I’m a Cheater who Doesn’t Update Enough (Chicken and Dumplings Made Easy)

I keep promising myself I will blog more, and somehow I always wind up failing to do so. I have been a very busy woman in the kitchen. I’ve probably baked ten dozen cookies, and I’ve baked several pies; obviously I’ve cooked a variety of meals, though mostly it’s been simple stuff like hamburgers or fried chicken. I even made the crust for some of my pies. However, I haven’t done much worth blogging about. I’m going to make it my goal to cook more and blog more, so if you are reading this, welcome to the show.

ON TO THE FOOD

(without pictures because my batteries were dead)

Simmering in a large stock pot in my kitchen are what I like to call Chicken and Dumplings Made Easy. The trick is not making the dumpling from scratch, even though if you can make biscuits you can make dumplings easy enough. However I do have a new tag called Easy Peasy which will have meal ideas that are simple to do and require minimal ingredients, like the meal at hand.

Basically you boil chicken breasts, on the bone and with skin, with a little butter, salt, pepper, and any other seasoning you like, and then you drain them, saving some of the broth. Remove the bones and skin and put the meat back in the pot, covering them with chicken stock, some of the broth from boiling the chicken, and extra water.

To make the dumplings, all you do is take store bought homestyle biscuits, the kind that come in a can from the refrigerated section of the grocery store, and roll them out thin. With sharp knife, slice them into strips and drop them into the pot. Sometimes I add a bit of flour to the pot to thicken it, but otherwise just simmer until the dumplings are tender and not doughy. Simple as can be!

Recipe (not really) for Chicken and Dumplings Made Easy

4 Large Chicken Breasts still on the bone with skin
2 T Butter
Salt & Pepper to Taste
4 Cans of Homestyle Biscuits
32 oz. Chicken Stock (more if you’d like a stronger flavor)
Water

• Boil the chicken with butter and seasonings until tender and falling off the bone
• Drain chicken, remove bones and skin
• Pour stock and water over chicken
• Roll biscuits until they reach desired thickness, slice into strips, and drop into pot
• Simmer until dumplings are tender and not doughy

Southern Style Biscuits

This morning I made biscuits for breakfast, channeling my nanny, and they turned out pretty fabulous. Using a recipe pretty much adapted from the back of a bag of self-rising flour, I managed to make a batch of soft light biscuits. The thing about making biscuits the way my nanny made them is that you basically take the recipe and double it, adding a bit of shortening and milk to make sure the amount of moisture in the mixture is right. I apologize for the lousy picture quality; food photography is another talent I am working on cultivating, and I haven’t gotten close to mastering it yet. But I will keep practicing and eventually I’ll get better.
You start by blending together the shortening and flour until crumbly; you can use a either two knives or a pastry blender, but I prefer my pastry blender because its much easier. I can blend things one handed, while holding the bowl steady, and I simply use a fork to occasionally scrape the shortening off the blender into to the bowl.

The next step is mixing in the milk with a fork; I normally discover that I need more milk to make sure that the entire mixture is moist. Don’t over mix the milk and dry ingredients; all you have to do is mix it until the dough forms and begins pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Once that’s done, sift a little flour onto your hands and dump the dough onto a floured surface. I cover my counter with wax paper because I don’t want my biscuit cutter to scratch the counter. If you don’t flour your hands and the surface, you are going to wind up with a sticky mess.
Then you knead the dough until smooth; I recommend sifting all-purpose flour over the dough and over your hands frequently to avoid having it stick to everything it touches.  Work from the outside in, pulling the dough toward the center; don’t over or under work the dough or your biscuits will be tough and hard. Once the dough is smooth, sift flour over your roller and roll the dough to a quarter inch thickness; the thicker the dough, the higher your biscuits will rise. You can also fold the dough over before cutting it to make larger fluffier biscuits. Dip your biscuit cutter in flour and press straight down to cut.
Lift the biscuits from the trimmings and place them on a pan; if there is enough flour on the bottom of the biscuits after cutting, you shouldn’t need to spray your pan with non-stick. Re-knead and re-roll the dough to cut remaining biscuits. Before baking, I recommend dusting the excess flour from the tops. Bake at 450 degrees for about ten minutes, and if your biscuits are not brown enough you can pop them into the broiler for a few minutes.

