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summer recipe back to basics: purple coleslaw

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I have been remiss. I haven’t blogged any recipes lately. This evening for dinner we were grilling marinated chicken thighs and my neighbor had given me a beautiful head of purple cabbage so I decided to make coleslaw.

Here is the recipe:

Purple Cabbage Coleslaw

Ingredients

4 cups grated purple cabbage 

1 cup grated carrots

1/2 grated large vidalia onion 

6 heaping tablespoons mayonnaise

2 tablespoon prepared Dijon mustard

5 tablespoons organic cane sugar (Turbinado)

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar 

2 tablespoons fresh minced dill

Freshly ground salt pepper, to taste

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Directions

I read somewhere once that purple cabbage is really good for you. A super food full of antibiotics, vitamins, fiber, and other good stuff. I think it also makes a tastier coleslaw. I also add vidalia onion to my coleslaw and fresh dill to the dressing, which I think keeps it fresh and different.

First finely grate cabbage, carrots, and onion. My “Pro Tip” here is I put these vegetables into a fine mesh strainer after grating and set them over a bowl and press gently for some of the extra liquid to drain out.

Mix the cider vinegar, sugar, cumin together. Unless you want a grainy dressing, make sure the sugar is fully dissolved before proceeding and adding the mayonnaise, dijon mustard, olive oil, and fresh dill. Whisk the dressing together briskly and refrigerate for a few minutes.

Next put your veggies in a clean bowl and pour the dressing on top of it. Mix well and then use a little spoon to taste and adjust for salt and pepper as needed. I like fresh ground pepper in coleslaw.

Refrigerate at least an hour before serving.

Enjoy!

good morning coffee cake

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I also call this cheater’s coffee cake because it is made with Bisquick a pre-made baking mix. So it is also semi-homemade but without Sandra Lee’s coordinating kitchen scape, table scape, and so on. You can also use a generic baking mix that is like Bisquick.

The base for this recipe used to be on the Bisquick box. I don’t see it there anymore. But over the years I have tweaked it and this is my favorite version. It mixes up quickly and is a delicious treat on weekends!


    Batter
    2 cups Bisquick (or comparable generic baking mix that is like it)
    2/3 cup milk (NOT skim – 1% or 2% or even buttermilk)
    1/2 cup frozen or fresh blueberries
    1 egg
    1/3 cup sugar
    1/2 teaspoon  cardamom 
    1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 
      Topping
      2/3 cup Bisquick
      2/3 cup brown sugar
      1 teaspoon cinnamon 
      4 tablespoons butter
    Preheat oven to 400°

    Grease with either butter or Crisco  a large deep dish  pie plate.
    Mix batter ingredients – everything except the blueberries. Fold them in when everything else is mixed thoroughly.  (NOTE: You can also use dried cranberries or white seedless raisins instead of the blueberries. If you use dried fruit like that you’re going to bake on the lower end of the time estimation, or about 20 minutes.)

    In  a separate bowl mix topping ingredients together with either two forks or a pastry blender until crumbly crumbs are formed.

    Take a large deep dish pie plate and grease it.

    Pour batter into pie plate. Evenly distribute crumbly topping on top and cut crisscross well across top a few  times with a knife. 

    Bake in 400° oven for approximately 25 – 30 minutes

    Allow to cool for a little bit (at least 20 to 25 minutes) before serving but tastes best serve warm.

    pumpkin bread 2.0

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    INGREDIENTS:

    1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
    4 eggs
    1 cup canola oil
    2/3 cup apple cider
    2 cups white sugar
    Scant 1/3 cup blackstrap molasses
    3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
    2 teaspoons baking soda
    1 teaspoon baking powder
    1 1/2 teaspoons salt
    1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
    1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
    1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
    1 teaspoon ground ginger
    1 cup mixed raisins light and dark
    1/2 cup candied minced orange peel
    1/2 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
    One cup chopped pecans or black walnuts (today I used walnuts because I used my pecans on hand in my pecan pumpkin pies)

    DIRECTIONS:

    Preheat oven to 350°

    Grease and flour three loaf pans. The ones I used I think are 8″x 4″ (I should measure them but I haven’t)

    In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, molasses, eggs, oil, cider, and sugar until well blended. Add the spices. Add baking soda, salt, baking powder. Stir the flour into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Fold in the raisins, coconut, nuts, candied orange peel.

