chicken and dumpling soup

Chicken and Dumplings
Recipe by Our Best Bites


6 cups chicken broth (1 1/2 boxes or 3 cans) OR 6 c. water + 6 chicken bouillon cubes
1 lb. cooked chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces (I use 1/2 of a fauxtisserie chicken and it's FABULOUS! You could also use leftover rotisserie chicken from the grocery store)
1 c. sliced carrots
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 onion, minced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 bay leaf
1 handful of chopped fresh parsley (or 1 Tbsp. dried parsley)
1/2 tsp. basil
1 14-oz. can evaporated milk (fat free is fine)
1 recipe of Bisquik dumplings (recipe is on the box) or 1 small package of Kluski noodles


In a large pot, heat some olive oil over medium heat and add onions and garlic. Saute for a few minutes and then add chicken broth, chicken, bay leaf, and basil. Bring to a boil. Add carrots and celery and reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook until carrots and celery are tender. When carrots and celery are almost done, add chopped parsley. Add evaporated milk. Increase heat to boiling and add noodles or add prepared Bisquik by small spoonfuls (they'll really puff up while they're cooking). Cook until noodles are tender or until dumplings are cooked through (they should appear moist but feel firm; this is after about 4-5 minutes).


One other thing--if you know you'll have leftovers, only add dumplings or noodles to what you know you'll eat immediately. The noodles/dumplings will soak up all the liquid in the soup when you store it as leftovers, so you'll have overly-mushy noodles and chicken with no broth if you don't. The other thing you can do is add all of the dumplings or all of the noodles, and then store the dumplings or noodles separately from the rest of the soup. That's easy to do with dumplings, not so much with noodles.

Serves 5-6-ish...

Notes:

1. This was really tasty and really easy. The kids really liked it and it doesn't take a lot of time to make.

It's cookie time.

Matt didn't start singing along when I starting singing the song from Troop Beverly Hills. I even tried twice. Weak sauce.

I made three kinds of cookies for my neighbor gifts. Most of them were wrapped up on small thanksgiving plates with cellophane but here is a picture of the last four I did today and I just wrapped up the cookies.

Ginger Spice Cookies - Our Best Bites (recipe from Paula Dean)

3/4 C Butter flavored Crisco

1 C sugar, plus more for rolling

1 large egg

1/4 C molasses

2 C flour

2 t baking soda

1 t ground cinnamon

1 t ground ginger

1/2 t ground cloves

1/2 t salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. spray pan lightly with cooking spray. With an electric mixer, combine shortening and sugar and cream until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add the egg and the molasses and beat until completely incorporated. Sift or whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt and then add to the mixture. Stir until combined. Roll the dough into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until just set around the edges and you start to see "crackling" on the top. They'll puff up while they're baking and as they cool they'll flatten.
Don't over bake! You want to keep them nice and chewy-soft in the middle

Notes:

1. I used a tablespoon to measure my balls.

2. I cooked them for about 9 minutes. They won't look done but they are.

3. I didn't have cloves so I used allspice.

Shortbread Cookies - Little Birdie Secrets

4 cups flour
1 lb. butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. almond extract
1 bag Wilton Candy Melts or similar melting chocolate (we like "light cocoa" flavor)

Cream the butter and sugar, then add flour and mix well. Roll out on a lightly floured
surface and cut into desired shapes. Bake at 300 degrees for 25-30 minutes.
(Start checking after about 20 minutes. You want them to be just barely browning
around the edges.) Yields about 3 dozen cookies, depending on size of your cookie cutter.

Allow cookies to cool. Melt chocolate according to package directions. Dip half of each cookie in chocolate and place on wax paper to cool. When you start running low on chocolate, use a spoon to pour chocolate over cookies. Use the back of the spoon to smooth chocolate around until well-covered.

Notes:

1. I over baked mine a little but they still tasted good. Mine never turned brown but I left them in a couple minutes longer waiting for them to get brown.

2. I used the wilton chocolate but liked the ones I did with milk chocolate melting chocolate a little better.

3. My friend told me she sometimes like to add a little lemon flavor and then dip them in powdered sugar (no chocolate dipping). If I were to do that I would do balls or smaller cookies. That would be a tasty variation if you like lemon.

Peanut Butter Cookies - Allrecipes

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 40 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups, unwrapped
• 
  
• Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.
3. Cream together the butter, sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and milk. Add the flour mixture; mix well.
4. Shape into 40 balls and place each into an ungreased mini muffin pan.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into each ball. Cool and carefully remove from pan.

Notes:

1. These are amazing. I put my butter cups unwrapped in the freezer while I baked my cookies so they would press down easily.

2. I used a table spoon to make my balls and it was the perfect size for a mini muffin tin.

3. The cookies won't look done at all but only cook for 9 minutes. They will be puffed up but when you press the cup in it works out fine.

4. I tried some with a large butter cup in a regular muffin tin and used 2 tablespoons of dough. They were really good but a little over the top. I cooked that pan for 12 minutes.

apple pie caramel apples

Apple Pie Caramel Apples
1 bag Kraft caramels4-5 large, tart apples (You can use red apples too but I like the contrast of the tart apple with the caramel)
1 bag white chocolate chips or white chocolate candy melts
cinnamon sugar
1. Wash, scrub, and dry apples. This is important or your caramel won't stick because of the coating stores put on apples.2. In a medium saucepan, melt caramel according to package directions.
3. Put popsicle stick in the apple. Dip in melted caramel making sure to fully coat it.
4. Place on parchment or wax paper that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
5. Cool in the fridge until caramel is set up. If you want a thick caramel layer, add another layer of caramel here and let it set up again.
6. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave in 30 second intervals. You can add a little shortening if the mixture is too thick.
7. Coat the apple with the chocolate.
8. Let it set up a little bit before sprinkling it with the cinnamon sugar mixture.
9. Cool completely in the fridge.
10. Cut into slices and serve.
...Or wrap them in cellophane and give them to your friends.

Recipe: The Girl who ate everything

Notes:

1. I haven't officially tried these apples, but let's be honest - can you really go wrong with something called an apple pie caramel apple?

2. After the massive amount that I inhaled at Mere's wedding, I might be able to make these and not eat them!!

white chicken chili

1 32-ounce box chicken stock
3 cans white beans, left undrained
5 cups cooked chicken (rotisserie or boiled)
1 16-ounce jar salsa
1 8-ounce block pepper jack cheese, grated
2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 cloves garlic, minced
Black or white pepper to taste
1/2 cup finely crushed corn chips (optional, if you like your chili thicker)
Sour cream, for garnish

Preparation
Place all ingredients except the corn chips in a crockpot. Cook on high until the cheese is melted.
Chili may also be cooked on the stovetop over medium-high heat until cheese is melted.
When the chili is ready, add the crushed corn chips, if using, and simmer for 10 minutes to thicken. Garnish with more chips, cheese and/or sour cream and serve.

Recipe from Rachael Ray

Notes:

1. This is a very tasty soup. It has a little bite because of the pepperjack cheese. It says the chips are optional - they are not optional. They are a must. We crush some up, put it on the bottom of the bowl and the pour the soup over. My kids really liked this soup when I made it last night. They each licked their bowl clean.

2. If you are making the taquitos, you will have half of a block of pepperjack cheese leftover so you could make a half batch of this soup!!

The recipe serves 6.