Chicken and Dumplings

Chicken and Dumplings are one of the first things I taught myself how to make.  It's easy - if time consuming, but it's always impressive and it's always yummy.  In my hometown of Center, every year they have the Poultry Festival (yeah, we celebrate chickens, complete with a chicken queen and court) and the most popular dish that everyone looks forward to is Chicken and Dumplings.  Good gracious it's good.  Everyone has a preference - thick or thin broth, but basically they taste the same.  This particular recipe is a thinner broth (because Kyle prefers it that way, but to make a thicker broth, just dust on more flour on your dumplings or mix in some cornstarch - easy peasy)

I love to make this - but I hate picking the damn chicken.  When I have kids, the first thing I'm going to teach them is to pick a chicken.  Also, I don't usually measure my spices, but usually take a good guess - you can always adjust it later. 

I hope y'all enjoy this as much as I do - it holds so many fabulous memories for me and they make it even more delicious.  I like to serve mine with some homemade cornbread crumbled onto the top. 

Ingredients:

1 whole fryer chicken (4-5lbs)
1 medium onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped, including leafy tops
2 boxes chicken broth
garlic powder
Lowry's Seasoned Salt
Pepper
Poultry seasoning
Cayenne Pepper
Thyme
water

Dumplings:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 c whole milk
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening


Putting it together:



Rinse your chicken and make sure you've removed her neck and innards.  In a large pot, over medium high heat, place your chicken broth and add your spices - I like a heavily spiced/center broth, so add as much as you'd like - but usually not too much cayenne - usually about 2 tablespoons of poultry seasoning, 1/2 tablespoon of Lowry's, 1/2 a tablespoon of garlic powder, a nice amount of pepper and a nice smattering of cayenne. 

Add your broth and spices.

Bring to a boil.

Bring to a boil, and add your chicken, then add enough water to cover your chicken.

Add your chicken, onions and celery.

Bring to a boil, reduce and add your onions and celery.  Let this boil, covered, for about an hour. 

Remove your chicken, when it's done, and lay on a surface to cool down (if you don't let it cool, you're going burn your fingers to pieces while you're picking it).  Lower the heat on your pot and set to work making your dumplings.

For your dumplings, sift together your dry ingredients in a bowl (P.S., I like to use Lowry's for my salt).  I sometimes add fresh herbs like rosemary or thyme.  Then cut in your shorting with a fork.  When it looks like a coarse mixture, add your milk and use your fork to incorporate it all together.  Dust a surface with flour and roll out your dough till it's even and about an 1/8 an inch thick.  Cut your dough into small, similar sized pieces. 

Make your dough.

Now, head back to your chicken (I didn't take any pictures because boiled chickens always look ugly) and pick all the meat off and add the small pieces to your broth.  When you're done picking your chicken, taste your broth and adjust it till you love it.  Turn up your heat so that your broth is a rolling boil.

 Dust a small amount of flour onto your dumplings and then add them one at a time to your boiling broth.  Let them cook about 10 minutes, taste it again and when you're ready, it's ready.   Don't forget your cornbread!

Add your dumplings, one at a time.

Ta Da!

How I made Chocolate Meringue Pie my bitch.

I love pie.  I grew up in a pie loving house hold.  I grew up in the South where numerous places were famous for pies.  I love to make pies.  Especially chocolate meringue pie.  However, it has been my nemesis for many years, until I perfected this recipe.  It is the only concoction that will set up perfectly for me, every single time.  I'm not sure why, but by the time you pull the warm pie out of the oven with the gorgeous meringue on top, it's a pretty impressive piece of food and it happens to make everyone around you happy - men, women, children, everyone smiles their entire way through the pie.

My Daddy loves pie too, particularly chocolate meringue pie, so when I went home to Center this past weekend, I surprised him by smuggling him this pie.  It made him very happy and he rewarded me with pork chops, pork ribs and steak. 

Ingredients:

Filling
2 cups white sugar
1/4 Flour
5 Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
12 ounces evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 egg yolks (reserve your whites for your meringue)
1/2 stick butter, sliced into small pieces
1 deep dish, 9 inch premade pie crust (yes, I cheat - it tastes the same and 2 are only $2)

Meringue
4 egg whites
1/4 cup white sugar

Cooking it up:

Sift together  the flour, sugar and cocoa powder. 

Add the evaporated milk.

Sort your yolks and whites.

Add your yolks the mixture.

Mix it all together.

Add the butter, put over medium high heat and whisk constantly until the butter is melted.

Pour mixture into crust.

Bake in a preheated oven (350) for about 45 minutes, or until not wiggly. 

Put egg whites into your mixing bowl. 

Mix until frothy and slightly peaky.  Add sugar.

Mix on high until glossy stiff peaks are formed.

Spread on pie - make sure the meringue touches all the edges of the pie. 

