Chicken Stuffed Dumplings

I found a version of this recipe several years ago. I've since modified it so that it suits my tastes better. This is one of my favorite recipes when I want something that is warm and very filling. I always double the recipe because it reheats very well. It makes a good dinner and lunch for the following day!

The preparation for this recipe is somewhat time consuming and I recommend using a mini chopper for the celery and chicken. I think the effort is worth it, but if you are in a hurry, this most likely will not be the recipe for you. I use canned chicken broth that has no msg and is low in sodium. I don't have many choices for the cream of chicken and mushroom, unfortunately. The soups make this recipe somewhat salty, so I advise against adding any salt.

Chicken Stuffed Dumplings (Printable PDF Version)
1 can chicken broth (12 or 14.5 oz. It doesn't matter)
1 can cream of chicken and mushroom soup
1 medium sized chicken breast
Onion (to taste)
1 T oil (olive or vegetable)
1 T celery, chopped
1/2 t parsley
1 C flour
1 T baking powder
1 t sugar
1 T shortening
6-8 T water

Pour the contents of the cans of soup into a pot and start to heat it up on a low heat. This will need to simmer later, but I've had best results slowly warming it from the start since cream of chicken and mushroom is very thick compared to the broth. Remember to stir it occasionally.

Chop up your onion. I like white onions and I used maybe 1/5 of an onion for this. (Note: I add half of the onions to the soup mixture and half to the chicken. How you distribute it is up to you!)

Cut the chicken into small pieces while the pan heats up. Pour the oil in, add the onions and chicken. Cook until the chicken is done. Once the chicken is cooked, let it cool for a few minutes.

Meanwhile...

Chop up the celery. A tablespoon of celery (post chopping) is approximately half a stalk of celery. Having a bit more isn't going to hurt the recipe.

In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and sugar. Cut the shortening in with a fork. This amount of shortening isn't enough to make the flour crumbly, cutting it in just distributes it better than mixing it in with the water.

Slowly mix in the water until you have a soft dough that isn't too sticky. Sometimes I have to use more water, sometimes I have to use less. I fill a glass with water and add tablespoons of water at a time to the flour mixture. Set this aside for the moment.

When your chicken has cooled to a nice warm temperature, place it into the chopper and chop it into chicken crumbles.

In another bowl, mix together to chicken crumbles, celery, and parsley. At this point, turn up the temperature of the soups and bring it to a simmer.

Take a small chunk of the dough and flatten it with your hands. Place a scoop of chicken crumbles onto the center of the flattened piece of dough.

Close the dough into a bundle by wrapping and pinching the sides together. You can take the dough, roll it out, and cut it into pieces if you want.

The amount of chicken filled dumplings you will have depends on how big you make them. Mine always vary in size, which is fine. If you have any extra chicken crumbles, add them to the soup mixture.

Place all of the dumplings into the simmering soup mixture. Simmer the dumplings for 15-20 minutes. Stir this occasionally and carefully. I usually end up with at least one dumpling that opens up.

I suggest making mashed potatoes while the dumplings cook. The soup gravy goes very well with garlic and cheese mashed potatoes, if that interests you.

The dumplings will plump up while cooking. When they are finished cooking, let everything cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Barb's Shepard's Pie

This is a recipe that I mostly made up a few years ago and I now consider it to be my version of shepard's pie. I've never had actual shepard's pie, but I've read recipes for it. From what I can tell I added an ingredient or two and flipped it upside down.

It doesn't look too amazing, but it is very good. Most ingredients are added "to taste". I'm not positive how much I usually add of those so I'll just estimate. Feel free to adjust it to your tastes! I also make this in the easiest ways possible, which means I use instant potatoes for the mashed potatoes and Bisquick for the biscuits! The order of making the layers will vary depending on how you make the potatoes and biscuits. This also reheats very well so be sure to refrigerate any leftovers.

Barb's Shepard's Pie

1/4 onion, chopped
1 lb ground beef
Salt & Pepper to taste
4 cups mashed potatoes
1/2 T garlic powder
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 lb bag of frozen diced veggies (I recommend a bag with carrots, corn, and peas)
8 biscuits

Chop the onion and preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Brown the meat with the onion, salt, and pepper.

