Scenes from the weekend

 I’m pretty lucky I think. I own my home outright, so I don’t have to worry about a mortgage payment.I do still have to work, at least for another year or two. But, because I own my home, and because my boss approved it, I can work a four day work week and enjoy a  three day weekend, every weekend. Before the pandemic, I was out and about for most of the weekend. These days I’m seldom out and about. Most of the time I am at home. 

Being home means I have time to cook and bake and most weekends that’s exactly what I’m doing. This weekend was no exception.

 

Friday I made a delicious breakfast of roasted sweet potatoes, mashed avocado and sunny-side up eggs. Lunch was a delicious salad made with farro, spinach, chickpeas, cucumbers and feta cheese. Dinner? Lentil soup with celery, onions, carrots and tomatoes. 

Saturday was more baking, less cooking. I made a Polenta Apricot Pudding cake and a pan of Polenta Honey cake. I also took half a tube of sugar cookie dough, added some chopped pistachios and dried cherries and attempted to bake cookie sticks. The sticks spread so I have oblong cookies instead. Not as attractive as I had pictured in my head, but still delicious. 

The Honey polenta cake I use for one of my favorite snacks. I grill the cake and then top it with sliced, fresh pears, Greek yogurt and a drizzle of honey. 

Yesterday I made breakfast for dinner in the form of a delicious pumpkin oatmeal. It’s a recipe from Aarti Sequeira. I caught it on an episode of her show "Aarti Party". The recipe turned out well, super easy to make and worth looking up and trying. I hadn't realized Indian cooking used so many spices that I know and love. I have earmarked several recipes I want to try. Watch this space for Indian recipes in the future!  

The last cooking for the weekend I did was just a little bit ago. I roasted some Brussels sprouts with a little salt, pepper and olive oil. I love roasted veggies of all kinds. I often roast some and use them as meal prep. Last week it was carrots. My dinner this morning was homefries made with red potatoes cooked in a cast iron pan with onions, green pepper and some chopped bacon. Then, to go with the homefries, I sautéed some shallots, tossed in some spinach and then added a couple of beaten eggs and cooked that all together.Topped with a few pieces of feta cheese. Not very pretty, but quite satisfying. Some red grapefruit was perfect for cutting the richness of the dish. 

 

And that was pretty much my weekend. Did a little cooking. Cleaned up the mess made doing said cooking. Repeated the whole thing again. Very relaxing. Very peaceful. Also very productive because most things I cook or bake make multiple servings, and I freeze the extra into portions for my meals at work. It's a "win-win" situation. 

Chicken and Dumplings - the easy way

When I was growing up, one of my favorite meals my Mom made was Chicken, biscuits and gravy. Kind of like chicken and dumplings, but she made biscuits instead of dumplings and after they baked she broke some up and tossed them into the chicken and gravy. The ones that didn't go into the dish she served warm with butter and sugar. It took a large part of the afternoon for her to put that meal together. Boil the chicken and then peel it off the bones. Cut up veggies to put in the chicken stock. Make homemade biscuits. (I remember "helping" her once by patting down all the biscuits after she had cut them and placed them on a baking sheet...none of them rose and she couldn't figure out why she had "hockey pucks" instead of biscuits!) I make her version of that dish from time to time, but tonight I wanted the dish without all the work.

I used a recipe from Southern Living magazine for Easy Chicken and Dumpling and made some changes to it to make it my own. The end results were delicious. My hubby all but licked the bowl clean. It smelled delicious cooking on the stove and was easy as can be to put together.

 Easy Chicken and Dumplings

1/2 pound carrots, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch thick slices  
1 yellow onion, diced
4 celery ribs, cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
2 cloves of garlic, minced                                    
1 (32 ounce) container of chicken stock
The meat from 1 whole rotisserie chicken,  picked from the bones and broken into bite-sized pieces
1 (10 3/4  ounce) can of reduced-fat cream of chicken soup
1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
3/4 teaspoon Bouquet Garni (a blend of savory, rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, dill weed, marjoram, sage and tarragon)
1 (10.2 ounce) can of refrigerated jumbo buttermilk biscuits (I used whole wheat biscuits)

In a hot dutch oven, over medium heat, saute onion, garlic, carrots and celery in a little bit of olive oil, until onions are soft and translucent.
Add chicken stock, soup, chicken and seasonings. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat. Let simmer for 20 minutes. (I left this on the stove for almost an hour to be sure carrots and celery were soft and tender)
Before adding biscuits, bring mixture to a low boil over a medium-high heat.
Roll the biscuits out on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4 of an inch thickness.(I only used 4 of the 8 biscuits, baking the other 4 to serve on the side) Cut each biscuit into strips about 1/2 inch wide. (I cut the strips into pieces about 1 inch wide by 1/2 inch wide.)
Drop the cut up biscuits into the boiling mixture, one at a time. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer another 15 or 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent dumplings from sticking. I served it in bowls with baked biscuits on the side. Delicious!