Cooking: Chicken Pillows from Scratch

Well, we've survived our first month and a half without starving. Of course, lots of thanks to the other colleagues here who fed us in the beginning and several other times. However, I have done some cooking. We can get things here - American things in fact - it's just expensive. And believe me, we're willing to spend it sometimes. We can get potatoes out the wazoo on the side of the road, but when you have to make every thing else from scratch, instant mashed potatoes are a life saver. All of that being said, let me introduce you to Chicken Pillows. (I don't have my own picture since we devoured them too fast.)

I love pillsbury crescent rolls. Like love. And even more so, love it when a recipe calls for them. But alas, we cannot get them here :) So, if you try out this recipe you can buy some pillsbury in my honor (not the fat free kind) or make them from scratch like me. (side note: the night before I made this, I tried hamburger buns from scratch. They were flat, think, and all around not good. So, I didn't have much confidence in making another dough item from scratch.) I found a very simple recipe here and successfully made it, this time.

Anyway, onto the chicken pillows. Trey said, "Oh wow, these are great. Seriously, the best meal you've made since we've been here." Obviously, that is why they are blog worthy.

INGREDIENTS

1 (8 oz) can Pillsbury Crescent Rolls

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2-3 cups cooked and shredded chicken
• 1 egg
• 1 sleeve Saltine Crackers crushed
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 spoonfuls sour cream
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 F
2. Soften 1/4 cup butter and 8oz. block of cream cheese. Then stir to a smooth consistency. Add cooked shredded chicken to the bowl.
3. Lay out the 8 crescents on a cookie sheet. Stretch the crescent out. 
4. Place a couple spoon fulls of the creamy chicken mixture into the center of the crescent to fill it. Then fold the crescent around the mixture so that none of it is showing. I'll call this the "pillow".
5. In a separate smaller bowl, put the egg and a little bit of water, maybe a couple Tablespoons worth and beat together.Dip the "pillow" into the blended egg. After dipping into the blended egg, proceed to dip it into the crushed saltine crackers and place on cookie sheet. Repeat for the remaining 7 crescents.
6. Cook the pillows at 400 F for 20 minutes. Keep an eye on them your oven might cook them quicker.
7. For the sauce topping: Put can of cream of chicken and milk into a sauce pan. Add as much milk as you want to get it to the consistency you want i.e. thicker or runnier. When hot enough add 2 spoon fulls of sour cream and cheese to your liking.

Alright, what I did different: well, we can find cream of mushroom here (for now at least) but not cream of chicken. So, I cooked my chicken in a pressure cooker & used the broth from that to add to the cream of mushroom. I also added milk, gouda cheese (since it was already shredded), and a little bit of adobo (Trey's favorite seasoning). Also, when you put the chicken mixture in the crescent roll, make sure it's in the center. I messed up with the first one, but figured it out by the second one :) This actually made 10 for us - could be because the crescent roll recipe makes more, but we had plenty of chicken mixture to fill 10. The whole household was pleased. Can't wait to make them again!

Pictures from our first week

As mentioned before, our first week was spent at a retreat with other workers in our country. While at the retreat center, Trey hiked up a hill and got some great pictures looking out over the valley. We also got to go to a waterfall! It was really neat!

Layover in London

So, this might be a month late - but I've just gotten some time to write an update & upload pictures! We flew from Vancouver to London - overnight. We got to London shortly after lunch and had about 9 hours. Who really wants to sit in an airport for 9 hours, especially when you're in a big city with awesome mass transit. So we set out on our way. I was determined to see Westminster Abbey (and the door that was the focal point of the Royal Wedding), Big Ben, & eat fish and chips. So we took the tube into town and walked around seeing all the "big sites" AND seeing where they were setting up for the Olympics.