    Pour into the prepared pans. Make sure you split the batter evenly. Dust the top of the batter in each pan with a couple tablespoons of table sugar. It just gives a sort of sparkly crust when the loaves come out of the oven

    Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven.

    Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

    Let the pumpkin bread cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes to half an hour before removing from pans. Then leave loaves on a baking rack to completely cool before wrapping up until ready to serve. I make these a day ahead of serving.

    peach and ground cherry galette

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    I purchased a pint of forgotten fruit at the farmers market yesterday. Ground cherries. They were in little papery husks almost like a tomatillo. They are a very old-fashioned fruit that you see once in a blue moon at farmers or local organic markets.

    Preheat your oven to 400°F

    Get out your frozen two sheet package of puff pastry – Pepperidge Farm or whomever and allow it to thaw at room temperature. If it’s really frozen it can take over half an hour.

    First make the Frangipane (almond cream):

    In a large mixing bowl whip together with your mixer the following:

    3 tablespoons butter, preferably unsalted

    One large egg

    1/3 cup granulated white sugar

    One half teaspoon pure vanilla or almond extract

    One half a cup of almond flour or almond meal (I order mine from nuts.com)

    1 tablespoon of regular white flour

    Beat together until fluffy and set aside.

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    In another bowl, put your ground cherries (after removing the little husks from them) in with a 1/3 cup of light brown sugar and a couple dashes of cinnamon. (I had purchased a pint’s worth of this fruit.) To this I add 2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice. I then take a hand potato masher and macerate slightly the ground cherries and the sugar and cinnamon and lemon juice.

    Next take out a jellyroll pan – otherwise known as a cookie sheet with an edge and line it with parchment paper

    Take one sheet of puff pastry and gently unfold it and put it in the center of the pan on the parchment paper.

    Next take an icing spreader or spatula and spread the almond cream/Frangipane evenly on the bottom layer of puff pastry.

    Next slice two to three medium size peaches in thin slices. Arrange neatly on top of the cream. Next spoon the ground cherry mixture evenly on top of the peaches.

    Take the other sheet of puff pastry and unfold it and lay evenly on top of the fruit mixture. Crimp the edges of both sheets of puff pastry together all the way around.

    Cut quite a few vent holes in the top of the path pastry. You can do it in a pattern if you want. Take one egg yolk and add a tablespoon and a half of water and whip it together. Use a pastry brush and brush the egg yolk lightly over the top of the pastry. Dust this with sugar. (egg yolk acts like a glue for the sugar)

    Bake at 400° for about half an hour. My oven wasn’t doing something right today so I might have even taken longer baking. This is something you have to keep an eye on or you will burn it.

    When everything is all golden and caramelized brown pull it out of the oven. It will also smell really amazing!

    Cool before moving to a serving platter. I have a large round plate I picked up at a church sale years ago that I love for desserts that are a different than normal size.

    You can serve this warm or cold. A little dollop of whipped cream should accompany each serving.

    Refrigerate the leftovers.

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    strawberry rhubarb pie

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    My mother is coming for lunch tomorrow. Normally that wouldn’t be a big deal, but this is her first outing of this kind with a longer car ride since she had heart surgery earlier this spring. So I thought I would make a festive late spring lunch inspired by the herbs growing in the garden and the early produce from the farmers markets locally.

    When I went to the East Goshen Farmers’ Market yesterday, Brogue Hydroponics had the most beautiful strawberries and young rhubarb. So I planned the dessert first: strawberry rhubarb pie. I have been making variations of this pie for years, and I decided today I would write things down to the best of my abilities so I could share the recipe with you.

    Hopefully everything works for you the way it did for me. Anyway, here is the recipe:

    preheat oven to 425°

    2 cups of fresh sliced strawberries
    2 bunches of as thin as possible rhubarb from your farmers market – you will end up with 2 cups or so by the time you trim and clean it.

    1 cup white sugar
    1/4 cup brown sugar
    Scant 1/4 cup of instant tapioca
    Zest of one lemon
    1 tablespoon of lemon juice
    Dash of cinnamon
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    2 tablespoons of butter cubed small
    1 tablespoon softened butter
    Grated fresh ginger to taste

    Pie crust: you need two pre-made rolled up refrigerated pie crusts as this is a double crust. Or you can make your own pie crust and roll out enough for two crusts.

