Yes, It's Chicken Pot Pie Weather

Here's the recipe Edward loves.  I got it from Progressive Farmer, years & years & years ago.  It really is the best chicken pot pie recipe I've ever attempted.

1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
1/3 cup melted butter
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup half-n-half
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
4 cups chopped, cooked chicken

Saute onion, celery & carrots in melted butter 10 minutes.  Add flour, stirring well.  Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Combine broth & half-n-half & gradually stir into veggie mixture.  Cook over medium heat until thick & bubbly.  Remove from heat & stir in salt, pepper & chicken.  Pour into shallow 2-quart casserole.  Top with pastry, cut slits in top to allow steam to escape.  Bake 400 degree Fahrenheit for 40 minutes.

Pastry
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening
2 - 3 tablespoons cold water

Combine flour & salt, cut in shortening.  Sprinkle with cold water; stir with fork until all dry ingredients are moistened.  Chill.  Roll to fit casserole dish.

THE Chicken Pot Pie

Caveats/Suggestions:

• I use boxed or canned chicken broth, but I bet it would be even better with a carefully-wrought homemade broth.  Just the water from boiling the chicken isn't rich enough.
• You may need more broth & half-n-half than is called for in the recipe.
• I chop my veggies pretty small.
• I use a regular 9" X 13" glass/Pyrex casserole dish.
• Since I don't make pastry regularly, I'm no star at rolling it out, so I make 1 & 1/2 times the pastry recipe.  And it's always good.  I think the pastry is one of the secrets to this great pie.
• Yes, the pastry recipe calls for shortening & that's all I've ever used.  I don't make this so often that 1/3 cup of shortening a couple times a year is going to kill us.  Anyone figures out a suitable alternative, I'll be glad to hear about it.  (Hmmm, I think I did actually buy some LARD recently.......)
• The main trick is cooking until "thick & bubbly."  How do you know?  I approach my late, great mom on this one and only cooking trick.  I just know.  If you cook the sauce too long, the pie is a little dry.  Next time, you'll know too!

Brumby Pottery Collection Part B

David Morgan bowl, Morgan Pottery, Danielsville, GA

Geoff Pickett vase, Farmington Pottery, Farmington, GA 

Michael DeBerry lidded jar, Tucker, GA

Mark Issenberg vase, Rising Fawn, GA

DeWitt Smith vase, DeWitt Pottery, Watkinsville, GA

Tim Flinn face jug, Flinn Family Pottery, Athens, GA

Stanley Ferguson devil face jug

Wayne Hewell devil face jug

Southern Appalachia is Home

Quilt made by the ladies of Caney Creek, Polk County, TN, 1940's

Novelty Print in Caney Creek Quilt

Brumby Pottery Collection Part A

Yes, we collect Southern Pottery.  I'll blog more about this soon, but I just wanted to get a few photos posted today.

Peggy Pitts, Cone Ten Pottery, Watkinsville, GA

Michael DeBerry, Tucker, GA

David Meaders, GA

Marie Rogers, Jugtown Potters, Upson & Pike Counties, GA

Furniture by J. N. Poe

Donna's great grandfather, James Nugan Poe, died before I was born.  My mom told me a bit about him over the years.  He was a minister.  He liked target shooting with pistols in a dueling style.  He made homemade wine which he doled out in shot glass amounts on special occasions.  He was a stern sort of man.  And he was, wonderfully, a self-taught fine cabinetmaker.  He studied antiques in books and magazines and made faithful reproductions completely by hand.  No electric machinery.  He made his own hand planes.  He worked almost exclusively in Cuban mahogany and built most of his furniture in Chattanooga, Tennessee in the late 1920's and into the 1930's.  Some of his furniture was purchased by well-to-do residents on Lookout Mountain.  He marked a lot of his work by stamping his name (J. N.

Poe) and the date into the wood.  Here are our examples of his handiwork:

Compelled to Collect

 The Asheville Citizen once published a story about Edward and me collecting stuff (books, comic books, Bugs Bunnies, UT football cards, David Winter Cottages.....).  Space and funds finally dictated a reduction in collecting.  I decided to collect something inexpensive, small, and not that easy to find: miniature chamber pots.  Why?  I had one little chamber pot that belonged to my Aunt Lucille, who died at twelve years old, even before her youngest brother, my dad, was born.  It is a little china pot from Germany.  Along the outside it says "Attend to your own business," and inside, in the bottom, there is a painting of an eye.  The next little chamber pot I ever saw was many, many years later in my hometown (Blue Ridge, GA).  It had a little doggy or piggy or kitty or something peeking out.  I was hooked.  Along came ebay to build my collection, but it's still nice to have something small and relatively inexpensive to look for whenever we cruise through antique malls.  I don't try to collected duplicates.  We ran up to Brazelton today and I found three new ones!

Aunt Lucille's little chamber pot

Donna's collection #1

Donna's collection #2 (forgive the pun!)

Mrs. Brumby Cocktail

2 oz. Jack Daniel's Wiskey
1 oz. Dubonnet Rouge
2 or 3 dashes Angostura Bitters
ice
1 large cocktail cherry with stem (preferably homemade!)

Combine liquids in small pitcher or mixing glass with ice.  Stir (shaking would cloud the whiskey).  Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with cherry.  Sit down with the glass, sip and relax.