Cook Books

Today I added another cook book to my collection. Even though I don't use cook books all that much anymore, thanks to the internet, I still love to have them. I have quite a few. Some of them I brought with me from Germany, others I bought at garage sales and some of them I actually bought new. I also started to make my own cook book several years ago. I have stacks of recipes torn out of magazines and newspapers. Whenever I make one of them and I like it I'll copy it neatly and put it in my cook book. If I don't like it, it goes in the trash. This way I'll know which ever recipe I make, it will be good. So many times you'll find a recipe that sounds so good, but then it doesn't taste good.
The book I got today is an e-book. I got it for free from amazon. It is called "Super Duper Totally Authorized Top Secret Recipes eBook "
It's a kindle edition. I don't have a kindle, but you can get a kindle reading app for your computer for free at amazon.
I have no idea how long this offer is good for. But I'm certainly glad I got in on it. It has 450 clone recipes from Mc Donalds,Starbucks, KFC and many more restaurants.
So, I think in the coming weeks I'll be cooking a lot, trying out these recipes. And hopefully I can give some of them a spot in my own cook book.

The Chicken Dumpling Adventure

Have you ever had the Chicken and Dumplings at Cracker Barrel? I love them. When we go there to eat, that is what I will have. But we don't go out very often. So I wanted to try and make chicken and dumplings that tasted just like theirs. There are lots of copycat recipes out there. The hard part is to find one that actually tastes like the original. I looked at a few and decided on one that seemed simple enough. I had to make a few substitutions, but nothing that would affect the taste very much. For example, I didn't have a whole chicken, so I used chicken breasts. Instead of fresh parsley I used dried.
The first part of the recipe went pretty well. Then I started the dumplings. I should have known just by looking at the ingredients that they wouldn't come out right. The dough is supposed to be rolled out.
But if I would have put that dough on my kitchen counter, it would have run off it and on the floor.
So then I started looking around the different recipes some more. I found that same recipe two more times. From different people on different websites. The directions almost the same, maybe a couple words changed. And each taking credit for it. So it seems people just take other peoples recipes and without even trying them out, claim them to be their own.
To save the dumplings I decided to add more flour to it and make drop dumplings out of it. In the end it was a nice dish. But nothing like Cracker Barrel's. Since I have made so many changes to this recipe I give you my version of a nice chicken dumpling dish.

In a large pot combine 3 quarts water
                                     2-3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
                                     1 tsp salt
                                     1 small onion, cut in pieces               
                                     2 stalks celery, chopped
                                     1 tsp garlic( from a jar)
                                     1 bay leaf
                                     1 tbsp dried parsley
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 2 hours.
Remove chicken and cover so it won't dry out. Strain the broth and discard the vegetables.
Pour the broth back into the pot.
Add:                              1/4 tsp. ground pepper (or to taste)
                                      1 tbsp. lemon juice
                                      1/2 tsp salt
Bring to a boil.

For the dumplings stir together
                                     2 1/2 cups flour
                                     1 tbsp baking powder
                                     1 1/4 tsp salt
                                     1 cup milk

Drop by tsp fulls onto boiling broth, reduce heat and simmer 20-30 minutes, depending on the size of the dumplings. If at this point the broth is not thick enough, thicken it with cornstarch. Just stir about 1 tbsp of  cornstarch into about 1/4 cup of cold water. Pour a little of this into the broth and let boil for a couple minutes. Add more if needed.
Add the cut up chicken back into pot and heat through.
                                

I guess what I have learned is, that just because a recipe comes from a great website, doesn't mean it is a great recipe.

Carrot Cake-Gelbrübentorte

The other day I mad a carrot cake. This is different than than most carrot cakes. It has less sugar than most cakes, very little flour and only a dusting of powered sugar instead of heavy frosting.
This recipe actually comes from a German cookbook that was given to me about 30 years ago. I have used this cookbook quit a bit.

  

But over the last few years it has been neglected, because when ever I want to cook or bake and need a recipe, I'll look on line. It's just so much faster to find something specific. You just search for "carrot cake" and get thousands of recipes in a couple seconds. An old fashioned cookbook just can't compete with that. But sometimes you just want an old tried and true recipe that you have made many times. And you know what to expect. So here is a recipe for a German carrot cake.

6 eggs, separated

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 cups grated carrots

grated rind of half a lemon

1 Tsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp Kirschwasser

3 cups ground almonds

1/3 cup flour

Beat egg yolks and sugar until thick and foamy. Add the carrots and continue beating for 20 minutes. Add lemon rind, cinnamon and Kirschwasser. Add almonds and continue stirring a few more minutes.

Beat egg whites until stiff. Carefully stir in flour and fold in egg whites. Pour into prepared 9" spring form pan. Bake at 350 °F for 45 minutes to an hour.

Let cool and dust with powdered sugar.

If you want a really sweet cake then this isn't for you. But I like it for just that reason.
The last time I made this cake I didn't have any almonds. But I had a bag of hazelnuts and part of a bag of walnuts. I just mixed them together and used that. I'm not afraid to substitute.
You'll want to make this cake the day before, it'll be moister.

Assault with a deadly weapon

This is a story from my local newspaper. I couldn't make this up.

DECATUR - A patrol officer who responded to a report of a domestic incident was battered by a 35-year-old woman's backside, according to a sworn statement by the officer.
The woman was arrested on preliminary charges of aggravated battery of a peace officer and resisting/obstructing an officer.
About 4:30 a.m. Saturday, Decatur police officer Scott Gilman was sent to a house in the 600 block of West Macon Street to investigate a domestic incident, which involved the 35-year-old woman and a 29-year-old man.
Gillman was speaking with the woman on the porch when he tried to walk past her to head down the stairs.
"She looked directly at me, then turned away from me and moved her body in my way to block my path," Gillman wrote. "I then moved to the other side of the stairs in an attempt to go around her, upon which she stuck both of her arms out behind her to block my path and violently shoved her backside towards me, making contact hard enough to cause me to have to take a step back to keep from losing my balance."
When the woman arrived at the Macon County Jail, she "refused to obey commands to exit my police vehicle and stated she would not get out and was resisting."
The woman was successfully booked into the jail and later released on bond.


Read more: Woman arrested after hitting police officer with her backside http://www.herald-review.com/news/local/woman-arrested-after-hitting-police-officer-with-her-backside/article_b399ecc0-53b0-11e1-b9be-001871e3ce6c.html#ixzz1m109EF3P
From the Herald & Review

A sock for my swiffer

I found the handiest thing on the internet a while ago. A swiffer sock. I guess it has been around for several years, but I had never seen it before. The disposable clothes are so expensive.And I've tried using a regular rag, but they just don't stay on right. So when I found these I just had to try and make one. There were different versions, but I liked the reversible swiffer sock from this page. I had quite a bit of left over yarn from previous projects. So this was perfect.

It was pretty easy to make and didn't take very long. I do have to admit my sock came out a little tight. But that is easily fixed by using a larger crochet hook. I plan on making another one anyhow so I'll have one when the first one is in the wash.

When I had the sock finished, I couldn't wait to try it out. Right away I dry mopped my kitchen to see how it would work. I actually had fun cleaning my kitchen floor. That has never happened before.