Quick Comfort Food

There's nothing like getting home a few hours before dinner time, cold and tired, and realizing that you didn't pull out any meat from the freezer to thaw that morning.  You could try to hurry up the thawing process now: leave it under cold running water for an hour or two and hope that it thaws in time to throw in a pan before dinner time, but if you have a slow cooker on hand, there's an easier solution.

I found myself in just this situation the other day: I got home later than expected, the car hadn't warmed up much higher than the -17 F air outside all the way home, and pretty much all of the food we possessed was rock-solid in the freezer, with the exception of condiments and lunch meat.  I'm not eating processed meats these days, so we weren't even going to contemplate the culinary possibilities of Worcestershire sauce and deli turkey.  Fortunately, the meal I'd been planning for the evening could go in the slow cooker: chicken and biscuits.

Two chicken thighs went directly from the freezer to the slow cooker, set to "High".  If you have one of the newer models with multiple time settings for "High" and Low", this would have been the shortest time setting.  There wasn't going to be too much color in this dinner, so I decided to chop up two purple potatoes and add them to the pot.  I added water and chicken broth until it just covered the frozen thighs, stirred in a healthy amount of marjoram, thyme, sage, basil, savory, and rosemary, put the lid on it, and walked away.

About forty-five minutes before we wanted to eat (that's three hours into the cooking, if you're counting), I made a quick batch of biscuits and threw them in the oven while I checked on the chicken.  It shredded easily with two forks, so it was time to thicken it up a little and add vegetables.  Normally I would have added some carrots, onions, and /or celery along with the potatoes, but we were kind of out of vegetables...  We did have a bag of mixed vegetables in the freezer, though, which warmed up quickly in the chicken broth and added some extra color and nutrients.

To thicken, the only thing I really had was flour.  Next time I think I'll add extra salt and pepper at this stage, because the gravy didn't have as much flavor as I would have liked.  It turned out pretty well overall, though, and what was more important, dinner was on the table on time and it was warm and filling!

If you use regular potatoes instead of purple potatoes, yours won't turn out this funny color :-)

Sunday morning pie

Because his work schedule changes frequently, there are often weekends that Matt only has Sunday off. It's nice to be able to get up slowly on these Sunday mornings and make a fun brunch before we go to Mass at noon. One of the better recipes for brunch I've found is this quiche--it's quick, easy, tastes great, and since there are only two of us eating it, we have breakfast ready for the next few days!

Cheese and Onion Pie
Pastry for one 9-inch piecrust, well chilled
2 Tbsp butter
1 onion, chopped
1 Tbsp flour
2 c cheese, shredded (I used a combination of Jack and Cheddar)
3 eggs
1 c milk
1/2 tsp salt

Place pastry in pie plate; chill. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Melt butter over medium heat. Sauté onion until tender. Spread evenly in piecrust. Chill.
In medium bowl, toss flour with cheese; sprinkle over onion in piecrust.
In same bowl, beat eggs with milk and salt; pour over shredded cheese.
Bake 10 minutes. Turn down oven to 325 degrees, and continue to bake 30 to 35 minutes longer, until a knife inserted in center comes out clean.
Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.