Southern Style Biscuits

4 cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cup milk

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees
• Blend shortening and flour together until crumbly
• Stir in milk with fork until dough forms and pulls away from the sides of the bowl
• Knead dough on a floured surface until mostly smooth; roll to about 1/4 inch thickness
• Cut biscuits out with floured biscuit cutter, re-kneading and re-rolling trimmings if needed.
• Bake on cookie sheet at 450 for about ten minutes; more time may be needed for thicker biscuits.

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Passing it On

In Southern families, recipes and cooking tips are often passed down from mother to daughter; there is something very powerful and important about the way that works. It’s way of passing not only family traditions, but also preserving the memory of someone you love. I’m writing this entry because I am losing the person who inspired me to get into baking and cooking in general. My mom can cook, but she doesn’t have the same ridiculous obsession I seem to have with food and cooking and baking; I think it skipped a generation, and my Nanny (maternal grandmother for those of you who don’t know) passed her love of cooking to me.

When I was younger and my Pa (my Nanny’s third husband and the man I counted as my true maternal grandfather) was alive, Christmas Brunch was done at their big house on the farm, and it was huge. My Nanny would cook so much that you would think she was feeding an army. Massive piles of homemade biscuits and bowls of homemade gravy, plates full of sausage, ham, and bacon, plenty of scrambled eggs, a huge turkey, real mashed potatoes, corn, pinto beans, rolls, macaroni and cheese, and so much more. There were probably twenty of us back then, maybe a few more, and the spread was always more than we could eat; on top of that she made desserts, pecan pie, chess pie, chocolate cake, plus a variety of candies she’d made. Thanksgivings and Easters were similar, though breakfast food was not prepared. Her habit of cooking large meals was not deterred when the number of people was smaller or when it was just a Sunday dinner; my Nanny always cooked for an army. I honestly think her enthusiasm inspired my own interest in culinary attempts, and I will always be grateful for that. There is a picture of me, when I was no more than a year old or so I think, sitting on the counter, covered in flour, while my Nanny made biscuits; I know for a fact that I was the only grandchild who was ever permitted to do such a thing, and I remember her excitement when I first expressed interest in learning to cook.

Mama is often full of advice when I need it, but often, when it comes to cooking, Nanny is the person I need. I always ask my mom things like “How did Nanny do this?” or “Do you remember if Nanny had a recipe for this?”, and her typical response was to tell me to call her; now I won’t be able to do that. My Nanny is very ill, and she is not going to get better; she was such a big part of my life, and now she is going to be gone. It’s breaking my heart, and I am barely handling it. I was so proud of myself for making her “No Fail Chocolate Pie” on the first attempt, and when my biscuits turned out perfectly for the first time, but I only got to share the pie moment with her because by the time I attempted biscuits from scratch (for some reason I never got around to it until just recently) she was already far too ill; it killed me that while I could tell her all about it, she couldn’t laugh and joke about how easy it was and suggest something new for me to try. Soon I will only have her recipes and the memory of her voice, and I’m not sure how to handle it. I love my Nanny, and I will miss her so much; I already miss her. That is why I’ve made up my mind that the bakery and sweets shop I plan to eventually have will be called “A Taste of Joy” in honor of Barbara Joy Smith, my Nanny, the woman who opened my eyes and introduced me to the joy of cooking. This blog has officially been retitled permanently as “A Taste of Joy”, and hopefully I will get the money to purchase a decent domain name as well.

A Late Post: Chocolate Chip Cheesecake (A Birthday Treat)

This post is coming far later than it should, and I’m afraid I’m a terrible food blogger because of it. Life and family and plenty of other things kept getting in my way, but I’m back now; I’m posting this entry and one on another dish tonight. Hopefully, with fall well underway, this blog will have more delicious entries.

Every year for my kid brother’s birthday in July I make a Chocolate Chip Cheesecake; it’s sort of a tradition in our family. I make it using a recipe I got from Eagle Brand cook book my Nanny gave me. The recipe is ridiculously easy, and after realizing that it tastes better with vanilla cookies for the crust, it was simple to master.

