King Arthur Flour meets Grandma Vivian’s Dumplings

Posted on by
8

I’ve joined a party…and am creating history all at once!

As part of A Latte with Ott, A’s King Arthur flour Iron Chef Challenge, I decided that I would make Brandenburger family history…I would use my Grandma Vivian’s Dumpling recipe. (Mind you, this recipe has never been written down [to my knowledge] and for certain isn’t on the internet.)

This recipe isn’t something you just “throw” together for a quick lunch, but it’s a wonderfully delicious authentically German dish that is requested time and time again at my house. Especially at family gatherings!!!

First of all, you need bread dough…and this is where the King Arthur flour comes in. For those that have been reading my blog for a while, you know that our youngest son has OTC, which limits his protein intake to 10-12 grams per day. Well, it just so happens that King Arthur flour has a product  that is lower in protein! Woohoo!!! And I used this flour for our bread dough (although it’s labeled for wonderfully, delicious and super light pastries, pies, etc.). It worked beautifully!

Anyway, on with the recipe:

Grandma Vivian’s Dumplings

Ingredients –

3 cups flour (I used King Arthur Perfect Pastry flour – only 3 grams of protein per 1/4 cup!)

1 1/2 TBSP. butter

1 cup water

1/4 cup milk

1 package instant dry yeast

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 TBSP. sugar

1 qt. chicken broth (liquid)

potatoes

2 cups heavy whipping cream (pic shows half and half, which is what I used…but Grandma always used heavy whipping cream…half and half tasted just as good!)

Everything you need!

First, we need a simple loaf of white bread dough. This is a simple, easy loaf recipe…and trust me, if I can make it, anyone can!
Mix together 2 1/2 cups flour, salt, sugar and yeast. Set aside. Then mix together water, milk and butter, heat until hot to touch, but not boiling. (I microwaved for 40 seconds.)

When making this dough, mix together dry ingredients, then mix and heat wet ingredients before combining.

Then, pour your wet ingredients into the dry and mix until a dough-ball is formed. Take the 1/2 cup flour that’s left-over and add as needed to make a smooth dough-ball that doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl. (I ended up using just about all of the flour this time, but it will vary, depending on your humidity, etc.)

Dough - finished but not raised.

Cover the dough with a cloth for 10 minutes, to let it rest. Then shape into a ball again and let it raise for 1 hour.

Fluffy, yummy dough ball!

Now, we’re ready to make dumplings! Peel and cut your potatoes, enough to fill the bottom of your kettle (4 or 5 quart kettle or dutch oven works wonderfully!).

Enough potatoes to fill the bottom of a kettle, or maybe even a little more!

Add the chicken broth. (I use chicken broth instead of water to boil my potatoes. It adds great flavor!) You can flavor your potatoes if you’d like, with salt, pepper, onions, etc. Whatever you would normally do for boiling potatoes. You won’t be draining any of the liquid.

I use chicken broth instead of water with my potatoes. Yummy!

Heat the potatoes to a boil.

Potatoes are boiling!

Remove the kettle from heat. Punch down the dough. Tear off about quarter-sized bits of dough and layer across the kettle, on top of the water and potatoes.

Pull apart the dough, enough to fill one layer across the potatoes in the kettle.

Dough, completely covering potatoes and ready to cook!

The next part is very important: Place lid on kettle, put it back on medium heat. DO NOT REMOVE THE LID!!! In fact, if your lid does not seal well, or isn’t a very heavy lid, place something on top of your lid…such as:

If your lid isn't heavy enough to make sure there's a seal, set something heavy on top of the lid! Be creative!

Why is this important? The steam from the potatoes and water is cooking the dumplings. If the liquid in the kettle evaporates too quickly, your dough will fall and will be more solid, than light and fluffy. (Grandma would call them “klutzy” when that would happen.) Once you can hear the potatoes boiling again, turn the temp down a bit and simmer. Cook for 30-45 minutes or until the “dumplings start talking to you.” (Grandma’s terms) In cooking terms, this means to listen to the kettle and the dumplings are done when you can hear them starting to fry a little bit.
And then lift off the lid and pray…just kidding…it should look something like this:

Dumplings are done!

Next, stir up the dumplings, mixing the dough, the potatoes and whatever liquid is left. Then pour the cream on top of the dumplings and stir.

Add cream to the finished dumplings.

And finished product, all mixed up...yum!

And that, my friends, is my Grandma Vivian’s Dumplings…actually wrote down and save for all of posterity. She would have been proud of me! She was my best friend, and has been gone for almost a year now. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of her, and wish that I would have just one more day with her. She taught me so many things about life, but the thing she cherished most was laughter…and good German food! 😉

These are authentic German dumplings...made from scratch! (And low protein!)

