Grandma's Chicken and Dumplings

Here are the end of the year and winter is still amiss. Tonight after weeks and weeks of waiting for blistery cold days to appear, Old Fashion Chicken and Dumplings were served. Let me tell you the wait was highly rewarded....

Modifications Made:

With most recipes, chicken shortcuts are omitted for a whole, fresh chicken boiled with accompanying seasonings to enhance recipe flavorings. This trend to use pre-cooked chicken, just breasts, or left over rotisserie is not something I understand. Especially on a recipe where the broth is KEY ingredient. Tonight however, I am using the 1 quart bag of leftover chicken and veggies filling from the Barely There Chicken Stew meaning I do not have homemade broth and have to settle for five Knorr chicken cubes to create 40 oz of broth.

According to the recipe, the dumplings were to be rolled into 1/4" thickness and then cooked in the broth. On the initial test run of dumpling tasting, 1/4"dumplings were too thick and not like Grandma's dumplings so another test was done at 1/8" thickness. Finding this thinness of dumpling to be reminiscent of Grandma's, the rest of the dumplings were cooked till they floated. The bag of chicken and veggies which had been resting on the counter during the entire dumpling process to remove the chill of the refrigerator was added to the cooked dumpling broth and quickly brought up to edible temperature in just a few quick turns of the spoon.

Scaled for Likability: Great

Grandma's recipe seems, like so many other things, lost to time. Grandma knows she used some variant of Betty Crocker's chicken and dumpling or the local township 100 year recipe collection simply because those were the ONLY two cookbooks she owned. For weeks grandma and I searched the internet but to no avail nothing seemed exactly right. This version was close but it was missing the handwritten notes on special tricks....

While I do know Grandma's recipe did follow more closely to the Old Fashion version with no carrots and celery, the addition was not bad. No, this recipe was not Grandma's family heirloom version but it was good. When made again I would absolutely make it without carrots and celery and it would still be good. I would just add celery, carrots, onion, and garlic to the chicken as it was boiled. You know, essence and all that.

Papas a La Mexicana (Ranchera)

It is a crying shame that there are six hens and not a egg in sight. What am I supposed to do with homemade ranchero sauce? Thankfully with a few quick searches of the internet a recipe from my hometown newspaper was discovered: Papas Ranchera . Not once in the thirty years I lived in my hometown did I ever eat at a local food joint serving papas rancheras. No time like the present to remedy this cultural dish. Because this recipe is hidden behind a paywall (grrr...) I have included it here for you: Servings: 4-6 Ingredients: 1 pound potatoes, diced 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1/2 large onion 1 1/2 medium tomatoes 3 jalapenos 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup juice from canned tomatoes Instructions: Fry potatoes in vegetable oil until lightly browned (about 4-6 minutes). Saute onions, tomatoes, jalapenos until soft. Add garlic powder and salt. Add tomato juice until vegetables are covered (may need to add water). Bring to a boil and then add po...

Better Than Campbell's Old Fashion Vegetable Soup

Went to the store with the hopes of gathering fresh produce for soup. With more than 45 people in line for two packages of any meat product and the produce section containing only avocado, orange, and most randomly, strawberries, I settled upon canned soup. Well not canned soup since that section was still void of food, too. Instead soup made from canned goods as the canned vegetable section had been mostly restocked. Soups like this 15 Minute Vegetable Soup are ideal in dire food situations such as current times. Modifications Made: Plain petite diced tomatoes omitted, frozen carrots instead of canned, green beans and corn undrained, peas omitted (gross, nasty little pods), one cup celery, three cups diced potatoes, one can tomato sauce, two beef and two pollo de tomate bouillon cubes, six cups water. Once onions were softened, carrots/celery/potatoes/juice of green beans and corn, sauce, bouillon cubes, water were added and allowed to simmer until carrots almos...

Sour Cream & Chive Scalloped Potatoes

Can't believe the Month of the Potato is over. There are so many more potato recipes saved. Guess I will have to work them into another month. Last week's scalloped potatoes were one of the best new recipes during the month of potatoes. With today being the last day in the Month of Potatoes, I decided to go out with a bang by cooking another batch of scalloped potatoes but this time sour cream and chive. The Best Scalloped Potatoes , or so they said. Modifications Made: Recipe was reduced by half. Mayo was omitted and one entire package of chives were chopped and added to sauce before pouring onto layers. Scaled for Likability: Good Betty Crocker Sour Cream and Chive Box Scalloped Potatoes were the standard for this recipe. These were a family favorite for years but have long since been discounted. Bummer. Trying to replicate this seemed easy enough. Alas, it was not. These had a nice texture but were too oily from the cheese ...

Eating Waffles

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