Chicken and Dumplings, Gnocchi Style....

The latter part of this week my husband was really, really sick with strep throat. On the second day of his sickness I decided to make him some magical healing chicken soup. Of course, it didn't magically heal him. In fact, he couldn't even eat anything but the broth until two days later. Oh well, I did enjoy a big bowl of it in between schooling Miles and taking temperatures/medicating my husband. Let me tell you it was awesome. When he finally did have a bowl with all the goodies he loved it too. Although he said the chicken was to hard to swallow. 

So start out by prepping all of your veggies. This means washing, peeling and dicing. I used yellow bells and red onions because that was what I had but I am sure you can use any kind of onion or bell pepper (I don't particularly like green, unless I am making Cajun food). Start warming up your oil in your favorite soup pot. I love my enamel coated cast iron pot, my mother-in-law gave me as a gift one year, it heats evenly and it stays hot.

Once the oil is hot, first add the onions and let them cook down a bit before you add all the other veggies. Now cook those down until the get nice and tender and slightly browned.

When the veggies reach this point add some dry white wine to get all those lovely browned bits (fond) off the bottom of the pot. Let the wine reduce a bit, then add your broth. I had 3.5 cups of turkey stock from a turkey I made for a friend and then I added 4.5 cups of chicken stock, not homemade this time. Also add the thyme, and bay leaves. Bring this to a boil and add you chicken. I had leftover chicken that I removed from the bones and chopped up. You could use raw or precooked chicken it is really up to you. It will come out good either way. Let this boil for at least 30 minutes. Then add your gnocchi, you can make it from scratch if you like, it isn't too difficult. However, I found a premade one recently that I like. I bought it at Aldi, so if you have that grocery store around give it a try.

After you add the Gnocchi let it cook for at least 10 minutes over medium heat, you want it at a light simmer so the gnocchi doesn't fall apart. At this point you have a decision to make. If you like it thin like a soup then stop here, remove the thyme sticks, bay leaves, add the thinly sliced spinach and serve. If you like it thick like traditional chicken and dumplings then cook it longer. The starch in the gnocchi will start to thicken the soup. Just stir it every so often so your gnocchi doesn't stick to the bottom. Remove the thyme sticks and bay leaves and add the sliced spinach right before serving.

Serve and enjoy! This is my delicious bowl of soup. I think this soup would be great with a thick crusty slice of garlic bread. Yum! Like I said the sick boy couldn't eat anything but the broth and that would have been a boring picture. ;-)

Chicken and Dumplings, Gnocchi Style

3 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 large onion, small dice
1 yellow bell pepper, small dice
3 stalk celery, small dice
3 carrots, small dice
1/2 c white wine
8 c chicken broth
4 thyme sprigs
2 bay leaves
2 chicken breast, diced
1 pkg gnocchi
2.5 oz or 3 cups raw spinach, thinly sliced

Add olive oil to a large soup pot and heat over medium heat. When hot add onions and saute until translucent about 5 minutes. Add bell pepper, carrots and celery to pot, season lightly season with salt and pepper, then saute an additional 10 minutes until lightly browned. Add wine and lightly scrape up any brown bits off of bottom of pot. Let reduce slightly then add broth, thyme and bay leaves and bring to a boil. Add chicken, then cook for about 30 minutes on medium-low at a light simmer. Add gnocchi and cook an additional 10 minutes, then season with salt and pepper to taste. Add sliced spinach right before serving. The longer the soup cooks with the gnocchi the thicker it will get, so if it's not to your desired consistency cook it a bit longer.

Exploration...

This past week has been one full of nature exploration. One of the reasons I love the Oak Meadow curriculum is that it encourages nature exploration, science and hands on activities. My son loves all these things and I have witnessed him open up so much since we started homeschooling. He is excited to learn, he is full of questions and curiosity. All this was squashed and turning nonexistent at his precious school. Our science for this week was spiders and their homes, so we went trekking through our front your and field for spider webs. We managed to find some in Grandpa's barn but we also found a swimming turtle, beautiful birds and other wild things.

We live really close to a little hobby airport so we often get to see interesting planes from WWII bombers to bi-planes. We saw a couple of cool planes this week.

