Thursday, February 25, 2010

Fruit Cobbler

I only recently learned that the cobbler that I grew up eating was really just rectangular pie, made with a rolled crust.  Actual cobbler has a soft dough crust more like this. 
P.S.  Melt the margarine.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Flour Tortillas

Grandma got this recipe from Maggie Acevedo in Oxnard, CA.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Aunt Lora's Zucchini Cake

2 cups grated zucchini
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour, regular
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
3 tsp. cinnamon
3 tsp. vanilla
1 cup ground pecans, optional

Beat eggs until fluffy, add sugar & vanilla, then oil.  Stir in zucchini.  Stir in flour & spices.  Beat until well mixed.
Bake 1 hour at 325 degrees.

P.S.  Use same recipe for zucchini bread only use 3 cups flour & 2/3 cup oil.

{The recipe was originally for zucchini bread and the changes were made by Grandma.  I held the paper up to light and the amounts changed match the post script.}

Monday, February 1, 2010

Chicken and Dumplings

For broth:
     Stew one whole chicken in a large pot of water.  Reserve bag of giblets for gravy.  (This assumes that you are making dumplings for a large holiday or family gathering and would need gravy. Anyway, save for another use.)  Season pot with salt and pepper and stew at a strong simmer until meat is falling off the bone.  Strain meat and bones out of broth and pick off meat.  Set aside.

For dumplings:
1 cup rich broth
1 egg
all purpose flour

     Add enough flour the the broth and egg to make a soft dough.  Take care not to work it any more than necessary to form dough (to avoid tough dumplings).  Roll out thin and cut into 3" x 1" strips.
     Bring broth to a rolling boil.. Gently drop in dumplings a few at a time to maintain a low boil.  Don't stir, but carefully  press dumplings down a few times to cook them evenly.  Keep checking dumplings until they are done.  This could be from 10-30 minutes depending on how tough your dumplings were to start with.  Add as much meat back in as you like.
    
Pictures are of Grandma giving Mark a dumpling-making lesson and then eating them with Valerie.  The date on the pictures is wrong because Val brought McKenna with them.

Mix the dough.

Roll it out thin.

Drop a few at a time.

Yum!