Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Turkey Soup with Dumplings! YUM!

Well, the last 2 days I have been down and out with a stomach virus.  This morning I woke up with my stomach feeling fine but now I'm feeling like I'm coming down with a cold.  So since I made that huge turkey on saturday and in honor of the cold I know is coming, I decided to make turkey soup!  Today was the first time in a few days that I felt like even looking at food let alone cooking anything so I thought I'd make up my own recipe as I so often do in the kitchen.  Also as a treat to my readers, I decided it would be fun to photo journal my progress for you all!  So here goes!

Turkey Soup with Dumplings!  

What you will need:

Half an onion
3 carrots
5 or 6 potatoes
2 cloves of garlic
turkey stock or chicken stock (I had a bunch of turkey stock in my freezer from the last time I cooked a turkey)
Left over gravy
1 tsp of Thyme
1/2 tsp dried parsley
cream of chicken soup.
salt and pepper
one recipe of The pioneer woman's dumplings which you will find here ~  "The Pioneer Woman Cooks"



Okay so first thing I did was cut up my carrots and onions.  Don't they look pretty?




Next I threw a spoonful of butter and a swirl of olive oil into my pot.




And threw my carrots and onions into it.

Cook those for a min or so while I tend to this! 


Her most favorite time to demand I pick her up with her oh so sweet "up peas" is while I am trying to make supper.  I have come to learn that this is common with wee folk as small as her.


Next I cut up my potatoes and peel my garlic.
Here is a handy contraption!

My friend Beth gave it to me last year I think for my birthday.  I think she just got frustrated at not being able to find a garlic press in my kitchen since I didn't have one.  hehe Thanks Beth!



Sooo moving on, I went ahead and threw those potatoes and the pressed garlic into the pot. 

It was really starting to smell yummy at this point!

I then added some turkey brothI didn't have quite enough turkey broth defrosted so I had to add some low sodium chicken stock as well.  It was just enough to completely cover the veggies.  I also added some leftover gravy at this point as well.

Stir it around a bit and let it come to a boil so that the veggies will cook. 
At this point my oldest girl started screaming for me to come quick!  Fearing for her life I grabbed my camera and ran. (don't ask why I grabbed the camera.. I'm thinking that someone might accidentally throw it in the soup if I left it unattended in the kitchen)  Here's what I found anyway.  She's been practicing this trick all day and thought she would finally reach the top.  At this point though, she was slipping and falling.
Back to the cooking, these guys will come into play in the next few minutes. 

(on a side note, As I type this it's almost bedtime and I just witnessed one of my boys run past my bedroom with his pants to his ankles. my guess is that he was trying to get an early start to getting his pj's on before he actually got to his bedroom)
 OKAY!  No more distractions!  A teaspoon of ground thyme.  Did I mention I love this herb?  Just love it!  It's so pretty when growing in my garden too... now unfortunately it is covered with snow.. grrr!
Next up, a half teaspoon of dried parsley
mmmmm this soup is really coming together nicely!  It looks gorgeous!

Let this cook for about 15 minutes until the potatoes are tender.
I took this opportunity to document a precious moment on camera.  My girl finally knows how to read and "I" gets to reap the benefits!
when the veggies are cooked, add that can of cream of mushroom soup.  I love how those soups come out in the shape of a can.  In retrospect, I'd probably whisk this soup with a bit of the hot broth until it was smooth before adding it to the soup.  It took a good bit of mixing to get all the little tiny chunks to dissolve.

Ooops don't forget to add the main attraction!  The turkey.  Yikes!  Kind of reminds me of the time we invited our neighbor Moe  over for some chicken curry and half way through the meal realized that I had forgotten to put the chicken in! HA!  That has got to have been at least 4 years ago and Moe still brings it up once and a while!  Haha.. so funny!
Okay at this point I mixed up my pioneer woman recipe for dumplings.  I took pictures of the process but forgot to upload them.  Oh well, the pioneer woman has way better pictures on her blog. 

I added them to the soup a tablespoon at a time. Then I covered the pot halfway and let them cook on med-low for about 15 minutes.




This is the lovely sight I saw when I lifted the cover.  The smells in my kitchen nearly made me faint they smelled so good!
And it's ready to eat!!! 
And this is what we like to do to torture the poor little one.  Put her in her chair and then set her food outside to cool.  If only she could talk, she'd say "what the heck are you doing to me!!  I am HUNGRY!"
Ahhh finally time to enjoy!  She loved this meal.  She had two bowls!
The family ready to eat.  "I" is furiously stirring his soup.  He does this alot.
Yum!!  Another one that loved the soup!!  He especially loved the dumplings!