Then we spent the rest of that afternoon enjoying our pond and the gorgeous day that was more like fall or spring than winter.

 Last weekend was almost as gorgeous, although much colder. We flew kites and Miles practiced his archery. He is improving so much. He has been begging for a compound bow but I think he needs a little more practice with his current bow before we go making that kind of investment.

 That day was the first time he got his kite sailing all by himself, usually his daddy has to get it going but the weather was perfect and after lots of tries he got it.

We are ending the school week with making fun things out of clay, having a delicious "snack" (according Miles this is considered a snack and not a meal), watching Charlotte's Web (to end our spider unit) and making spider webs out of sticks and string (also known as a God's eye).

 So Happy Friday and have a great weekend!!!

Pizza...

We had a great family night making homemade pizzas. The recipe makes four dough balls, so we each made one to our liking, then we made a "family" pizza we all agreed on. It was delicious! A friend randomly showed up that night to hang out and after we all ate there was hardly any pizza left. So I would say this recipe serves four very hungry people. I think Miles had 2 little slices of his pizza left which he ate cold out of the fridge for breakfast. ENJOY!

Miles making his pizza, we are lucky if he
ever has a shirt on....sorry

Homemade Pizza (dough is a modified Wolfgang Puck recipe)

1 package active dry or fresh yeast (2 1/4 tsp measured)
1 teaspoon honey
1 cup warm water, 105 to 115 degrees F
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus additional for brushing
Cornmeal for dusting pan

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast and honey in 1/4 cup warm water, let set about 5 minutes until yeast starts to bloom.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, sift together the flour and the salt. Add the oil, the yeast mixture, and the remaining 3/4 cup of water to bowl and mix with dough hook on low speed until the mixture forms a ball. Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and knead by hand 2 or 3 minutes longer. The dough should be smooth and firm. Cover the dough with a clean, damp towel and let it rise in a cool spot for about 2 hours. (When ready, the dough will stretch as it is lightly pulled). Then, divide the dough into 4 equal balls. Work each ball by pulling down the sides and tucking under the bottom of the ball. Repeat 4 or 5 times. Then on a smooth surface(no flour), roll the ball under the palm of your hand until the top of the dough is smooth and firm, about 1 minute. Cover the dough with a damp towel and let rest 1 hour.

Dough ball ready to be made into crust

At this point, the balls can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for a few days. When ready to use, work with one ball at a time, leaving the others wrapped and gently roll out the dough using your hands.When it reaches desired size and thickness, brush crust edge with olive oil (We used anchovy oil, because my husband is obsessed with the stinky little boogers) and season lightly with garlic, salt and pepper, if desired.

 Top with a sauce....try Alfredo, sun dried tomato pesto, basil pesto, garlic and olive oil or just plain old tomato pizza sauce. We used a pre-made sun dried tomato pesto, basil pesto, and tomato basil pasta sauce (remember short cuts are great when used wisely). I loved the sun dried tomato pesto, the other two were just okay. 

Then top with cheese and whatever toppings you love. We used fresh mozzarella, shredded mozzarella, freshly shredded parm, pepperoni, anchovies and thinly sliced Roma tomatoes.

(Preheat oven and pizza stone when you start working dough into crust) Bake pizza at 450 degrees on a pizza stone or pizza pan. If using a pizza stone, lightly dust pizza peel with cornmeal, assemble pizza on peel and gently slide onto preheated stone in preheated oven. If using pan, lightly dust with cornmeal and assemble pizza on pan then put into preheated oven. Bake until bubbly and deliciously golden brown.

Bourbon Balls....

My husband's favorite holiday treat is bourbon balls, they are a pain in the butt to make. However, it is the only dessert he ever requests and it's only once a year so I, of course,do it. I use a Maker's Mark recipe and then dip them in semi-sweet chocolate, so they end up looking like truffles. After a few years of making them I finally have it down to a less frustrating "art". I usually make them with Maker's Mark, however due to financial constraints this year, I used Jim Beam. Nick said they were great and he even enjoyed the rest of the bottle over ice. So not a bad substitution.

