Random Recipe! Chicken and Dumplings

My father had his own variant of Grandmother's Chicken Soup. I have modified it. I'm sure my daughter will modify mine when she starts making it for her children. I like that it has so many colors in it. Red onion, yellow squash, orange carrots... mouthful of rainbow.

The Soup
2 cartons Chicken Broth
3 Telma Chicken low salt consumme cubes (These can usually be found in the Jewish section of the grocery. It's like bullion cubes.)
2 large Carrots
1 large Leek
1/2 Red Onion
1 large Yellow Squash
1 Celery Heart (take just the tender inside stalks and leafy stalks)
1 Tbsp slivered Ginger
1 Tbsp minced Garlic
1 sprig fresh Rosemary
3 Bay leaves
1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning blend
3 boneless skinless Chicken breast halves
3 Tbsp Italian Dressing
2 Tbsp Honey
1 Tbsp Sazon Completa (The green cap spice stuff)

 Dice chicken into small bite sized pieces. Chop all veg into small pieces.

 See the celery heart? Chop everything, including the leaves into bits like the rest.

 That green leafy thing is a leek. It's part of the onion family. I just slice it leaves and all at 1/2 inch sections. Those little cubes are diced squash.

Toss everything - broth, spices, herbs, veg, telma cubes and chicken into the crock pot. Set it on med/hi (or just hi depending on your crock pot) and walk away for 5-8 hours.

The Dumplings
2 c All purpose flour
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp Adobo crillollo (spanish garlic salt)
2 eggs
2 tbsp Olive oil
2 tbsp water

*** Note: I've tried every kind of flour on the shelf and the one that works the best is straight All Purpose flour. Don't add whole wheat to this unless you are willing to let the noodles cook for twice as long. It's like brown rice vs white rice. White is more tender. 

Mix all dry ingredients into a bowl and make a well. A well is a large dent or hole in the center of your dry ingredients. Add the liquid ingredients and stir until a chunky furry bowl of flakes happens. Knead the dough with your hands on a lightly floured board until you get a nice smooth ball. If the dough is still too dry, add water by the teaspoonful until you get a nice smooth dough. If the dough is sticky,  add a little more flour to your board and knead it in.

Break the dough into 3 balls. Roll each on a well floured surface. Dough should be 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick.

Slice the dough into noodles. Pops always liked his wide and a little long.

The noodles should be nicely coated with flour. This thickens the soup as it cooks.

Drop the noodles into the soup one at a time, stirring to distribute them. Go back, roll & cut the next batch and toss them in too. Once all your noodles are in the pot, cover it and let it cook for another hour. First day soup is pretty awesome. Second day soup is even better. 

 Nom nom nommity!

Hyaaah! Ninja Bunny Bag time!

I spent a bit of time thinking. It's going to take both sewing classes to finish the bunny bags. That's cool, tho. We have the time, so let's do it!

What do you need?

1.) 16 inches of plain cotton fabric that is at least 24" wide. Any color you like. If you MUST have a print, try one that won't overtake the project or look sideways when it gets cut.  Feel free to look in remnants bins in the store.

*** It's better to have too much than not enough. I have bought fabric where the cut is not straight and it throws my whole measurement out of whack. This is why 16 inches rather than 13 for the project. If your fabric is 36 inches wide, you can get away with a 12 inch length of fabric as we'll harvest the strap piece from the width.

2.) Pins! I prefer the quilting pins because they're longer and have that little bubble on the top. The fabric does not care. Whatever straight pins you have will be fine.

3.) Chalk or a washable marker. If you are using dark fabric, chalk is the only way to go.

4.) Iron


What to cut?

*** Before you cut the fabric wash it and iron it flat. There is sizing in the fabric (it's a starch) and there could be shrinkage. 

We will be needing the fabric cut into 2 bits. The bag - which will be cut to 10 inches x 24 inches. And a strap which will be 3 inches x 10 inches.

Lay the fabric out flat and check to see if you have a good straight cut on the top or the bottom of the fabric. The sides have machined areas called selvages, sometimes they have information from the mill that makes the fabric printed into the fabric. The sides are almost always straight. The top and bottom is where the errors can occur.

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Measure out your area and use chalk to make marks to cut along. I use a long wooden stick to make sure my edge is straight when I am chalking my lines. Remember the adage - measure twice, cut once. 

It's cut, now what?

Lay your fabric FACE DOWN. You want the wrong side up.Get out your iron. Fold the fabric in 1/4 inch along the longest sides of your pieces. Iron the fold flat. Fold it again, iron it again. You will be doing this on both long sides of both of the pieces. If you are not comfortable using an iron, call for Mom or Dad. If you think they'd want to supervise - call for Mom or Dad.

