Chicken and Dumplings

What says home cooking any better than a pot of chicken and dumplings?? I love rolled out dumplings for chicken and dumplings. This is one recipe Sean's Grandmother and my Granny West shared, I think it is a good southern recipe. We serve ours with homemade cornbread and coleslaw. Coleslaw you ask??? I know it sounds odd but it is so good once you have it you will never want one without the other. So that is "what's cookin" on this eve of a supposed ice storm, we will see...

Needed:
1 whole chicken(I use our free range)
2 T sage(I use about 5 fresh leaves of sage)
Salt and Pepper to your taste
All Purpose Flour
Baking Soda
Water
2 carrots-peeled and sliced into 1/8 inch slices
1 celery stalk-peeled and sliced into 1/8 inch slices

Boil in a large soup pot, chicken, water to cover chicken, carrots, celery, sage, salt, and pepper. When chicken is done and falling off the bone, remove from pot and let cook completely. Once cool remove all meat, Raven likes the skin in the dumplings so I add it back but you don't have to. Now is the time to make your dumplings. Sift 6 cups of flour with 1 t baking soda, make a bowl in the middle of flour, this is where you will add your water. I start with 3 cups of warm water. You may need more. Mix with your hands until lit resembles a hard biscuit dough. Now roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness and slice with a pizza cutter 2 inch squares. Bring broth to a boil and add dumplings, be sure to stir once in a while. Boil dumplings for 10-15 minutes, lower heat and add chicken back to pot and boil for 10- 15 minutes longer. I hate it when chicken gets stringy, this is the reason to add the chicken and the end of cooking.

Cinnamon Roll

Okay, I will admit I am going a little bread crazy here. I just want you to know that I really love to make bread and when it is this easy, it just makes it all the better. My favorite kind of cinnamon rolls are ones that I was served when in grade school. They were the best I had ever eaten, until now. This recipe is even better than those I longed for in grade school. This is the challah recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Mintues a Day cookbook, of course. Challah fresh out of the oven is almost perfect but made into cinnamon rolls it is perfect.

Challah
This will make 4-1 pound loaves or 16 cinnamon rolls.

Needed:
1 3/4 cups of lukewarm water
1 1/2 T granulated yeast
1 1/2 T salt
4 large eggs-beaten(I use free range)
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup butter-melted
7 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Filling:
1 cup white sugar
1 T cinnamon
1 stick butter-softened
Icing:
3 cups of powder sugar
3 T vanilla syrup (The kind you use in coffee)
1/4 cup heavy cream

Mix yeast, salt, eggs, honey and melted butter together. Mix in flour all at once. I used my Kitchen Aid and it was so easy. I have not mixed this by hand so I cannot tell you how hard it would be. After all flour is mixed in cover and allow to rest at room temperature for 2 hours. You can now make challah or cinnamon rolls. We are going to make cinnamon rolls. So here goes. Roll out dough to 1/8 inch thick and in a rectangle. Spread 1 stick of softened butter evenly over dough, now sprinkle 1 cup of white sugar over butter evenly. This is when I take 1 T of cinnamon and sprinkle over the sugar. I don't like to mix the sugar and cinnamon together. That is just me, you can if you want. Roll up very tight and seal the end with a little water. Cut into 2 1/2 inch slices, place in a DEEP cake pan. If you don't have a deep cake pan use a loaf pan. I did not the first time I made these and had to clean up a very messy oven the next morning. Bake at 350' for 40 minutes. When cinnamon rolls are still warm ice.


Icing is made by combining powder sugar, syrup and cream until smooth.

Turkey Burger

I was never a fan of turkey burgers. I always thought they were dry and did not have much flavor. When I heard Oprah Winfrey talk about the turkey burger she had eaten at Donald Trump's Mar-a-lago Resort, I was intrigued by the ingredients. I made my own version of this recipe, hope you like it.

Needed:
3 pounds ground turkey or chicken
2 golden delicious apples-chopped very small
1 yellow onion-chopped into tiny pieces(I do this so Raven does not see the onion.)
2 cloves of garlic-minced
1 pound of sharp cheddar cheese-shredded
1 t cayenne pepper(use less if you don't want too much spice)
salt and pepper to taste
Oil

Heat enough oil to coat your skillet. Once heated add apples, onion and garlic. Saute until very tender, almost mushy in fact and let cool. Now mix all of the ingredients together. Mix ever so gently with your hands. Over mixing will cause tough burgers. Form into patties and cook in a oil covered skillet. I cook the heck out of mine but I want my turkey done. Check with a meat thermometer, temp should be 160'. Make sure you only turn your burgers once, I cook ours about 7-8 minutes per side. I think these are the juiciest turkey burgers I have ever eaten!

Artisan Light Whole Wheat Bread

I tell you I really love my Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day cookbook! Can't tell can you, since I have been posting recipes for different breads from this cookbook. Well here is one more you will love! You can make pita from this one also. I made a loaf of artisan for dinner last night and everyone really liked it. My husband is not a big fan of whole wheat bread and he really liked this one.

