Chicken Pot Pie


It was just one of those Fridays today. It started out normally – breakfast and then a trip to Target in search of bargains. That potential tropical storm was still in the Gulf and slowly approaching. We found a few useful items at Target – a pocket knife for Penny’s car (replacing one we gave away); a drastically reduced runner’s watch that measures your pulse at a touch of your finger; A hydration backpack for hot days in the kayak (next year?) or next years Gate Run? It was too cheap to pass up.


It still wasn’t raining when we left Target to grocery shop at Publix. Penny hasn’t made chicken potpie in a while and now with it cooling down outside it was on our mental shopping list for this week. After Publix (still no rain) it was home for lunch and preparation for our “Safe House” inspection.


One of our meals planned this week is pasta pesto so after lunch I picked about 2/3 of basil leaves on our 2 big pots of basil. We were making the end of season batch. The basil tends to go to seed at this time of year and then the stalks get woody. So we pick most of it and make pesto and freeze it for use throughout the winter. My hands smelled like basil so I went to wash them when the doorbell rang. The inspector was here. I didn’t shake his hand and explained why. He said I was lucky I had a wife who could cook. It was 1 o’clock now and still no rain.


This inspection is a free service funded by the state. The hurricane resistance of your house is assessed and you are given a report, signed by the licensed inspector, which you can bring to the insurance agent and try to get some relief on your insurance rate. We figured it was worth a try. Penny found out about this and pushed me until I contacted the inspector.


The inspection evaluates the house’s structure and quantifies the open area (windows and doors). Then the guy crawls up in the attic to check out the roof. Everything from the size of nails used, the nail pattern and whether there are clips attaching the roof to the walls. He said our house was well built. It was up to code for 1975. It would have been better if longer nails were used and more of them but the house was built the way they built them in 1975. We do have clips – which is good – and the hip roof we have is the best type for win resistance. I believe this after seeing how well we’ve come through the storms we’ve had. Good old State Farm doesn’t give us any breaks however regardless of the fact that we’ve never made a claim on our house in the 30+ years we’ve been paying premiums.


The inspector was pleasant and very talkative. He filled out the inspection form, explained it to us and went on to his next appointment.


Penny finished up the pesto and we began thinking about that potpie. We came to the realization that we bought chicken today – but no potatoes, vegetables, cream or piecrusts. We both had mind-farts and forgot. So, tomorrow we will get the rest of the required ingredients. (Maybe)


It finally began to rain about 5 o’clock. We had to set up a little cover on our patio to keep the cats dry at feeding time. Now, at 8:30 the storm is coming on shore at Destin. It never got to tropical storm strength. We are expecting some good rainfall – it is raining hard right now. I had to use my raingear (The one we named bumblebee because it is gold and black that I bought when we went up to the Mizzou homecoming many years ago because it was the Mizzou colors) to go out and turn off the sprinkler system. There is no need to water for a while now. I could tell I got bumblebee a long time ago because it is a size medium. It was very baggy on me then, now it just fits. (sort of) A large would do better. It kept me nice and dry.

We will see if the rain is over in the morning. Saturday we go out to breakfast, hit Lowe’s to check for bargains and tomorrow we get the rest of the potpie fixings.