Home Cookin'

I've recently gathered the courage to tackle some of my favorite recipes that my great grandma used to make and a thing or two that I've avoided making because I thought it was too hard.

So, before Christmas, I learned to make homemade yeast rolls (without the bread machine) and they were much easier than I thought! Then I learned to make cinnamon rolls from that dough. The last snow day we had, I found a roll of sausage in the freezer and managed to make some "pretty good" gravy, according to my husband, along with homemade buttermilk biscuits. And, last night, I really got brave and decided I could make my very favorite....chicken and dumplings! So, I did!! They weren't exactly like Mamaw Pid's, I think I need a little practice getting the dumplings just right, but they were pretty close!

Needless to say, I think Mamaw Pid would be pretty proud of me and I think she'd be happy for me to share recipes as well, so here you go:

Chicken & Dumplings

You can cook a whole chicken or chicken breasts, you may have to add some broth, as little or as much chicken as you like...yes, it's one of those kind of recipes. You need to have the chicken cooked, chopped, whatever and in plenty of broth, like a soup so you are ready for dumplings.

For the dumplings, you need:

1 1/2 cups flour, 1 3/4 tsp baking powder, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 2 Tbsp shortening (or melted butter works good),1 egg, 1/4 cup milk

Mix the dry ingredients and cut in butter til crumbly, then add eggs and milk. Knead and roll out on floured surface and cut into small pieces....they "grow" in the broth, so keep that in mind for sizing.  Then, you are ready to put them in with chicken and broth and let them cook (simmer) til they are done, which varies on size and amount  of dumplings you have. You can add some milk to the broth to help the dumplings not stick together and to give a little more cooking liquid for them. This is definitely one that may take a little more practice, but oh so worth it!

Yeast Rolls (they just go with dumplings for some reason!)

First, in a large bowl you mix: 1 pkg of yeast (2 1/4 tsp if you are using a jar of yeast), 1 Tbsp. sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 cup warm water (hot tap water is perfect)....mix all of that and let it "melt" a few minutes.
Second, add to that mixture: 1 cup warm milk, 1/3 cup sugar, and 1/3 cup melted butter and stir.
Third, sift flour (I usually don't sift it and it's fine) and mix in with spoon til too thick to stir (about 3-ish cups). Knead with flour really well and put in greased bowl. Let rise 1 to 1 1/2  hours in the oven with just the oven light on.
Fourth, after it rises, roll out and knead again til stiff and set the bowl over it for 10 minutes, while you grease your pan. Then roll out again and cut up into sections. Let rise in pan for 1 hour.
Then, you're ready to bake! Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes or til they begin to get golden. this makes 12-15 big rolls and is easily doubled or halved.
This is also used to make cinnamon rolls, except instead of cutting in sections when you roll it out, you spread butter all over it and then a mixture of cinnamon and sugar over that, roll it up, cut the into rolls and then let them do that last rise like rolls. They take just a little longer to cook, but the trick is the right mix of cinnamon, sugar and butter that you prefer!