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.

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 for flavored tomatoes, frozen carrots instead of canned, green beans and corn undrained, peas omitted (gross, nasty little pods), one can tomato sauce, two low sodium chicken and two pollo de tomate bouillon cubes, six cups water. Once onions were softened, carrots, juice of green beans and corn, sauce, bouillon cubes, water were added and allowed to simmer until carrots almost tender. Green beans and corn tossed in, heat t

Way Too Rich, Extra Heavy Cheesecake

Pictures are deceptive. What this picture of this recipe does not show is how old and faded the print out paper is, how many stains are smudged across various spots, and the numerous notes written in the top right corner with the first one dating back to college days in 2001. Yikes, twenty years ago makes this paper print out old, no wait, that makes me old. Eek. Sadly, my current living quarters do not allow for cooking of this cheesecake. In fact the last time this recipe has been made have been close to six or seven years. That is just too long. Too long. Luckily, we are spending Spring Break at family with a real oven. A family who will help eat this oh so rich, very decadent, supremely yummy cheesecake. Modifications Made: There are four keys to a successful cheesecake. ONE: all ingredients must be room temperature. If your house is ice chest cold, then warm the ingredients on the stovetop. TWO: do not over mix. Excessive mixing creates air pockets resulting in split mi

The Great Freeze 2021 Vegetable Broth

Good grief, this cold snap. Every year I wish and wish for cold weather so this table can eat soups without melting. Well this year winter came and came with a vengeance. Two days below freezing with no water, no power, no internet/cell service. It's the dark ages. If you need more info just search for Texas Grid Failure 2021 . Yes, this tragic affair has its own wiki page. Good grief. Did you know that if temperatures drop below freezing for too long, refrigerators will not keep your cold stuff from freezing? Well, they don't. And with 17℉ temps, this tables fridge contents froze. What to do with a fridge full of frozen fresh veggies? Veggie stock. No recipe was used, it was just all the veggies in the fridge (white and yellow onions, garlic, jalapeno, green onions, three roma tomatoes, celery, two russet potatoes, seven carrots, and a red and green bell pepper) salt and pepper, and enough water to just touch the top layer of veggies. I did not want the veggies floa

Eating Waffles

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