To make the crust you simply melt three tablespoons of butter, scrap the icing from the insides of your sandwich cookies, and finely crush them; I was in a bit of a rush, so I used the food processor to crush my cookies, but you can put them in a baggie and use a rolling pin to do the job. Once that is done, you simply mix the cookies and butter until the cookies are moistened and press them in the bottom of your springform pan. You do not need to grease the pan at all.

      

Next, you should toss your mini chocolate chips in flour so that they don’t sink to the bottom of the batter; it’s important that you make sure they are completely coated.

 

The next step is to beat the softened cream cheese until fluffy, but do not oversoften or overbeat it.

  

Gradually add the condensed milk, beating it until smooth; then add the eggs and vanilla mix well. Again, don’t overbeat or overmix your batter or the chips will not distribute well throughout the cake.

 

  

Gently stir the flour coated chocolate chips into the batter and pour over the prepared crust; sprinkle the remaining uncoated chips over the top of the cake as evenly as possible. Try not to touch the sides of the pan because then the clean up is a pain.

  

Bake at 300 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes, or until set; usually it takes the full 60 for me. Let it cool completely before removing it from the pan, and then chill it. If you do not let it chill, it will tear when you try to remove it from the pan.

 

Eagle Brand Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

1/2 cups finely crushed crème filled chocolate or vanilla sandwich cookie crumbs
2-3 tablespoons melted butter
3 (8oz) packages of cream cheese, softened
1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated milk)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
1 teaspoon all purpose flour

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees
• Combine cookie crumbs and butter in a small bowl, press firmly into the bottom of an ungreased 9 inch springform pan
• In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy (do not overbeat). Gradually add condensed milk until smooth; add eggs and vanilla. Mix well
• In a small bowl, toss 1/2 cup chocolate chips with flour to coat; stir into cream cheese mixtures, pour over crust. Sprinkle remaining chips evenly over the top.
• Bake 55-60 minutes, or until set; allow to cool and chill.

Southern Style Deep Dish Pecan Pie (An Update)

As it turns out, it’s difficult to run a food and cooking blog when you are broke because decent ingredients are expensive. However, I did manage to make a very successful pecan pie recently, using my Grandmama’s recipe. This is the recipe I grew up with, and it’s the recipe I swear by. I’m pretty sure it’s a no fail recipe as long as you do not do anything silly.  It’s not difficult to make, and it’s delicious.

 

The recipe only calls for six ingredients and a deep dish pie crust (unbaked); before you begin, ensure that your crust has no cracks of holes in the bottom. If you don’t do this, then you may pull an upside down pie from your oven with the crust floating on top. Again I emphasize the need for a deep dish pie crust; a regular pie crust will be too shallow and will over flow.

 

This is a very sugary pie; dissolving the sugar in the syrup and butter doesn’t take long, but you must do it over low heat, stirring frequently, otherwise you’ll burn the sugar. The moment that mixture is dissolved, remove it from the heat to prevent over cooking it; this will also allow it to cool slightly and prevent partial cooking of your eggs when you mix them in.

 

I always combine my eggs and vanilla, blending them thoroughly with a spoon before I combine them with the sugar mixture. If you don’t, sometimes the eggs will not combine smoothly, and if the mixture is too hot, your eggs will cook partially, leading to a grainy texture.

 

There really is no correct way to handle the pecans for this pie. Some people finely chop their pecans, while others coarsely chop them; I usually use them whole, but because I wound up buying pre-chopped pecans, they are coarsely chopped here. I tend to mix my pecans in last, stirring them until they are thoroughly coated with the filling mixture. This gives them a somewhat glossy sheen when the pie is finished. I also usually use a bit more than the single cup of pecans the recipe calls for.

As you can see the pie crust is very full, and you have to move slowly and carefully to place the pie in the oven, otherwise you will be scrubbing sticky pie filling from the floor and bottom of the oven, which is in no way fun. To prevent, overbrowning of the crust, it’s always a wise move to cover the edges with aluminum foil or a crust saver, but I was in a hurry and feeling lazy, so I didn’t do that.

