Deep Dish Chicken Pot Pie

1 Pastry Topper (see recipe below)
1 C chopped onion
1 C sliced fresh mushrooms
3/4 C sliced celery
1/2 C chopped red sweet pepper
2 Tbsp butter
1/3 C flour
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 C chicken broth
1 C half-and-half
2 1/2 C chopped, cooked chicken (I used a rotisserie chicken)
1 C frozen peas and carrots blend
1 egg, beaten

1. Prepare Pastry Topper:
In a medium bowl stir together 1 1/4 C flour and 1/4 tsp salt. Using pastry blender (I used my mixer w/dough hook), cut in 1/3 C shortening until dough pieces are pea size. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp cold water over mixture; gently toss with fork. Sprinkle additional 3-4 Tbsp cold water over mixture, one Tbsp at a time and toss with fork until all dough is moistened. Form into ball. On floured surface, roll out dough into a 13x9 rectangle. Set aside. (I pretty much just dumped everything in and kept the mixer going on low till the ball formed. It was amazing!)

2. In a large saucepan cook onion, mushrooms, celery, and pepper in hot butter over medium heat until vegetables are tender. Stir in flour, poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper. Add broth and half-and-half all at once. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir in chicken, peas, and carrots. Pour into a 2-quart rectangular baking dish. (I used a 3-quart 13x9 dish).

3. Place pastry over chicken mixture. Turn edges of pastry under; flute the edges. Brush pastry with egg.

4. Bake, uncovered, in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Let stand for 20 minutes.

So this was a HIT with my family. It was a bit labor intensive to make, but well worth it. I actually made it the night before I served it which made dinner time much less stressful.
My menu for this week includes upside down pizza, linguine with clam sauce, cheese stuffed chicken, oven fried pork chops and some other things I picked out. My kitchen hasn't had this much use, well, ever.

Saturday night we went out to eat (thank goodness, I really wanted the break) and Tyson dressed himself to go out. Ha! He wore his "work" pants (aka green camo fleece), red fire engine shirt, safety goggles, and "work" shoes (aka the shoes that he wears when he works in the garage with daddy). Sorry the pics are a bit blurry but the boys wouldn't stop moving and my phone is way too sensitive.