and I didn't even need Mommy's Little Helper to pull it off

I have always loved to cook. All my siblings do. We used to make cookies after school... which turned into teaching ourselves to make blondies, and chex mix, and anything else we wanted for an after school snack. From there, it was an easy leap to making dinner when we got home before Mom and Dad. (My mom still tells the story of my brother calling her at work after school one day asking what it "hard crack stage" meant. She did panic a bit on that one.)

Sometimes, cooking is a means to an end. We're hungry, we need to eat, therefore, someone must cook. But sometimes, I feel like Kitchen Goddess, where I combine my love of cooking with my love of recycling and my Yankee frugality.

Last week I made a roasted chicken with roasted veggies. This was a HUGE chicken from a local family, so I knew we'd get at least 2 full meals out of it, plus some lunch leftovers. It did not disappoint. As I was cutting the rest of the meat off the carcass (which I of course turned into stock) I was pondering what they might become. I remembered the turkey gravy in the freezer, left over from the most recent turkey. And then I saw the buttermilk purchased for Girly's birthday whoopie pies... and then I knew. Pot pie, baby. Oh yea.

So today after Boy's ski meet, I threw the cut up chicken, prepped leftover roasted veggies, and gravy into the pot, heated it 'til the gravy boiled, and transferred it into my casserole dish. Made Bisquick biscuits (which are just like dumplings but rolled out instead of dropped into hot soup) with buttermilk instead of regular milk. Half the batch is now covering said dinner, the other half is baked off as regular old biscuits for breakfast this week. Dinner was going in the oven as my boys were coming through the door. Goddess, yes, I believe I am.

It's meals like this one that make me channel my inner 1950s housewife. I don't like to get pushed around by anyone, male or female, but there is something satisfying about knowing how to get every last bite out of your food dollar and then combining it all into a delicious recipe of your own creation. Housewife or not, that's a good day.