Needed:
3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 T yeast
1 1/2 T salt(I used kosher)
1 cup whole wheat flour
5 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Whole wheat flour for stone or Silpat

Mix yeast, salt and water in your stand mixer or large bowl. Now you will add all of your flour in at once. Mix until a nice dough forms. Cover and let rise for 2 hours. Now you can either place in a covered bowl for the fridge or break off a grapefruit size piece and roll in your hands until smooth place on stone or Silpat that has been sprinkled with whole wheat flour and let rest for 40 minutes. Slice 2 crosses on top of bread. Preheat your oven to 450' for 20 minutes if using a stone or until your oven reaches 450'. As your oven heats up put a pan on a lower shelf, this where you will add 1 cup of water when you put your bread in the oven. Put bread in and place 1 cup of water in pan and close oven quickly. I leave my ventilation fan on so the steam goes outside. You don't have to but but the steam bugs me. Bake for 35 minutes.

Pita Bread

What is better than fresh baked pita bread? Well until now I would not know unless I was eating out at a wonderful Greek Restaurant. The recipe I posted for the baguette is so versatile you will not believe it! These pitas are made from the exact recipe I used for the baguette, the only difference is a few different techniques. With pita you must roll out the dough very thin. If you don't it will not puff up and puffing is what makes pita, well pita. I hope you give this one a try. It really makes a great lunch.

This comes from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day cookbook.

Pita Bread
Needed:
Recipe for Boule(This is the one used for the baguette).

Preheat oven to 500' for twenty minutes if you are using a baking stone preheat until oven reaches 500'.

Just before baking cut off a grapefruit size ball of dough. I am making small pitas so I broke mine into orange size balls.

Using your hands and rolling pin, roll out into flat round uniform discs. They should be 1/8 of inch thick and must be very even, I cannot stress that enough. Do not slash the pita or it will not puff and again that is what you want. Flour your rounds slightly and place on baking stone or in my case I used my Silpat on a cookie sheet. Turn on your ventilation fan, the flour on pita may smoke at this high baking temperature. Better safe than sorry. I hate when my smoke detectors go off when I am baking. Ransome on the other hand finds it quite entertaining. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes, until lightly brown and puffed. You may have to place pita on a higher shelf without stone to achieve proper browning. Mine did just fine but remember I am not using a stone.

For the most authentic, soft-crusted result, wrap in clean cotton dish towels and set on a cooling rack when baking is done. The pitas will deflate a bit as they cool. The space between the crust will still be there but you may have nudge it open a little with your fingers.

I remember the first time I ever ate Pita Bread. I was visiting some friends in Kansas and their mom set out sandwich makings with pita bread. Well.... I place my mayo and sandwich fixings on one side and place another pita on top. Their mom, a really lovely lady and still is, whispered the way "she liked to eat them, was by opening them up and placing the fillings inside the layers". This was before any of the other teens saw what I was doing. Thank goodness, and yes,I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma and the only thing we ever put between bread was a hot dog or burger.I think of this every time I eat pita. Thanks for the memories Evie.

Baguette

This comes from one of my all time favorite cookbooks. A really good friend told me about this book a year or so ago and I am so glad she did. The book is Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. I promise when you buy this book you will not be sorry. I have never made a good baguette until I made them from this book's recipe. That is the one I am giving here. So this is just a taste of what you can make from this very simple recipe.

Needed:
3 cups of luke warm water
1 1/2 T granulated yeast (1 1/2 packets)( I use the big bags of yeast you can buy at Sam's and just measure out what I need.)
1 1/2 T kosher salt or other course salt
6 1/2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour, measured with scoop-and-sweep method.

Place warm water into your stand mixer or large bowl add yeast and salt. Now mix in all of the flour. Kneading is not necessary. Yes, I said it is not NECESSARY!! I mixed mine until all the flour is mixed in really well. Now cover and let it rise for 2 hours at room temperature. After this break off two grapefruit size balls. Roll each of these into a 2 inch diameter rope shape and let rest for 20 minutes. Once the bread has rested paint it with water (this keeps the knife from sticking to bread)and slice small slits in bread. They say to bake on a baking stone with cornmeal sprinkled on it in but I don't have one so I used my silpat with cornmeal sprinkled on it placed on a cookie sheet. Worked fine. You do need to place a broiler pan on the bottom shelf in your oven and pour 1 cup of water in it right before you put your bread in. Preheat oven to 450' and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a deep golden brown. You will have dough left, just leave it in a covered bowl in your fridge. It will keep for a while. Around here it does not last but in your home maybe it will.

Tortilla Soup

This is a good soup for a cold day. It is a cold day on Beaty's Creek, so I made this soup. It is not hard at all.

Needed:
2 chicken leg quarters
1 large can Rotel
1 can corn
2 cans black beans-rinsed
salt and pepper to taste
1 T cumin
2 T chili powder
2 garlic cloves-minced
1 carton chicken broth

Boil chicken quarters in 2 quarts of water with garlic, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper. Once chicken is done remove from broth and add Rotel, corn with liquid, rinsed black beans and additional chicken broth. Bring to a low simmer and add boned chicken back to soup. Simmer for 30 minutes and serve. We like to add cheese, avocado, sour cream, the juice from a line wedge and chips but it is up to you what you add.