These were a four day process. We have lots of pecans from the trees in our yards, so I just couldn't bring myself to buy any. I cracked and shelled pecans while Miles and I worked on school one day, then the next day I had to crack more because I was making a double batch and needed two cups of pecans. I hated pecans for a couple of hours that day! Then you have to soak the nuts overnight, I started as soon as I finished cracking the second round. The third day you make the mixture, roll them and then freeze then, then the last day is dipping. The end result is worth it (Nick loves them). I don't like whiskey so I don't really eat them but I am pretty sure they would be good with rum, too.

Bourbon Balls

1 pound powdered sugar
1/2 cup bourbon
1 cup chopped pecans
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
2-12 oz bags semisweet chocolate for dipping.

Add chopped pecans to a small bowl  and soak, covered, in bourbon overnight.

The next day, add butter and sugar to mixer with paddle attachment and mix until well combined. Then add the pecans with the liquid, if any, to the mixer and combine. The mixture will be really soft, so refrigerate until firm enough to form into balls, about 2 hours. This is the messy part. Roll into equal sized balls, put close together on cookie sheet, then place in freezer to harden. After frozen you can re-roll to smooth any ugly balls and then return to freezer overnight until hard. I then put them into a gallon zipper bag and waited one more day to dip. Mostly because I was mad at them at this point from trying to dip them in chocolate before freezing. Don't do it, it will just frustrate you. Let them get really hard in the freezer at least one whole day.

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler, when smooth remove both the pot and bowl from the heat. Leaving the bowl on top of the pot will help the melted chocolate stay warm while you dip. Grab a handful of  frozen balls out of freezer at a time, then stick with a toothpick, dip in chocolate and place on a wax paper covered cookie sheet. Carefully twist the toothpick out of ball. You may need to use the toothpick dipped in a bit of chocolate to cover up it's hole. I then discarded the toothpick and used a new one for each ball. Sprinkle immediately with sprinkles, decorating sugars or even pecans before chocolate starts to set. Then leave alone until chocolate sets. I stored mine in the refrigerator until Christmas day, then pulled then out a couple hours ahead of time to let the centers soften before serving.

Christmas Cookies....

Okay this year I made some Christmas cookies. I love, love, love, love, love Christmas Cookies. I didn't make all the kinds I wanted. I didn't make my favorite (Linzer cookies) or my mother in law's favorite (what we call butter cookies), even though I had every intention to. But I still made some good ones, Mexican hot chocolate cookies, snickerdoodles, gingerbread cookies and lemon cream cookies. They were all great. I am including the recipes but I didn't really take any pictures, I didn't want my new camera around all that stickiness. I will say that these are not my original recipes but they are my tried and true favorite recipes.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon chile powder (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down side of bowl. Add eggs and beat to combine. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture and beat until combined.

In a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, and chile powder (if using). Using heaping tablespoons, form balls of dough and roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place, about 3 inches apart, on two parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until cookies are set in center and begin to crack, about 10 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cookies cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to racks to cool completely. (Store in an airtight container, up to 1 week.)

I didn't really alter this recipe at all (I used Cayenne pepper instead of chile powder...only because I didn't have chile powder). I love the recipe, it is great as it is. Check out the original below.

Martha Stewart's Original Recipe

Snickerdoodles

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 cup shortening
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar, plus 3 tablespoons
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into a bowl.

With a handheld or standing mixer, beat together the shortening and butter. Add the 1 1/2 cups sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture and blend until smooth.

Mix the 3 tablespoons sugar with the cinnamon in a small bowl. Roll the dough, by hand, into 1 1/2-inch balls. Roll the balls in the cinnamon sugar. Flatten the balls into 1/2-inch thick disks, spacing them evenly on unlined cookie sheets. Bake until light brown, but still moist in the center, about 12 minutes. Cool on a rack.

Once again this is recipe I used as is. Some recipes just don't need tweeking :-) See the original below.

Food Network's Original Recipe

Gingerbread Cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for rolling
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1 large egg

3/4 cup unsulfured molasses

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy; beat in egg and molasses. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture; mix just until combined. Divide dough in half; flatten into disks. Wrap each in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours and up to 2 days, or freeze up to 3 months (thaw before baking).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks set in upper and lower thirds. Working with one disk at a time, place dough on lightly floured parchment paper, and roll out to 1/8 inch thick, dusting lightly with flour as needed. Using paper, lift dough onto two baking sheets; freeze until firm, about 20 minutes.

