Chicken and Dumplings

Chicken and dumplings is pure southern comfort food (goes well with biscuits!). Today has been a wonderfully rainy Monday and this meal takes little preparation if you have fresh chicken stock on hand. I made a whole chicken, but you can easily cook a few breast to shred for the meal. My amounts will look larger than what the recipe calls for because I doubled it. Company for dinner! (If doubling the recipe, use 18 cups of broth)

Ingredients
4 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (or a whole chicken, from making stock)
8 cups Chicken Broth
1/2tsp Salt & 1 1/4tsp Salt
1tsp Pepper
1Tbsp Lemon Juice
2 Cups of AP flour
1Tbsp Baking Powder
1 1/8 Cup of Milk


1. Heat stock and and add pepper, salt, and lemon juice




2. In medium bowl, mix together 1 1/4tsp salt, baking powder, Flour, and Milk, mixing until "smooth" ball. Let rest for 10 minutes. It's going to be a bit sticky still.



3. On well floured surface, roll out, and cut into bite sized shapes. Most prefer squares, I have this cute little circle. For kids, you can even let them help by using small cookie cutters! *Make sure your hands are floured. Otherwise, it's sticky!
A. Drop on floured surface:


B. Roll out to a quarter of an inch to a half an inch thickness, depending on how thick you want them to be.


C. Cut out!



4. Add to stock pot, cooking for 25 minutes. The dumplings will swell and the pot will seem to be too thick with dumplings. Don't worry, it's fine. Just stir occasionally to keep from sticking.



5. Shred your chicken into bite sized pieces. Not too large, not too small. I call this "Matt's job". Add them to your pot, let cook for 10 more minutes.



6. Add to bowls and serve hot

Not From Texas Chili

Made completely from scratch, and completely delicious chili. Texans will want to kill me because I use beans. Sorry!

Ingredients:
1lb Hamburger Meat
1 Bell Pepper
2 Jalapenos
1 Medium Onion
3 Garlic Clove
1/2 stick butter
30oz Can Tomato Sauce (or 2 15oz)
28oz Can Crushed Tomatoes
2 Cans Bushes Chili Beans (these come in hot, medium, and mild. Choose your taste)
2 Cans Bushes Light Red Kidney Beans (if you prefer dark, fine)
3tsp Paprika
2tsp Cumin
1tsp Chipotle Seasoning
3Tbsp Chili Powder

Optional Ingredients:
1.5lb Eye of Round/Flank Steak
Cayenne Pepper
Cheese for Garnish


1. Grab your onion, garlic, jalapenos, and bell pepper, chop and dice into small pieces (garlic minced)




2. Brown hamburger meat with 1tsp of paprika



3. In large stock pot, melt 1/2 stick of butter, and lightly saute chopped veggies (OK, technically peppers are a fruit, hush)



4. OPTIONAL: Cut steak into small pieces and brown




5. Make sure to drain grease from both meats and add to stock pot, stirring in with saute



6. Mix in 2tsp Paprika, 2tsp Cumin, 1tsp Chipotle, 3Tbsp Chili powder



7. Add all cans of tomato sauce and crushed tomatoes to stock pot, stirring well


8. Drain Kidney Beans, add to stock pot



9. Add in chili bean and the sauce they are in to the stock pot and stir in well



10. OPTIONAL: Add in Cayenne pepper for hot. If you are not sure, I suggest to add in 1/8tsp at a time. I use 1/4tsp for our family, because while I like it hot, they complain


11. Cover with lid and let simmer for 1 hour and 45 minutes



12. Serve with crackers or cornbread

Ham and Potato Soup

This is a thick soup, which is great for a cold winter day.

Ingredients:
6 medium (or 8 small) raw potatoes, peeled and diced
4 cups of PORK broth
4 green onions, diced
1 cup of cooked ham, diced
2 cups of half and half
5Tbsp Butter
4Tbsp corn starch

Optional:
Shredded Cheese
Fried Bacon

1. Place diced potatoes into crockpot with pork broth. Set on HIGH and cook for 2 hours and 30 minutes.


2. During this time, you can cook the bacon and set to the side if you are going to use it as a garnish.

3. Cook your ham and dice into small cubes. I use a "ham steak" from Smithfield. I cook it on the stove, 5 minutes each side.


