Veteran's Day

I would just like to thank all the veterans, young and old, for serving in the military for the United States of America. This morning I feel especially grateful because I am a mother-to-be, knowing that our little boy will grow up in a country where he can say he is free because of the people who fought for him and us. =)

I watched the sky turn light this morning for the first time in a long time. I like to sleep in if at all possible. Instead, I was up at 6am with my hubby. He was getting up to go to a livestock convention, conference--whatever--in Louisville and I just couldn't get back to sleep. I am becoming more and more uncomfortable when lying down with this big ole baby in my belly! But, of course, I still LOVE being pregnant. It's such an amazing thing. Sigh. =)

You guys--I got up and folded clothes and cleaned. What?!! I know, right. I don't EVER put my clean clothes away. My clothes are lucky if they get washed, let alone into the dryer and if they make it that far it's into the basket they go, and stay. Well, we hosted family dinner at our place last night so the cleaning sprint began early in the day. I have a wonderful husband who helped me clean most everything! He put his own clothes away (threw my baskets of clean clothes in my closet), swept the floor, cleaned up the bathroom, took out the trash, helped cook dinner, and ran over to the farm to get a few things for me. He is so GREAT! We made chicken and dumplin's; Teresa brought homemade honey buns with honey butter and Jordan brought homemade oatmeal pie cookies! YUM! The recipe for C&D is VERY simple. I found it on allrecipes.com

Chicken & Dumplin's [Jamie style]

Serves 12 people

2 whole Pike Valley Farm organic chickens =)
1 can cream of chicken soup ------
2 cans cream of mushroom soup -----you can use any kind of [cream of soup] for this recipe
1 can cream of celery soup -----
1/2 chopped onion
4 or 5 cloves garlic, diced

1 frozen bag of mini biscuits

Boil chicken with skin and bone on chickens for about 45-50 minutes. I cut up the chicken and boil in 2 pots because I don't have one big enough to hold both. This works out, though, so I reccommend the seperate pots for each chicken. Save the broth from both pots! Set cooked chicken aside and measure 6 cups of broth into one of the pots. I run the chicken under cold water to pull it apart because I never leave myself enough time to let it cool. Pull chicken apart and put into the pot with 6 cups of broth. Once that's done (it takes forever!) you can add the 4 cans of soup to the mix, the onions, and the garlic. Stir all together and heat on medium for 45 mins or so. Get out that second pot you used and fill with remaining broth. Pull apart and drop your thawed biscuits into the broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes. These are your dumplins and they don't steal all the chicken "soup" liquid!

All done! This process takes about an hour and a half to 2 hours. Scoop some dumplins and chicken soup into a bowl and enjoy! Kids and adults love this! =)

With love,
Jamie Pike