Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings

So I've completely and utterly failed at keeping this blog updated. I guess not having 3 days a week off really put a damper on things. I really am going to try harder to keep this updated. Especially since I am currently training to run a 5k and MUST eat healthier.  I did find a great website that I'm going to start trying to make my meals from. The recipes look great and they even include the nutritional information which I love. Today's recipe however does not come from there I got it from grouprecipes.com.

Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings


1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 chicken (3 lbs) cut into pieces
1 TBS vegetable oil
4 large carrots, peeled and sliced (I did not use since I hate cooked carrots)
2 stalks celery, sliced
1 onion, sliced
1 tsp dried rosemary
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup frozen peas


Dumplings
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten

1. Combine flour, salt, and pepper in a bag. Add chicken pieces and toss to coat.

2. Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Brown chicken in oil on all sides (8-10 min). 

Set  aside.

3. Put carrots, celery, onion, and rosemary in slow cooker. Set chicken pieces over vegetables.

4. Pour half  cup stock into a skillet and cook over medium high heats, scraping up brown bits.

5. Pour pan juices into slow cooker along with remaining stock. Cover and cook on High for 4-6 hours or on Low for 8-10 hours.

6. Add peas and stir slowly to combine.

7. Dumplings: In a bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, rosemary and salt. 

8. In a measuring cup combine milk and egg.

9. Add to flour mixture. Stir with a fork to make a lumpy dough. Drop dumpling mixture over chicken pieces.

9. Cover and cook on high for 25-30 min.

I really enjoyed this meal. The only problem that I had was that for a slow cooker meal it took A LOT of prep work. Daniel on the other hand wasn't to thrilled with it. I don't think I"m going to be getting him to eat dumplings again anytime soon. To bad really. 

Jamaican Stuffed Chicken

Ok so I'm going to try and get back into doing this. It really is something that I miss. Plus with my new position I'll be getting home early so I can actually COOK dinner. So let's see...just a little update: I'm loving working as an auto damage adjuster. It was definitely a good move on my part. I'm much happier than I was on the phones. I also just got a promotion, which is fantastic. I'll be running the office out of Moore Cadillac. So no more driving to Falls Church. I now have a nice 15 min, 3 road drive to work every morning. Other than that nothing else new. So todays recipe was inspired by one I found at Epicurious and tweaked for my tastes.

Jamaican Stuffed Chicken

1/2 cup peeled cubed sweet potato
1/3 cup peeled chopped plantain
5 chicken breasts
1 TBS butter
1TBS olive oil
flour
water
salt
pepper




1. Place the sweet potato and plantain in a small saucepan. Add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for about 8 min, or until soft. 

2. Drain. Return to pan and mash. Season to taste with salt and pepper. 

3. Pound chicken to 1/4 inch thickness. Season both sides with salt and pepper.  place spoonful or sweet potato/plantain mash on one end of chicken. 

4. Roll up chicken to surround mash. Repeat with remaining. Cover stuffed breasts with flour. 

5. Melt butter and oil in large skillet. and chicken and brown all sides. 

6. Add 1/4 cup water to skillet and simmer covered for aprox. 15 min or until chicken cooked through. 

7. Plate chicken. Add a drop of lemon extract to drippings in skillet. Increase heat to high and thicken for 1 min. Drip lemon sauce over chicken and serve.

This was really tasty and incredibly easy to make. It will probably become a staple in my weeknight dinner rotation. Even Daniel said it was good, although he was a little bit hesitant to eat it at first since I wouldn't tell him what it was except for chicken. 

Three!

So three months after it began I'm done with training and finally living at home again. Daniel had moved into an apartment while I was gone, so now I've moved in with him and am currently getting the kitchen set up the way I want it. I"m loving my new job. For the most part I"m working 6:45- 3:15, which I love! I"m actually able to do things like go to the grocery store once I get off work. And of course not being stuck in an office building all day is awesome! In a few weeks I"m having a tastefully simple party, which should be pretty cool. I"m looking forward to having people over. This week I made three different recipes all brought to us by my iPhone!

