Irish Chicken & Dumplings

Let me start off with this:

I've NEVER made anything like this, and I was thinking that because I got off at 5, there'd be plenty of time.

It's 6:30 and I just started the timer. Between Friday traffic and long grocery store lines, it's going to be 8:30 before I eat dinner. Smart one, Misty. But it sounds really delicious!

Ingredients

2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of chicken soup
3 cups water
1 cup chopped celery
2 onions, quartered
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
5 carrots, sliced
1 (10 ounce) package frozen green peas
4 potatoes, quartered
3 cups baking mix
1 1/3 cups milk

Directions

1. In large, heavy pot, combine soup, water, chicken, celery, onion, salt, poultry seasoning, and pepper. Cover and cook over low heat about 1 1/2 hours.
2. Add potatoes and carrots; cover and cook another 30 minutes.
3. Remove chicken from pot, shred it, and return to pot. Add peas and cook only 5 minutes longer.
4. Add dumplings. To make dumplings: Mix baking mix and milk until a soft dough forms. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto BOILING stew. Simmer covered for 10 minutes, then uncover and simmer an additional 10 minutes.


Right now, I'm after step one. Waiting an hour and a half before I can do anything else. Geez! All this work better be worth it!

Chicken Pot Pie Stew

with 8 servings (which we all know means 4).

here's what's in it:
2 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
5 red potatoes, quartered
4 carrots, chopped
3 pieces of celery, chopped
2 cans of cream of chicken soup
1/2 can of water
1 can mixed vegetables, drained
1 tbs celery salt
1 tbs garlic salt
1 tbs black pepper
1 tsp bay leaves
1 tsp dill

Instructions:
1. Cut up chicken, then cook it. I added a little lemon juice for flavor.
2. Put fresh vegetables, cream of chicken soup, spices, and chicken in the slow cooker. I cooked on high (I have a relatively small slow cooker) for 4.5 hours.
3. Add mixed vegetables, drained, to the slow cooker. Continue to cook for 45 minutes.

Eat it. I took a picture, but to be truthful, it sort of just looked like vomit to me. We ate it with rolls, and it tasted alright, but it was definitely missing something. I took the recipe from allrecipes.com and added a couple of spices since I could tell it was going to be bland, but STILL missing something. My husband says next time I try it, I should change it up. I get the feeling this means that I won't be trying it again.

Seriously, my biggest gripe with slow cookers and crock pots is that it takes forever and you don't even know if it's going to taste good. Again, it didn't taste bad, but was it worth 6 hours of prep and cooking? Definitely not.

Irish Beef Stew

I'm starting a blog to not only chronicle the trials and tribulations learning to cook, clean, and do other hazardous things that my mother once did, but also to teach those that will come behind me. Likely I will have very little effect on anyone, but hey, it could be fun!

Last night, I made an Irish Stew. I took a recipe from kraftfoods.com and altered it to my taste and it was AMAZING. I think it's safe to say that for the first time in a very LONG time, I made something that I wasn't scared to taste. That's not to say that it should win any awards, but I'd serve it in a restaurant one day.

Want the recipe? Here it is:

1.5 lb of beef stew meet
4-5 cut red potatoes
3-4 chopped carrots
one onion, sliced into large pieces
Good Seasoning garlic & herb dressing mix
ground up beef bullion
4 dried bay leaves
a dash of basil
a dash of pepper
1 tbs. ground coffee
2 tbs. flour
3 pieces of celery, chopped
1 can cut green beans, drained
1 can stewed tomatoes, undrained
2 tbs vegetable oil
1 can beef broth

1. Heat the vegetable oil in a large pot (note this says pot, not skillet, not pan... I made this mistake and had to quickly correct it).

2. Coat the beef in flour, putting it into the pot with the onions until browned.
3. Add beef broth, stewed tomatoes, dressing packet, and other seasonings and bring to a boil.
simmer, covered for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Add all vegetables, and simmer covered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Uncover and simmer for an additional 15 minutes.

It was awesome. I had it for leftovers today for lunch and it was still pretty tasty. Two notes to make:

1. Next time, add Guinness. Then I might win an award.

2. Use half a can more beef broth, just to jazz it up since I added more vegetables.

That's all for now. I'm trying out a chicken pot pie stew today. I'm not sure that it's going to be worthy of posting, but I will. My kitchen is already a mess, but I'm a firm believer that if I dish takes 6 hours, then it had better be well worth it. Maybe this time I'll add photos.