Once upon a time, the significant other and I had a date night at 25Forty Bistro and Bakery.  It was a good night.  The restaurant is decorated in my favorite colors: black and white.  A small spot, which pleased me, that had floors and walls painted in chalkboard paint.  Floors to write reservations, a wall with a map of the world showing the locals of all the wines.  You can check out flickr food porn on the right to find more pics.  The bread basket, although extra, was worth it, showing off the bakery side of this little restaurant.  I was so happy that I agreed to stepping out on a limb and ordering mac-n-cheese as a side to share.  Not only have I been staying away from this plate since I was seven or eight, but I am also NOT a barbecue sauce fan and this was going accompanied with it:

DELICIOUS! This was not at all overwhelmingly cheesy, in fact the lightness of the noo noos and cheese evened out the tang of the uniquely flavored barbecue sauce.  All of this paired with the crispy fried kale was AMAZING!  Needless to say, this dish stuck with me for  some time before I decided to try my hand at making mac-n-cheese (baby steps, you know?).

I perused and perused foodgawker.com looking for a good start: check out here and here.  I used The Parsley Thief recipe predominantly, adding garlic from the first and cutting the ingredients in half.  For cheese, I used half a pound of white cheddar grated in my new food processor!!!  I also made the executive decision that I wasn’t going to leave this all to the cheese.  Hot Italian Pork Sausage was on sale at Sprouts so I picked up one as well as asparagus and I already had sun-dried tomatoes at home.  For noo noos, I had orecchiette on hand which was a great substitute for shells.  I also used panko crumbs lightly toasted with herbs, garlic and parmesan for topping.  Oven pre-set to 350 degrees and 25 minutes later:

Taking a big ladle, I plated, but it wasn’t alone…

…There was kale too!  With as many recipes I have seen on blogs using kale and it popping up on restaurant menus, I’m going go out on a limb (again) and say it is the bacon of vegetables.

For the kale, I used this recipe sans the chili and lime.  Those just didn’t seem like they’d mix with the rest of the ensemble.  I was pretty darn proud of myself, especially after it received an encore from my darling.

Did I forget to mention I had time to make dessert earlier too? Well, that’s the kind of thing you can do when you’re unemployed. I used Ben & Jerry’s sweet cream base #1 and added a little Ovaltine, crushed Maltesers (they are better than Whoppers, just admit it), and homemade chocolate chips.  When I served it up, it was still soft giving it a creamy consistency like gelato and I just love gelato time.

Enjoy and let me know if you try it out.  Okay, one last look!

~two uncooked frozen chicken breasts

~frozen bag of peas

~other vegetables: carrots, broccoli, and a good old Idaho potato (okay, so I had to have the man go to the store for that)

~Trader Joe’s puff pastry sheets (2) (Mind you this is a legit-size pie, not ramekin)

So gentlemen (and all others reading), if you do not want to roast your own chicken or chicken breasts, go ahead and do the bachelor thing to do and get one from the grocery store.  If you DO, then roast your chicken the evening before or the morning before you actually want to make chicken pot pie.  You’ll need a rub of sorts, lemon juice and I threw in fresh chopped garlic too.  De-bone or cut up your chicken evenly for your pie.

When you’re ready to make your pie, take out the pastry sheets to thaw.  They need at least ten minutes and you’ll need approximately one and a half sheets to cover the top of a decent size pie pan.  I did not do a bottom crust and you won’t do one either.  Also, pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees Farenheit.

In a large pot, boil all your veggies in chicken stock until tender (just like the original recipe instructs).  Remove veggies from the stock and layer in with the chicken in a pie pan.  Time to make your roux.  Yes, ROUX…or you can just call it gravy.

Fancy pants roux essentials:

~lots of butter ( 4 tbsp? I mean get healthier if you want but it’s CHICKEN POT PIE)

~flour (same as above minus the health comment)

~milk (I’d say about two cups)

~salt, pepper, and any other spices you’d like to throw in.  I used a little dried sage.

~egg wash (scramble a raw egg in a bowl to use later)

Put all of this in a smaller pot and set to a pseudo-boil.  You want it to start bubbling because it will thicken everything up but you don’t want it to burn and ruin your pan (I speak from experience) so get to stirring and adjust temperatures accordingly.  If you can use a whisk to help make sure the flour gets broken up and your gravy isn’t lumpy.  That’s just gross.   

Once your gravy is ready rock, pour over your pie pan goodies evenly and gently mix if necessary to get it underneath everything.  The veggies really like the gravy so don’t let them miss out on the fun.  Cover with the pastry sheets (I would have made my own puff pastry but whatever).  Coat the pastry with the egg wash (a basting brush is helpful at this time).  Put it in the oven for baby and me!  

Let cook till it is all brown, crusty, bubbling goodness. 

Serve up!

Okay, back to why we are all here.

This little delight was concocted before my recent acquisition of a food processor so I didn’t make the puff pastry myself which I will just go ahead and admit.  You may say I’ve lived under a rock but it wasn’t until this past year that I had my first baked brie.  Like many of the recipes that I found on the matter, the round of brie was topped with apricot preserve and wrapped in puff pastry. DELISH!  After nibbling on my second helping of the sweet cheesy goodness, I couldn’t help but wonder how it would taste with my aunt’s pomegranate preserves.  There’s only one way to find out!

First thing to do is to take out your puff pastry (if using frozen varieties) as soon as you have a craving for it.  You want it to thaw out according to instructions otherwise you’re gonna have pretty poor puff.  Once that is taken care of you can get to work at wrapping up your brie.  I used a wedge not a round, which made folding possibly more tricky but I can’t be sure.

 I had a bit of extra puff pastry so I twirled it up into a rose for presentation.  Bake according to specifications for your puff pastry.

Serve with sliced crusty bread (the more texture the better for the gooey cheese to get into), crackers, apples, etc.  Using the pomegranate preserves added a tang to the overall flavor that made the taste buds sizzle!

Enjoy and don’t forget to read up on my latest San Diego foodie find!