    I think the brand I bought yesterday was Pillsbury. I didn’t have time to roll out pie crusts so I bought them this time. These rolled up pie crusts can be found in the refrigerated section next to the dairy in your supermarket. (Look for where your supermarket stocks pre-made cookie dough and biscuit dough you will find the pie crusts.)

    Line a deep dish 9 inch pie plate with one crust and use 1 tablespoon softened butter to coat bottom of crust- this will keep your piecrust from getting soggy. Put pie plate and crust into refrigerator to stay chilled.

    Chop up the rhubarb into little quarter inch slices and slice up your strawberries and add the sugars, tapioca, ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, and lemon juice and lemon zest. Mix together gently but well and set aside for 15 minutes.

    Once your oven is preheated, remove the chilling piecrust in the pie plate from the refrigerator and put on a baking tray that is lined with parchment paper. This is a pie that can bubble over so you definitely don’t want this sticky goo all over your oven.

    Fill your chilled pie crust with the fruit mixture and next take one egg white and 2 tablespoons of water and whisk it together in a small bowl. Using a pastry brush, paint the edges of your bottom piecrust in preparation for adding the top crust.

    Add the second piecrust or top crust to your pie. Then use a fork or your fingers and crimp the edges together. Using your pastry brush wipe the top of the pie with the egg white and water mixture. Don’t soak it, just enough to make a couple tablespoons of granulated sugar tossed over the top stick.

    Next use a paring knife and cut that holes in the top of your pie. I cut them in a circle so they almost look like flower petals.

    Now your pie is ready for the oven. I cover the edges of my crust with tinfoil gently on top of that so they don’t overly brown. You can also buy one of those piecrust rings out of either metal or silicone rubber stuff that goes in the oven. Keep meaning to get one of those and I just keep forgetting.

    Bake the pie at 425° for 15 minutes. Then reduce the heat for 350° and bake another 45 minutes to an hour depending on your oven. The crust should be slightly toasty in color and the filling mixture bubbling out of the vents you cut ever so slightly.

    You can serve the pie warm or cold. Some people like serving the pie with fresh whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. I like it by itself without anything.

    Again, this is the first time I really written this recipe down so I hope everything works! Enjoy!

    much ado about chicken

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    The humble roast chicken. A backbone of American cuisine. I am one of those people that loves roasted chicken. But I need to spice it up a little and not just roast it in the style of Julia Child all of the time.

    So I have been experimenting with marinades that use plain Greek yogurt as a base. My favorite plain Greek yogurt is the Fage brand.

    As I am especially pleased with today’s marinade so I thought I would share the approximate ingredients:

    1 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
    1 tablespoon dried oregano
    2 teaspoons dried thyme
    1 teaspoon dried marjoram
    1 teaspoon dried tarragon
    2 teaspoons dried rosemary
    1 tablespoon of garlic powder
    1 teaspoon hot Hungarian paprika
    Salt to taste (kosher is best in my opinion)
    1/4 cup white wine vinegar
    1/4 cup cider vinegar
    1/4 cup olive oil
    Dash or two of hot sauce/Tabasco

    Combine marinade a greedy ingredients in a small bowl whisk well, taste for salt and set aside.

    Take a 4 1/2 to 5 pound roasting chicken and butterfly it – basically you are cutting it in half and spreading it open so it lies flat.

    Take butterflied chicken, put it in a large Ziploc freezer bag and dump the marinade on top. Squeeze all the air out of the bag and seal the bag and smoosh the marinade around. I then put this bag in a bowl and put it in the refrigerator for anywhere from five hours to overnight. I periodically smoosh the marinade around in the bag and turn the bag over so it coats evenly.

    When ready to cook bring your chicken out of the refrigerator and remove from marinade and lay out flat in a roasting pan lined with onion slices. Discard the rest of the marinade. It has had raw poultry and it so you can’t use marinade for anything else.

    The chicken goes into a preheated 350° oven skin side up and flat out for approximately 15 minutes per pound at 350° . I actually use a meat thermometer to check for proper doneness with poultry.

    The chicken is delicious when you use a yogurt marinade. I will serve this with something like roasted carrots and a salad, or a wild rice mixture and a salad, or oven roasted potatoes and a salad.