Mango Shrimp

Canola Oil

Chopped Red Onion

2 Cloves Garlic, minced

Fresh Ginger, peeled and minced

Salt

Allspice

Ground Cumin

Cinnamon

1 Mango, peeled, pitted, and cut into 1/2 in pieces

Cider Vinegar

Lime Juice

Brown Sugar

1lb Shrimp, peeled

Red Pepper

Garlic Powder

1. Heat oil in a 3-qrt saucepan over medium high heat. Cook onion, garlic, ginger, 1/4 tsp salt, allspice, cumin, and cinnamon for about three min. I didn't measure anything just made it to taste.

2. Add mango, vinegar, lime juice, and sugar. Gently boil, stirring occasionally until sauce is thick. Again I added everything to taste.

3. Toss shrimp with red pepper, garlic powder and Salt. Heat remaining oil in skillet. Cook shrimp.

4. Let cool and serve with sauce.

I also put this sauce over some chicken I have baked with garlic powder on it. Served the shrimp with the chicken and mashed potatoes as a side. This was a really delicious dinner. Daniel and I ate the entire thing, with no left overs. Best of all it only took about 45 min to make.

Jalapeno and Beer Baked Ribs and Sweet Potato Biscuits

Well it's been a great couple of weeks. I've been interviewing for a new job at GEICO. it was be a job as an AD trainee. Basically I would be training to be the person that looks at your car and assesses the damage after an accident. I really want this job because after 3 months of training in Va Beach I would be located in Falls Church, a much shorter commute than Fredericksburg. Also I wouldn't be tied to a desk, I'd be up moving around and actually interacting with people. Not to mention a pretty good pay raise. I"m supposed to find out if I got the job some time this coming week. So keep your fingers crosssed. Also this week I went back to school. I'm taking Federal and Colonial American Lit. It seems like it should be a pretty interesting class. I also discovered that they have done a LOT more building at GMU than I thought they had and I was breifly lost while on campus. And lastly the house hunt has been put on hold because there is no reason to pay rent in Fairfax for 3 months if I'm going to be living in VA Beach. This weeks recipies come to us from two different sources Cooks.com and Food and Wine Magazine.

Jalapeno and Beer Baked Ribs

~ Cooks.com

Beef Short Ribs, cut into 3 inch peices

2 c. canned tomato sauce

1/4 c. red wine vinegar

1/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar

1 TBS dry mustard

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 large onion coarsly chopped

4 large jalapenos, chopped                                         TBS chopped green peppers

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 c. beer

1. Preheat oven to 425. Arange ribs in pan. Sprinkle onions around ribs.

2. Combine All remaining ingrediants except beer in a large saucepan. Simmer over medium heat until slightly thickened, stiring ocasionally, about 10 min. Cool slightly. I didn't have tomato sauce so I used 1 can Campbell's tomato soup.

3. Stir in beer. I used Dogfish Head 90 minute.

4. Pour mixture over ribs. Cover pan and bake aprox. 2 1/2 hours. I would make sure that the cover/foil does not touch the meat. Mine did and where it was touching it burned.

5. Remove ribs from pan and keep warm. Combine all pan juices in medium sauce pan. Skim fat from pan juice. Boil over medium heat until reduced to two cups.

6. Spoon sauce over ribs and serve.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

~ Food and Wine

1/2 lb sweet potato

1 3/4 cup flour

1 TBS brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

7 TBS butter

1/3 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 375. Poke the sweet poato all over with a fork and bake for about 45 min until tender.

2. Peel and mash the potato. Set aside 3/4 cup and let cool completely. Reserve the rest for another use. Raise oven to 425.

3. In a food processor pusle the flour with the brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

4. Add butter and pulse until the misture resembles coarse meal. My blender started having trouble once I added the butter so I moved it to a bowl and cut it with kives.

5. Add the buttermilk and 3/4 cup mashed potato and pulse until dough comes together.

6. Turn the dough onto a heavily floured work surface and knead 2 or 3 times until smooth. Roll out the dough 1/2 inch thick and cute eight 4-inch rounds.

