wilkes

Well I wanted to make the recipe Bushman sent me but my water heater exploded and didn't exactly have time to fix alot. I had a friend helping me with repairs Friday and on thw way home Friday evening I stopped at the store and picked up some country ham and a Hostess ham. We got home and I asked him if he was ready for some crockpotting 101. I'm teaching him to can and cook things. He's a younger fella. He said sure. So I opened ham placed in crockpot. He said now you're going to put brown sugar on it huh? I said no. Why would I want to use brown sugar when I got molasses? So I put a generous amount of Molasses on the ham opened up a Mountain Dew and poured it into the crock pot turned it on low and asked any questions? Yeah, when is it going to be ready he said? It turned out really good. So I took that and country ham and biscuits.

So...what else did you take?

Mother's Old-Fashioned Homemade Chicken and Dumplings
'Don't forget the bay leaves and the pepper.'"
The recipe was passed down from my wife's grandmother,
who grew up in the hills of Tennessee.
1 whole fryer chicken or hen
4 to 5 bay leaves
salt and pepper, to taste
4 to 6 tablespoons butter
1 qt Whole Milk
pepper, to taste
Dumplings
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup water
2 small eggs
3 cups flour
Wash the chicken and place into a large Dutch oven.
Cover well with plenty of water and add bay leaves.
Add salt and pepper, and the butter
(the more butter, the richer the dish).
Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and cook,
uncovered, until the chicken is well done, about 1 hour.
Remove the chicken from the broth. Discard the bay leaves.
When the chicken has cooled, remove the meat from the bone
and return the deboned chicken to the broth.
Add the milk.
About 1/2 to 3/4 pot of broth should remain.
For dumplings,
In a large bowl, mix together the salt, oil, water, and eggs.
Slowly add the flour to the mixture, blending it constantly with a fork.
Stir only long enough to mix the dough.
Turn the dough out onto a floured board. Pinch the dough in half, and roll out
until thin, about 1/4 inch. Slice the dough into 1/2-inch-wide strips, and
cross-slice into pieces 4 to 8 inches long, for ease in handling.
Bring the broth and chicken back to a boil, and pepper well to taste.
Drop the dumpling strips into the boiling stock.
~~OR~~Drop by spoonfulls into broth if you want big dumplings.
Boil approximately 20 minutes,
uncovered, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, until the dumplings are
done (they'll be puffy).
Most of the broth will be absorbed.

I'm going to my girlfriends family reunion Saturday and I have already been told to bring my pickeled beets. She is making sour dough bread..mmmm. Looking for a really good recipe that you don't make often that is really good, one that when you try it you go man..I need to get that recipe. So dig out those cook books and dig deep...especially those old chruch cook books!!!