Chicken and Dumplings

This is not your grandma's chicken and dumplings, but it's pretty darned good. I can't tell you how many pots of this I made for my mom when she was sick. It seemed to make her happy, so it made me happy. When I found out that my neighbors have H1N1 that has turned to pneumonia, I decided it was time to cook some of this elixir. If you have friends, family, or neighbors with the flu, drop some by. We need to help each other through this flu season. We're going to get our flu shots tomorrow night when I pick hubby up from the airport. He's been visiting his dad this week.

Chicken and Dumplings

Get out a great big soup pot and put a whole chicken in it, without the giblets. If you have chicken parts, that works too. Fill up the pot with water. Add in 1 garlic clove, 1/2 tsp. Emeril's Essence Seasoning, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. or 1 cube chicken bullion, 1/2 tsp. dried minced onion, and bring to a boil. Simmer on the stove for 2 hours. Your house will smell yummy. Take the chicken out of the pot and let it cool enough to handle it. Take all the meat off the bones and put the meat back in the pot. Throw away the skin and bones and garlic if you can find it. Bring back to a boil and here's the tricky part. Cut up a package of flour tortillas into squares about 2" x 2". Put them in the boiling pot, and they will puff up and make yummy dumplings. Whisk together 1/4 c. flour with water and whisk it into the pot. Taste it and add more salt if needed.

My great grandma made amazing chicken and dumplings which involved first catching a chicken from the yard and wringing it's neck. I was pretty horrified by the whole process, but she knew how to make good chicken and dumplings. This version is much easier.

salsa

Instead of shopping on the first day of school I went to Mom's and we canned salsa. She's growing amazing tomatoes this year and is nearly buried in them. My great aunt Lois was the original salsa maker in the family, only she pronounced it sel-sa. There's something magical about canning. I love all the chopping and measuring and stirring and laughing. It's always hot when we can things, but that's because you have to do it when the produce is ripe. Fortunately, Mom has air conditioning, so that makes it easier. Then there's the sterilizing, dipping into jars, sealing, and steaming. And at the end of the morning, we admire the beautiful filled jars. I took this photo of Mom after we finished canning just the first batch. The second batch was processing in the steamers. We change up our recipe a bit each time and write it down to help us with the next one. Here's how we made it this year:

Shyron & Tami's 2009 Salsa

14 C. chopped tomatoes
4 chopped onions
3 C. chopped roasted red peppers
1 1/2 C. diced ortega chiles
4 T. cider vinegar
2 1/2 T. sugar
4 t. salt
2 t. chopped garlic
2 chopped large yellow banana peppers
1 large and 1 medium chopped jalapeno peppers
1 t. black pepper
1 t. ground dried jalapeno pepper

We use the food processor for all the chopping. It's ok to use canned chiles, peppers, or tomatoes if needed. Cook in a huge soup pot on the stove and boil for 10 minutes. Put into jars and process in hot water bath for 25 minutes. Makes 12-13 pints of salsa.