this weekend was so fun!! friday morning i cleaned cleaned cleaned. from 7:30 till 12!!! then aunt betty came over and i helped her with some resume stuff. well at 2:30 i had to start cooking, because i was making chicken and dumplings for when david and faith came over for dinner that night. i made that stuff from SCRATCH!! it took 4 1/2 hours!!!! holy cow. so i start off by cutting up the veggies which takes me longer than it takes hubby. then i start the chicken... i take most of the skin off and then... i accidentally look inside... and there was something ORGAN-LIKE AND BLOOD-RED IN THERE!!!! i screamed, but luckily aunt betty was still here and is not grossed out by that junk, so she finished cutting up the chicken for me. so i learned something about myself that day, i hate birds- dead or alive. i'll eat it, and that's as far as it goes. come thanksgiving, matt will be the turkey-handler. that's all folks. well anyways, so i make the chicken stock, and as it was cooking it just didn't smell very good. so then i start to get nervous, because if we already went through all of that and it tastes like doo-doo, i'm going to have to kick someone. well then matt came home and we separated the stock from the veggies and chicken, he took out the bones, and we finished it all up. then he made the dumplings and let me tell you, it turned out AMAZING. it was totally worth spending 4 1/2 hours start to finish on it. plus i think knowing that there was that much work involved made it taste even better. so then after we all ate, we played some yahtzee and it was really fun. i don't know why we have been liking yahtzee lately, but we do. so here's the recipe:
CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS
prep time: 20 minutes
start to finish: 3 hours 5 minutes (let's try 4 and a half hours, people!)
4 servings (i couldn't believe this. there is soooo much!!)
Ingredients:
-1 cut-up whole chicken (3 to 3 1/2 pounds) or chicken pieces with bones
-2 medium stalks celery, with leaves, cut up
-2 medium carrots, sliced
-1 small onion (well, we used 1/2)
-1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley or 2 tsp parsley flakes
-1 tsp salt
-1/8 tsp pepper
-5 cups water
-2 1/2 cups original bisquick mix
-2/3 cup milk
Directions:
1. remove and discard excess fat and guts from chicken. you want to keep the bones in for now because you are making a chicken stock. in 4-quart dutch oven (or a large pot, like we used), place chicken, celery, carrot, onion, parsley, salt, pepper and water. cover and heat to boiling; reduce heat. simmer about 2 hours or until juice of chicken is clear when thickest part is cut to bone (170*F for breasts; 180*F for thighs and legs).
2. remove chicken and vegetables from pot. remove bones from chicken. it's difficult to get every single bone, so when you are eating, be careful. skim 1/2 cup fat from broth if you can get that much. reserve. transfer broth to large bowl; reserve 4 cups (you can reserve the remaining broth for another use)
3. in dutch oven, heat reserved 1/2 cup fat, or butter, over low heat. stir in 1/2 cup of the bisquick mix. cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth and bubbly; remove from heat. stir in reserved 4 cups broth. heat to boiling, stirring constantly. boil and stir 1 minute. add chicken and vegetables; reduce heat to low. heat about 20 minutes or until hot. during this time, i tried to shred the chicken to smaller pieces.
4. in medium bowl, stir remaining 2 cups bisquick and themilk with wire whisk or fork until soft dough forms. drop dough by spoonfuls onto hot chicken mixture. do not drop directly into the liquid. cook uncovered over low heat 10 minutes. cover and cook 10 minutes longer... well, it actually took us about 30 minutes, and we had to flip the dumplings over eventually. just watch them, because you want the dough to be cooked, not raw, but it's ok if it gets soggy.
now one of the best parts of this recipe is that it came with the nutrition information. keep in mind that this is FOUR servings, and if you don't eat 1/4th of this, you won't be consuming this much anyway.
calories: 680
calories from fat: 270
total fat: 30 g
sodium: 1680 mg
carbohydrate: 55 g
fiber: 3 g
sugars: 6 g
protein: 47 g
so then saturday we went on a date to the fort worth fuzzy's (the one by tcu), which was very crowded and loud and had bad service. don't go there. and we also went to the modern museum of art. that was cool, but i realized that after about an hour of art, i'm done. we also made tres leches. i had it once at taco diner, and it was very good. this recipe was just as good in my opinion, but the colder it is, the better it tastes. it might even taste best if it was frozen and then you let it thaw for a short time. also, we were making it for a movie night, so we couldn't taste the cake after it was completely done before we left, so i tasted the batter (amazing), i tasted the three milks mixed together (phenomenal), and i tasted the whipped cream (heavenly). i knew it would be good all together! here's the recipe:
Tres Leches (Milk Cake)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup white sugar
5 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups whole milk
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
1. preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour one 9X13 inch baking pan. You need a larger pan, because the milks will be poured in later, and you don't want it to overflow.
2. sift flour and baking powder together and set aside.
3. cream butter or margarine and the 1 cup sugar together until fluffy. add eggs and the 1/2 tsp vanilla extract; beat well.
