Chicken & Dumplings

When you move away from the country where you are originally from and where you have lived most of your life, you leave all sorts of things behind.

Not just friends and family and everything familiar, but there is a loss of things that you liked to eat.

If you are lucky and you move somewhere like , oh, say, France, odds are you will be pretty happy with everything you eat... and finding things similar or the same as what you used to have "back home" might be easier.

Here, there are all sorts of restrictions on imports of everything and that includes foods.

So the mayonnaise is from South America , but we can get Heinz Ketchup.

We can get Dijon mustard but there is no such thing as peanut butter. Well, there is something similar to it found in Chinese supermarkets in Chinatown but it is peanut flavored sweet and extremely oily stuff .. you would not want it on bread with jelly ...

or a banana.

You never realize how much you take various foods for granted until you realize you live somewhere that those things just don't exist or are so different, they might as well not exist.

Which leads us to Dumplings. Chicken and Dumplings.

I don't know why, maybe because Pup has been so sick and I have felt so far from all that is familiar, that I had this craving for chicken and dumplings.

The weather got cold and it has rained a couple of times.

Days that are best spent inside with music and books and a warm dry Pup, who is growing stronger and better every day.

But I wanted to put a pot of chicken and dumplings on the stove and fill the house with those warm comforting scents.

In the old days, I grew lazy and made excellent dumplings using Bisquick .. there is no Bisquick sold here.

So how lucky am I that my daughter sent me the recipe to make Bisquick ? !!

I have made pancakes, just like home ... I decided to try the dumplings.... Just like home.

So I am going to share the recipes here with you, since Kelly asked .

"Bisquick" recipe:

5 cups flour

1/4 cup baking powder

2 T sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 cup butter

Mix flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.

Cut in butter until the mix is crumbly.

Store in the refrigerator or freezer in an airtight container.

Chicken and Dumplings

*Dumpling batter*

1/3 cup milk

1 cup "Bisquick" mix

Stir until soft dough forms, drop by spoonfuls into hot broth.

In deep pot, saute chopped onions (shallots) in butter.

Add diced celery, carrots or leave them out . ( I left them out this time)

Add chicken cut into bite sized pieces ( I used chicken breast cutlets)

Add liquid ( you can use water but I used chicken broth) .. enough to cover everything and to accomodate the dumplings... maybe 4-6 cups.

When the chicken is cooked through, add the dumplings by big drops from a large spoon ..

Cook at low heat uncovered for 10 minutes.

Cover, cook 10 minutes longer.

They will pop up and be light and fluffy when done.

Please, if anyone makes this, let me know how it worked for you and if you liked them.