4. Melt 5Tbsps of Butter in a saucepan, adding the 4Tbsps of corn starch slowly and whisking together.


5. Mix in the half and half, 1 cup at a time. Pour into soup.


6. Turn the crockpot down to medium

7. Chop green onion. Add it and ham to soup.


8. Cover and cook an additional 30 minutes

10. Serve soup into bowl. If you would like, garnish the soup with shredded cheese and crumple the cooked bacon on top.

New England Clam Chowder

Ingredients

1tsp Cliff House Spice Blend
6 Slices raw bacon, fat removed
6 med. potatoes, cubed
3 green onions and shallots (scallions),chopped
2 10oz cans of Baby whole clams
2 6.5oz cans of minced clams
1 cup of water
4 cups Heavy Cream
4Tbsp Corn Starch
1Tbsp olive oil for sauteing

Optional: Oyster Crackers

1. Cut the potatoes into small bite sized cubes and add to crock pot


2. Add 1 cup of water to crock pot

3. Drain all clams, saving the juice. Add juice to crock pot, set clams to the side

4. tear or chop bacon into small bites, making sure to take off the fat

5. Chop up scallions

6. Saute Bacon and scallions together until bacon is dark pink, add to crock pot


7. Set on crock pot on HIGH heat for 2 hour and 30 minutes, or until potatoes feel tender. Make sure to cover and stir occasionally

8. Whisk together Heavy Cream, corn starch, and cliff house spice blend over medium heat until well blended. Pour into crock pot.

9. Add clams to crock pot, stirring into chowder.

10. Cook for 1 final hour, and serve immediately!

How to Make Ham Stock

Ingredients

• Ham Bone w/some meat attached
  
• 1 small onion
• 4 bay leaves
• 12 whole peppercorns
• Parsley flakes or sprigs
• Enough water to cover the ham bone (in my pot, this is one gallon)
  
• OPTIONAL ingredients: Carrots and celery
  

1. Put together your stock pot (or crock-pot. Whichever you are using) and add ALL ingredients



2. Bring stock to boil, slowly stirring

3. Reduce to simmer for 4 hours

4. Remove the bone, onion, peppercorn, and leaves

(this is all that should be left to cool)


5. Let cool until "skin" forms on top, then skim the fat off

(nasty, isn't it?)

6. Pour into freezer safe Tupperware and mark with todays date. Good for 6 months!



This recipe makes 11 cups. I use it when I make Ham and Potato soup, and it comes out so much better with ham stock.

Hobo Veggie Soup

There is a story as to how I came up with this "recipe", but first, let's just say that it apparently tastes so great, that my 7 year old begs for more.

All you need for this recipe are a couple cans of vegetable, 4-6 cups of water, and 2 chicken bouillon cubes.

1. Drain your veggie cans of all juice and place in pot

2. Cover veggies with water, about an inch over.

3. Drop in bouillon cubes and bring to a quick boil to dissolve.

4. Serve with crackers

See why it's called hobo? It's the perfect quick and hot meal that is full of veggies. And it only takes about 5-8 minutes for prep and "cook". Use what ever canned veggies you have on hand. Corn, green beans, carrots... You can even throw in some fresh celery for an added crunch!

Now, how did I come up with this meal? We had some special treats hidden from the kids for special occasions. I happened to notice that a couple were missing. I asked Matt if he ate them, and he said no. It didn't take much to get Alice to admit to it. So, I had to counter act all that sugar! How else to do this than by vegetables! She likes them, so it's not a punishment, but it needed to be a full meal for lunch. So, I came up with the brain child above, and she liked it so much she begged for another bowl.

The mommy in me was happy to say yes. :-)

Creamy Noodle Soup for the Sick

There will be only one picture to go with this meal because I am still sick, and am apparently the only person who can cook in this house. So, I cooked my own sick meal. But it's good, and works when you are too sick to cook the chicken to go with it.

Ingredients:

1 cup heavy cream/Half and half
10 cups chicken stock/chicken broth (I used frozen chicken stock I had saved in my freezer from previous)
3 cloves garlic
4 Tbsp Flour (overflowing)
16 oz (1lb) Dry Egg Noodles
Pepper to taste

1. Heat stock (or store broth) on medium heat. If using frozen stock, you can melt it out in the pan on medium high heat.

2. Mince garlic and add to broth

3. Heat milk slighty in saucepan and stir in flour, 1Tbsp at a time, until dissolved. Make t runny sauce, add to simmering stock pot.

4. Add noodles, and cook on medium (4 or 5 on traditional knob stoves) for 18-20, or until noodles are done. (taste to test if needed)

5. Add pepper for taste if needed.

Simple and yummy for those days when you feel like crawling out of bed is the best thing you can do all day.