Click to make the photo bigger

*** The folding your fabric edges over twice is how we keep the raw edge of fabric from shredding once it's sewn. Ironing just makes the fabric behave until you can get it pinned.

Pin along the edges across the fold, not down it. I showed you my "rule of thumb" in class for how to gauge pin spacing.  The pins are supposed to hold your fold in place until we sew that sucker down.

Now we look at the top and bottom of the two pattern pieces. Fold those in 1/4 inch, iron them and pin them. These only need to be folded and ironed once before pinning.

If you have ANY questions or worries, call me. My phone number will be posted on the FB page. I am available 24 hours a day. (Seriously, I don't sleep like a normal person)

****Thrifty notes
I'm poor so I'm always looking for ways to pinch a penny till the indian screams. Joanns Fabrics usually has some kind of coupon online that can be used to shave some money off the fabric purchase. It's better to buy in store than online as they have a 2 yard minimum for online purchases. Keep an eye out on the remnants bin at Walmart. Sometimes you can get lucky. Right now there are scads of Halloween fabric sales, so cotton fabric will not be very expensive. Luna LOVES black & goth fabrics, so this is my best time for fabric shopping for her. :)

See you Friday!

Pizza Time!

Today in class we made pizza. Yay! As I mentioned, Pizza is not the healthiest of food options. We can tweak it a little to make it better... but it's still not best. :) Yummy, tho.

Pizza dough -
1 packet Yeast
1 tbsp Sugar
1 c Warm/Hot Water

In the bowl of your electric mixer, dump the yeast and the sugar then add the hot water. Walk away for about 5 - 10 minutes. When you come back it should look a little like this:

Add to this bubbly goo:
1/4c ground flax seed
1 c whole wheat flour
1 1/4c all purpose or bread flour
1 Tbsp Olive oil
1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning
1/2 tsp Adobo Crillollo or Garlic Salt
1/4 tsp Garlic Powder

And mix with your dough hook (or just the beater blade if that's all you have) until it forms a ball.
Lightly dust your work surface with flour and knead the dough until it becomes a smooth ball. Put your dough ball into a greased bowl and coat lightly with oil. Cover with a wet paper towel and let rise for 30 minutes. Toss the dough onto your floured board and knead it gently, then put it back in the bowl - covered for another 30 minutes.

Separate your dough ball into 3 pieces. Roll out your dough in a roughly circular shape. It will be twice the thickness that you roll out after cooking. Place the dough on your Pizza pan before adding sauce and toppings. It really does make life easier.

I use herbed tomato paste instead of tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce. I like the thickness and sweetness of it. One small tin of tomato paste will be enough for 3 pizzas. Unless you really really like tomato paste, then maybe open two of em.

Spread sauce over raw dough. Spice to desired levels. Add cheese and toppings then bake for 17-20 minutes at 350.

Dim Sum Recipe

Sauce:
1 c Soy Sauce
1/4 c OJ Concentrate
1 Tbsp Minced Ginger Root

Mix all ingredients and allow them to sit for at least an hour.

Wrappers:
2.5 c Flour ( we used 1/2 white wheat and 1/2 bread flour, but all purpose will do just fine)
1 c almost boiling water

If you are blending flours, mix them together before adding water. Drizzle water into flour and stir until the dough starts pulling together. Knead until you have a soft dough ball. Place in ziplock bag and let rest for at least 15 minutes. The dough can rest for at least 2 hours. It should be as soft as your earlobe when you squeeze the bag.

***NOTE**** Our dough today was crazy tough. I messed up the water amount somehow. We still had dough, but your dough from THIS recipe will me much softer and delicate than what we were working with.


Filling:
1 pound ground pork
1 medium carrot - grated finely
2 scallions - diced small
1 tsp Chinese Five Spice
2 Tbsp Shortening (crisco)

Mix all filling ingredients in a bowl. Make sure you don't have any brown blobs of five spice hiding in the meat. It should all look the same.

Assembly:
Break off chunks of dough that are about the size of a walnut and roll them into a 3" diameter circle. Fill with the meat mixture and seal the dumplings.

Cooking:

Steam 6 dumplings at a time for 12 minutes until done. They should be firm in the middle when you poke them with a careful finger. Steam burns hurt, people. Be careful. Cut the first dumpling to be sure it is cooked all the way through and adjust your timing to suit your needs.

Serve:
Pour some sauce over your lovely cooked dumplings and chow down. I suggest steamed broccoli on the side to make a well balanced healthy meal.