4. add the flour mixture to the butter mixture 2 tbsp at a time; mix until well blended. pour batter into prepared pan.
5. baking at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. pierce cake several times with a fork when it is done. let the cake cool completely.
6. combine the whole milk, condensed milk, and evaporated milk together. pour over the top of the cooled cake. place in refrigerator.
7. whip whipping cream, the remaining 1 cup of sugar, and the remaining 1 tsp vanilla together until thick and soft peaks form. spread over the top of cake. be sure and keep cake refrigerated, because like i said, it is best served cold. mmm.
we made this cake, because justin and jenny hosted a black and white movie night. we watched the 1940's flick, the night has eyes. it was cheesy, but i loved it! we had so much great food and then we played this fun game that luke brought up.
i'll do my best to explain it. so everyone sits in a circle, and i'm going to pretend there are 12 people playing. so each person needs 12 pieces of paper, and on the first page, at the top, write your name very small. this is your stack. each person writes a phrase on that piece of paper. any phrase- from "disney world" to "the night has eyes" to "michael jordan flies over the moon on his unicorn" to "chuppacabra". when everyone has their phrase, pass your stacks of paper to the left. now you have a new stack of paper. read the phrase, put that paper at the back of the stack, and draw a picture to go along with the phrase. when everyone is done with their picture, pass the stack to the left. (you can be passing to the right, but pass to the right the whole game.) now you have a new stack of paper. look at the picture, put that paper at the back of the stack, and now write a phrase to go along with the picture. when everyone is done, pass the stacks to the left. continue with this pattern until you wind up with your stack of paper. however, before you give the original stacks back to the original people, put your last thing at the back so that they see their phrase to begin with. don't look at what everyone did yet! each person shares with the group, and that should be the first time you see what is in your stack- when you are sharing it with the group. it is so fun and you will laugh your behind off.
we didn't leave their house until like 12:30 which is really late for us! then sunday i went to brunch with amanda, and that was really fun. we went to ashley furniture and world market, where i saw so much cute kitchen stuff, but i don't NEED any of it. sad day. i came home and took a nap, and then we went to church at 7. we ran into luke and amanda, justin, and david and faith, and it was so wonderful. we were literally surrounded by our closest friends while praising the Lord and it was just remarkable. that moment took my breath away. the Lord is so good and perfect and awe-inspiring, and to be able to revel in that with close friends and your spouse is such a gift from Him.
monday we woke up and matt stayed home, because we were going to get my car fixed. we thought it was the compressor and that was going to be 700-800 dollars to fix. my car is worth 1000 dollars. so it made more sense to buy a new car, which we are hopefully going to do in the next year anyway. so we start looking at cars online and get a quote from the insurance company and all; well come to find out MATT can fix my car and it's going to be like 100 dollars or something. i know i should be thankful for that, because we aren't having to spend a lot of money on a car now, but at the same time, i was really excited about finally getting a new car! bummer. then allison came over and we decorated her school binder like a scrapbook-it's adorable- and we played singstar-fun and hilarious- and watched the end of I Love You Man, because she hadn't seen the end.
well monday night, david and faith, justin and jenny, and craig and angela came over for a game and pizza night. we played luke's game again, and ate pizza, and i made these delicious lemon blossoms from paula deen's show. they were a hit! it was funny, because when i watched the show, paula said that every time she takes them somewhere, they are a hit! she was right. they are like little lemon cake doughnuts. i also made "heavenly muffins". simple- mix some chocolate chip cookie dough, put it in mini muffin tins. cook it according to the directions of the cookies. when it comes out, put a mini reese's peanut butter cup in it. delish. here is paula deen's recipe of the lemon blossoms:
Lemon Blossoms by Paula Deen
Ingredients:
-18 1/2 ounce package yellow cake mix
-1 1/2 ounce package instant lemon pudding mix
-4 large eggs
-3/4 cup vegetable oil
Glaze:
-4 cups confectioners' sugar
-1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (i just used it from the bottle)
-1 lemon, zested
-3 tbsp vegetable oil
-3 tbsp water
Directions:
preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
spray mini muffin tins with vegetable oil cooking spray. combine the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs and oil and blend well with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes. pour a small amount of batter, filling each muffin tin half way. bake for 12 minutes. turn out into a tea towel.
to make the glaze, sift the sugar into a mixing bowl. add the lemon juice, zest, oil, and 3 tbsp water. mix with a spoon until smooth.
with fingers (or a fork, piercing the bottom of the cakes, not the top so they can still look pretty!), dip the cupcakes into the glaze while they are still warm (i waited until they cooled a bit), covering as much of the cake as possible, or spoon the glaze over the warm cupcakes, turning them to completely coat. place on wire racks with wax paper or foil underneath to catch any drips (and there will be a lot!). let the glaze set thoroughly, about 1 hour, before storing in containers with tight-fitting lids.
deliciousness in your mouth!
anyway, that was a super fun night, but i'm excited to rest today. have a fabulous tuesday, peoples!