    Enjoy!

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    new twist on seasonal classic

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    Enough politics! Life is more fun when you bake, so let’s talk pie. Pumpkin pie to be precise. ‘Tis the official season after all. This is my twist on the classic pumpkin pie and I have baked it- yesterday morning as a matter of fact.

    I had a memorial service for one of my best an oldest friends mothers and as some of our high school friends were coming in from out of town, my sweet man and I opened our home to a casual cooperative dinner.

    The table was all fall with a cheese plate of robust cheeses; a salad of arugula, spinach, radicchio and romaine; a cornbread that was like a soufflé; salsas and chips from East Goshen Farmers’ Market. And pumpkin pie and pumpkin bars with chocolate chips. Repair this with a beautiful rose wine from Wolffer Estate – a vineyard on Long Island in Sagaponack, NY. There was also a lively California Red, but and allergic to red wine so I can’t recall what it was. My friend Laura made the chili and it was awesome. It was a turkey chili and you would never have known.

    This cooperative supper in a way was the perfect meal following memorial service tribute to a woman who began life on the Plains of Clovis, New Mexico. She was a remarkable woman who was all about friends and family, so I think she would’ve approved of last night’s casual supper.

    It was a rare treat to be with some of my friends from high school, as we don’t see each other often enough anymore given distance and kid and other schedules.

    They all enjoyed the pie for dessert, I hope you do too.

    Incidentally I sent my fall table as a buffet last night with various dishes I have collected over the years, using mostly depression glass last night that was clear.

    The napkins were a deep purple linen my mother had given me, the tablecloth a cranberry red vintage Irish linen picked up at a tag sale, and I used actual silverware.

    A lot of people seem to take shortcuts with plastic utensils , paper plates and plastic cups, and I think were all grownups and we can set the table once in a while. I don’t think everything has to necessarily match hundred percent, and I love it when I’m able to put a table together with things I have picked up here and there. I would rather wash dishes and enjoy how I set my table.

    Now the recipe:

    Get out a small sauté pan- I have an 8 inch copper pan I scored on eBay – add 1/4 cup organic unsweetened coconut flakes, 1/4 cup pecan pieces, 1/4 cup walnut pieces, 2 tablespoons butter, 6 tablespoons sugar. Over moderate heat, cook everything up until nuts are all mixed up and toasty- butter and sugar coating it all. Set aside to cool.

    Time to make a pie crust.

    Crust:
    1 1/4 c flour
    3 tablespoons buttermilk powder
    1/4 teaspoon salt
    1/3 cup unsalted butter
    2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
    1/3 cup sugar (white)
    4-6 tablespoons ice water

    Mix flour, sugar, salt, ginger, buttermilk powder. Cut in butter in bits with pastry cutter. Add water one tablespoon at a time and bring your dough together. I have the range of tablespoons because sometime the dough comes together with less, sometimes more. Roll your dough in a ball and wrap tight in plastic wrap and refrigerate about 25 minutes.

    Next pre heat oven to 425 degrees

    Get out a big mixing bowl.

    Mix :

    3/4 cup white sugar
    1/2 teaspoon salt
    2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
    1 teaspoon ground cardamom
    2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
    1 teaspoon ground mace

    To that add:

    2 eggs and beat

    To that add:

    1 15 ounce can of pumpkin- not purée in a can, but plain pumpkin

    1 12 ounce can of evaporated milk

    Beat it up until frothy

    Set aside

    Get out your dough and roll out until you can fit in a pie pan – I like 9 inch deep dish glass pie plates – I use vintage ones – some of which are pie plates. The dough goes into an UNgreased pie plate by the way.

    Take a tablespoon or so if soft butter and coat the crust in the plan – I learned this trick watching Chef Robert Irvine one time – keeps crust from getting mushy .

    Pour pumpkin into pie shell. Take nut mixture and sprinkle in a ring at edges of pumpkin. Cover your outer crust edge with either foil or one of those pie rungs to keep edges from burning . Put pie into 425 oven for 18 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and bake 50 to 59 minutes or until knife comes out of center of pie clean.