Make your mashed potatoes. Stir in the garlic powder. Adding cheese to the mashed potatoes is also delicious!

Start baking your biscuits. You want to only cook them halfway. If you skip this step, the final baking step will take a very long time and the bottom of the biscuits will remain gooey.

Once the meat is browned, stir in the cream of mushroom soup and Worcestershire sauce.

Also add the frozen veggies and warm them in the meat mixture. This helps reduce the baking time.

In a 13" x 9" baking dish or pan, spread the mashed potatoes into a nice and even layer.

Next spread all of the veggie and meat mixture on top of the potatoes.

By this time the biscuits should be half baked, so place those on top of the meat and veggies.

Bake this in the oven for at least 15 minutes or until it starts to bubble.

Enjoy!

Drawing - Week of July 8, 2012

Didn't draw much this week. I will claim the food related post from earlier today makes up for that. I have some new silk flowers to draw. They are sunflowers and daisies. Flowers with many petals are very difficult to draw. I don't like most of my attempts so far. Here is the only picture I feel like sharing this week. It even includes a Kat!

One of Kat's favorite sleeping places is behind my drawing board, which is usually leaning against the wall.

Ice Cream Sandwich Cake

I saw a cake similar to this several years ago. Instead of looking up instructions on how to properly make the cake, I just made it. This is definitely one of the messier cakes that I've made, but it was a lot of fun to make!

The cake consists of two layers of chocolate cake, a layer of vanilla ice cream, and chocolate frosting in the expected locations. The version of the cake that influenced this messy cake was decorated like an Oreo cookie, so I kept that as a decorating guideline. Instead of "Oreo" I wrote "Happy Birthday" since it was for a birthday.

If you plan to make this, here are some tips: Make the cake at the location where the cake will be served; it will melt during a 20 minute car ride in the summer. Try to freeze the ice cream layer in a circle cake pan lined with wax paper so it has the proper shape. Be sure to rearrange the contents of your freezer before assembling any of the cake pieces. You can use any combination of flavors to make this cake; I'm guessing cookies and cream ice cream would be amazing!

Ice Cream Sandwich Cake
Two round cakes
1/2 gallon ice cream
One batch of frosting

Make your frosting.

Soften your ice cream. I'm assuming it isn't necessary to mix up the ice cream in a mixer, but it sure was fun. Such a lovely texture!

Place the bottom layer of the cake on whatever you plan to serve the cake on. Spread a layer of frosting around the sides of the cake. Either cover the entire top of the cake or just enough so the cake doesn't show under the ice cream.

Spread a layer of ice cream on the cake. (Or, if you followed the tip, place the layer of ice cream on the cake.) Place the incomplete cake in the freezer.

Place the top layer of cake on some paper towels. Spread a nice layer of frosting on top. Decorate however you want to decorate it.

Remove the bottom of the cake from the freezer and carefully place the top layer of the cake on top. Spread a layer of frosting around the sides of the top layer of cake.

Keep frozen until you are ready to serve!

Enjoy!

Note: The frosting that I used was the new Wilton Decorator's Frosting with 3 Tablespoons of cocoa powder added.


Used to create this cake: Food Network 9-In. Round Cake Pan. I love the Food Network pans from Kohls!

Drawing - Week of July 1, 2012

I plan on drawing regularly now. I'm not horrible at it and the only way I can improve is with practice. Unfortunately, I don't have much motivation to draw anymore. When I was taking the drawing course, I had homework assignments and people to critique my drawings. Now I have no pressure to get a drawing finished and no one to show it to. My current idea is to post what I draw every week on Friday or Saturday. That will provide me with some sort of motivation and also (maybe) someone to show it to.

I like to draw flowers, so I drew a lily and a rose this week using charcoal on drawing paper. I still don't like to draw roses. I will probably torture myself with roses until I think they look good. I also want more silk flowers to draw...

