(originally written on 2/11/10)
With all the cold and the snow, we've had plenty of time to cook (and eat) lots of yummy comfort foods. We've had beef vegetable barley soup, homemade bread, chocolate chip cookies, banana bread, and chicken stew. Not just any chicken stew. I've been on a quest for sometime trying to replicate the recipe that my Gram always made for us. This is one of my very favorite meals that she made. I remember her saying that making it was an all-day affair. Well, I don't make anything that takes all day. I have been dubbed "the Queen of Quick" in the kitchen. So here goes, my easy version of the secret family recipe.
Chicken Stew with Austrian Dumplings
chicken parts (I use thighs) - about 10-12 carrots
1 - 26 oz. can cream of chicken soup celery
chicken broth from cooking the chicken onion
flour potatoes
salt
pepper
Boil chicken parts in water until chicken is well cooked. Set aside chicken to cool. Save broth. In another large pot, mix can of cream of chicken soup with approx 3 cups of chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Add in chopped celery, onion, carrots, potatoes, salt and pepper. Simmer until tender.
Pull cooled chicken off the bone, cut into small pieces. Set aside.
Add approx 1/4 cup flour to about 1 cup of chicken broth. Mix well. Add to stew mixture, bring to boil. Boil for 1-2 minutes. Fold in chicken and dumplings.
Austrian Dumplings
1/2 c Butter
1 Egg; separated
1 Egg yolk
3/4 c Flour
1/4 ts Salt
1 ds Pepper
1 ds Nutmeg
Cream butter until soft and beat in egg yolks; gradually stir in flour, seasoning and stiffly beaten egg whites. Shape in small balls 1 inch in diameter, drop into boiling salted water and simmer, covered, about 5 minutes; do not let dumplings boil. Gently scoop out of water w/ slotted spoon. Makes 1 1/2 doz.
Enjoy! This recipe will feed our family of 7 with very little in the way of leftovers!
Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts
Monday, March 1, 2010
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Letting kids be kids and Squash Fries
This past Saturday night our family had an enjoyable time going to my friend Amy's house for dinner. Amy and Brian are our friends from church, and we both homeschooled. She still does. They have 3 adorable children and you would think that with all we have in common, we would've gotten our families together a long time ago.
Dinner was wonderful. I can't remember what the chicken was called, but it had spinach in it. Yum! But then there was the squash fries. Double yum! More on that later.
After dinner we played a fun game with the kids: Apples to Apples. Their 3 children were playing the game, our 2 oldest were playing, and baby Kaylee stood on my lap flapping her arms for the duration. In my high strung parenting, I sometimes have this notion that my kids are going to be quiet, for some reason, when we play a game. Okay, so I've put in a long day, can you just play without so much screaming? Nope! It was actually a ton of fun to see these 5 kids laughing so loudly and yelling at the top of their vocal range. Even Kaylee (7mo) got into the act by being screamy with the rest of the kids!
Then Jeremy (9) and his friend Evan showed off (loudly) on the piano for one another. It was fun to see their different approaches to the instrument.
With so many kids in the house, the noise level was at a high decibel level quite frequently throughout the evening. Perhaps that was because everyone was having a fun time. Except for when Corey(4) for some unknown reason decided to bop Hannah on the head with the princess wand. (Later on while putting him to bed, he confessed that he felt very sorry for hurting Hannah.)
It was honestly very enjoyable for me to see my kids having so much fun. Why do I try to take away their fun sometimes when we are doing "the family thing" by hushing them up? This evening Carl said, "Well, you know, we worship our quiet around here." Hmmm. He's right. Made me think that peace at any cost is not an effective parenting strategy. Let them be kids. I don't for one minute advocate permissive parenting. Maybe now that I've reached 40 (yikes!) it takes a little more doing to remember what it was like to be a kid, but I need to let my kids enjoy the adventure.
Oh yeah, I didn't forget about the "Squash Fries". Butternut Squash cut into french fry-type slices. Mix with olive oil and salt. Broil in oven until tender. Yum! What a wonderful side dish. So of course I had to buy one. At the grocery store Travis(6) asked me to weigh it. I didn't pick a small one. 5-1/4 pounds. After all 4 kids can put quite a dent in anything I put on the table. (Yes, my kids actually like veggies most of the time.) I had a dickens of a time peeling the thing. And I really hope they like this because a 5-1/4 pound squash may feed us for 3 nights. But it's done and waiting in the fridge for me to cook tomorrow evening. I'll let you know how it turns out! In the meantime, I'm on the lookout for good veggie recipes.
Dinner was wonderful. I can't remember what the chicken was called, but it had spinach in it. Yum! But then there was the squash fries. Double yum! More on that later.
After dinner we played a fun game with the kids: Apples to Apples. Their 3 children were playing the game, our 2 oldest were playing, and baby Kaylee stood on my lap flapping her arms for the duration. In my high strung parenting, I sometimes have this notion that my kids are going to be quiet, for some reason, when we play a game. Okay, so I've put in a long day, can you just play without so much screaming? Nope! It was actually a ton of fun to see these 5 kids laughing so loudly and yelling at the top of their vocal range. Even Kaylee (7mo) got into the act by being screamy with the rest of the kids!
Then Jeremy (9) and his friend Evan showed off (loudly) on the piano for one another. It was fun to see their different approaches to the instrument.
With so many kids in the house, the noise level was at a high decibel level quite frequently throughout the evening. Perhaps that was because everyone was having a fun time. Except for when Corey(4) for some unknown reason decided to bop Hannah on the head with the princess wand. (Later on while putting him to bed, he confessed that he felt very sorry for hurting Hannah.)
It was honestly very enjoyable for me to see my kids having so much fun. Why do I try to take away their fun sometimes when we are doing "the family thing" by hushing them up? This evening Carl said, "Well, you know, we worship our quiet around here." Hmmm. He's right. Made me think that peace at any cost is not an effective parenting strategy. Let them be kids. I don't for one minute advocate permissive parenting. Maybe now that I've reached 40 (yikes!) it takes a little more doing to remember what it was like to be a kid, but I need to let my kids enjoy the adventure.
Oh yeah, I didn't forget about the "Squash Fries". Butternut Squash cut into french fry-type slices. Mix with olive oil and salt. Broil in oven until tender. Yum! What a wonderful side dish. So of course I had to buy one. At the grocery store Travis(6) asked me to weigh it. I didn't pick a small one. 5-1/4 pounds. After all 4 kids can put quite a dent in anything I put on the table. (Yes, my kids actually like veggies most of the time.) I had a dickens of a time peeling the thing. And I really hope they like this because a 5-1/4 pound squash may feed us for 3 nights. But it's done and waiting in the fridge for me to cook tomorrow evening. I'll let you know how it turns out! In the meantime, I'm on the lookout for good veggie recipes.
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