January Update & Pie Crust Recipe

We met last night for our first meal swap of the New Year.  It was surprisingly easy for us to pick a date that seemed to work for everyone this month...I guess with the post-Christmas rush over and everybody's freezers running low, we were all game to get together ASAP!  So this month we swapped: black bean soup, chicken casserole, beef stew, chicken enchiladas, meatloaf, chili, macaroni & cheese, calzones and lasagna.  We also spent some time seeing if we could devise some categories that we could use to guide our selections each month, rather than randomly choosing various meals.  We came up with 9 categories and each person will make a recipe that meets the criteria for that category.  Based on our family preferences and interest, we came up with: 1) lasagna 2) soup or stew 3) chili or chowder 4) chicken/fish casserole 5) beef casserole 6) pizza or calzone 7) deep dish pie (shephard, pot) 8) an ethnic dish (i.e. mexican, indian) and 9) pasta dish.  We'll see how this works in the months to come! We also talked about the possibility of not precooking every meal as some require just as much time to reheat as to cook, so we may experiment with this a bit this month as well.  We also agreed that rather than bringing copies of our recipes for each member, we will use this blog to share recipes...so hopefully we will see much more activity here in the weeks and months to come! 

I have been requested by the group to share the pie crust recipe that I used for last month's chicken pot pie.  My sister gave me this recipe many years ago (not sure where she got it) and it truly is no fail.  I've been successfully using it for many years and it turns out great every time.

NEVER FAIL PIE CRUST

1 cup shortening

1/2 cup margarine

1 tsp salt

3 cups flour

1/2 cup cold water

Cream shortening and margarine until well blended.  Add dry ingredients.  Mix well.  Add water.  Chill in fridge until a nice, handling compound.  Roll bottom crust a little thicker if using for pie.  This makes a large dough and could be used for two pies.  It can also be frozen and thawed for later use.