The photo quality isn't too good, sorry about that. I will eventually get a decent camera. Until then, I only have my cell phone. I also should have cleaned up the drawing a bit more. Charcoal smudges a lot.

Sugar Cookies

The ladies in the one office where I work like that I bake. I stopped by a few weeks ago and was introduced to someone as the "one who bakes the cookies". I haven't made them anything for a while, so I asked for requests. Sugar cookies was the request. So, I made them.

This is another old recipe which turned out very lovely. The cookies are amazingly soft and moist with the added bonus of holding their shape and not crumbling all over. This recipe is definitely at the top of my "favorite cookies" list! It is easy to make and doesn't require refrigeration. If you want to roll the dough out and cut out cookies, then you may want to chill the dough for a bit since it is a very soft dough.

Sugar Cookies
3 1/4 C flour
2 t cream of tartar
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 C butter, softened
3 eggs
1 C sugar
1 t vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease your baking sheets. You'll need to wipe off and re-grease the baking sheets between each set of cookies.

Sift together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.

Cut the butter into the flour mixture until well blended. Use either a pastry cutter or a fork. Don't use your hands or the butter will melt into the flour!

It should look nice a crumbly when you are finished.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until light and fluffy. This pretty much means to beat the eggs until the top layer starts to foam up. Add the sugar and vanilla. Mix well.

Slowly mix the flour mixture into the egg mixture. Mix until combined.

Roll the dough into 2 inch balls. Place them on the baking sheet and lightly press down. Sprinkle sugar on top. (Or you can skip the sugaring step and frost them after they cool.)

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. The bottom edges of the cookies should be very lightly browned. Don't over bake!

Immediately remove the cookies from the baking sheet and cool them on a cooling rack.

This recipe made nearly 4 dozen cookies.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Eclair Dessert

It's been a while since I posted a new recipe. I have a few sets of photos related to different recipes that are ready to be written about, but I haven't had the motivation to do so. This blogging thing is apparently something that is slightly difficult to get back into after a long gap.

Fortunately, I made something wonderful this past week. It's a recipe that my grandma used all the time when I was little. It is possibly one of the best desserts ever. It is also incredibly simple to make.

I've had the page marked in the cookbook to make this, but I haven't had a good reason to make it until this past weekend. This dessert is just as delicious as a remember and much easier to make than I expected. I made the chocolate frosting slightly thicker than it should have been and I used cinnamon graham crackers instead of honey. If you can, I recommend using a 9x13 cake pan that doesn't have sloped sides. My pan had sloped sides and that make placing the layers of graham crackers weird (gaps around the edges and such).

Chocolate Eclair Dessert
2 packages French vanilla instant pudding (3ish ounce size)
3 C milk
1 8 oz carton Cool Whip
1 lb box of graham crackers (honey or cinnamon)
2 envelopes pre-melted baking chocolate
1 t vanilla
3 T salted butter, softened
1 1/2 C powdered sugar
3 T milk

First, coat the 9x13 inch pan with a layer of butter.

Make the French vanilla pudding according to directions but only use the 3 cups of milk.

Add the entire carton of Cool Whip.

Fold the Cool Whip into the pudding. You have to fold it or the Cool Whip will lose its nice fluffy consistency.

Place a layer of graham crackers in the pan.

Carefully spread half of the pudding mixture over the layer of graham crackers.

Lay down another layer of graham crackers.

Spread the remaining pudding mixture over the new layer of graham crackers.

Add another layer of graham crackers!

Now make the chocolate frosting. Do this by placing the chocolate, vanilla, milk, and softened butter into a mixing bowl.

Stir it all together. It will seem kind of awful and thick.

Stir in the powdered sugar. This somehow gives it a very nice and smooth consistency. If the frosting seems too thick to spread on the graham crackers, add a little bit more milk. Don't add too much. You don't want it to be runny!

Spread the frosting on top of the layer of graham crackers.

Now for the hard part... You have to let this lovely dessert sit for 12 hours (in the refrigerator!). This allows the moisture of the pudding to soak into the graham crackers and soften them.

Here's a side view of the delicious layers:

Enjoy!