Cheating Homemade Chicken and Dumplings

S's chicken and dumplings recipe is more of a chicken vegetable soup with dumplings.  And made with just about every shortcut imaginable, so it is super easy -- it's like CHEATING at making it "homemade."   There is not an exact recipe, just general instructions.


CHEATING HOMEMADE CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS
Amounts of the following ingredients depend on how big of an army you need to feed! 
Chicken broth or water & chicken gravy packets
frozen or canned mixed veggies (potatoes, corn, carrots, peas)
canned or diced prepared chicken
can of cheap biscuits (the cheap ones work better than the flaky kind)
salt & pepper

Boil your broth or water & gravy packets.  Dump in veggies and chicken until it boils again.  Pull apart the biscuits into thirds or fourths and drop them in the boiling broth.  Put a cover over it  and let it simmer for 10 minutes or so.  Stir every so often to keep it from sticking on the bottom.  Salt and pepper to taste and serve!

Mediterranean Chicken Fettucine

This amazing dish was at a cafe on Main Street in Fredericksburg, Tx.  I was lucky enough to have leftovers today for lunch, and I thought I would list the ingredients to get a recipe started for later reference.

It is fettucine with pesto, grilled chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and some really unbelievable olives.  It was served with garlic toast, and I think some fresh parmesean on top would be to die for. 

Variations / additional stuff I might play with - capers, mushrooms, feta cheese

Egg Nog Pancakes

Update - photos of our Christmas pancakes.

 

This is as close of a copycat recipe as we could get to the IHOP Eggnog Pancakes that we ate before Thanksgiving. 

Pancakes
Syrup
Whipped Cream
Eggnog Cream (recipe below)
Nutmeg & Chopped nuts for garnish

Eggnog Cream Recipe
Eggnog
Instant pudding (we used cheesecake flavor, but french vanilla or vanilla might be a little less rich)
Mix the pudding mix with as much eggnong as the mix calls for.  We used 2 cups of eggnog instead of 2 cups of milk for the small package instructions.

Slather the pancakes with the eggnog cream, drizzle with syrup.  Top with whipped cream and garnish with chopped nuts and nutmeg.

Carol's Carmel Corn

2 c brown sugar
2 sticks (1 c) butter
1/2 c Karo
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
8 - 9 c unsalted popped corn

Mix sugar, butter, Karo, cream of tartar, and salt in saucepan.  Bring to a boil while stirring.  Boil 3 minutes, stirring constantly. 

Add soda and stir. 

Prepare a cookie sheet with foil and spray foil with Pam or grease lightly with butter.  


Pour over popped corn and bake at 200 degrees for 1 1/2 hours, stirring every 15 - 20 minutes.  Cool before serving. 

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

1 package spice cake mix
1 can pumpkin pie filling
1/4 cup water
2 peeled, cored, diced apples or 1 c. raisins or craisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare muffin pan.  Mix ingredients and spoon into pan.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.  Makes   2 dozen. 

Grandma Lila's Fruitcake

Merry Christmas! This fruitcake recipe is the one our Grandma Lila used for years. It is famous/infamous enough to be mentioned in the eulogy at her funeral service.  I have "embellished" it with my own observations and experiences.

1 lb. dates (I sometimes use less)
1 lb raisins (Again, sometimes I cut back on these)
1/2 lb candied citron (I usually use more)
1/2 to 1 cup brandy, rum, or other liquor (Grandma sometimes used more.)
1 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
4 eggs
1 Tbs milk
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger

Step 1 Procure the unmentionables. (The way Grandma did it) Send a male relative to the liquor store to buy the brandy or rum while you sit and wait in the car in the parking lot so no one sees you buying it!

Step 2 Prepare the fruit.  Soak fruit in half of the liquor overnight.  This is to plump it up. No other reason.  Never mind that there is scientific evidence to suggest that the alcohol content actually has more astringent properties than hydration properties. Follow the recipe.  Don't judge.

Step 3 Get ready.  Play the Elvis Blue Christmas album for festive background music.  Argue with a random grandchild that he is not really dead.  After the third time through, pretty much everyone will get tired of it and get out of the kitchen so you can work in peace. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. That is not a typo - you want these to bake slow so that they are moist on their own... but then we're fixin' to pour liquor all over them to moisten them, too, so - whatever.  (I do like to think that this is roughly the temperature of an Easy-Bake Oven, thus taking me back to my childhood, when unsafe burning hazard toys like light-bulb powered cooking appliances were perfectly acceptable gifts to give to small children!)  Grease and flour loaf pans or bundt pan. Or even a sawed off cleaned out Folger's can (The way Grandma did it.) Put on an apron now that you've spilled flour all over your black holiday sweater and stupidly wiped it trying to get it off, since you just weren't thinking clearly because you were "tasting" the soaked fruit.

Step 4 Make and bake.  Cream butter and sugar in a big ol' Mixmaster. Beat in eggs and milk. Sift flour, soda, and spices and stir into fruit. Add fruit to creamed mixture. Pour into prepared pans and decorate the tops with candied cherries and pecan halves. Then bake 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours depending on size of pans and/or cans. This is enough time to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" or "Miracle on 34th Street" AND "Wheel of Fortune."

Step 5 Liquid Decoration.  (Optional, but it IS the way Grandma made it): Splash what might be left of the rum or brandy over fruitcake after baking and wrap in foil for a few days before serving.  Store in a dark corner of the cupboard to aid in the "moistening" process.  Hide one of them for yourself. 

Step 6 Serve.  Ignore the comments about the fumes when the foil is opened.  They'll eat it.

Bacon-Wrapped Water Chestnuts

Here is the recipe for the Bacon-Wrapped Water Chestnuts that the boys enjoy so much at holiday time!

1 small can sliced water chestnuts
1 pound bacon
2 Tbs. grape or jalapeno jelly
1 Tbs. brandy (opt.)
1 Tbs. raspberry chipotle sauce (opt.)

Preheat oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with foil. Cut slab of bacon in half down the middle. Wrap each slice of water chestnut with a 1/2 slice of bacon. Bake on middle rack until bacon is crisp and brown. Place on serving plate.

Sauce: melt grape jelly & brandy & chipotle sauce together. Stir until smooth. If using jalapeno jelly, just melt it by itself. Pour over the water chestnuts & serve.