J wanted her picture taken too.  She loved the soup, but was not so fond of the dumplings!
I had to take a picture of our resident picky eater.  You can tell by the look on his face that he's not so sure.  He generally dislikes any supper food.  He's a huge fan of breakfast food though!

Take a look at Hubby.. wonder what he's thinking... maybe "Holy heck that's a big dumpling!"





Here's the final verdict from T.  Big thumbs down!   I'm not too worried though.  Like I said, he pretty much hates all supper foods.  It would be practically a miracle for him to like something I serve for supper and that's okay.  He eats enough to stay alive and that's all I ask!



So there you have it!  My first blog recipe!  Sorry if it seems a bit vague in parts.  I had to make a special point to actually measure things out.  I am usually a throw it in the pot any which way kind of gal.

Now since I've spent all this time writing, it's now time to tackle the large basket of laundry that awaits me and spend some time with my daughter before she goes to bed.  I love this time with her so!  Until next time!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

The ugliest cake in the world.

Whew I'm exhausted!  We have a had a wonderful weekend full of entertaining friends and just being together.  Makes for one tired mom though!  Friday night we had our friend Holly over to play card games and laughed so hard I thought my ribs were going to be bruised the next day.  The Saturday we made a huge turkey dinner and fed our Pastor Andrew, his wife Shirley and their daughter Jenny.  Afterwards we played fun kid board games like alphabet bingo and guess who with the kids.  Our kids just LOVE when adults actually play with them.  Makes them feel soo special.  Then tonight my wonderful Hubby made a lovely spagetti dinner and we shared it with our friends Ken and Steph and their three kids.  J and I also tried out a new promising recipe for desert.  It was called chocolate cake with peanut butter filling.  Only problem was we filled the cake pans too high so they spilled out into the oven.  Then as I was trying to put the cake together it was really really moist and fragile so it kept falling apart.  So it turned into the most hideous looking cake I have ever seen in my life!  HAHA.  I had to warn our guests about it's uglieness before I unveiled it.  And they agreed. However, never judge a book by it's cover because this hideous cake was the most moist, rich wonderfully tasting cake I have had in quite a while.  So I guess it is worth it.   I did take a picture for you all to enjoy!  Too bad you couldn't lick the screen and get a taste.

I didn't think to take a picture of it before we dug in. lol

One funny part about the cake.  Since it spilled over into the oven and it's chocolate cake, it sort of looked like certain bodily waste.  So Hubby decided to be funny to open the oven and ask the kids sternly who pooped in the oven.  what a goof!  They all decided it must have been Sweet Pea!  hehe

Speaking of  this little sweet pea,


She is teething her eye teeth this weekend and is miserable!!  Doesn't she look like she wants to just rip her hair out!  She is sooo cranky and pretty rude for a baby.  lol   Hopefully those darn teeth come in quickly so we can have our sweet girl back.

Well, my sweet big girl is ready for our mother daughter devotional time.  Jeff got J and I this book for Christmas The One-Year-Mother-Daughter-Devo by Dannah Gresh  We sit down every night after the boys and Sweet Pea go to bed.  I really cherish this time with her.  With four kids competing for attention, it's always nice to have one on one time with one of them.  This really lets me see how she is doing with her faith as well.  I love it.  Anyway, she's already looking up the bible verse so I'm off!  Until next time!!

Friday, January 21, 2011

A new beginning

Yes, I've had blogs before and yes I have not kept up with them.  But I'm hoping this time I'll actually have time to stick with it.  Who am I?  Well, I'm a wife of 11.5 years to Jeff the love of my life.  I am Mommy to 4 precious wonderful children.  I'm also teacher to those children as we home school.  Well okay there are lots of things that I am and that seems to make me insanely busy.  But I like it.  I don't know what to do with myself if I have too much time on my hands. Wait yes I do... I play on the internet forever if I don't make myself do something else.  I confess I'm an internet addict.  hehe.. I am incredibly blessed by what God has given me.  My oldest J is 8 years old and growing way to fast for my liking.  She is a wonderful big sister if not a little tiny bit bossy but I think that comes with being the oldest.  T is 5 almost 6 and LOVES superheros.  He is a sweet and sensitive boy who loves to snuggle.   "I" is our wild one.  He's 3.  He's the type of kid who doesn't do life halfway and I love him for it.  And then there's my Sweet Pea  She is our baby our last one.  Right now she is 17 months old.  She is a wonderful baby, so sweet but she definitely has her own little personality.  J says she's spoiled but she loves her anyway.  She's always known exactly what she wants.

So that's my life so far.  As for this blog, it's basically going to be about life.  I love to cook and love photography so there may be a little cooking and photography posts as well.  Now it's time for me to jump back into life as it's time to bring the two older minions to gymnastics and I am their slave... well not really but sometimes it feels that way.  Goodbye for now.