Old Fashion Chicken and Dumplings

This is a very old recipe for a hearty main course. Just how old, no one knows, however, I can see it being cooked in a pot over a fire in the fireplace.

Today, we are making "Chicken Pot Pie" which is easy and delicious, however, this is a twist to that idea.
Read the entire recipe before attempting to make it as there are items to add at the end.

Follow direction to not stir the chicken into the dumpling's, nor will you stir in the boiled eggs....you will just shake them down. My granny made this and it is over the top. Think I will try it for my own grandchildren.

CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS

Make Dumplings at least 2 hours before, or may refrigerate the dough overnight.

1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoon peanut oil
3 Tablespoon cold water

1 egg

Toss together and mix well. It will be sticky. Refrigerate at least 2 hrs or overnight.

Cook chicken by placing breast up in pot; add celery sticks and onion half's and cover with water.

Cover pot, bring to boil and cook over med heat until meat begins to separate from bone.

Remove from heat. Cool and then pull chicken off bone. Cut into bite size pieces.

Strain the chicken broth, and putting it back in the pot to receive the dumplings and chicken.

(You will serve it from this pot later)

Place chilled dumpling dough on lightly floured board and roll out very thin. So think that you see the board through it.

Cut strips into 1 1/2 inch triangles.

Bring broth to boil and drop strips of dough into boiling chicken broth.

Cook them 3 - 5 minutes.

Add chicken to dumplings and shake pot. (DO NOT STIR)

Add 2 sliced boiled eggs

stick of butter, cut in small pieces or melted

1/4 - 1/2 cup heavy cream

SHAKE POT

Sprinkle with black pepper.

ENJOY!

Shrimp Mousse ~ From Military Entertainment Days

The following is definitely an Oldie but Goodie. I remember how everyone stood around this dish at a cocktail party and always ask for the recipe.

Cocktail parties are not so popular as they were ~ today, our friends have to travel a little farther and it's nice to have heavy hors d'oeuvres for a group larger then a sit-down dinner party~ It works out as a great substitute for dinner. Everyone enjoyed making a plate of yummy goodies and sits with others ~ moving around to visit with all which takes up an entire evening pf eating, drinking and visiting.

In our day, a Cocktail Party was a timed event ~from 5 PM - 7 PM. It was a dress-up affair and were usually before another function. Ah...the big bashes at the Club were always wonderful.
Then the top of the line were
the Cocktail Hours before an Embassy Dinner. We allowed ourselves only 2 sampling of goodies as dinner was out of sight. Now, I have all my Fairy Tale memories, the collected pounds and recipes.

Here is the recipe for today~
makes a large hors d'oeuvre for a large party. It also is nice to serve as a salad with Lemon Mayonnaise. As a salad, it will serve 8.

SHRIMP MOUSSE

2 tablespoons gelatin

1/2 cup water

1 (10 0z) can tomato soup

8 oz cream cheese

1 cup Lemon Mayonnaise

1 lb. cooked chopped shrimp

3/4 cup finely chopped celery

1/4 cup finely chopped green pepper

1 tablespoon grated onion

1 tablespoon Durkee's Dressing

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon Worchestershire

Juice of 1 lemon

3 dashes of hot pepper sauce

Soak gelatin in cold water. Heat undiluted soup, add gelatin and stir until dissolved. Add cream cheese to mixture and stir until melted. Cool. Beat in food processor until smooth. Add mayonnaise, shrimp, vegetables and seasonings. Mix well and pour into an oiled mold. Chill until firm.

Unmold on serving platter with buttery unseasoned crackers.

I have seen this done in a fish mold which is appropriate~ use slices of olives for the eyes~ pimiento slices for scales and tail. Garnish with parsley.

ENJOY!

Chili Con Carne ~ Lost and Found Recipes

When I finished college I knew lots of things, but I didn't know how to cook. I remember having to call my Aunt to ask how to bake a potato. She thought I was kidding. I had only seen them being put into the oven, and taken out. I didn't know the temperature or how long to leave them.
After this failure at such a simple dinner, I promptly purchased my first cook book. It was the Better Homes and Garden New Cook Book. You know, the red and white checkered cover.

