable? Hmm. You may not be nerdy enough for this website.

I love pie. But I really love pi. Like, as in, I wrote a poem about it. But I really love that March 14, also known as 3.14, is a chance to indulge in pastry goodness in the name of the great ratio.

In that spirit, I set about to make a pie worthy of Sunday supper: a chicken pot pie. Now I know at least one person who is so traumatized by the childhood spectre of frozen pot pies with pearl onions and english peas that I can do nothing to remedy her image of the dreaded pot pie. But I didn't grow up with pot pie—my mom never made it fresh or frozen—so I have no ties to the old ways of doing it. As an adult, I have tried many a pot pie--some good, some, well, if you can't say anything nice... I had one a few months ago that featured a light broth studded with edamame and lima beans, and it was fabulous. And another not too long ago sported a thicker bechamel-y sauce chockablock with duck confit and carrots. Also fabulous.

For my version, I wanted to make personal-sized pies. Because who doesn't like tiny food? But I didn't want to go the route of most personal-sized pies I've had: a pie served within a piece of hot crockery. My little boy is pretty clever, but I didn't think it was fair to serve him a molten piece of ceramic filled with boiling bits of chicken and vegetables. So I used my tiny springform pans (available in my OpenSky shop) to make personal pot pies that could stand on their own.

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Tortellini! Recipe and Video Tutorial

Photo © 2010 David Mandel // Ampersand Industries

A few weeks ago, my dad gave me a hand-crank pasta machine that he hadn't used very much, hoping, perhaps, that a new machine would cure me of my curious wafflemania. It worked like a charm. I am now totally pastamanic.

This weekend, while fiddling around with the machine, I decided to make filled pasta. But there was one problem. I had no ricotta, no ground meats, no beautiful vegetable purées with which to fill my pasta. But there was a fresh carton of plain, whole-milk greek yogurt. Why couldn't that be a filling for tortellini or ravioli? Friends. Friends! It can be a filling for tortellini. A gorgeous, silky, tart filling. When both my husband and my son (he of long months of entrenched mistrust of all things pasta) devoured it and asked for more, I knew I had a winner on my hands.

And so my husband and I put together this wee (ok, "wee" is a bit misleading, since this thing clocks in at 20 minutes) video tutorial illustrating from start to finish how to make the semolina pasta dough I used (no eggs!), the filling (eggs here!), and the classic tortellini shape. This was our first crack at making a video. I hope you guys like it. But be forewarned. There is a fair amount of 1) me talking and 2) my ghostly pale skin throughout this video; only the brave should venture forward:

Click here for the recipe and video:

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Calendars: Part Deux

Did you think I would let you down? I promised calendars by the end of February (after hinting they'd be ready by the first week in January. Whatever!). And now, here it is the end of February, and I HAVE CALENDARS! Trust me, no one is more relieved than I.

If you want to read my natterings about the process of designing these (and my relief at finishing them), there's more than enough nattering to go around (just scroll below the thumbnails). But without further ado, I give you July through December:

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My Open Sky

Ever since I started Cottage Industrialist (well, really before I started it), I have dreamt of opening a shop—in a cottage, of course—that would corral all of the craft and kitchen products that I use and love, and that would be a source of community to get to know others who share my interests.

But real life always makes itself apparent, and my dreams have been shelved in favor of more pressing issues like paying the mortgage, putting dinner on the table, and giving most of my energy to my real job as a public defender.

Until now.

I first learned about OpenSky a few months ago when Amy Powers launched her shop—a shop featuring craft products she uses and loves, some of which I'd never even heard of. A few weeks later, Michael Ruhlman followed with a shop full of the cooking tools he uses every day. And I got curious.

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Wafflemania

Friends, I have sacrificed in the name of waffles. And by sacrificed, I mean, I have made waffles every weekend for a month in a quest to suss out the greatest home-made waffle I could make. Which is to say I have gained 5 pounds in a month. 5 tasty, tasty pounds.

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