Chicken and Buttermilk Herb Dumplings

This is a delicious and creamy Chicken and Dumplings recipe – perfect for a cold night. If you don’t have time to make your own stock you can simply use canned chicken stock and add 2-3 cups of shredded chicken meat. Try this recipe after Thanksgiving with leftover turkey and stock (if you made it)!

Directions:

• Place the chicken and all stock ingredients in a large Dutch oven and cover with water. Set over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 1 hour until the chicken is tender. Skim the surface of fat and foam as it cooks.
• When done remove the chicken to a cutting board. Strain and reserve the stock and shred the meat into pieces.
• Make the dumplings: In a large bowl, sift the dry ingredients together.
• In a small bowl, using a whisk, lightly beat the eggs, chives, parsley and buttermilk together; pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently fold. Mix just until the dough comes together.
• To prepare sauce: In a Dutch oven, over medium heat, add the butter and oil. Add the carrot, celery, garlic, and bay leaves and sauté until the vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes.
• Stir in the flour to make a roux. Continue to stir and cook for 2 minutes.
• Slowly pour in the chicken stock, 1 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition.
• Add frozen peas and pearl onions.
• Let sauce simmer until it is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, about 15 minutes.
• Stir in heavy cream.
• Fold the reserved shredded chicken into the sauce and bring up to a simmer.
• Remove and discard the bay leaves.
• Using 2 spoons carefully drop heaping tablespoonful's of the dumpling batter into the hot mixture. The dumplings should cover the top of the sauce, but should not be too crowded.
• Let the dumplings poach for about 10 minutes until they are firm and puffy Turn the dumplings over and let poach another 5 minutes.
• Season with freshly cracked black pepper.
• Garnish with chopped chives and parsley before serving.

A tiny gingerbread house that perches on the edge of your mug

I made tiny gingerbread houses that are meant to be perched on the edge of a mug of hot chocolate.

I had been thinking about those sugar cubes that hook on the rim of a teacup earlier this month, and I was also thinking about 3-D cookies and how they fit together and figured it would be pretty neat to make cookies that hang on the edge of a mug. I thought I was being so brilliant but it only took a few seconds to discover that a flat cookie on the edge of a mug has already been done. So I started wondering what else I could do.

I made a few versions to figure out how to make one that wasn’t so top heavy that it would flip off the mug, and how small I could get away with and still fit on both large and small cups

My only instruction is that you should make sure that the wall pieces are to be sandwiched on the inside of the door pieces that way the roof fits on properly. I found that a 3/8ths inch door, or slot, fits most mugs but the 1/2 can be used for your really big and heavy mugs.

I used the Gingerbread Snowflake and the Royal Icing recipes from marthastewart.com.

I rolled it out onto a sheet of tin foil at 1/8th inch thick. I skipped a silicone mat because I use a paring knife for the corner details and didn’t want to accidentally cut down to the layers of glass fibers, and after some trial I found that parchment paper will warp after being chilled and then stuck in an oven which can distort some shapes.

I used a dull sewing pattern roller (like a small pizza cutter) to go around most sides. You can do all of one side than turn the entire sheet of tin foil 90 degrees to do all of the next side, this makes the process go a bit faster. Try to fit all the pieces for each individual house in the same batch, I found my batches browned differently from each other. Lift the excess dough up from the tin foil, not moving your cut out shapes at all; this will help them keep their shape. Then slide the tin foil sheet onto a cookie sheet and put both in the freezer for about 15 minutes, you want the dough really well chilled before baking.

I used a (well cleaned) flat head screwdriver to get in the detail around the doors, then a paring knife to make sure the corners are cut cleanly.

Here are some tips, most of these are in the recipe but I don’t want you to overlook them:

• After making it divide the dough into thirds (I made half a recipe) wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least an hour, preferably overnight. Make the royal icing while it’s chilling, you’ll need it before you make all the gingerbread you are planning on.
• Roll the dough out to 1/8th of an inch. It seems impossibly thin but you be cutting the shapes and pulling the excess dough from around them so your pieces won’t be too disturbed. Feel free to nudge your shapes back into squares before chilling them again.
• Preheat the oven, roll the dough out on tin foil, cut your shapes and lift off the excess dough, slide the tin foil onto your cookie sheet, now put the cookie sheet into the freezer for at least 15 minutes before baking. This will keep the gingerbread from spreading too much.
• Make a single test house with your chosen door width. This sounds like a pita, and it will be, but it will be far less trouble than the frustration of finding none of your finished houses fit on mugs. Knowing now that you need to cut a wider door is worth it.
• I found that dough chilled for only an hour puffed up quite a bit, but didn’t necessarily spread if the cut out shapes were chilled in the freezer. Dough that had been in the fridge overnight, or even the second day (it’ll keep for a few days) puffed up quite a bit less, perhaps because the baking powder had lost its mojo by this time?
• If you suspect your intended mugs are thicker and sturdier than usual grab some cardstock or a magazine insert and cut a few different slots — 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 inch wide, about two inches deep (or tall). The one that slides easily onto the edge of you mug and even has a little wiggle room is the width you want for your door.
• If your gingerbread should spread and the doors look too narrow to you, you can trim them when the gingerbread is just out of the oven before it sets and cools too much. I suggest a paring knife and trimming just a bit from either side of the door.

I decided to only decorate the roofs for now. I might make these again next year, and get more detailed with the decorations. I used a variety of sugars and sprinkles. One note, I discovered that candy cane dust will stick together so well that it will not show any piping detail beneath it. I liked the way regular sanding sugar made the roof sparkle a bit, though I couldn’t capture the cuteness in my pictures.

Don’t fill your mug of hot chocolate too full, you don’t want the bottom of your gingerbread house to get soggy.

Can you tell the crushed candy cane one was my favorite?

I would be these would be fantastic made out of sugar cookie or shortbread dough. You could certainly leave them undecorated, or perhaps press sanding sugar into the roof pieces before baking. On the other hand I’m curious to see what one would look like covered in pieces of tiny candies. I’m also planning on making house-shaped marshmallows that will fit on the edge of the mug.

update: I made a few variations including a chimney and a version made out of sugar cookie dough which you might be interested in.

February 25 is National Clam Chowder Day!

I know you’ll really enjoy this one:

Ingredients

• 4 strips bacon, diced small
• 1 medium onion, diced small
• 1 stalk celery, diced small
• 2 large white potatoes, diced small
• 1 tsp dried thyme leaves
• 2 cans chopped clams, juice reserved
• 1 bottle clam juice
• 1 Tbsp flour
• 1 Cup milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 Tbsp fresh flat leaf parsley, minced

Preparation

1. Cook bacon piece in large stock pot until well browned
2. Add onion and cook until translucent
3. Add celery and dried thyme leaves
4. Add juice from both cans of clams (not the clams, just the juice) plus bottle of clam juice
5. Add potatoes and cook until tender. About 20 minutes.
6. Add clams
7. Mix 1 Tbsp flour into cold milk, then pour into stock pot. Stir well
8. Bring to a simmer, stirring often
9. Add cream and reduce heat to a slow simmer
10. Garnish with fresh minced parsley to serve

Makes 6 servings.

Enjoy!