Publication information has long ago, fallen from book~ as well as the page with my favorite recipe.
That recipe for Chili Con Carne (Chili With Beef) was my standby for Chili.
The book went through at least 20 moves with me.

I tried many, many other recipes, but none as good.
Of course, Better Homes and Garden Cookbooks were different each publication...the recipe totally lost.

Looking through my old recipes ~ there I find a tattered page from a book. It was folded and waiting, my long lost recipe ~ Chili Con Carne ~ I share with you.

CHILI CON CARNE

1 can kidney beans

1 large onion

1 green pepper, chopped

1 pound ground beef

1 large can tomatoes

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

Dash paprika

Dash cayenne pepper

2 whole cloves

1 bay leaf

1 to 2 tablespoons chili powder

Brown ground beef, add onion and green pepper. Drain any fat from pan. Add tomatoes and seasonings. Simmer 2 hours adding water if necessary. Add beans; heat thoroughly. Makes 6 servings.

ENJOY!

Apple Stack Cake ~ From Lost and Found Files

The following recipe is very old and interesting idea for a cake. Both of my Grandmothers made this cake. It was a way to use their stash of dried apples.

I have a clear memory of the day on my grandmothers farm (which was once called a plantation) when the ladies in the family gathered together to dry apples.

The apples had been picked from the orchards and were now in large tubs waiting under the big shade trees. The men drew water from the well to dashed on the apples and fill the tubs ~ there the apples bobbed until they were loaded into the bowls meet their fate.

This work day was turned into a family social event~ an all day affair.

This was the day to DRY APPLES.

In my memory I can still see them sitting in a circle surrounding the many tubs of apples. I remember the pans sitting on aprons as knives worked quickly to peel, core and cut the apples into slices.

At intervals the guys would show up and take the pails of apple slices over to a waiting ladder and up to the rooftops and spread them out on prepared screen racks. If there were more apples than racks, they spread out sheets to recieve the apples. The sheets made collecting the apples easier but didn't withstand winds. There the apples caught the heat of the sun and no doubt quickly dried. As I watched, I clearly remember thinking that was a really smart idea.

I was preschool age and of course stayed nearby playing with my cousins. We loved the over sized swing (well, to me, it was really big). Little did the adults suspect how attentive we were to their conversation, and believe you me, we knew all the dirt on everyone for miles around. They had no idea we were absorbing each tidbit into our memories.

ANYWAY~ the following recipe is made from ... dried apples.

Apple Stack Cake

INGREDIENTS

2 cups white sugar
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons baking powder
6 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 pounds dried apples, cooked and mashed
1 3/4 cups packed brown sugar
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Grease and flour six 8-inch pans.
In a large bowl mix together white sugar, shortening, eggs, soda, baking powder, flour, salt, buttermilk, and vanilla. Divide batter into 6 or 7 equal parts. Press into prepared pans.
Bake at 450 degrees F (230 degrees C) for ten minutes.

To Make Filling: To the cooked and mashed apples, add the brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice, and mix. Layer 1 cake, spread filling between layer on top and sides. Do this with each of the 6 (or 7) layers. Let stand at least 12 hours before cutting.

Recipe from Lost and Found Files #3

The following recipe is one I am ecstatic over finding.
I have looked on-line for it and not to be found. I have looked through my 100 + cookbooks and it isn't in any of them either.
Why was I searching for it? Was told it was my brother's favorite cake. I wanted to make it for him for a Birthday Cake. The person who told me it was his favorite cake also offered me the recipe, however, it was conditional. I laughed as it was a first for me ~ to have someone hold hostage a recipe in exchange for one of my cookbooks. WHAT?
Was totally sure I could fine it, but no, no. Not to be found~ SO NOW ~ here it is~ in my Lost and Found Files.

Recipe condition:
It is a yellowed recipe card with an even more yellowed newspaper clipping stapled together. On the boarder I have written..."Mama 1971." If I can get my scanner up, will scan in a photo.

