CEIMB: Chicken Pot Pies (In a Pumpkin!)

This week, I decided to make the Craving Ellie in My Belly meal truly in honor of our hostess. The recipe, Chicken Pot Pies, was chosen by the wonderful Shandy of Pastry Heaven. I like to visit her blog each week to check out her spin on the week's CEIMB recipe, as well as to see what else she has been up to in the kitchen. Last week, her post on the Apple Brown Betty included a really interesting spin on a traditional pot pie-ish dinner. In addition to her apple dessert, she talked about how she made a meal by stuffing a pumpkin full of chicken and veggies, and then she topped it with a flaky crust! It was so cool, I was both impressed and inspired all at once! It looked absolutely gorgeous, not to mention incredibly delicious (and I'm still new to eating pumpkin in things, but Shandy's pictures of the stuffed pumpkin made my mouth water!). I just had to try this out!

I told my husband about the stuffed pumpkin idea, and he was intrigued as well. Then, I realized that Shandy had chosen the Chicken Pot Pies for this week, and it just seemed like fate! What better opportunity to try her pumpkin trick out than by using it on the recipe that was her pick? I was so excited to do this, we took the kids out this weekend and had them help us choose two perfect pie pumpkins for the occasion. I was planning on making this for Sunday dinner. I would make two pumpkins stuffed with pot pie, and then two more pot pies in individual serving dishes.



Then, Sunday morning, I woke up and felt terrible. I have been nursing some cold/allergy thing for over a week now, but that Sunday was the worst. I was exhausted, crabby, and was so hoarse I was squeaking at people. It was the pits. Why am I telling you all this? Because I wanted to be upfront and honest with everybody, and tell you that in the end, it was my hubby who was the dinner hero that evening, and not me. He cooked the whole thing himself, and oh, my goodness, was it divine! I felt so spoiled eating all that deliciousness, and knowing that I didn't have to lift a finger for it!

I've prepared Ellie's variation on the classic pot pie in the past, so I knew it would be scrumptious. The pumpkin made for such a showstopping presentation, and it was fun to scrape at the inside walls of the pumpkin while eating. You could mix in the softened pumpkin innards with the pot pie filling for that extra pumpkin-y touch.



One more confession I have to make: I'm not happy with the pictures for this post. See, the camera was working just fine....right up until we sat down to eat! Then, all of a sudden, the camera's memory card conked out on us. Yep, that's right. All the pictures hubby took of the beautiful pumpkin preparations, anything from before we sat down, they're all gone. But we did manage to save a few on the camera itself, and that's what you see here. Phew! I was afraid I may have lost them all, so it was a relief to see that some still made the cut.

Anyway, I have to send out a profuse thank you to Shandy this week! Not only did you pick an awesome fall recipe for us this week, but you also inspired me to make something completely new and different at the same time. It was a great success; my hubby and I are very grateful! If you'd like to check out everybody else's results this week, be sure to go to the CEIMB blogroll. Ellie's original recipe can be found here.