Ma's Old Prairie Dumplings

This recipe is from my great-great-grandmother.

She was married to a sharecropper in the plains/prairies

out around Muleshoe, Texas.

Times were hard back then ... real hard.

If all you had on hand

was some fresh kill meat, some flour, and salt ...

and access to water ...

you could have one FINE meal.

(As my Mammie would later say ... a little butter don't hurt none.)

My point is ... check out how simple this is ...

and check out how DELICIOUS it is, too.

I suppose you could do this with rabbit

or squirrel ... like my GGGM probably did ... or whatever

other kinds of "fresh kill meats" y'all eat out there.

But the only meats we eat around here

are mainly beef and chicken ...

occasionally some deer and lamb ... 

so my dumpling meal will center around chicken.

First thing you do is boil your meat

in a large stewpot.

Tonight I only did three breasts.

Place meat on plate to cool. 

Keep the broth/water.

In a large bowl, cover the bottom with salt.

Add hot water to bowl, and dissolve salt.

You want it salty.

Tonight I used 1 1/2 cups water ...

if I make a larger batch I go with 2 cups.

There is no strict measuring.

The more water you have

the more flour you'll need ...

and the more dough you'll make.

Then I open up my sack of flour and start pouring
into the salt water.

Nothing in this recipe is measured.

Just enough flour to make a dough.

I use a fork to stir.

Until it gets crumbly and lumpy and moisty.

Then I reach in there and start using my hands ...

and blend, blend, blend ...

until I can pull a good-sized ball out of there.

I sprinkle flour on my countertop ... and roll it out ...

... and cut slices with a butter knife.

Then I hold out the palm of my hand

and stack as many as I can on there ...

And plop 'em one by one into the hot broth ...

You'll know if the broth is hot enough

by seeing the dumplings immediately float to the top.

Once you get all of your dough rolled out and cut ...

and into the broth ...

time to hand shred the cooled meat, and toss it in there.

Now this is where I add to the original recipe just a tad ...

I go ahead and give it a good shake of black pepper,

and add a half a stick of real butter.

I stir it real good, and shut the heat off ... and cap it.

And start cleaning my mess, and taking more pictures.

After about an hour of farting around ... the dumplings look like this.

The longer it sits, the better it gets.

Enjoy!!

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We sure did :)

(Edited to add final picture.)

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

We Have TEN Eggs Now ...

Creamy Chicken Curry Lo Mein

Fry cubed chicken breast in coconut oil ...

pull, and set aside.

Add the (red) curry paste 

and the (yellow) Madras Curry Powder

to the remaining coconut oil ...

according to your personal preference.

We like it pretty dadgum spicy,

so I add two heaping tablespoons of the red

and one tablespoon of the yellow.

Sometimes I add a little more CO

if it needs it.

Mash the curry into the hot oil,

and mix until "gritty smooth" like rue.

Add water ... keeping a constant stir/whisk.

I add four cups.

Simmer down to about two concentrated cups

... stirring often ...

and add can of coconut milk.

Keep simmering.

For an even creamier, and sweeter,  version, 

add  a can of

"the cream of coconut."

Start your pasta (I use fettucine)

and add large chunks of bell pepper and onion

to your curry ... re-add your chicken.

Keeping simmering the curry.

Strain pasta when it is ready,

 and toss with the curry. 

Bon Appetit!

Hannebelle Loves Belle's Chicken

My nickname is Nani.

When I am in little trouble,

Mama calls me Nani Wayne.

My real name is Hanne-Belle.

(hah-nah-bell-lah)

When I am in big trouble,

Mama calls me Hanne-Belle Wayne.

I love to eat at Belle's Chicken House.

It is my restaurant.

My name is everywhere here.

I have my birthday parties there, and

I want my next birthday party to be there.

You can come if you want to.

I would like it.

Just tell Mama.

Here is my birthday party room.

It's even my name too ...

the John Wayne room.

They fix it up real special

for me

on my birthday.

I eat real good at Belle's.

You will, too.

If you like chicken.

I love chicken.

Do you like chicken?

The people dance a lot at Belle's.

I don't get up there, but Mama does

when it's time to do the hokey-pokey

and the YMCA. 

It makes my sisters lay their head on the table.

Here is the chicken dance.

When it is your birthday,

you have to dress up like a chicken.

They haven't made me do it before, at my other birthdays,

but Mama says they might make me when I get bigger.

I don't want to.

Somebody dropped their snowcone,

and it looked like snow on the ground.

It made me laugh.

It's too hot for snow on the ground,

but there it is!

I have so much fun at Belle's

that I get tired before everybody is ready to go home.

I love to sit on my Mama's lap.

It is real dark

when it's time to go home.

But I am real brave, and I can do tricks.

I love Belle's.

My Best Friend From High School

THEN

NOW

Happy 41st Birthday, Mike.

I couldn't help but belt it out, and sing along ...

at the top of my lungs ...

I bet you will, too.

We ought to get together

for a reunion recording ...

while we still got it.

heehee ... love you.

Homemade Nutter-Butters

Try it, my fellow Texans, try it.

These really, truly, taste

exactly like Nutter-Butters brand ...

but, better.

I think the key flavor

derives from the

Galletas Marias

cookies ...

found at H-E-B.

You can get a huge box
for less than $2.50.

Nine Eggs

Smaller than a nickel ... tiny.

One year ago, today, we bought Blue Boy

to cheer little Nani up ...

or try to.

She was in a lot of pain.

Nani had a broken hip.

She couldn't walk.

At all.

She had to be carried everywhere.

Blue Boy made her ... was going to say laugh,

but that's not accurate.

A year ago, today, a simple "smile" was a blessing.

Update on My Bad Birds

They have been real bad, and busy.

Started out with ( finding THREE eggs ) and

watched the number grow to five, then six,

and now seven.

Edited to add: 
Thursday, September 2, at 1:45 am
EIGHT EGGS!!!

Here are the pics I took when we only had six eggs ...

listen to me ... ONLY six eggs ... oy.

Of course, the mystery and shock of all this

stems around the fact

that I thought we had two male birds.

Chingado is obviously male with his

vibrant blue/purple cere ...

I just assumed that Blue Boy was male, too,

because his/her cere was pure white ...

so pure that it has a hint of blue/grey to it.

By the way, even this picture below

doesn't do justice

to the vibrancy of Chingado's cere.

No brown ... no pink ... no tan ...

Blue Boy's cere is just white.

I guess that means FEMALE ...

well obviously it does

because we have

SEVEN eggs

that he/she guards with

his/her LIFE.

I just took this pic ...

think he/she is laying another egg ... or about to?

We'll see what the next few days have to offer.

I'm trying to figure out WHEN he/she laid the first one.

There were already three eggs when I discovered

Blue Boy wasn't a boy.

My best calculation is guessing the first egg to be

about ten days old ... especially if they lay

every other day ... which seems to be about right

judging by how he/she is spitting them out.

So we'll start looking for a baby in another ten days or so ...

let's hope he/she is through laying eggs.

I don't know HOW he/she is going to feed

all of them.

Anybody want an exclusive, special, parakeet 

from Mama Crow?

I'm going to start taking tentative orders ... 

and we'll all watch to see how this new adventure plays out.