Orange Date-Nut Cake

1 c. butter

2 c. sugar

4 eggs

1 1/2 c. buttermilk

1 teasp. soda (dissolve in buttermilk)

2 Tbls grated orange rind

1 pound dates, chopped

1 c. pecans, chopped

4 c. sifted flour

Cream butter and slowly add sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Beating after each egg.

Dissolve soda in buttermilk and add to creamed mixture alternately with flour. Add dates, orange rind and nuts. Bake in a greased and floured tube pan at 325 degrees for 1 1/2 hours.

Orange Sauce:

Mix well~ 2 cups sugar, 1 c. orange juice. 2 Tbls grated orange rind. DO NOT COOK. While cake is still hot, pour sauce over it in the baking pan and let the cake cool in the pan. By the time cake is cool, the sauce will be absorbed.

2nd Recipe From The Lost and Found Files

The following recipe was shared with me after a fabulous Christmas Open House. It is from my BEST FRIEND at the time. Lenna gave the best parties~ Hosted the best Bridge~ She had the best recipes which she gladly shared. She had the "gift of gab" with a keen sense of humor and for that reason, was highly entertaining.
She was one of the treasured Air Force Wives who are like family to each other.

In 1970, Lee, her husband and Ford were on the same flight to a long assignment to Vietnam...there, they flew iron birds all over South East Asia. They flew separate missions, as both were Command Pilots with their own crews.
Lenna and I were not alone....we were not unique during those days. She and I shared everything with lots of humor.

When the guys finally returned home some 14 months (yes!! FOURTEEN MONTHS)(Get a load of that all you girls who whine about your husbands being gone overnight and not there to 'help' you.)
ANYWAY,
they were stationed together again to 9th Headquarters in Sumpter, South Carolina.

It was a GRAND Reunion as we all met and searched for houses to buy in that little town where the southern accent is so thick, they call it "swamp puddin'."
I remember wanting to see "downtown Sumpter" and it was only one short street. We drove through it without realizing that was supposed to be the town.
HOWEVER,
We were close enough to Charleston to drive down for dinner or up to Colombia for a nice French Restaurant.
It was a lovely and happy time in our lives and we played bridge and drank daiquiri's every Friday night and laughed our hearts out.

Lenna became sick and a delayed diagnosis quickly cost her life, Lee his wife and their two young children, their mother. And it cost me my closest and dearest friend in this world at the time.

Here is one of her recipes from my Lost and Found Box...

The recipe card which she wrote on has yellowed around the edges...but our friendship is still golden in my heart.

Fudge

In a saucepan 2 c. brown sugar ~

1 c. granulated sugar,

1 c. evaporated milk~

1/2 c. butter ~~ bring to boil over medium heat.

Cook 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat.

Add: 1 jar marshmallow cream (5 - 10 oz jar)

1 (6 oz) pk of butterscotch chips

1 (6 oz) pk of semi sweet chocolate chips

Stir until melted.

Add: 1 c. pecans or walnuts

1 tsp vanilla

Pour up into a buttered 9 inch square pan.

Makes 2 1/2 pounds.

Recipe #1 From Lost and Found File

This recipe is from a very good friend who lived in Burke, Virginia~
Sandy and Bob served this at a dinner party they did some 25 years ago. I remember it being soooooooooo delicious. I remember waking the next morning craving that taste ~ Sandy wrote this recipe for me.

Indian Curry

(serves 4)

1/4 c. margarine

1 onion, chopped

1/4 c. green pepper

1/4 c. celery

2 medium size apples, pared and sliced

1 1/2 tsp curry power

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 c. flour

2 C. chicken broth

2 c. diced chicken breast (I think she used canned chicken breast)

Melt butter and saute onion, gr. pepper, celery and apple until tender.

Stir in flour, curry powder, and salt and cook over low heat until well mixed and heated through. Remove from heat~ gradually stir in broth ~ heat to boiling and let boil while you stir for one minute. Add chicken and heat thoroughly. Serve on rice with condiments.

I like only chutney with this but other things Sandy had on the table was

peanuts, cashews, chopped eggs, raisins, bacon bits, coconut and both hot and regular mango chutney.

Their dinner party was for 12 people as I remember, and she had made the main dish earlier and let the flavors blend. IT WAS A BIG HIT.