Bake at 325 degrees for approximately 45 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the filling does not jiggle too much; 45 minutes is almost always long enough. I don’t have pictures of the pie after it was sliced because it was made for my kid brother to take to school.

Southern Style Deep Dish Pecan Pie

1 C White Sugar
3/4 C White Karo Syrup
1/2 Stick Butter
3 whole eggs
1 t vanilla
1 C pecans (chopped or whole), more can be added.
1 deep dish pie crust, unbaked

• Dissolve sugar, syrup, and butter over low heat, stirring frequently; remove from heat when completely dissolved
• Mix eggs and vanilla until well blended; stir into sugar mixture
• Add in pecans, stirring until thoroughly coated
• Pour into crust and bake at 325 degrees for 45  minutes

All-Bran Muffins (Healthy Breakfast from the Renegade Kitchen)

I know, I know, long time no food Nic. Well, let me just remedy that with a post about muffins. All-Bran Muffins to be specific, and yes, I’m talking about All-Bran Cereal, which pretty much tastes like cardboard by itself. I’m all about healthy food that tastes good, which is a rare find lately, and so when I come across something this good I have to share it. Although, to be honest, I’ve known about All-Bran Muffins since I was very little.

These fabulous muffins are something my grandmother makes, and for awhile I thought they were some secret R family recipe. But nope, they are actually from a recipe my Grandmother found on the box one time and she adds raisins and nuts to the mix. These muffins are fantastic because they are very healthy and very filling; I always double the recipe so that we have extra muffins because they keep so well. So now I present to you, All-Bran Muffins. I apologize for the lousy pictures, but we still don’t have lights up in the kitchen.

 

Notice that you don’t use the flakes, but instead you use the actual twig looking cereal. You mix the rest of your dry ingredients in a separate bowl.

 

Ok, now this is the unpleasant part, which is soaking the cereal in milk; clearly you have to soften the cereal so that it eventually makes muffin batter. This takes at least five minutes, sometimes more, and you will know that they’ve soaked enough when there is no visible milk in the bowl.

  

The new microwave has a butter melting function, which is pretty awesome; all I have to do is tell it I want to melt a stick of butter, and bam, it melts it. You beat the eggs and the butter into the cereal until smooth, and it makes a thick batter. I do not recommend wooden spoons for the recipe. You will break them.

 

Next come the dry ingredients, which are combined with your cereal mixture until smooth. Don’t over mix the ingredients. Again, wooden spoons will break because this is very, very thick. I was extremely grateful for my electric stand mixer because otherwise this would’ve taken forever and probably bent the spoon.

 

The final touch isn’t in the original recipe, but something about plain bran muffins disturbs me. In go the raisins and pecans, and I always add more pecans than raisins because I’m not a huge raisin person. There’s no set amount to add, just do it to your specific taste. I’m sure you can substitute walnuts or dried fruit of your choice too, but around here we do things pretty simple. Once mixed up you are ready to bake.

 

You will have to spoon the batter into the cups because its not going to pour at all. Make sure you spray the tin liberally with non-stick, and because this makes more than a dozen normally, you’ll have to wipe out the crumbs between batches. Also, gratuitous shot of our magnificent oven because its been so long since I’ve had a good oven to bake in and I have missed it.

 

I really wish my shots of the baked muffins had come out nicer, and I swear when we have lights and things the pictures will improve. Anyway, as you can see, they are not at all smooth on top, and the nuts and raisins are peeking out. I still wish I could’ve gotten a picture of one broken open, but I was in a hurry to get going and the light wasn’t cooperating.

Recipe for All-Bran Muffins

1 1/4 C all purpose flour
1/2 C sugar
1 T baking powder
1/4 t salt
2 C All-Bran Cereal (original, not flakes)
1 1/4 C milk
1 egg
1/4 C vegetable oil or butter

• Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt
• Combine cereal and milk, let stand for five minutes or until soft
• Add egg and oil to cereal, beat well
• Add dry ingredients, stirring only until combined
• Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes