{"id":6385,"date":"2012-09-25T06:50:28","date_gmt":"2012-09-25T12:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/?p=6385"},"modified":"2014-05-01T12:28:10","modified_gmt":"2014-05-01T18:28:10","slug":"first-night-of-camping-individual-potpies-recipe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/first-night-of-camping-individual-potpies-recipe\/","title":{"rendered":"First Night of Camping – Individual Potpies Recipe"},"content":{"rendered":"

by guest writer Chef Betharoni Bird<\/em><\/p>\n

When it comes to baking, cooking, or any kitchen activity, I tend toward the elaborate.<\/strong>\u00a0 Ask me to make dessert and I’ll bake and frost a four-layer cake. \u00a0Ask for breakfast (or just leave me alone in the kitchen) and I’ll cook up crepes and turn them into blintzes with a side of blueberry sauce and serve them with shirred eggs and ham. \u00a0Once or twice a year, I like to cook a formal dinner with a minimum of six courses for The Daily Improvisationer and The Amazing Engineer and guests. \u00a0Not only do I want to make everything from scratch, from graham crackers to cheese, I want it to look good and taste wonderful. \u00a0And if there’s menu planning happening in the house, I want in on it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>So when I knew summer vacation was nearing, I approached my mother with my menu plan.<\/p>\n

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\"Menu<\/a>
Menu planning brainstorm sheet – tasting dinner ’12<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now when it comes to Idaho winters, my ability to self-amuse in the kitchen for hours on end serves me well. But when the weather changes from snow to sunshine, and we drive up to the lake, my menu planning often fails to reflect the fact that I’m setting myself up for this:<\/p>\n

\"Dirty<\/a>
Dirty dishes after 12 course tasting menu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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With this tempting me from the window:<\/p>\n

\"View<\/a>
View from the Vacation Cabin – Lake Cascade – July 2012<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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And that is why the prototype menu is always presented to The Daily Improvisationer for approval and modifications.<\/strong>\u00a0 I have learned from past menus to reduce the difficulty level of meals, to drop the plan to bake something for breakfast every<\/em> morning. \u00a0The cardinal rule, though, is that the first night’s dinner must always be simple and easy.<\/em> \u00a0Traditionally, this has meant spaghetti with garlic bread and salad on the menu for the first night. \u00a0But my interest in complexity and originality is always colliding with this accumulated knowledge. \u00a0A whole week of vacation? Surely there will be time to try this breakfast muffin recipe, and this egg dish, and these scones. \u00a0We can grill hamburgers for an easy meal, but doesn’t that mean that we can deep fry fish for another and have a 20 topping baked potato bar for another?<\/p>\n

Then, when the menu is presented for review, I am gently brought back to reality and the menu is deftly transformed to reflect the reality of appetites, propensities to sleep in during vacation, and unfeasibility of cooking and carrying 20 unique items for one night’s dinner.<\/strong> So this year, I relinquished the baked potato bar and the scones, but managed to carry my motion that we change out the first night spaghetti for individual chicken potpies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Not<\/a>
It’s possible that Culinary School warped my sense of what’s easy to make…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The Daily Improvisationer took my list of supplies away and returned with the requested<\/strong> carrots, peas, corn, and chicken, plus the appropriate miniature tins in which to construct and transport\u00a0the potpies.<\/em>\u00a0 Then I drafted the Youngest Sibling and ventured into the wall of cookbooks to decide on a recipe and method. \u00a0My favorite blogger \u00a0failed me, by saying she preferred her potpies brothy, and several of the cookbooks seemed to share that opinion. \u00a0My ideal potpie, however, was already materialized in my brain, complete with taste (creamy), looks (crimped) and aroma (heavenly).<\/strong>\u00a0 Rather than type various combinations of keywords in endless searches on the internet, wondering if this recipe and that recipe combined would yield this ideal potpie, I went back to basics and grabbed\u00a0Betty Crocker’s Cookbook<\/a>\"\", the best worn item on the shelves, which always opens to the recipes for cherry and strawberry pies and has been torn, ragged, and had loose pages tucked between the bound for as long as I’ve known it.<\/p>\n