A Nasty Rainy Day!

It is Monday! We had a wonderful, warm, beautiful weekend and Monday is living up to it's reputation. It is cold and rainy and just generally icky!

I am looking for an easy supper tonight, because along with Monday, I am reliving the horrors of my high school algebra classes by helping my oldest with his homework and this is algebra day. I have had to resort to googling "algebra help" on the Internet and finally e-mailed the teacher who is sending me a copy of the textbook on CD to help me.

OK, I am done venting about the joys of algebra and am ready to talk about something yummy for supper. I am thinking chicken and dumplings because it is the perfect comfort food and I can do the hard work in the crock pot.

I am starting with a large family sized package of chicken thighs, about 2 quarts of waters, a slice or 2 of onion, a clove of garlic, mashed flat, a rib of celery chopped, a carrot, chopped, a sprig of rosemary ( about 1 t) and the same amount of thyme, and 2 chicken flavored bouillon cubes. Load up the crock pot and set it to high for 6 or 7 hours. After that amount of time has passed, remove the chicken, strain off the broth and let everything cool until you can handle it. Now is a good time to help the kids with their homework!

Clean up and chop the chicken, put about 1/2 of it in the fridge for something I am working on later this week and reserve the rest to go with the dumplings. For the dumplings, bring the broth the chicken cooked in to a boil, mix about 2 cups of flour, 2-3 T butter and enough milk to make a sticky dough, then drop by spoonfuls into the boiling broth, then cover and reduce the heat to a simmer. NO PEEKING for 20 minutes. Add the chicken and stir to combine.

Sometimes I make this like a stew, cooking chopped potatoes, carrots, corn, and peas in the broth, then making the dumplings, this rounds out the meal and still lets you serve it all in one dish.

Enjoy the comfort food on this wet, nasty day. Happy Homeworking!