recession challenge: dinner for two all week from one chicken

ingredients:

• one whole chicken (i paid ~$9)
• 1 bag frozen veggie blend (i paid ~$2 for tj's organic foursome)
• 3 potatoes (i paid ~$1.15 for huge ones)
• 1 stick butter (negligible, i guess it cost me ~$0.75)
• 1.5 cups flour (negligible)
• splash of milk or cream (whatever you have)
• mirepoix (i paid ~$3, or you could chop up your own onions, carrots & celery)
• 1 pound egg noodles (i paid ~$1)
• vodka (or ice-cold water... you see where this is going right?)
• sea salt & fresh ground pepper

(see, i paid about $20, give or take, for the ingredients to feed us dinner for a week. recession-friendly! we also spend about $20 a week on produce and $15 on lunch-foods.)

prep:

• chill 1/2 the butter and the vodka/water

actual cooking (meal 1):

• roast the chicken, seasoned with s&p and rubbed with butter for 20 minutes per pound at 350*
• cube & boil 2 potatoes, skin on, until softish
• drain potatoes
• add 2-3 tablespoons butter & milk to potatoes, mash
• season to taste with salt & pepper
• nuke 1/3-1/2 the frozen veggies

actual cooking (meal 2):

• heat chicken drippings & 1/2 cup flour on medium heat, whisk until smooth, add hot water to desire thickness
• pick carcass of usable meat, set aside
• use carcass to make broth
• use chilled butter, 1 cup flour and chilled vodka/water to make pie crust
• nuke 1 potato, chill & cube
• combine gravy, frozen veggies, cubed potato, 1/3-1/2 the chicken pieces in a lightly greased casserole
• cover with crust, pierce & bake at 375* until golden brown

actual cooking (meal 3):

• use mirepoix, broth, noodles, remaining chicken & remaining veggies to make soup

meal 1 is a one-shot deal. meal 2 we haven't eaten yet, but we expect it to last 2 or 3 dinners. meal 3 should also last 2 or 3 dinners. of course, this is all dependant on how much you eat. it's not magic, ya know.

editied to add:

with the addition of a very hungry j to our meal 2 dinner, it lasted one night, and i would have known that if i hadn't blogged this meal right before we had the idea to invite him. but... since i hadn't added the rest of the frozen veggies to the soup (because i hadn't thought of it yet) and we had an onion, rice & eggs laying around the house, i managed to squeeze another pantry meal out with some yum veggie fried rice, with frozen egg rolls (also a stock pantry item in my home... don't judge).

perfect pie crust

finally, a pie crust worth blogging.

ingredients:

• 1 cup very cold shortening or butter (or a combination)
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• ice-cold vodka (no, seriously)

prep:

• chill the fat, cubed, in the freezer for a couple hours
• chill the vodka in the freezer (the only reasonable way to store it, anyway) overnight

actual cooking:

• combine flour & salt
• add the fat and gently combine either by rubbing it between your fingers, cutting it in with two knives, a pastry blender or a food processor until the fat ranges in size from crumbs to peas
• make a well in the dry/fat mixture
• add vodka, a tablespoon at a time, fluffing together with a fork, until the mixture holds together
• shape into 2 disks and chill in the refrigerator at least 1 hour, preferably overnight
• let stand at room temperature for about 20 minutes
• gently roll out each disk on a generously floured board (preferably marble, but those suckers run about $130) to about 1/8 of an inch
• (roll one crust up in plastic wrap for freezing if you're making one custard or crumb pie)
• roll one crust around your rolling pin, move it over to your pie plate and unroll
• make sure the crust is resting in the pie plate fully, not stretched or away from corners
• trim edges so about 1/2 inch or so overlaps and tuck them under around the edge
• prick crust on sides and bottom
• chill for at least one hour
• preheat oven to 400 degrees
• crumple up a piece of parchment into a ball, now gently uncrumple it, now do the hokey-pokey...
• line the crust with the parchment and fill with dried rice and/or beans, or pie weights
• bake for 10 to 20 minute until almost baked through
• fill & cover
• bake as directed (at 375ish until brownedish, is my rule)

so, the three-day time frame isn't really ideal, but damned if this isn't the best crust i've ever made. and no, you don't get drunk. the alcohol bakes out leaving the crust flaky and perfect.