Schrodinger's Kittie

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken (precooked to save time)
2 cups frozen, mixed vegetables (peas, green beans, carrots, corn and lima beans)
2 cans cream of chicken and mushroom condensed soup
1 small potatoe
½ white onion
1 bay leaf
½ teaspoon dried thyme
Black pepper
2 nine inch pre-made pie crust

Directions:

1. Preaheat the oven to 395° F.
2. I used large muffin tins (six muffin, deep)…use one of the pie crusts to line each of the cups with pie crust, so the crust hits just the top of the tin.
3. Dice the onion and potato.  Put a dab of butter or a bit of oil in a medium sauce pan and cook until the onion is translucent.  I find butter gives a better flavor, for me; but, it’s up to individual taste.
4. Once the onions have reached their translucent stage, toss the mixed vegetables into the pan with the onions and heat them through – stirring occasionally to ensure they do not burn.
5.  While heating the vegetables, pull the chicken off the bone and rip into chunks and toss into the pan with the vegetables.
6.  Pour the two cans of soup over the mixture in the pan and add the thyme, bay leaf and black pepper.
7.  Heat for 20 minutes on med-low heat.  Pull the bay leaf out.
8.  Using a ladle, put the mixture into the muffin forms.
9.  Put the pie crusts on the top of each mini-pot pie and pinch the edges down.
10.  Cut a few holes into the top of the mini-pies to allow the steam to escape while cooking.
11.  Place into the oven and cook for 30 minutes.
12.  Remove when golden brown and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
13.  Serve.

If you work it, you can get six mini-pot pies out of the pie crusts.  I only got five, but I was being lazy.

There will be filling left over – it would taste great over biscuits the following day.

Ingredients:

Tasty Empanadas

1lb ground meat (I used bison… but beef, turkey, ostrich – even a quality ground tofu will work)
10oz can mild Rotel Tomato & Green Chilies
1 small onion
1 small potato
2 cups shredded cheese
Tabasco sauce
Mrs. Dash Original
1 tin premade flaky biscuits (or tortilla – see note below)
½ cup flour (not needed if going with the “fried burrito” option)
Vegetable oil (not needed if going with the empanada option)

 Additional items:

Cookie sheet (not needed for “fried burrito” option)
Rolling pin (not needed for “fried burrito” option)
Medium skillet

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375° F.
2. Place the meat in the skillet over medium heat.  No oil if you are using meat.  If you are using ground tofu, a very, very tiny amount to keep it from sticking is useful.  But be stingy with it.
3. Add three dashes of tobacco and two dashes of Mrs. Dash.  Literally, yes, dashes.  Take the bottle and shake that many times.
4. While the meat is browning, skin and dice the onion.  Add it to the skillet with the meat.
5. Stir occasionally while skinning and finely chopping the potato.  Add this to the skillet as well.  Cover the skillet.
6. Open and drain the Rotel and add to the mixture in the skillet.  Stir and cover.  Let simmer while you prepare the biscuits.
7. Put a handful of flour on your working surface and over the rolling pin.  Pop the tin of biscuits and roll them out very flat.  Sometimes it helps to pick them up and let gravity assist you in the stretching.  You want to get them as thin as possible without them getting holes.
8. Place the rolled out biscuits on the cookie sheet to await the filling.
9. When the potatoes have cooked through and the meat is thoroughly brown, drain the mixture that is in the skillet and turn off the heat.
10. Using a large spoon, place a small amount of the filling in the middle of one of the rolled out biscuits.  Put a bit of shredded cheese on top of the filling. 
11. Fold the biscuit over and using the prongs of a fork, press the edges of the dough together to seal it shut.  If you want to, bend the sealed dough into a crescent shape.
12. You can have these very close to each other, so don’t worry about space on your cookie sheet.  Repeat the stuffing and sealing for all the biscuits.
13. Once they are all filled and sealed, put the cookie sheet in the oven and let bake until the dough turns golden brown.
14. Remove from the oven and serve hot.

 This recipe should serve four comfortably.

Fried Burrito

Note: There is an alternative to baking with the biscuit dough.  Take large tortillas and put the filling and cheese inside them like you would for the empanada.  Fold them closed and fry them in a pan of hot oil.  The oil should only come up halfway on the folded tortilla.  When the side in the oil is brown, turn to fry the other side.   Remove, pat dry and serve with salsa of choice.  Mike actually prefers it this way as opposed to the empanada way.

Ingredients

2 lb pork tenderloin
½ cup honey
1 orange
2 cups chopped pecans
2 tbsp crushed black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325° F
2. Cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice of half the orange into a small bowl or glass.  Add in the honey and mix until the honey is  fully diluted.
3. Place the tenderloin on a foil lined pan (makes for easier clean up) and crush fresh black pepper liberally across the tenderloin.  Drizzle the honey-orange mix over the top of the tenderloin and place into the oven.
4. Chop the pecans into fairly small pieces.  You want them large enough to keep a slight crunch, but not too large.
5. Slice off small sections of the outer rind of the orange – do not get so deep as to get the white pulp.  You want only the coloured rind.  Slice the sections of rind into very thin strips and then turn.  Cut the strips down to very, very small bits and mix in with the pecans.
6. Remove the tenderloin from the oven and turn over.  Drizzle the honey-orange mixture over the tenderloin and then liberally cover with the pecan-zest mix.  About 1 cup.
7. Place the tenderloin back in the oven and let cook for another 5 minutes.
8. Remove the tenderloin from the oven and turn over.  Drizzle the honey-orange mixture over the tenderloin and then liberally cover with the remaining pecan-zest mix.
9. Place back in the oven and about every 2 minutes, drizzle with the honey-orange mixture.
10. Allow the pork loin to cook like this for another 10 to 20 minutes or until it is cooked through.
11. If so desired, at the last 2 minutes or so, turn on the broiler and broil to brown/crunch the pecans on top.

This will comfortably serve 4 people.  I served it with black-eyed peas and Yorkshire pudding.  The juices in the baking pan thicken nicely with a cornstarch-water mixture to make an excellent gravy.

The pecans add a slight crunch and the orange fully infuses the pork to bring a unique sweet-tart-crunch to this meal.

We ate it too fast for me to get a photo.  I’ll try to remember to snap one the next time I make this.