In Which My Blog Slowly Morphs Into Newlywed Wifery...

This is going to be such a hodge-podge of a post that it isn't even funny. Spirals and Spatulas is having an identity crisis now that the wedding is over, and it's causing me to write strange things. Bear with me.

FIRST TOPIC OF DISCUSSION: I now have 50 followers! Thanks for listening to my silly little posts, guys. Y'all are great. Also you should comment more often and make yourselves known because I kind of feel like you're all stalking me silently. Which is weird.

SECOND TOPIC OF DISCUSSION: I have two excuses for my lack of frequent posting --

1) My wonderful photographer is still working on my professional photos from the wedding. And it's going to be another 2 weeks or so. And I refuse to blog any more about the wedding until I have some photos. So you're gonna have to wait a couple weeks to see it.

2) Law school has taken over my life. If I were Jeff I'd be awfully disappointed that my brand new wife was only fun for two weeks or so, and then turned into a nerdy reads-all-the-time monster who can't speak in clear sentences because her brain is tired all the time.

THIRD TOPIC OF DISCUSSION: Apparently I'm an old married lady.

I've been trying to restrain myself from the non-wedding-related posts until after I finish recapping the wedding, but let's face it... Spirals and Spatulas is inevitably going to turn into a conglomeration of law school complaints, baking recipes, and newlywed-ness eventually. So why hold back, right? In the spirit of all things wife-ish, I have to share something exciting with you all.... I finally realized a life-long dream of using two pie dishes in one evening. TWO!

First was a chicken pot pie, which Jeff and I love-love-loved.

Here's a secret: If you spread egg whites on the top of your pastry before you bake it, it turns out all shiny and pretty like that. Someone once told me this was a total waste of a perfectly good egg. That someone was so, so wrong!

This was from a family recipe, which I will gladly share with you all...

Ingredients:

• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 t chopped garlic [I used minced garlic]
• 2 T butter
• 1 rotisserie chicken, deboned and shredded [I used a "savory" chicken from Kroger]
• 1 bag mixed veggies (cooked) [I used the "California blend" frozen bag of carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower]
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• garlic and italian seasoning [I used black pepper as well]
• 2 Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts

Directions:

Saute the first three ingredients; add chicken, soups, and spices [I put in quite a bit of black pepper, italian seasoning, garlic, and oregano].

Place 1 pie crust in the bottom of a greased pie pan; pour in chicken mixture and top with remaining crust.

Cut slits (or a fun design!) for air vents. [I brushed some egg whites on the top crust as well.]

Bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Let sit for 15 minutes.

See how it was all filled with STUFF rather than GOO? I hate chicken pot pie with gooey filling.

Next was a cheesecake pie with strawberries. Recipes: PIE CRUST and CHEESECAKE FILLING.

I would highly, highly recommend this pie crust recipe! As for the cheesecake filling, good luck if you try that recipe out. Mine ended up delicious, but all runny and weird (I think it was because I used fat free cream cheese. Gotta have your fat.).

Let me know if you try any of the recipes out! And stay tuned for some delicious baking recipes!