It LOOKS like pot pie this time

I've been perusing my reprint of the 1896 Fanny Farmer Cookbook in an effort to do more cooking from scratch (due to dissatisfaction with the quality of stuff in the grocery store recently) and tonight I got brave enough to try a pot pie again.  That, and the leftover ham soup wasn't going to eat itself, and my son in particular prefers a pot pie over a soup.

I tried my rolling pin out at a pot pie a few weeks ago with a beef pot roast that didn't cook up tender enough, and the crust ... well ... there's a learning curve.  It tasted great, but it looked ... not pie-ish.  I had skipped the washing-the-butter step, thinking maybe it didn't apply to modern-made butter.  Once I finally scraped the dough off the rolling pin, pastry mat, and most of my hands, it just didn't look like a pie crust should.  Hubby said he wanted another one anyway, because the more I practice the more he has the opportunity to eat.

The Fanny Farmer cookbook has three different pie crust recipes (called "paste" and in the pastry chapter) so I tried the one without butter tonight, and this time it looks like a pot pie!

Ham pot pie

There was no holding hubby back when it came out of the oven, so this is what's left.  It turned out a bit dry, as I had enough pie dough to put a layer on the bottom which soaked up a good portion of the broth, but it does indeed taste like a pie crust.  Next time, more gravy/broth when using a bottom crust ... but it still has a LOT more flavor than the stuff in the freezer aisle at the grocery (that includes all the brand names - we love pot pies here).

This kind of cooking is the only change I've made to my diet since June ... oh, and in addition to using real butter instead of margarine I have even bought real lard to make my pie crusts.  And yes, I am still losing weight, although not as quickly as I did over the summer.