    It is a pie you need to babysit in the oven but try to NOT open oven door a lot

    Cool pie for a couple of hours. Serve with real whipped cream LIGHTLY sweetened and dusted with cinnamon. Refrigerate leftovers.

    a quick bread martha stewart would hate

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    So here I am humble blogger and home chef experimenting with a quick bread recipe. Face it, quick bread batter is like basic cookie dough and it depends on what you add to it.

    I have been playing with a new recipe. And no, Martha Stewart was not harmed in its creation.

    Fall sweet bread – a quick bread in progress

    Good for breakfast with apple butter or almond butter.

    Makes 1 loaf.

    Batter:

    1/2 cup butter, softened

    1 1/4 cups sugar – I prefer light brown

    1 egg

    1 cup buttermilk or 1 cup of milk with 4 tablespoons buttermilk powder

    2 cups flour – either half whole wheat and half white flour or all whole wheat flour

    2 teaspoons baking soda

    small dash salt

    Teaspoon each of cinnamon, ground mace, cardamom for **sugar mixture

    2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground mace, cardamom, ginger for batter

    **Cinnamon sugar mixture:
    2/3 cup sugar
    2 teaspoons cinnamon
    1 teaspoon cardamom

    Plain oatmeal for final top sprinkling

    Pre-heat oven

    Grease and flour one 9×5 loaf pan.

    Cream together butter, 1 cup sugar, and egg. Add milk, flour, spices , and baking soda.

    Mix well.

    Put 1/3 of batter in greased loaf pan.

    Mix in separate bowl the 2/3 cup sugar and cinnamon.

    Sprinkle 1/3 of the sugar spice mixture on top of the batter in pan.

    Add 1/2 of remaining batter to pan and sprinkle 1/2 the remaining sugar spice mixture. Repeat one last time and give a swirl with a knife. Sprinkle top with a little plain oatmeal.

    Bake at 350 degrees in your preheated oven for 45-60 minutes or until toothpick comes clean.

    Cool in pan for at least 20 minutes before removing from pan.

    The problem I have with this recipe is working out the kinks in baking time. Adding whole wheat flour or baking completely with whole wheat flour changes how it bakes.

    The last time I baked this I used ALL whole wheat flour and it took just shy of 60 minutes to bake. And I let it cool in the warm oven with the oven door open for a few minutes. When you use brown sugar and all whole wheat flour this is a pretty heavy and dense, yet moist brown bread.

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    channel your innner grandmother: pickle something

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    beet2My kitchen is full of the spicy sweet scent of pickling.

    I don’t know why, but I woke up and thought I might try pickling some of those glorious beets I purchased from NorthStar Orchards at East Goshen Farmers’ Market yesterday.

    I already have the jars, so I went to the store and bought fresh apple cider vinegar, new pickling spice and a bag of cipollini onions.

    Yes I channeled my inner Pennsylvania German heritage and I swear somewhere up there my mumma is smiling.  A pickled beet is a sweet pickle, and that makes me think of her.  My great aunts on my father’s side were Italian and they did the hot pickled peppers and when I was really little I remember them canning tomatoes and peaches.

    I did not do the whole hot water canning method.  These are a small batch of simple pickled beets that will keep refrigerated about six months or so. I kick them up a notch by adding dill and hot pepper flakes and garlic. I hadn’t written this down before so I hope my proportions are right….

    Here is how you do it:

    6 to 8 medium to large fresh beets, scrubbed and top free*

    2 cups sugar

    2  cups cider vinegar

    1 cup water

    1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons Kosher salt

    2 cinnamon sticks broken up

    6 cloves of garlic not peeled

    1 bag of small pearl or cipollini onions not peeled

    1 Tablespoon  allspice

    4Tablespoons pickling spice

    4 Tablespoons dill- freeze-dried or fresh chopped

    1 1/2 Tablespoons hot pepper flakes

    Makes 3 jars – these jars in my photo are the Weck 744 Tulip and they hold about 2 cups of whatever in them. I think in European measuring they are 1/2 liter. I love these Weck jars. They have wide mouths and can even go in the freezer.

    *Option I should mention:
    Roast beets in foil instead of boiling. If you roast, roast in a pan in an aluminum foil “bag” at 350 degrees for about an hour.

    Put beets in a large saucepan or stockpot and add enough cold water to cover them  a few inches over the top. Bring to  boil, then turn heat down to maintain a slow boil. Cook until beets are tender when pierced, about 40 minutes.

    Pour water off and let beets cool. Slip skins off once the beets are cool enough to handle. Slice and set aside.

    Boil another pot of water.  When water is roiling and boiling, toss the little onions in skis and all.  When a scant three minutes have passed, lift onions out and allow to cool.  If you take a kitchen scissors and snip the end of the onion bulb you should then be able to easily peel these onions or pop them out of their skins. After they are clean set aside whole.

    Place the sugar, cider vinegar, water, salt, and spices in yet another saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.  Turn off.

    Working quickly so pickling liquid doesn’t cool off too much, arrange beets and garlic and onions evenly in your jars.  Ladle in the liquid  so it covers the vegetables(you might have a little left over, just toss it if so).
    Cover with  lids, seal,  and cool down.  When jars are room temperature, put them in refrigerator.

    Let the beets sit at least ten days before tasting.

    Keep in the refrigerator up to 6 months. Maybe 8.

    hello my little dumpling!

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    dumpling2I hear people want me to get back to recipes.  It is not like I haven’t been cooking, just haven’t been sharing….ooops. (Sorry about that!)

    So anyway, I am getting into fall food mood.  Been making peach crisps and cobblers and pies, apple next.  Last night I did a roasted chicken that was mostly Julia Child but a little bit me – plain roasted chicken loaded with herbs from the garden.

    Also yesterday I started my first soup of the season:  chicken soup.  I had the neck and gizzards from the chicken I roasted plus a bag of necks and gizzards in the freezer, so why not soup?  In total it was like six necks, six sets of gizzards and stuff.

    Making soup isn’t rocket science, it is basically a ginormous pot with meat or bones and water and seasoning and vegetables and herbs, and stir and cook away.

    dumpling 3I prefer my own stock and when I am making soup it is a two-day process.  Day one is throw it all into the pot and cook for a few  hours on super low temperature after first bringing it to a boil.  When it cools, pick out the (in this case) chicken necks and gizzards and discard.  Then I put the whole thing in the refrigerator in the pot to chill down overnight. That was on the second day they said let their be soup I can take the fat which has risen to the surface and congealed OFF the top of my broth/stock and I am ready to proceed.

    So I have done all that and tossed in some more vegetables and chopped up leftover chicken from last night’s roast and what I decided to do was MAKE DUMPLINGS!

    Dumplings are EASY. And when added to my soup and accompanied by a nice green salad, voila! An easy mid week dinner that even the teenager appreciates!

    Buttermilk-powderI make  herb dumplings.  I learned from my grandmother, mother, and via trial and error. And yes, every culture has a dumpling.  I use buttermilk powder in mine.  Buttermilk powder goes into a lot of my baked goods – even my pie crusts.  Fun little thing to keep in your kitchen but it MUST be refrigerated after you open the package. The photo I am showing you is actually my buttermilk powder. And I get it at the grocery store.

    dumpling1

    Herb Dumplings:

    • 2 cups flour
    • 1 1/2 to 2  tablespoons baking powder
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • 1 tablespoon of butter
    • 2 eggs (beaten in a cup first)
    • 3/4 to 1 cup milk
    • 3 tablespoons buttermilk powder
    • as much fresh herbs as you want to mince up – I use tarragon, basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano, flat leaf parsley – just grab a bunch and chop.
    • a dash of fresh cracked pepper
    • 1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese (nothing fancy – Kraft or whatever)

    Cut the butter into ALL dry ingredients with pastry cutter or dough blender.  You can also use two forks if you don’t have one of those handy tools.

    Mix in the minced fresh herbs

    In a measuring cup large enough to hold both, combine milk and eggs.  Start with 3/4 cup of milk, you can always add another 1/4 cup to dough if too dry.

    Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients SLOWLY and mix until sticky soft dough comes together.  Do not overwork the dough.

    I cover that with a linen towel until I am ready to cook and set aside.

    Bring your soup to a boil.  Drop dumpling dough by rounded spoonfuls into soup.  Cover pot, reduce heat to simmer and cook 10 to 15 minutes. They will puff up and bob in the pot. They should be firm and puffy. Warning – be careful not to burn your fingers if you test the consistency of dumplings.

    Ladle up and serve.

    Could that be any more easy? And it is so old-fashioned and simply delicious.