Grandma would normally serve this with chicken, but it goes well with any protein item of your choice: beef, lamb, pork, etc. (Not sure it would go well with fish, but go ahead and try! Life is made for rules to be broken, right???) With this particular meal, my sister and I ate these dumplings all by themselves. Just because we could.
Enjoy!
King Arthur did provide me with flour to use for this recipe contest however the opinions listed here are my own.

Photobucket

Pin It

Wordless Wednesday – The Beauty Behind the Storm

Posted on by
1

This storm passed by our farm on Sunday.

 

 

If you remember, we were hit by 125+ mph winds just a week before.

 

 

Thankfully, we sustained no damage this week...

 

 

although communities just to the north of us sustained tremendous amounts of damage.

 

 

My attempt at a full-rainbow picture. Mother Nature can be difficult, but there's beauty in it all.

Not a Mommy Blogger

Posted on by
6

Now, before you go off, accusing me of lying and thinking that I’m discounting a HUGE portion of the blog-o-sphere…let me explain. I’m not sure Mommy Bloggers exist.

What?!?

Yeah, that’s right…there’s no such thing as a Mommy Blogger. That term ranks up there with Big Foot, Toothfairy and Santa (just don’t tell my boys!). Why? Well, it’s simple. When you’re a mom, there’s no way you’re writing just about the cutesy-precious things your children do…and there’s no way you’re just writing about how many diapers you change. Being a Mom is so much more than that.

Last week, I had an online conversation with a friend of mine. She’s actually partially responsible for the creation of this blog in the first place! Let’s just say that she gave me that final push to get this blog started.

Anyway, we were talking blog stuff and the Mommy Blogger title came up. And again, I’m not sure such a thing exists. You see, when you’re a mom and you’re writing about your kids, it’s not just your kids that you’re writing about. Do I have you confused yet?

You write about society, you write about coping skills, you write about recipes. You share cleaning tips, you ask for advice and you share humor and entertainment. You write about education, you write about the future, you write about the past. You explain the simplest of life’s lessons, you share photos of the world and you pass on travel tips. There isn’t a piece of the pie that you don’t touch at some point in time. And all of that information can be translated into different realms.

Read about how a mother convinces a three-year-old that it’s their idea to take a nap. That same reasoning can be used to deal with the most difficult of customers in the retail world. Don’t think so? Trust me, I’ve done it.

Explain to a 7-year-old why our cows don’t make the milk that we drink, but they make the hamburger we eat. Then use that same conversation to base your ag education off of…trust me, a 7-year-old will ask you every hard-nosed question most reporters would think of!

Yes, in every essence of the term, I am a Mommy Blogger. Yet, I’m not. Actually, I’m more of a Farmmy Blogger.

When you come in to my blog, you will read about my children, my farm and my view points. You will learn about cattle, about crops and about life. You will hopefully laugh a lot, cry a little, but come back for more. And I will do the same.

Talk about a complicated answer to a simple question, eh?

Now ask me if I’m Republican or Democrat. 😉

Life of a Celebrity

Posted on by
11

Something that happened to me on Friday had me thinking all weekend about how celebrities handle regular life.

Let me get you caught up: I’ve been feeling like doggy-doo for a few weeks now. At first I thought it was this mysterious rash that came and wouldn’t go away. Then that got better, but I still wasn’t feeling well. I was having other “issues” as well…but I put it all off, thinking that with time, everything would improve. After a month of misery, I finally made an appointment.

I called and they scheduled me for the “earliest” appointment available, which was the last week of July. *sigh* Oh well, I was going to suck it up until I could see MY doctor. Late last week, the doctor’s office called with bad news. Something had come up and my doctor was going to be unavailable for my appointment…could I reschedule? I was leery about what that would mean. I had already suffered through a month of misery, how much longer would it take?

Well, surprise, surprise…they wanted to reschedule for Friday! Yep, a rescheduled appointment that was actually going to take place almost two weeks prior to the original appointment. How sweet is that?!?

So, on Friday I went. I explained to the nurse my symptoms, went throught the pre-appointment gobble-dee-gook, weight, blood-pressure, pulse…and then waited for the doctor. Up until the point she came in, all was textbook. And then, the door opened…

The doctor came in, telling me how much she enjoys reading my articles, how entertaining they are and so true to life. And then she told me how the OB staff on third floor cuts out my columns and puts them up for a chuckle (apparently, once you’ve had four children, the OB nurses kinda think of you as family). She asked about my son and my brother and the rest of my family and after a bit, we got around to the appointment part.

I thought to myself, “How does J.K. Rowling handle this? Diane Sawyer?” Just kidding. But yet, it was a little awkward for me. I mean, after hearing about how she likes what I write, I really didn’t want to tell her that I wasn’t feeling well. I’d hate for the next time she read my column, all she could think about was, “Oh, this is the gal who couldn’t figure out why she felt like doggie-doo.”

