Lazy Sunday Afternoon Cookies and Easy Chicken & Ham Pie

It has rained today. Warm rain, it has to be said, so still preferable to Scottish rain, but rain all the same. Our dog sniffs at the door, toddles along the side of the house, does what she has to do and hurries back inside. It is that kind of rain, persistent, heavy, drenching, driech.

It is a day for cookies, I decided. If it were colder, we could put the fire on, drink hot chocolate and toast marshmallows. Despite the rain, it is still almost 20°C, so we shall keep that plan for a proper autumn day.

My cookies are baked, soft squigy chocolate chip using this recipe. I cannot buy packed brown sugar here, so used 1 cup brown sugar and 1 cup white sugar. And I subsituted shaved chocolate for the chocolate chips as I had none of those at home. They don’t have the big chunks of chocolate but still taste good. Don’t leave them in the oven too long, or they will be cripsy rather than chewy.

Next up is one of my favourite rainy day dishes. Chicken and Ham Pie. I have been making this for a couple of years now. I am quite a lazy cook, and hate to have to do several processes or dirty lots of posts, so this is my Easy Chicken and Ham Pie.

First, melt about two spoonfuls of butter in a large pot – if you have one that you can put in the oven that is even better – I use a Le Creuset casserole dish. Gently fry some chicken or turkey chunks in the butter, then add the bacon bits and fry for a minute or two. Add 2 spoonfuls of flour and stir in, then take off the heat and gradually add about 2 cups of milk. Don’t rush adding the milk, and keep stirring, stirring, stirring. Then put the pot back on the stove cook until the sauce thickens. Add some seasonings, salt and pepper and some herbs – I normally use fresh thyme if I have it in the garden.

That is basically it. You can then put a top on – either puff pastry or potatoes (parboiled and sliced). I use the same recipe for making fish pie, with a mashed potato top. You can add veg – frozen peas work well, as does finely chopped courgettes. If you peel and chop the courgette very fine then the children don’t notice that they are eating veg. It is what I call Stealth Veg.

Next time I make it, I will pay attention to quantities and write down the recipe in more detail. I don’t measure or weigh anything, but just bung it in and it has never failed.