7. Arrange on parchment lines baking sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes, until golden brown. I didn't have any parchment so I just greased the pan with a little crisco.

Overall I think that this was a delish dinner. I saved my leftover sauce, I'm planning on putting it on some chicken tomorrow night. And the biscuits were really good, though they were more muffiny than biscuits should be, but still really good!

Braised Beef Short Ribs with Tomatoes and Red Wine and Challah

Well we are one week into the new year and it's been a great week. I am still absolutally loving my new schedual. Getting home between 6:45 and 7:15, depending on the traffic is so much better than 8:30/9. And last Saturday after work Jordi Williams came up to visit and celebrate her recent engagement. Where we noshed on Sweet Potato Fries and Cheese Fries. I also tried a white Sangria, White wine, brandy, peach schnapps, peach nectar and fresh cut fruit. Sunday we looked at a house in Manassas and went to Dogfish for lunch. It was very yummy. This week the house hunt had continued. Made all the harder by my budget and wanting to get a puppy. This week we have two recipies. The first is based of a recipie from Wolgang Puck and can be found here. http://www.ihavenet.com/wolfgang-puck-recipe-Braised-Beef-Short-Ribs-with-Tomatoes-and-Red-Wine.html. The second come to us courtesy of the cookbook Barrett, Marcy, and Trent gave me for Christmas; The Joy of Cooking!

Braised Beef Short Ribs with Tomatoes and Red Wine

~ Inspired by Wolfgang Puck, created by Me

4 to 5 pounds bone-in beef short ribs

Salt

Ground black pepper

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup diced celery

1/2 cup diced yellow onion

1/2 cup diced carrot

4 garlic cloves

3 cups dry red wine

1 tomatoe cut into 4

3 bay leaves

Thyme

Parsley

1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

1 can beef broth

Splash chicken broth

1. Season the short ribs with salt and pepper to taste. In a large saucepan heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add short ribs and sear until browned, place on plate to the side.

2. Add the celery, onion, carrot, and garlic and saute for 5 minutes.

3. Add wine and bring to a boil.

4. Place short ribs in bottom of slow cooker. Add tomatoes, bay leaves, thyme, parsley and pepper corns. Add beef and chicken broth.

5. Cook on high for 5 hours.

6. Remove short ribs and place on serving dish. Skim Fat off liquid. Use salt and peper to taste. Spoon sauce and tomato over ribs. Serve.

Challah

~Joy of Cooking

1/2 cup warm water

1 package active dry yeast

3 cups bread flour

3 large eggs

2 large yolks

3 TBS vegetable oil

3 TBS sugar

1 1/4 tsp salt

Cornmeal

1. Combine in a large bowl or the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer and let stand until the yeast is disolved, about 5 min, 1/2 cup warm water, yeast, 1/2 cup flour, 2 eggs lightly beaten, 2 yolks beaten, vegitable oil, sugar, salt. Mix by hand or on low speed until thoroughly blended.

2. Gradually stir in 2 1/2 cups bread flour.

3. Knead for about 8 min by hand until dough is smooth and elastice and no longer sticks to your hands or the bowl.Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl and turn it once to cover with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until it doubles in size.

4. Punch down the dough, knead briefly, and return to the bowl. Refridgerate, covered, until it has nearly doubled in volumn.

5. Divide the dough into 3 pieces. On and unfloured work surface, roll into balls. Let rest covered with plastic wrap for 10 minutes. Grease a baking sheet and sprinkle with cornmeal. Roll each ball into a 13/14 inch long rope. Dust the 3 ropes with flour.

6. Place the ropes side by side, pinch the top ends together. Braid the entire length until you reach the ends. Tuck both ends underneath and set it on baking sheet. Whisk togehter 1 egg and a pinch of salt and brush over top of the loaf.

7. Loosely cover the braid with lightly oiled plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place about 45 minutes.

8. Preheat the oven to 375.

9. Brush the loaf again with egg wash. Bake until crust is golden brown. about 30-35 minutes. Cool on rack.

This was a really fantastic dinner. The beef was so tender. And I loved dipping the challah into the sauce. This is something that I would definately make again.