Anyway, I got over my irrational thoughts and got down to the reason for the visit…and after some talking, and an ultrasound, it became obvious. No, I was not hitting menopause at 34. No, I was not hitting puberty. No, I am not expecting another child. But I do have a somewhat annoying cyst that is causing all of my problems, symptoms and misery (well, except those caused by the four children, mentioned previously). In six weeks I get to go back and have a recheck…and hopefully avoid any type of surgery.

But at least this time I’ll be better prepared. I’ll have my “handler” call for the appointment, I’ll use an assumed name and I’ll wear shades with a big floppy hat. That should keep it low-key, right? 😉

Something for the future

Posted on by
3

I was reflecting on the past week, and something came to mind that I wanted to put down in my blog, so that someday Big Bro can look back and remember the impact that one little statement had on me.

As we were preparing for the Buy’N Show at the county fair (remember, the Reserve Champion ribbon that he didn’t want to compete for?), Big Bro had to fill out a form for the emcee to use to make a narrative for the Style Show part of the competition.

One question was: “Where would you like to go someday? Or where would you like to visit or vacation?”

His response caught me a bit off guard.

Big Bro asked if he could write, “Nowhere.” I asked, “Why?”

He replied, “I have everything I want right here…why would I need to go anywhere?”

Yeah, I had to wipe tears from my eyes, too.

The best gift that my son could give me...reminding me that everything I could ever want is still right here.

Back to Business

Posted on by
Reply

Well, we’ve spent the last few days cleaning up, tearing down and getting ready for life to resume some normalcy.

In the excitement of it all, I forgot to give a wrap up on our fair happenings! This was our first year as a 4-H family and the boys enjoyed sharing their projects and watching others, as well.

Scooter is now a kitchen safety expert!

 

Since Scooter is only 7, he’s a Cloverbud, which means that he can show projects, but he only gets participation ribbons. There’s no competition for him. It was GREAT for him to receive nothing but praise and suggestions for future years. I only wish I would have had the foresight to do the same thing for Big Bro…but he still did a SUPERB job!

Gak, Gluk, slimy stuff...whatever you want to call it, Scooter made it.

 

Big Bro took nine projects to the fair…including: two fishing lures, one pop-can lamp, three photo projects, two dog projects and one bug display. He received six blue ribbons and three reds! I was so proud of him!!!

Big Bro was researching all the different jobs that "working" dogs do...he thought it was so cool!

 

On top of that, Big Bro tried the consumer choices competition and received a third-place ribbon.

Then, on Sunday, Big Bro and Scooter had both volunteered to participate in the Style Show. Scooter showed off his tee-ball uniform in the Have ‘n Show (just a show with clothes you already have…no judging) and Big Bro showed a school outfit he picked out in the Buy ‘n Show.

Big Bro and his Buy 'n Show school outfit...lookin' sharp!

 

Big Bro was interviewed by two judges on the price of the outfit, uses, how to care for it, whether it was a smart purchase, etc. He was nervous about participating because he was the only boy, but once he warmed up, he did great. When it came time for the judging and the ribbons, we were both surprised when he was named the Reserve Champion! Talk about a happy boy!!!

So, in all, the fair was so much fun and such a great experience! The boys are already talking about next year…and I couldn’t be happier.

I did see one amazing booth at the fair that I really wish more people would have been able to experience:

This display on North Dakota ROCKED!!!

 

This “North Dakota Feeds the World” display was absolutely amazing. It had actual crops growing, commodities available to view, information, great pictures, etc., etc. The only problem was that it was only set up for Thursday afternoon/evening. And that means that not a lot of non-ag people were able to view it. I’m hoping that we can get it back in the area soon…and I’m looking into it. If you see it in your area, be sure to check it out. You won’t regret it!!!

Wordless Wednesday – Storm Damage

Posted on by
1

My last few posts have been just about our yard and things that are damaged pretty close to the house. Let me give you a little tour of the rest of the farm…we were truly blessed with no injuries throughout the area that was hit by Sunday’s storm.

I found EJ's tractor...but it didn't make it.

 

  • Yep, no fixing this. Anyone know where I can purchase another? EJ promised not to leave it outside anymore…after shedding a few tears over losing it.

These horse trailers were moved a few feet...and their jacks are buried.

At first I just thought this sheet metal was laying on the seeder.

...but it was impaled.

Our corn choppers can also slice sheet metal!

Cattle trailer injuries.

Something hit the trailer with force!

I found this rock that landed on a corn leaf. Strange!

Yes, that's a hay rack. And yes, that's a shelterbelt. Not sure how we'll get it out of there. It's impaled on a tree.

Our barn is missing three doors and a few windows.

