Hereos, Housework, and Home Cooking

Around 5:00 Friday morning I awoke to the now familiar sound of a limb cracking and crashing into our newly repaired power lines. The electricty went off immediately. Greg called the electric company and we were assured they would send technicians as soon as possible. I went back to sleep and woke up at 7:30. The temperature was already down to 55 degrees in the house. Luckily, these guys showed up around 10:00. They couldn't get their bucket trucks into our backyard due to all of the downed trees, so they climbed the poll. I have a new respect for these guys. They literally put on spiked shoes and scaled the pole in less than a minute. They had the power back on by 11:30. So far, it's stayed on. I have new hereos.




I spent today deep cleaning the house. I have almost all of the laundry washed and put away. I reorgized my closet and came up with another load of stuff to take to Goodwill. I am liking how much neater things stay when you pare down the posessions.




Tonight I made an all time favorite of the Franklin household, Chicken and Dumplings. These are southern style dumplings, so if you're looking for those strange biscuity type dough balls, you've come to the wrong place. My dumplings are medium thickness. I grew up with my Grandma Mungle's thick doughy dumplings and Greg grew up on his mom's very thin dumplings, so we comprimise. I only use boneless, skinless chicken breasts because I can't deal with dark meat and that yucky chicken skin and residue that comes from using a whole chicken. Here's the recipe:



Amy's Chicken and Dumplings

64 oz (2 boxes) chicken broth, more if you like your dumplings soupy
4-5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 chicken bouillon cubes
salt and pepper
4 cups flour
1 stick butter or margarine



Cook chicken breasts by baking or boiling. I like to cook them with broth in the crockpot if I have time. Remove chicken from broth and let cool. Tear into bite sized pieces when cool.


Add bouillon cubes to broth and bring to a boil.

Cut butter into flour in a large mixing bowl. Add 1 cup boiling broth and stir until a loose ball forms. Remove from bowl (careful, it's hot!) and knead a few times. Roll out to 1/8 inch thickness on a generously floured surface. Cut into 1 inch strips. I use my big pizza cutter. Drop dumplings one at a time into boiling broth, stretching dumplings as you drop them. Cook for 10 minutes. You can shake the pan to seperate the dumplings, but do not stir with a spoon.

Add chicken and cook until heated through. Season with salt and pepper.

I also made corn muffins, green beans, and cream cheese mashed potatoes. Yum!

Mom is keeping Riley tonight, so Carson and I made a run to her house so I could get some snuggle time. He is getting so chubby and chatty!

Tomorrow we have church, then Mom, Juli, and I are hosting a baby shower for my cousin's girlfriend, Brittany. She is due with a boy on March 31. She's a very sweet girl and we're looking forward to having another baby to cuddle.

I'm tired! I'm going to read in bed. I finally finished The Thirteenth Tale about a week ago. It was very strange, but I'm glad I read it. I've moved on to Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult. It's about an Amish girl accused of murdering her illegitmate baby. So far, it's very good. Goodnight!