Happy Birthday Charles and Abe

Today is the 198th birthday of both Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln. It was said that when Stephen Jay Gould was on his very untimely deathbed, his greatest regret was that he would not live to celebrate Darwin's bicentannial. Alas. Fine fellows all.

While the Patient doodled on the internet I slaved away in the kitchen preparing the Chicken Potpie. The recipe, from the January 2007 issue of Sunset (page 88 and cover) is much too long and complicated to reproduce here, but it was delicious. (I tried to get a link to the very page in the magazine but was unable to do so. Try your local library.) It needed some tweaking; more liquid for one thing, to make the filling juicier, but all in all it was a real success. The herb-y, cheese-y biscuits are heavenly! As long as you have plenty of time to put it together, it's worth it. There are several steps; first you make the filling; here's where you need more liquid. Then you make the dough for the biscuits. Then you assemble it all and le Voilá! Buttermilk Biscuit Chicken Pie! The Patient did right well with this, and had some delicious piquant salad, too. Since I will be out at the theatre tomorrow evening, there's plenty left over for his dinner.