Monday, Monday… here we go with another week. It’s a relatively normal week for me, but a lot of co-workers are off later to extend their holiday weekends so work should be pretty calm.
Can you guys believe that the 4th of July is next week already? We’re heading up north to my parent’s cabin in the north woods to disconnect for a while. I’m most looking forward to our annual fish fry complete with mom’s home made tartar sauce, which I could eat an entire bowl of… it’s that good.
I’m also really looking forward to fireworks and late night dancing around the campfire to Whitney Houston and Toby Keith + all the instrumental patriotic music we can find.
This past weekend was SO relaxing. We spent it mostly at home and got a lot of cleaning and organizing accomplished. On Saturday, we took a trip out to our aunt and uncle’s new home on a lake about 40 minutes from our house. We enjoyed a pontoon ride, great food and some spotty sunshine. Even though the weather wasn’t ideal for late-June it was great to be with family and enjoy so many of the blessings we have.
On Sunday, we opened up the house and steam cleaned the carpets…. Which was umm, interesting. The carpets look better, but I think maybe they’re a lost cause. Either way, having the windows open made the whole house chilly as it was unseasonably cool for June. It honestly felt more like a fall day, and we both admitted we were getting excited for the return of Packer football.
To warm up I decided soup was in order, so I made a batch of my version of Chicken Pot Pie soup. It includes all the classics of a potpie, but the savory broth kept it light. Instead of a pastry crust, we put our spin on it by pairing it with sourdough garlic bread and headed to bed with full, satisfied bellies.
What You Need
- 1 rotisserie chicken or approximately 4 chicken breasts shredded
- 4 stalks celery
- 4 carrots
- 1 medium sized onion
- 1 tbsp garlic
- 4 medium sized russet potatoes
- 1 cup frozen peas
- Juice of one lemon
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 3 chicken bouillon cubes
- 1 tsp celery salt
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp dried sage
- Fresh parsley to garnish
- Salt & pepper to taste
The first thing I did was disassembling the chicken and get the pieces shredded to bite-size. I love using a rotisserie chicken because the flavors are infused already, plus we enjoy both light and dark meat. Set aside.
Chop the onion, celery and garlic and sauté in a large stockpot with a little olive oil (approx. 1 tbsp). While those are softening, peel and dice the potatoes and carrots into bite-sized pieces and add to the other veggies. Next, I added approximately 10 cups of water to the stockpot along with the bouillon cubes, lemon juice, celery salt, thyme, sage & salt/pepper.
Simmer until all of the veggies are fork tender (approximately an hour). Let the soup cool down a bit before adding your peas and heavy cream. Garnish with fresh parsley and enjoy!
Whenever we treat ourselves to garlic bread, we always make it ourselves. Just pick your favorite bread (mine is always sourdough), melt some butter and add garlic salt. We put this under the broiler for a few minutes to toast up the bread, and it’s freaking delicious.
Here’s hoping the weather gets a little warmer this week! Till next time…
Staying Martha 