Tonight was a making lemonade out of lemons kinda dinner.
Initial intentions was a deconstructed vegetable pot pie, similar to one I had in the past at a restaurant. Basically, instead of a crust, they made biscuits sliced in 1/2. Bottom half on the plate, pot pie filling on top of that , and then the top the biscuit to top it off.
I then realized I had a lot of shredded potatoes in the freezer, so I figured I'd mix things up a bit by making a hash brown potato cup, serving the pt pie filling inside, and toping with half a biscuit.
This is where it got ugly. The potatoes just never quite crisped up and took shape, so basically it was hash browns. I figured, ok, no big deal, Ill just go with my original plan and serve with the biscuits. When I took the biscuits out, they looked great, but rethinking the recipe, I was wondering why there was so much sugar, so I sliced off a small piece of the biscuit for a taste. Very sweet, looked at the recipe, and realized it was a shortcake biscuit recipe I was following, not just plain biscuits. In addition, it called for butter or coconut oil (as a substitute if you wanted to be vegan( My wife)). I used the coconut oil. So not only was it sweet, it had a hint of coconut taste to it too. It actually tasted really good with a nice consistency.
So, I got my " Chopped " mind in full gear. Turns out, I made a nest of the hash browns, served the pot pie filling in the center of the nest. Then, went to the freezer, got some frozen berries, the fridge some raspberry jam, and the cupboard for some sugar and corn starch. I through together a nice berry sauce ( which I strained to get the berry solids, skins and seeds out) and drizzled it over the biscuits for dessert.
All in all, a success mixed with a little excitement. The kicker is, tonight was to be my easy no brainer dinner with little stress. Turns out I had to work for it.
( I liked the berry topped shortbread so much, that I saved it for future use).