For softer cookies, bake 8 to 10 minutes; for crunchier cookies, bake 11 to 12 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Everyday Food's Original recipe

So her recipe includes how to make the icing, but I found that powdered meringue or egg whites was way more expensive than buying the icing pre-made. I could only find this one at wal-mart. I bought the white and blue. The blue had a weird consistency but still worked. Decorate one cookie at a time because it does dry quickly. I decorated, then sprinkled with decorating sugar, then set aside to dry. This icing dries hard in about an hour and then you can stack them up. I highly recommend it, easy enough for Miles and Nick to use.

I have searched and cooked and searched and cooked looking for the best gingerbread cookie recipe. This is it! I use it every time now, no other recipe has been even close to as good. This year I made gingerbread snowflakes and stars.

My friend Katherine made almond, chocolate, sea salt bark and we decided to make s'mores. We used two of these gingerbread stars, a chunk of her bark and a toasted marshmallow. It is amazing!!! You have to make it if you ever have these ingredients in the same room! I will never enjoy a s'more as much as these ones.

Lemon Cream Cookies

1 cup  butter-flavor shortening
1 cup  sugar
1 teaspoon  baking powder
1/4 teaspoon  salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon  vanilla
2 1/4 cups  all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons  finely shredded lemon peel
1 recipe  Lemon Cream Frosting

 1 pkg Finely crushed lemon drop candies

In a large bowl beat shortening with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping bowl occasionally. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in any remaining flour and the lemon peel.
Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a 10-inch roll. Wrap each roll in plastic wrap or waxed paper. Chill for 1 to 3 hours or until dough is firm enough to slice.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cut rolls into 1/4-inch slices. Place slices about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Cool on cookie sheets for 1 minute. Transfer cookies to wire racks; cool.

Lemon Cream Frosting

1 8  ounce package  cream cheese, softened
2/3  cup  butter, softened
3 1/3  cups  powdered sugar

1  tablespoon  finely shredded lemon zest

In a large bowl beat cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until combined. Stir in lemon zest.

Better Homes and Gardens Original lemon cream recipe

I didn't make sandwiches because I wanted to make the cookies go further. I initially intended on making two batches but after making lemon and orange marmalade, I didn't have enough lemon zest for two. I took one cookie, spread it with the lemon frosting and then dipped it into the crushed candies.( I put the candy into my food processor and pulsed until they were finely crushed) Make sure you completely cover the frosting with crushed candies, you will thank me. This frosting doesn't harden so if you are packing them up layer them with wax paper or parchment. The candies do kind of protect the frosting from smearing but not entirely.

Slow Cooker Pot Roast Stew...

This was supposed to be just pot roast but I added too much liquid and it became more like a soup/stew. Well we liked it so much we ate it like soup.


Slow Cooker Pot Roast Stew

3 pounds beef chuck shoulder roast
2 Tbsp Montreal steak seasoning
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 large yellow onion, diced
3 stalks of celery, diced including leaves
3 carrots, peeled and diced
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Bay leaf
1/2 c wine (i used a dry white but a dry red would be good too)
1 cup beef broth

Season the beef on all sides with Montreal seasoning, or one of your choosing. Heat a large stainless steel saucepan over medium high heat and add the olive oil. When heated carefully add seasoned roast to pan and sear on all sides until browned. Then remove meat to slow cooker. Add all the veggies to pan on stove and saute until lightly browned, then add veggies to slow cooker. Pour wine into pan to deglaze, when all brown bits are off add wine to slow cooker. Then put all remaining ingredients into slow cooker and cook on high for 6-8 hours. Beef should fall apart, if you want it slightly thickened make a light roux out of butter and equal parts flour in a separate saute pan then add to slow cooker with an hour left. When finished break meat up into broth with tongs and remove any undesirable pieces, like fat globs. It should be a rather chunky stew. We were so hungry when it was done I forgot to get a final picture. I will get better I promise. I am a very visual person so I understand the need to see the final product.

             

                 Seasoned Beef searing on all sides

   Saute veggies in pan after removing beef

Veggies and beef in slow cooker before
 adding "liquid" ingredients