What I Learned and Didn't Learn From Grandma Kroh

My Grandma Kroh was a little Pennsylvania Dutch, maybe. At least she made Pennsylvania Dutch pot pie. The same dish that the southerners call chicken and dumplings.  You can get a form of this at the Cracker Barrel, but if you want the good kind you have to come over for dinner. 

I admit, I am one good potpie maker. Ask my kids. Or my family.   

Pot pie is wide, flat, homemade noodles in chicken broth over mashed potatoes. You can find a recipe on page 182 of the More With Less Cookbook.

Or :

you can take a couple cups of flour

and a stick of margarine,  that could be part butter or Crisco,

and salt

and water. 

You mix them until you have a ball of dough you can work with.

(That means it’s not sticky or crumbly.  Add more flour just a little at a time if it’s sticky

And water a little at a time if it’s crumbly. )

Roll the dough out thin and cut the noodles  a couple inches square.

Meanwhile boil the daylights out of chicken until it falls apart

While the water is at a rolling boil drop in the potpie squares

Boil them 15 minutes uncovered and 15 covered or until they are done.

And make some mashed potatoes too.

At least that’s how my grandma showed me how to make pot pie. She didn’t cook the chicken until it fell apart but that’s how I like it.

After we sit down and say grace I always say, “Oh, this probably isn’t fit to eat.” Because that is what my grandma always said. It was always perfect and melt-in-your- mouth good but she always questioned that..   

Did she lack confidence? Was she fishing for complements?  I think she thought she was bragging if she admitted it was perfection. 

But I say, go ahead and tell me what you’re good at. I won’t think you’re bragging if you admit you’ve mastered something.  And you won’t think I am when I say I’m good at potpie.

Why don’t you come over for dinner and tell me what it is you do well?  We can celebrate anything from word search puzzles to rocket science over some chicken and potpie!