Fall weather cooking

Last weekend was a Chicken & Dumplings and Pumpkin Cheesecake kind of weekend.

This weekend is a Gumbo and homemade bread kind of weekend!

Elliott told me there was a surprise waiting for me when I got home today.  I joked "is it a new car?" because he sent me a link to my dream car the other day...well it wasn't a new car, instead it was homemade bread. I have no complaints! Especially since he made that gumbo, too! I'm so lucky.

Last weekend, however, I did the cooking! The chilly air brought with it a craving for chicken and dumplings...a childhood favorite of mine.  I remember helping my mom make the dumplings on an old floured cheesecloth she kept in the freezer.

Chicken and Dumplings

for the dumplings:

2 cups flour

2 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

 Combine dry ingredients. Cut butter in with pastry blender. Stir in milk until dough is formed.

 Roll out dough on floured cheesecloth or surface. Cut lengthwise, then across to form little square dumplings. Mine were about 1X1 inches, some will be different sizes, no big deal. A pizza cutter does a great job!

for the rest:

6-8 cups chicken broth

3 cups cooked chicken 

 I didn't end up needing the bouillon cubes but could've used them if I didn't have enough broth.

To make it extra easy, I used a rotisserie chicken! (probably could have used another 1/2 chicken)

After stripping the chicken of all the meat, bring the broth to a boil.  Drop in dumplings, one at a time, until all are cooked (about 15-20 minutes).  Then add chicken. I also like to add a good bit of black pepper at this point.  

I'm not sure how long it's been since I've had this, but it tasted exactly how I remembered! 

and now for that cheesecake. YUM. It was my first time to make cheesecake and I was definitely scared when it came time to open the springform pan latch, but I followed the directions and it came out perfect!  

http://www.thehungrymouse.com/2009/09/29/brown-sugar-pumpkin-cheesecake-with-chocolate-shortbread-crust/

I made a few amendments: I'm not crazy about too much pumpkin or nutmeg flavor so I used cinnamon instead of pumpkin pie spice.  I also didn't have any cognac so I used vanilla extract instead.  

Not sure if my changes made a difference but it was great! I took it to a friend's house where we all gathered to watch the LSU vs ALABAMA game, and along with our team, the pie was a WINNER!