Chicken and Dumplings and Updates

I have been recovering from a bruised rib and sore shoulder and neck. I took a fall about three weeks ago and have really been in a lot of pain but now it is much improved.

We are liking McAlester very much and getting a little more settled in. I even went to church Sunday and that felt really good too, getting out and meeting new people.

We have seen some fairly cold winter temperatures so far and even had a small amount of snow one weekend. I am enjoying it though and prefer to have some actual winter time.

My mother in law is still having some issues resulting from the stroke. I have been setting up and taking her to doctor appointments. She goes to see a neurosurgeon in a couple weeks for a tiny aneurysm they found during an MRI. All things considered though she is doing pretty well.

I picked up an interesting book at the library and have been reading that. It is called "Stories of Old Time Oklahoma" by David Dary and it has been interesting reading about the history of Oklahoma and stories of outlaws and early settlers.

Last night seemed like a good  "chicken and dumplings night" so that's what I made. I have to say I have never had much luck with dumplings. It seems like they are always hit or miss. Sometimes I get lucky and the dumplings rise and sometimes they dissolve and I end up with a thick chicken soup.

Last night I combined two recipes for making dumplings and the dumplings were perfect! It seems one of the tricks is to coat the outside of the dumplings with flour before dropping them in the pot of chicken and broth. I don't know why that would make a difference but it seemed to work so I am going to stick with it. Here is the recipe:

Dumplings

2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
black pepper to taste
1 Tbs baking powder
1 egg, well beaten
2 Tbs melted butter
2/3 cup full fat milk

In a bowl, sift together the flour, salt, black pepper and baking powder.

In another bowl, mix the egg with melted butter and add to dry ingredients with enough milk to make a semi-stiff batter.  (Do not over mix. You might use a little more or less than 2/3's cup milk)

Make small balls (about pecan sized) and coat with flour. You can just put some flour on a plate and lightly toss flour on them.  Shake off excess flour and drop dumplings in boiling chicken/chicken broth mixture to which you have added chopped celery, chopped onion and a little salt and pepper. Do not stir. Cook covered for 20 minutes. No peeking.