Quickie dessert: Mini berry nut pastries!

This recipe is so super simple. On Sunday I made the Chicken Pot Pies and had some leftover pastry bread so I decided to take a cue from my friend, Katrina, and make something tiny and delicious with them.

Step 1. Take 1/12 of puff pastry shell and put some brown sugar, a walnut (this would also be good with pecans), and berries of your choice. Here I have one blackberry and one raspberry.



Step 2. Pinch down sides to close. If too big secure with a toothpick (just make sure you dip it in water first to prevent from burning).

Step 3. Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.



Step 4. Eat and be careful because the berries will burst with hot yummy juices.

Review: Azzuro Pizzeria

Growing up in the NYC metro area, pizza is it's own 5th food group (bagels are the 6th). When I went away to college all the pizza up there was horrible. It was either too much like Domino's or too much like Ellio's. And having had some of the best pizza within walking, bike riding, or driving distance from my house, I'm a little spoiled as to what good pizza should taste like. I would come home from school and basically eat bagels and pizza for 3 days straight. Now that I'm in California I feel the same way. When we were home for Christmas, I had pizza 3 times, and bagels twice in a 10 day period. Pizza here just isn't the same.

But, even though I generally hate the pizza I've tried here, Azzuro Pizzeria in Napa more than satisfied my pizza craving and has given me some hope that there just might be some good pizza places on the West Coast. Thin crispy pizza with a fluffly not overly cooked crust and great sauce and toppings. Could a NYer ask for anything less?

Nick got the traditional pie (which tasted just like a NY pizza) and I got the squash pie which was essentially a white pizza (minus the garlic) and had butternut squash on top. Both were amazingly good, large for a personal size pizza (but they were so good we forced ourselves to finish them), and reasonably priced.

For a displaced NYer looking for a slice of home, it's definitely worth going to for your fix.

Mini Chicken Pot Pies

Sunday was kind of a crappy day. 50s and on and off rain. I know that doesn't compare to the weather at home, but considering the 60s and sunny weather we had for the past couple of weeks, it wasn't exactly welcome. The chill reminded me of fall and after the two weeks of Spring time weather it kind of made me go back into my shell a bit. Not that I was in a funk, but I went from wanting to wear floral dresses and bright colors to breaking out my comfy jeans and sweatshirt with a strong desire to curl up on the couch and watch a movie with Nick.

Since I was in a wintertime snuggly mood, I wanted some comfort food and started to crave chicken pot pie. Luckily we have soooo much food in our freezer thanks to an extremely generous gift from one of my cousins right after we had bought 6 chicken breasts (with the way we eat meat, those chicken breasts were going to last us 3 months), so I had more than enough fixins to make some. The end result was so fantastic. I really impressed myself, especially since I had never made a pot pie before. This recipe is conglomeration with some changes of several I saw online.

Makes 4 individual pies in a ramekin.

Ingredients

- 1/3 cup butternut squash soup
- 3/4 cup frozen peas
- 1 large chicken breast cut into small cubes
- 1 stick of butter
- a little over 1/3 of 1 sheet of pastry dough
- 1 egg, beaten
- olive oil
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1 chopped small onion
- 5 crimini mushrooms diced
- nutmeg

Yeah, there's cream in there. You know this is going to be heavy duty.

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Melt half a stick of butter and some olive oil in a pan. Cook onions, chicken, mushrooms, and peas (add to the pan in that order). Add some nutmeg. When done, turn off heat.
2. Take semi frozen pastry dough and break off one third of the sheet. Cut into thirds. Cut off one more piece to make your fourth. Place on a cookie sheet and brush top with egg. Cook for 6 minutes in the oven.
3. Melt other half of stick of butter and add cream to it. Mix with a whisk and add flour a little bit at a time until the sauce is thick like a rue. Then add butternut squash soup and some nutmeg.
4. When sauce is finished add to the pan with the chicken and vegetables and stir. Split up evenly in each ramekin. I added some goat gouda to the top, I'm not sure if it did much for the flavor other than add more calories. I guess Nick and I could use some fattening up, though!


Next top each one with one of the puff pastries.


5. Place the ramekins on the cookie sheet you used earlier and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes (until puff pastries are golden brown and the insides have had a chance to bubble a bit.



Don't they look yummy?

Our progress with our growing menagerie.

So as I mentioned a little over a week ago, Nick and I adopted a puppy, Charlie. He came home exactly one week ago today and has quickly become part of the family. Nick and I are both the type of people to grow attached very easily, so even though bringing home Charlie has not been easy (on anyone really), we already have a special place for him in our hearts.

Just a bit of a background on the pup, we got him from a local animal shelter about 30 minutes away. He had been found, lived at the shelter for a week or two and then lived with a foster family for two weeks before coming to us. They think he has a history of abuse based on a laceration on his neck, fear of the crate and being alone, and his skittishness around big dogs, certain people, and when Nick raised his hand once quickly to pet him Charlie flinched and backed away from him. Despite these issues he's actually super sweet and rather well behaved. He is great on his leash, is learning his commands quickly, and all he wants is love. He is not rough around the cats and in reality really doesn't understand why they don't want to be his friend just yet (although they're starting to come around). In the past week Charlie has decided that Batman is the boss, and he is enamored with Lulu, but she's not having it yet. We're up to the tolerant curious phase. Batman is better with him, and is willing to sniff and walk past him without much thought. They beg for treats together too (clearly they're trying to manipulate me). Lulu on the other hand is still scared of Charlie, but will at least sit with me on the couch if she's on one side and he's on the other. And Sunday we took a nap together, again with Lulu on one side and Charlie on the other. So we're making progress. She's even getting better about joining us on the bed on her own. Monday Charlie licked her face. She didn't like it, but every little thing is still a sign of progress.



Meanwhile Nick and I have had our own adjusting to do. Before we had it pretty easy. Our cats are extremely affectionate and friendly (people have said they are lot more like dogs than cats), but they're still independent like cats. They go to the bathroom in a litter box, and even though Lulu follows me everywhere (including into the bathroom when I get ready in the morning), they can still be by themselves and we know they're ok. Charlie on the other hand has separation anxiety issues and constantly wants to be around people. When we crate him at night (so the cats can sleep with us undisturbed) or when we're gone (he's pretty good about being house broken, but we're not without accidents), he cries. He cries if we put the baby gate up and keep him downstairs so the cats can eat in peace upstairs. And he's especially attached to me, so if I take a shower with Batman, he cries outside the door even if Nick is around. If I leave to go somewhere and Nick is still home, he cries. And the constant need for affection is wearing on me; especially because I can't get near my cats who are dying for their own bit of love without him following me and scaring them away. This is probably the worst part for me. I hate hearing Lulu come up to the bed and see that he's laying down next to me and hearing her cry because she doesn't want to be around him. It's been stressing me out because my cats are my babies and I feel really bad for putting them under this stress.

I also feel bad because Charlie desperately needs a playmate. We have seen several little dogs around and he wants to play with all of them, but no one (humans) seems interested in making friends. He plays with us fine, but he wants to play with the cats and until they're better adjusted it won't happen. We're trying to schedule playdates with some of my friends dogs so hopefully he'll find some companionship.

But through all the stress and the sniping at each other (that would be Nick and I, not the animals), there are signs of progress every day. I talked to my aunt (who is a huge dog person) on Sunday and she said the transition (bathroom schedules, switching food, and the cats) would take about a month; that does not seem appealing. Three and a half more weeks of cleaning up pee, watching my cats be miserable, and fighting with Nick? The past couple of days have been pretty good without incident, I guess it's worth it when you have a pup who is this cute.



Whether the cats like it or not, Charlie is here to stay. He's part of our family now, so they better get used to him (hopefully sooner rather than later).

It's not too early to start thinking about Spring

You know that book "The Secret?" Well the secret is that if you think positively and envision something you want, you will make it happen. So maybe if all you snow bunnies start thinking positively about the Spring it'll come sooner?

Here's a few cute versions of the Spring-time staple (floral prints) to help you warm up and think positively!

From Forever 21:



From Modcloth.com:
(You can always count on Modcloth to have a TON of floral prints, and just about every other cute thing you can imagine).

This would be really cute for Valentine's Day.







From Gilly Hicks:
(be warned, some of the images on this website are NSFW)