Chicken Pot Pie and Chocolate Chip Cookies!!!

I'm not going to lie! I use the Hershey's Chocolate Chip cookie recipe right off the back of the bags of chocolate chips!! It's my favorite of all of the ones I have tried. I am a chocolate chip snob and prefer Hershey's milk chocolate chips. Or the REALLY good kind from Bakers in Utah! (Thank you K!!) You can order from them here. I live in a place with very high elevation and my cookies always come out flat if I don't use enough flour. I have to add ALOT more to get my cookies nice and plump!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/4 cup flour (3 1/2 cups for High Altitude)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups chips (any flavor)

Soften (not melt) butter. Add sugars, vanilla and eggs. Mix well. Add dry ingredients. Mix well. If you are using the high altitude recipe your dough will start getting crumbly like this:

Don't fret! Keep mixing and you will come out with a nice moist dough like so:

Add the chips and mix well. Roll into 1 inch balls and place on cookie sheet. Don't roll them too big or you will end up with burned edges. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-9 minutes. I pull mine out before they are completely cooked through to help them stay soft! Store in an airtight container. Don't these look AMAZING?!?

This next recipe is one of my prized posessions!! I spent many hours coming up with and perfecting this recipe! I even have the original paper that I wrote all of my madness on! Check this out:

Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

1 lb chicken cubed

1 cup carrots chopped

1 cup frozen peas

1/2 cup celery

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup onion chopped

1/3 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp celery seed

1/8 tsp ground oregano

1/2 tsp garlic salt

2/3 cup milk

1 3/4 cups chicken broth

Finely chop all of the veggies:

Combine carrots, chicken, peas and celery in a big saucepan. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Boil for 15 minutes. Drain the water. Add the onions and butter. Saute until butter is melted. Combine flour, salt, pepper, celery seed, oregano and garlic salt in a bowl. add the milk. Whisk together until the flour is dissolved. Add the chicken broth. Stir again. Simmer until thick and creamy like so:

Pot Pie Crust

1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 Tbl butter 1/8 tsp salt
1/3 cup milk

Mix together flour, powder, and salt. Cut in the butter like so:

Cut the butter in using a pastry blender. Blend it in very well.

Add the milk and mix until the flour is all mixed in and the dough is soft.

Roll the dough out to about 1/8 inch thick. Using your ramiken dish, (The dish you will cook the pies in.) cut four round pieces. You will use these for the top of the crust. Using something smaller, cut four more for the bottom piece. after they are cut, roll them out a little bigger and thinner. PLace the bottome pieces in each dish.

Add the batter to each dish then top with the crust. Using your fingers, press the crust to the inside edge of the bowl.

Cut four small slits for breathing holes and bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Unfortunatley, I don't have pictures of the finished product because I made this for another Family tonight and took them over unbaked!

I promise your Family will love these! The individual dishes make them fun! This makes enough for four medium sized dishes. You can also bake it in an 8x8 baking dish and cut the crust to fit! My Family enjoys cottage cheese with ours!