Weekend Cooks

Gunnar

Started with Spaghetti and Meatballs.....Friday I found some really nice and ripe roma tomatoes.



Hit the veggies with the blender, added some wine, sugar, etc., the meatballs and back on to simmer another hour.

This shot to show the true color of fresh sauce.


Saturday night a meatball sub and college football.

Sunday is Chicken and Dumplings...ala Pasta Dumplings.


Everything in the pot and simmered for another 30 minutes to make sure the flour taste is gone.

Dinner and leftovers for tonight. :laugh:

Bacchus

The Spagetti and Meatballs looks fabulous. Great Job.

Big George's BBQ

Great looking Food

Gunnar

Thanks, its fun sometimes to go with fresh ingredients and leave the jars and cans alone. A bottle of wine is another thing.

Gunnar

It was enjoyable to cook and eat.

vidalia1

Yummy....

Little Steven

Barry,

Looking good. You can't beat the flavour of fire roasted pasta sauce.

Steve

JB

That sauce is a beautiful thing Gunnar. Looks fabulous.

Photo Egg

That's some good looking meals Barry...

Gunnar

And being an easy cook doesn't hurt either. :laugh:

Car Wash Mike

Meatball subs and college FB. Love them both. Good looking cooks.
Mike

Zyme

Oh I like the look of that sauce--did you add any smoking wood? The sandwiches look fantastic.

NoVA Bill

Geez now I'm really hungry after lookin' at your pics.

Nice cook, thanks for sharing the sauce coor comparison.

Gunnar

No extra smoke....I'm just hesitant, don’t want it too smoky.

Gunnar

Thanks and you're not too shabby on pro picks either.

cookn biker

Nice Barry!!

Tarheel Duck Egg

Can you provide a few details on the chicken and dumplings? Looks like great comfort food.

Gunnar

Chicken and dumplings

This will take an easy 4 hours start to finish, but you're right, quite a comfort meal. Heating leftovers now.

This dish is from my Grandmother. Nothing was written down, the family just learned by watching. She used water and I switched it to broth & water and increased the broth quantity 2 to 1 on water. The seasonings are very minimal, but final flavor is there. Sorry to get lengthy here, but ….


Roasting Chicken cut into pieces (this was about 5 lbs plus last cook)(this time 3 chicken breast, 4 thighs bone and skin on both)
Flour, salt & pepper the pieces
I cut a couple pieces of the fat off the chicken and rendered it to brown the chicken in, (in batches), after browning remove chicken, leave brown bits, etc., but remove all oil from pot before adding broth. Reserve 1 TBSP of oil for each cup of flour for the dumplings (secret ingredient). Add 1 can broth scraping all of the brown bits off the pot.
Return chicken to pot and add broth/water to just about cover. I started with about 2 cans broth ad 1 can water.
Dome 300 to 325 for 1 ½ to 2 hours
(I added more broth at the end, I would prefer too much liquid or it’s to hard to cook the dumplings and add back the chicken meat)
Remove chicken from broth and let cool to handle

Dumplings

1 cup flour (generous)
½ tsp salt
1 egg
¼ cup cold water (scant)
1 TBSP Chicken fat from browning the chicken

Mix and roll out
Cut strips ½” wide by 1 to 1 ½” long.

I double the recipe and use 80 percent plus. If I’m going to give the effort, I want plenty of dumplings.

Strain broth bring to low simmer, at least with small strainer to rid the larger pieces of fat.
Added about ¼ cup of flour with cold water, mixed in slurry to thicken the broth.
Add dumplings slowly and keep broth moving so they don’t stick.
When you feel like you have enough dumplings add the chicken meat back in. I did this part on the stove (oops) dome would be open too long too accopmplish this step of adding the dumplings...unless you're very quick or get the broth hot enough to pull the pot and do it on a counter.
This should go about another 20 to 30 minutes to get rid of the flour taste and thicken the broth.
Salt pepper to taste.

Tarheel Duck Egg

Thanks Barry. The pics reminded me of chicken and dumplings my dad and his sisters made when I was a child in eastern NC. The recipe is very close to what I remember. Thanks for the memories. I'll give this one a try once I get my Egg at Eggtoberfest!