Make your meringue textured so that there are peaks.  Put back in the oven at 350.  Brown.

Ta Da! Perfection.

Sriracha Deviled Eggs

Here are the best deviled eggs EVVVVVVVVVVER.  Also, super easy  (even my friend Alma who can't cook anything can whip these up).  But beware - they're also super addictive (she had an entire dozen by herself).

I forgot to take pictures of the process - but the most important picture is there - the end results!


Ingredients:

1 dozen eggs
Sriracha (to taste, but I like mine bright orange and spicy)
~ 1/4 c Real Mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Cook 'em up:

Boil your eggs.  Peel them.  Cut them in half.  Put yolks in an electric mixing bowl.  Add your mayo, mustard and Sriracha.  Mix them in the mixer.  Whip till smooth.  I usually add more Sriracha and a dab more mayo (to make it smoother).  When it taste good to you, scoop it up into a plastic bag, and cut off a corner and pipe into your egg halves.  When you're done piping it in, add a dot of sriracha and maybe a little circle of green onion to decorate the top, or maybe some paprika.  Ta Da!  Rooster Eggs!

Happy Birthday Lindsey!

     One of my best friends, Lindsey, recently celebrated her 27th Birthday.  Whoohoooo.  Another year older, another year wiser, right?  After many, many, many conversations about where to eat that night, she finally decided on Braise which is located at 2121 East 6th Street here in Austin and is a fairly new restaurant.  I had called ahead for reservations for the two of us, and was immediately pleased when the host got seriously excited about our reservations that night.  I also asked for special permission to bring in super yummy cupcakes from Polkadots Cupcake Factory.  We got dressed up and headed on over there for her birthday dinner.
     We walked in late, of course, and I was immediately struck by how small and intimate the place was - I love it when restaurants have small seating.  There were maybe two other tables besides or selves there - and everyone seemed to be celebrating something.  We immediately sat down and looked at the wine list - and settled on a Carmenere.

 
       They had a special menu and we decided to try the ceviche at the urging of the CHEF himself.   It was stripped bass and onions and other goodies tossed in hot oil versus lime juice - totally awesome and unexpected.  I'd definitely recommend this - and since I'd never had it this way, I loved trying something new.  It's still considered ceviche since it never actually is cooked over a flame - the raw fish is cooked when it touches the hot oil!

Stripped Bass tossed in hot oil.

  
     I love that their dinner menu is small - cuts right down to business and you know they'll make whatever they're making it their bitch.  I also super heart the fact that they offer half plates AND whole plates - because, really.  Have you ever eaten everything on your plate when you've gone out?
     Lindsey decided on the low country crab cake over house mashed potatoes & collard greens with sriracha aioli.  OMG.  We had never seen such a ginormous crab cake.  It really was a cake.  And.  Best of all, it actually had crab in it.  Tons of it. Oh. Em. Gee.  I wanted to slurp all of hers up.  However, the real scene stealer were the collards. She had never had them because, like most people who aren't raised around them, had an aversion to them, but after she tried them she wasn't so happy with me stealing bites.  Raised in Deep East Texas, I'm pretty serious about my collards (and mustard green...and well...greens in general) and I'm pretty picky about whose are good and whose are not.  Hands down, these were the best greens of my entire Southern life.  Good God Have Mercy.  The sriracha with the greens were perfect.  I'm dying to try this on my own.

Low Country Crab Cake w/ Sriracha Collards

     As for my own entree, I went with the half plate of the spicy Cajun blackened amber jack over creamy grits with house smoked tomato-sweet corn beurre blanc.  House smoked tomato-sweet corn beurre blanc, you ask? That my friends is fancy creamed corn that will make you want to slap your mama.  Possibly one of the top 5 bites I've had in Austin.  I decided on the amber jack because it isn't often featured on many menus and it's a personal favorite - and then blackened? You surely can't go wrong - it was cooked medium and was mouth watering.  However, the creamed corn blew our socks away.

Blackened Amber Jack w/ fancy Creamed Corn.

    The chef personally delivered our food, as well as the cutlery, and watched us take our first bites.  Then he rushed to tell us that his personal fave was the crab cake covered in the creamed corn and that he had in fact had it for dinner and that he possibly had an addiction to it.  I totally understand.
     And, of course, for dessert we had cupcakes.  Earlier in the day I had a tough time deciding - and since I could theoretically only pick two, I went with Black Bottom and S'mores.  The waiter kindly lit our candles and helped me sing the dreaded song.  She blew them out and posed for fabulous pictures. We split the cupcakes.  They were divine.  We were stuffed.  Happy Birthday Lindsey!!!

     Over all, amazing restaurant, amazing service.  Can't wait to come back - even if I have to make up a celebration.
 

Happy Birthday, pretty girl.