The loading and working area is pretty well shot. Mark's been meaning to update for years...now he doesn't get a choice!

We were indeed blessed…indeed.

Clean-up – Day One

Posted on by
2

Well, we have a good start on clean-up from Sunday’s storm. But it’ll take awhile.

We spent most of yesterday cleaning up the major stuff…downed trees, clearing out George’s soaked room, picking up fence chunks, etc. Today we’ll start coming through the yard, piling up debris, deciding what’s salvageable and what’s beyond repair. Measuring windows, figuring out which doors will need to be replaced, making plans.

It’s actually a great way to take stock of what you need, what you don’t and where you want to go from here. It’s a tough way to do it, but it gets the job done in a hurry, that’s for sure!

Two of my nieces are here to help watch the boys at my Mom and Dad’s while I’m out here getting things settled down. The girls have been such a help! I would rather the boys not see things the way they are, and have things look a little cleaned up by the time they come out here. (Plus, it’s so much easier to do things without the “help” of a 2- and 4-year-old.) I have pictures to show them when they want to see what it looked like, but sometimes this is a little much for me, I can’t imagine involving them right now.

Thank you to everyone who has given us encouraging words, stopped and talked, helped out and pitched in. We live in a wonderful community, and with so many having so much destroyed, it’s just amazing to see it all come together.

Mark hooked up the generator first thing Monday morning.

 

 

The Dakota Valley Electric crew was AMAZING and worked hard and fast to restore our power. THANK YOU!!!

 

 

My Dad can't use a regular chainsaw, thanks to his pacemaker, but he did what he could with his electric chainsaw. It worked wonders!

 

 

The roots on the cottonwood were amazing. Not the easiest job to get out!

 

 

This was the pile from day one...let's see what today brings!

The Aftermath

Posted on by
13

Today will be a pretty wordless post. I have updates from the fair, but it all seems a bit off for me. Our farm was hit by a tornado last night. (***I’m going to have to re-word as “possible” tornado. I guess they are assessing this today and believe they may have been “just” straight-line winds in excess of 100 mph. How about this…the weather blew stuff all over the yard and caused a bunch of damage. It doesn’t really matter what you want to call it.)

We were blessed that no one was injured. My husband rode the storm out in the shop. (Crazy man.) The boys and I were in town at my Mom and Dad’s, just finished up from the fair and were waiting for supper to finish on the grill when the sirens went off and we spent an hour in the basement.

I knew it was bad when Mark called and said, “Well, we have damage.” You see, he’s notorious for shrugging things off and downplaying what’s going on. For him to admit there were problems meant that things weren’t good. But material things can be replaced, and it makes you count your blessings even more.

I'm pretty sure this isn't supposed to look like this.

This evergreen was right outside our door. So lucky the house didn't have more damage!

EJ was most upset about the swing set. He cried.

Mark's water truck met with a big-'ol cottonwood. Neither won.

These little building have all been spun off their foundations.

This bin should be sitting on the cement slab...the other bin is strewn across our corn field.

Some of EJ's tractors didn't fare well, either. Again, easily replaced.

This is the west end of the shop Mark was in when the storm hit. The whole side is caved in.

The garden looks pretty tough. All that hard work. George's food for winter. Oh well, easy to replace.

First fair as 4-H family!

Posted on by
4

How’s that for a tongue twister?!?

Yep, our first-time ever being official 4-H’ers is in the books. And I’m so proud of my boys!

Scooter is a Cloverbud, so whatever project he took to the fair, he received a participation ribbon. I love that he gets the chance to go through the process with no pressure on performing to a high-standard, etc. It was GREAT!

Ask him about kitchen safety…and he’ll talk your ear off; ask him about taking nature walks…and he’ll tell you all about seeing a toad; ask him about using his senses outdoors…and he’ll tell you how much our puppy stinks right now. Isn’t that great? (Well, except for the stinky puppy bit.)

Big Bro took nine static exhibits to the fair…and he brought home six blue ribbons and three reds! He was so proud of himself…and I was even more proud, because I know that he did all of the work by himself. I can’t wait to see how they grow in the next year.

One of his exhibits was a photo enlargement. Here it is:

Big Bro's photo exhibit...but not enlarged.

 

 

He also did a photo exhibit that told a story about his brother playing outside:

I LOVE this picture that Big Bro took of EJ.

 

 

And then, just some cool landscape photos:

An old bus, that was turned into a camper, that was crashed, that was purchased by my husband, that was salvaged for its engine, that's now sitting on our farm, that's now used as a giant fort by my boys.

 

 

 

 

And he also taught our puppy (Miss Maggie May) how to sit, which was one of his projects:

Miss Maggie May is super smart...but Big Bro did a GREAT job teaching her to sit!

 

 

The Dickey County Fair continues through Sunday…so stay tuned for more updates!