Chincoteague Pot Pie

From the Storybook Cookbook

Ingredients

Parsley
1 carrot
celery leaves
(the above is optional)
1 two pound chicken cut into pieces
salt
pepper
2 cups sifted flower
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons shortening
1/2 cup water

Directions

Fill a large kettle about 3/4 full with warm water and put it on the stove. Turn the heat to high.
*Tie together a sprig of parsley, a slice of carrot and a few celery leaves with string and add to the water. Cover the pot and bring the water to a boil.
While waiting for the water to boil, sprinkle the chicken pieces on both sides with salt and pepper.
When the water is boiling, lift the cover carefully, turning the lid away from you so that the steam will not hit your face. Put the cover down on the edge of the stove. Drop the chicken pieces in very carefully so as not to splash the water. Put the cover back on, turn the heat down to medium, and cook the chicken for 30 minutes.
While the chicken is cooking, make the dumplings. Presift the flour and then sift the measured flour with the baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of salt into a medium-sized bowl. Add the shortening. Rub the flour and the shortening lightly through your fingers until they are well-mixed--the crumbs should be the size of small peas.
Add the water gradually, cutting it into the flour with a dull knife until the dough sticks together to form a ball.
Put the dough on a well-floured breadboard. With a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough into a large circle about 1/4-inch thick. If the dough sticks to the rolling pin or breadboard, scrape it off carefully with a dull knife and sprinkle more flour on the pin and board. Cut the dough into 3-inch squares with a dull knife.
When the chicken has cooked for 30 minutes, remove the parsley and carrot bundle. Using a spatula, drop the dumplings a few at a time into the boiling water on top of the chicken. If you put too many in the pot at once, they may stick together. Cook in the uncovered pot for 10 minutes; then cover them and cook 10 minutes longer. When done, put the dumplings and the chicken on the plate and serve.
Makes 4 servings.

First Storybook Travel

I got the idea for this blog when I read an article from Wonder Time magazine (no longer in print)a few years ago. The article was about how a mother took her children to the setting of one of their favorite storybooks and they re-created some of the fun and imagination from the book. I thought it was a great idea to take your child to an actual place from a book. So last summer (2009) I made reservations at Assateague National Seashore in Maryland and checked Misty of Chincoteague out of our local library. The book is recommended for ages 9 - 12. My child is a little younger than the recommended reading age, so we took turns reading it. The main characters in the book are Paul and Maureen who live in Chincoteague, VA. Paul and Maureen want nothing more than to buy the pony Misty, who is Phantom's filly. In the book you learn how the horses came to live on Assateague and how once a year the horses are rounded up and auctioned off by the Chincoteague Fire Dept. Paul and Maureen work very hard to earn the money to buy Misty. What amazed me was that this book was written in 1946 by Marguerite Henry and there is still so much that is the same as the book. Assateauge is divided by Maryland and Virginia and both of them have different ideas of what to do with the horses that roam free on the island (http://www.nps.gov/asis/naturescience/horses.htm). We camped in a tent on the Maryland end of Assateague in the "tent only sites". It was a great area on the sand and just over the dunes from the beach. The "tent only sites" are fenced off so the horses can't get in to steal your food (which they've been known to do). We saw the horses everyday we were there. The morning and evening were the best times for horse spotting, although it wasn't difficult to find them. We would just walk out to the fence and there they were. Since feeding or trying to pet these wild horses is illegal, we were happy just to watch them roam about eating the grass. In the book, Maureen and Paul earn money by catching and selling crabs, oysters and clams . You can sign up at the visitors center in Assateague, MD to go clamming and crabbing in the bay and see how it was for Paul and Maureen to earn their money. Also in the book they have Chincoteague Pot Pie on Pony Penning Day. I found the recipe for this dish and we had it for dinner one evening after we got home from our "storybook travel". Following is the recipe.