Baked Ziti - Blame it on The Sorpranos

I have been obsessively watching The Sopranos on hijacked HBO and all they do is kill people and eat pasta.  They talked about Baked Ziti a whole lot and it made me want to make it.  So I looked up tons of recipes (who knew it was so popular?!) and took a little from all of them, and added a few touches of my own.

It was so effing good.  Seriously.  One of the easiest, best things I've ever made.  It however, made a ton.  Kyle and I ate it for 7 days straight.  Two friends came to visit and they each ate it twice.  But, we were all happy to eat it each time.  We ate it with salad to pretend we were being healthy and some yummy baguette.  I for some reason didn't take any pictures except for the end result.  Sorry.  But please enjoy this and try not to get too fat.


Ingredients:

• 1 pound dry ziti pasta
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 1/2 lb Italian sausage
• 2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce - I used Newman's Own Sockittome and added 1/4 stick of butter into my sauce as it cooked
• 3/4 lb provolone cheese, sliced
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream
• 1 bag mozzarella cheese, shredded

Actual Work:

- Boil your pasta until it's done.
- In a skillet, brown your Italian Sausage and onion.
- Add your sauce and butter to your sausage and let simmer for about 15 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Put a layer of ziti in bottom of your baking dishes.  Add sauce on top of the ziti and mix together.  Add a little more sauce.  Then layer your provolone on top of the pasta mixture, then a nice thick layer of sour cream.  Next, add a layer of mozzarella.  Then the ziti/sauce mixture, and then top with provolone and mozzarella.  You should have enough to to do two dishes. 

It really doesn't matter the order, as there are many conflicting arguments, but this is what I decided to go with and it worked well for me. 

- Bake at 350 for 30 to 40 minutes until all melty and bubbly. But, PLEASE - don't forget to cover it when cooking! Yay!

(I ran out of cheese on the on the right)

Happy Halloween Bark! But oops...I missed a few steps.

My favorite magazine is Bon Appetit! - It seriously is the best ever (except for those two times they pissed me off - I can go more into that, later).  This is where I found this ridiculously fun, ridiculously yummy recipe.  Last October (October 2010) we were freshly into our new house, which was newly decorated and newly "remodeled".  We had just laid 2600 sq ft of hardwood floors.  We were anxious to show it off.  We decided to have a housewarming for Kyle's side of the family.  We shopped, we cooked, we cleaned, we prepped.  I made everything the night before (THANKGOD).  The next morning, half our downstairs flooded.  I popped the wine cork at 9am.  Drunk by 10am.  Sorta saved the floors.  Had housewarming.  The star of the show?  This Happy Halloween Bark.  Everyone demanded the recipe.

I made this again this year to celebrate the beginning of October.  I however, in my rush to find all the ingredients accidentally bought the wrong chocolate chips (I don't think it mattered), couldn't find Heath bars (went to three places and found ONE - thankfully I have a big of the Heath Bar 'bits' in the pantry) and forgot the white chocolate (but of course I didn't realize this until I put everything together).  I'm sure it taste the same, minus the honey roasted nuts that wouldn't fit on there - but I'll show you the pictures from last year and you'll agree that you'll have to make it RIGHT.THIS.MINUTE.

P.S.  This year I used Rollo's too - because I think caramel is the end all, be all. GO FOR IT.  

Ingredients

• 1 pound bittersweet chocolate chips
• 3 2.1-ounce Butterfinger candy bars, cut into irregular 1-inch pieces
• 3 1.4-ounce Skor or Heath toffee candy bars, cut into irregular 3/4-inch pieces
• 8 0.55-ounce peanut butter cups, each cut into 8 wedges
• 1/4 cup honey-roasted peanuts
• 3 ounces high-quality white chocolate (such as Lindt or Perugina), chopped
• Reese's Pieces and/or yellow and orange peanut M&M's

Preparation

• Line baking sheet with foil. Stir chocolate chips in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until melted and warm (not hot) to touch. Pour chocolate onto foil; spread to 1/4-inch thickness (about 12x10-inch rectangle). Sprinkle with Butterfinger candy, toffee, peanut butter cups, and nuts, making sure all pieces touch melted chocolate to adhere.
• Put white chocolate in heavy small saucepan. Stir constantly over very low heat until chocolate is melted and warm (not hot) to touch. Remove from heat. Dip spoon into chocolate; wave from side to side over bark, creating zigzag lines. Scatter Reese's Pieces and M&M's over, making sure candy touches melted chocolate.
• Chill bark until firm, 30 minutes. Slide foil with candy onto work surface; peel off foil. Cut bark into irregular pieces.

Chop all your candy before you start or you'll be too hurried and your chocolate will harden.  

Fresh canvas.

That's a lot of chocolate chips.

It likes to burn - be careful. 

It's so pretty I don't really want to chop it up.  

Ready to be consumed. 

Ta Da.  A little wine to help me along.

And P.S.  Here is last year's with the white chocolate: