Anna Sultana’s Chicken Pot Pie, February’s Full Snow Moon and The Penumbral Eclipse of the Moon

A little over a week ago ago I posted the recipe for Ma’s Coconut Cream Pie.

It was based on the Impossible Pie that was featured on the box of Bisquick™ a few years ago.

If you're my age I'm sure you remember how popular that was a few years ago.

I got an e mail from a young lady who’d decided to buy a box of Bisquick™ and use that in the recipe.

She’d like to know if Ma had any other recipes that could make use of the rest of the Bisquick™.

Well, of course she did.

Ma had originally gotten a recipe which used Bisquick™ as a biscuit topping for chicken stew.

As with the Impossible Pie, Ma preferred not using a biscuit mix.

I’ll give you the recipes using both, as I did with the Coconut Cream Pie.

If you’d like to make the biscuit topping using Bisquick™:

Do not combine together the oil, milk and vinegar.

You'll just be adding the sour cream and milk for the liquid in this version.

In a medium bowl place

1 Cup Bisquick™

1/4 Cup sour cream

3 Tablespoons milk 

Stir just enough to make a stiff dough.

Spoon the dough in 6 mounds over the chicken mixture.

Hints:

This recipe is a good way to use leftover rotisserie chicken, or cooked turkey or ham.

You can use a can of condensed cream of broccoli or asparagus soup, instead of the condensed cream of chicken soup.

You can also use canned or leftover cooked vegetables. 

A bit more or less of the vegetables - or meat - doesn’t matter.

If your family really likes biscuits, double the biscuit recipe and bake the extra biscuits on an ungreased cookie sheet while you are baking the pie.

If you’d like the pot pie with a bit more flavour, add finely chopped scallions or your favourite spices to the meat/vegetable mixture or to the biscuit mix.

If you’d like to reduce the fat content, you can use a can of low fat soup, and skim milk, as well as light sour cream and cheese.

You can also leave out the sour cream and/or the cheese.

                        Chicken Pot Pie

Thaw

3 Cups frozen mixed vegetables (carrots, corn, green beans, peas)

Grease an 8 inch square baking pan

Preheat oven to 375º F

In a measuring cup stir together (this is for the biscuits)

1/4 Cup oil

1/2 Cup milk

1 teaspoon vinegar

Let sit while preparing the pie filling.

Pour into the prepared pan

1 can (10 fl oz) condensed cream of chicken soup 

1 can water

3/4 Cup sour cream

Stir just enough to blend.

Add

4 Cups chopped cooked chicken
The thawed vegetables
1 Cup shredded old cheddar cheese 

In a medium bowl combine

2  Cup flour                               

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

Stir in the milk mixture.

Stir just enough to make a stiff dough.

Spoon the dough in 6 mounds over the chicken mixture.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the biscuits are golden brown.

Serve warm.

If you'd like more vegetables, a salad or a cooked vegetable would be fine.

About the sky this week, thanks to the folks at The Farmers' Almanac…

February 3 – Midpoint of winter. This is the halfway point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. First Quarter Moon, 11:19 pm.

February 7 – The large waxing gibbous Moon will appear inside the very large asterism that we in the Northern Hemisphere call the Winter Circle, sometimes called the Winter Hexagon. 

February 9 – The large waxing gibbous Moon will be just 4 degrees from the Beehive Cluster, also known as Praesape, and M44.

February 10 – February’s Full Snow Moon at 7:33 p.m. Learn how February’s full Moon got its many names in this short Farmers’ Almanac video. 

February 11 – The Penumbral Eclipse of the Moon. This eclipse favours the northeastern United States and eastern Canada, where the Moon enters the Earth’s outer (penumbral) shadow soon after moonrise. 

For the rest of the United States and Canada, the eclipse will already be underway as it rises. The Moon will be passing through the southern part of the Earth’s shadow and at maximum its upper limb will come tantalizingly close to the much darker central shadow (the umbra). 

So at maximum, a subtle, but perceptible dimming will be evident along the Moon’s upper limb. 

Moon Enters Penumbra: 5:34 pm

Maximum Eclipse: 7:45 pm 

Moon Leaves Penumbra: 9:53 pm

Magnitude of the Eclipse: 0.988