Now, of course, it's really cold. I even had to lay a sliced up hefty sack over the little seedlings and the juicy leaves of rhubarb, recently unfurled, so that they wouldn't all freeze and die.
But before it was really cold, when it was warm and balmy and bright, I realized that I wasn't quite ready to let go of winter for one simple reason: gravy.
Winter means gravy. Beef gravy on roasted potatoes. Chicken gravy on the peas, mashed potatoes, and coating a slice of bread. Gravy is good in so many ways.
One of my favorite gravy options is chicken pot pie, because it's basically gravy pie, and what could be better than that?
This pot pie was nothing fancy. In fact, it was a lazy pot pie. I used up some old frozen pie crust that we've had since Christmas. We usually make our own crust, but it's nice to have some on hand. I threw in some spinach because we didn't have peas like I thought we did. We didn't have chicken stock, so I used water and made a broth with kosher salt, the chicken fat juice and pot liquor from cooking the spinach, onions and carrots.
The thing about chicken pot pie is that you can be lazy. You can be the lazy diner queen of shortcuts, and it will taste good. Why? Because it's pastry, gravy, onions and chicken. It's hard to mess those up.
Gravy - in any form - is one reason long, dark, cold winters here in the Northwest can be endured until March. Somehow, I never crave chicken pot pie in the summer. Too rich, maybe. Too much stove time. But now, in the wobbly time between deep winter and long summer days, chicken pot pie is just right.
