My chicken and dumplings creation....a winner!

Tonight I made chicken and dumplings for dinner. I started out looking at a recipe, but then didn't follow it. I actually combined bits and pieces of a few recipes to make my own. I tasted mine before my husband tasted his and I told him that I needed to write the recipe down. He said, "I thought you followed a recipe". Well, I am known to not follow recipes, but I typically follow them more closely than I did this time around. He took one bite of his and told me to write the recipe down now. "No time to waste. I don't want you to forget this", he said. After dinner, he told me it was the best chicken and dumplings he had ever eaten and one of the best soups, too! Woohoo! So, I thought I would share my creation with you all and have it here so I know exactly where to find it! I've made chicken and dumplings many times and always seem to have issues with the dumplings. This time, they were cooked through and so yummy! I don't think I've ever made chicken and dumplings the same way twice, but my husband told me he thinks I should make sure to make them like this from now on!

Chicken and Dumplings

13 cups water
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
6 teaspoons Knorr chicken bouillon (I buy mine at Costco)


Combine above ingredients and bring to a boil. Continue until chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken and shred. Add back to soup.

Add in:
1 teaspoon ground thyme
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon dried parsley flakes
2 bay leaves
2 carrots peeled and sliced
2 ribs celery and their leaves, sliced (I left the leaves whole and tossed them in...they broke down in the boiling soup)
2 small onions, diced
1 can Campbell's cream of mushroom soup

Stir and simmer until veggies are tender. Remove bay leaves.  Once veggies are tender, add in

3/4 cup frozen peas

For dumplings:
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar (I used sugar in the raw)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 T butter or margarine
1/2 cup milk

Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Add butter or margarine and cut in to dry ingredients until crumbly. Stir in milk. Drop dumplings by rounded teaspoon into boiling soup. Do NOT stir! Move pot in a circular motion gently, then place lid on. Simmer for 15 minutes and do NOT remove lid until time is up!

Serve and enjoy!

Jumping John Deere....

I know that my dad checks my blog daily for updates (hi, Dad!!) and well, it has been almost a week since I've posted anything. So, this is for you, Dad! I found a shirt to match the wagon that you bought last Christmas! :-) Here is Lucas wearing it while jumping on the gift that you bought this year!

Texas talk....

Tonight we FINALLY took down the Christmas tree. Logan got to stay up late to help. I don't remember exactly what I said, but my husband was giving me a hard time and told me that I didn't use proper English. He said, "Come on, Candi. English is your first language, right". Logan piped up, "No. Texas-talk is her first language". :-)

He might could be right! ;-)

For fun, here are a couple of pictures from Logan's first trip to Texas!

The birdy's tweets are mine....

Lucas LOVES Lazytown! One of his favorite songs on the show is Stingy singing The Mine Song. Stingy goes on to claim all kinds of things as his, even the birdy's tweets!

Last night I was sitting on the loveseat and my husband was sitting beside me. Lucas crawled up into my lap. Well, his daddy could hardly stand it and snatched him out of my lap. Lucas said, "No. I want Momma!". His daddy told him that if he gave him a kiss, he could go back to momma. Well, Lucas gave him a kiss then crawled back to me. As he snuggled into me, he said, "Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine". My heart melted. Yes, I certainly am his and he is mine, mine, mine, mine, mine!!!

Poor Man's Turtles....

I originally posted this post on December 4, 2007. Since then, I've had lots and lots of hits to my blog for "poor man's turtles". Here I thought I was making up a name for them, but apparently plenty of others call them that as well! Anyway, we make these every single Christmas. This year I made them for a friend that doesn't like pecans, so I did them with cashews (the only nut she really likes). I also did some with M&Ms because Logan doesn't like nuts. Both of the new varieties were also tasty! I also took a picture to go along with the recipe, because I like pictures with recipes!!
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Easy Turtle Candies aka Poor Man's Turtles

I got this recipe from a friend on a message board a few years back. It is soooo easy to make and super yummy. My sister has a recipe called Poor Man's Eclairs and I joked with her saying these are Poor Man's Turtles.

Poor Man's Turtles

Ingredients:

* 30 rolo candies, removed from wrapper
* 30 pecan halves, toasted (the original recipe didn't say to toast them, but I think they taste better)
* 30 butter snap pretzels (they are square)


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Place pretzels on a baking sheet and place one rolo on each pretzel.
3. Place in oven and bake for about 4 minutes or until chocolate becomes shiny.
4. Remove from oven. Using a pecan half, press down on the rolo to smash it out to cover the pretzel.
5. Cool completely.

Crockpot Cookoff....

One of my friend's daughter is in American Heritage Girls and they were having a Crockpot Cookoff to raise money for a food pantry. They invited us to come and when I told Logan about it, he was very excited. He wanted to make something, too! I do cook in my crockpot, but thought we'd look online and try something new. I looked on the Year of Slowcooking Blog and ran across a recipe that I thought Logan would like and he could do a large portion of the work, too.

Here is Logan serving his soup.


They had bags in front of each person where the people that came could drop tickets in if they wanted to vote for your dish. Logan watched as tickets were dropped in his bag and was really excited! Well.....

He won first place in his category. And his friend, Jackie, she won first place in her category, too! It was really fun and Logan is already talking about what he should make next year!

The soup was very good and we will make it again for sure!

Crockpot Pasta Fagioli
--1 pound lean ground beef, browned and drained
--1/2 large red onion, chopped
--1 cup carrots, chopped
--2 celery stalks, sliced
--2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes (and juice)
--1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
--1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
--4 cups beef broth
--1 jar (16.5 oz) pasta sauce (I used 14 oz)
--2 tsp oregano
--1 T Tabasco sauce
--1/2 tsp salt
--1/4 tsp black pepper
--1/2 cup dry pasta, to add at end of cooking time


Use a 6 quart or larger crockpot, or cut the recipe in half. This makes a lot.

Brown the meat on the stovetop, and drain well. Let it cool a bit.

Chop up the carrots, onion, and celery. Add it to the empty crockpot.
Drain and rinse the beans, and add them. Add the whole cans of tomatoes, and the pasta sauce. Add the beef broth. Add the salt, pepper, oregano, and Tobasco sauce. Stir in your meat.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4 (I cooked mine for 3). When the vegetables are tender, stir in the 1/2 cup of dry pasta.

Cover and cook for another hour on low, or until the pasta is tender. It will swell quite a bit.

Serve with a bit of parmesan cheese if you have it (we didn't take cheese with us, but did serve it with crusty French bread).

Ivy rots the bones....

Logan learns a new Proverb each week. He just finished reciting this weeks for me. "A heart at peace gives life to the body, but ivy rots the bones. Proverbs 14:30". :-)

You may recall Logan saying that Jennifer is the first book of the Bible. Yesterday while reviewing the books on our first day back after Christmas break he said the 5th book is Deusus. I laughed and told him no, it is Deuteronomy. His response, "Oh. I thought they all ended in 'us'". :-)

Alright, I think this tops the "ivy rots the bones". Logan is working in his Bible Notebook. He is illustrating day 5 of creation by gluing fish in the water and drawing birds in the sky. I look over to see black dots coming out of all the birds. "Look, Momma. They're all pooping!". Yep---all BOY!

It's the little things.....