Tasty Thursday: Chicken and Dumplings

Here it is, Tasty Thursday again.  I’ve been posting the easier recipes in my collection, but this week I decided to post one that is a little more complicated  - a true Southern recipe – You gotta love Chicken and Dumplings.

Dumplings

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups All Purpose Flour
• 2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 Teaspoon Salt
• 1/3 cup Shortening
• 1/2 cup milk

Instructions:

1. Combine flour, baking soda and salt.
2. Cut in shortening and add milk to make a stiff dough.
3. Roll out to about 1/8 inch thickness and cut into 1 to 1/2 inch strips.

Other alternatives: frozen dumplings can be purchased at your local grocery store. My grandmother uses biscuits, and I have used tortillas on many occasions.

Chicken and Dumplings

Ingredients:

• 6 boneless chicken thighs (or breasts)
• 1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup (26 ounce/family size)
• 3 tablespoons butter
• Salt and Pepper To Taste
• Dumplings
• Jalepenos (optional)

Directions:

1. In a large pot over high heat, combine chicken with enough water to cover, and boil for 30 to 45 minutes.
2. Remove the chicken, cool and pull apart into bite size pieces.
3. Drain some of the water from the pot, reserving 3 cups in the pot.
4. Return chicken to pot; reduce heat to medium, and add the soup and butter.
5. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Allow to boil again until chicken reaches desired tenderness (10-30 minutes).
7. Add dumplings one layer at a time and stir into soup.
8. Stir regularly to prevent sticking.
9. Simmer over medium heat approximately 20 minutes ofter last dumplings have been placed (until dough is cooked)

Note: If you wish to make yours spicy, add jalepenos during the last 20 minutes or serve as a side dish for individuals to add on their own.

Looking for some other recipes, check out MomDot’s Tasty Thursday cookie recipes.

Tasty Thursday: Bacon and Eggs Pizza

Tasty Thursday time again thanks to the mom blog site, MomDot. We are a big breakfast family.  We love breakfast at all times of the day.  This is a pretty simple one that is always a hit at my house.

Ingredients

• 1 Large 12 Inch Prepared Pizza Crust
• 1/2 Cup Bacon Bits
• 1 Cup Chopped Vegetables (such as tomatoes, green onions, mushrooms, etc)
• 1 Cup Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
• 1/4 Cup Water
• 4 Eggs

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place Pizza Crust on foil lined baking sheet.
3. Top with bacon, vegetables and cheese.
4. Beat eggs with 1/4 cup water and pour over crust.
5. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until set.

Tasty Thursday: French Toast

Here’s our third post in the Tasty Thursday meme from MomDot. This week I’m sharing my recipe for French Toast.  There’s nothing special about it, but in case there are some of you out there like I was when I first moved out on my own (CLUELESS), soemtimes it’s nice to have those recipes that everyone assumes you know.

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch salt
• Bread

Instructions:

1. Beat together egg, milk, cinnaomn, vanilla, and salt.
2. Apply a thin layer of oil (I just use Pam) to a skillet or griddle.
3. Heat skillet or griddle over medium heat.
4. Soak bread slickes in egg mixture for 20 seconds on each side Cook bread until both sides are lightly browned and crisp.

Seafood Cookoff

About a month ago, I told you about the Great American Seafood Cookoff, and now I have more news.  The top 5 recipes have been selected, and now it’s time to vote for the winner.  Why should you vote? Well if just the chance to pick the winner doesn’t fascinate you, then you’re in luck because by voting you can also be entered into a chance to win a trip to New Orleans.

So what are we choosing between?

• Colorado Striped Bass Panzanella
• Pan Roasted Glazed Rockfish with Peas and Carrots
• Mississippi Redfish Courtboullion with Seafood Dirty Rice
• Texas Gulf Shrimp
• Louisiana Shrimp and Andouille Cassoulet

To see the recipes and pictures of these dishes in the cook off, you can go to the website GreatAmericanSeafoodCookOff.com and check them all out.

My favorite (and my vote) was for the Texas Gulf Shrimp by Chef Mark Holley from Texas. When I first saw that, I thought, no not going to vote for that since it’s from Texas…I’ll not look like I’m just a Texas follower, but when I saw how yummy the recipe looked, I printed it before I voted it and will be trying it out the next time I have shrimp on hand.

Because I try to stick to buying local seafood, we eat more catfish than anything, but I love to make a trip to my uncle’s who lives down closer to the coast and bring home fresh shrimp too.  We always enjoy how fresh they taste (it tastes so much better than any frozen variety I’ve tried so far).

It’s an election year, so let’s practice our voting and go vote for your favorite dish (if you don’t have a favorite, pick mine – lol) and get yourself entered for the contest to win the trip to New Orleans.

A Seafood Recipe

I LOVE seafood – absolutely love it, but I’m usually leery to cook it.  I don’t know why, but I just don’t have a lot of luck when it comes to seafood, but I do have a couple favorites that I’ve learned to cook over the years. My favorites (for me to cook) are my slow cooker seafood recipes.  I’m a big lover of pasta and seafood so this is probably my favorite crock pot seafood recipe. I call it Seafood Pasta and makes enough for the three of us to eat it and then have leftovers for lunches the next day so probably about 5 servings.

Seafood Pasta

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. crab meat (If I can’t get my hands on this I have used the imitation crab meat sold at all grocery stores and it turned out fine)
• 1/2 pound bay scallops, already lightly sauteed
• 1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and also cooked
• 2 cups sour cream
• 3 cups Monterrey Jack Cheese, shredded
• 2 Tbsp. melted butter (if no butter is on hand margarine is ok)
• Touch of pepper

As I mentioned, your seafood should actually already be cooked. I usually saute everything, and I’ve also just boiled the shrimp too.

Directions:

1. Combine sour cream, butter, and cheese in the slow cooker
2. Slowly stir in each remaining ingredient.
3. Cover and cook on low for one to two hours.
4. When you are almost ready to eat, boil linguine to package instructions and then pour your sauce out of the crock pot onto the dishes of linguine.

Accompaniments: I accompany this with sauteed veggies particularly yellow squash and zucchini.

Do you have any favorite seafood meals? I’d love to hear about them, and if you try this recipe, please come back and let me know how your family like its. Do you think this would be worthy of the Great American Seafood Cook off? Or even better yet, do you have any recipes that you think are worthy of the cook off?  If so, let’s link up and create a great seafood recipe selection.

If you aren’t familiar with the Great American Seafood Cook Off, this is an annual contest for great recipes for domestic seafood. The contest will be held in New Orleans this weekend and the price of admission is really cheap ($10).  How cool would it be to watch the 5th Annual Cook Off that is showing us great ways to utilize local and fresh seafood.