While Fall here in Kuwait is still bright sunshine and 80 to 90 degree days I've got Fall on the brain. I miss the leaves changing colors and all that comes with the season. I've been drinking cocoa, burning apple cinnamon/vanilla candles. dreaming of making the perfect pumpkin muffins (maybe tomorrow?), thinking about Thanksgiving, and drooling over "cold weather" recipes like spiced cider, stew and chicken and dumplings. I couldn't take it any longer so we're having chicken and dumplings for dinner. We bought a slow cooker yesterday!! Over dinner the other night I was telling the hubby about my dumpling plans and we both were a little surprised that we hadn't of bought one sooner! Hello A Year of Slow Cooking...I'll be an avid reader and will have to buy the book!
While we're on the subject of food...have y'all seen Julie & Julia? I watched half of it on the plane back home on Sunday (we went to Dubai for the day for a "visa run") and I loved it! The hubby got it for me the other day so I was able to have some "me time" all snuggled in bed eating way too many Reeses. I think Meryl Streep did an excellent job playing Julia!
EDITED TO ADD: Chicken & Dumplings Verdict
Delish!!! I give it 2 thumbs up! Even with the changes (I'll tell ya that in a sec) it was really yummy!
Changes I made and other stuff:
I cooked the chicken in the slow cooker for 3 hours and instead of using all water like the recipe calls for I used half chicken stock. I also added the veggies pictured in the top while it cooked. The chicken came out looking like something you'd find in a zombie movie! eww!! If you use chicken stock I'd eliminate the salt because after it was all put together it was just a little too salty for me.
While the chicken was cooling enough for me to tear it into pieces I was sauteing the veggies in a stock pot. The recipe says to add pearl onion but I just chopped up a regular onion and threw that in with the carrots, celery and garlic. Aren't the colors pretty?
There was so much stock leftover that there's enough for me to freeze for later. Here's a pic of what it looks like when you add the stock to the roux/veggies. This was taken before I added the cream. The recipe calls for 1/4 cup but I think I added about 2/3 cup. I also added more fresh ground pepper and a bit of dried parsley.
The dumplings were like little pillows of heaven! I was expecting them to be doughy in the center but they were like little heavenly biscuits...yum! I didn't have any chives so I just added a smidge of garlic powder and some dried parsley instead. I only used about a quarter of the dough! The recipe says to not let the dough touch...which is totally unavoidable! I used little dessert spoons to get smaller dumplings but they puffed up to almost golfball size! Here's a pic to see what I mean. This was even after I stirred it around a bit to try and cram some more dumplings in the pot.
And here's a pic of the huge bowl I dished out for my dinner!
And the inside of the dumplings...
