Melanie's Helpful Hints, Tips, Stories and Recipes

Greetings friends and family,

Another week has come and gone here in southern Indiana. This has been a very eventful week for the Southern half of our state. I am sure many of you have been watching the news and seeing images of the Tornado damage that occurred in southern Indiana. Thankfully we only had some thunder storms that roared through our area and did not do any damage. My thoughts and prayers are with all of the families affected by last week's tornado's and with those working to provide help and hope.

Spring seems to have started early in many areas as plants and shrubs are starting to show signs of life. On thursday my parents sat in their kitchen watching as a couple of birds cleaned out one of their bird houses. Dad and mom said the birds would take turns going inside the bird house. Each time one went inside it would come out holding something in its beak. The bird would hop to the edge of the perch and let go of what was in its beak and watch as it fell to the ground. Then the other bird would go inside and do the same thing. After a couple of hours work they must have gotten their spring cleaning done because they started bringing back new materials to rebuild their nest.

I like to leave out little things for the birds to find that they can use when building a nest. When I clean out my dryer vent I take the dryer lint along with some little pieces of yarn and place outside for them to find. The birds like to use these items to line their nest to make it soft for their young one's. I enjoy watching the birds as they come and go in the trees behind my house. A couple of years ago I bought myself a book of North American birds so I could distinguish the different types. I have Cardinals, Wrens, Woodpeckers, Woodhens, Chickadee's, Robins, and many other types. But I must confess my favorites are the ruby throated hummingbirds that visit my feeders during the summer months. I guess the love of fowl was passed onto me from my grandmothers who always had a variety of chickens.

My father likes to tell us about him and his brother as they were growing up in the 1930's and 40's. These two Deckard brothers were quite mishcievious and were always finding one way or another to get into trouble. Here is one of Daddy's many stories, this one about his mother's prized Rooster.

As most of you know when a group of young boys get together it usually means troubles on the horizon. As a youngster my dads Aunts and Uncles would all come over to their family farm for pitch-in dinners on Sundays after church. That was when all of the boys would usually end up in hot water for something they had done.

On this particular Sunday it was hot and the boys were bored and that is when the trouble began. One of the boys said someone told him if you grab a Rooster by its feet and drag it down a hill it will lay an egg. That sounded like a good idea so being boys they all struck out toward Grandma Deckard's chicken coop to find the Rooster they thought would do the perfect job of laying an egg. The boys looked around at those Roosters, sized them up and decided on Grandma Deckards' prized Rhode Island Red Rooster.  After some work the boys were finally able to catch him, stuff him in a feed sack and smuggle him out without getting caught by the watchful eyes of the adults. 

Looking around the farm they decided to try the biggest and roughest hill around to drag that old Rooster down so he would lay some eggs. Well my dad's older brother Ancil decided he would be the first to take a turn since it was his mom’s Rooster. So uncle Ancil reached inside of that feed sack, grabbed that old Rooster by its feet and ankles and proceeded to try and drag him down that hill. Of course the Rooster commenced to make an awful ruckus he started squawking and trying to flog Ancil and that brought the adults running to see what was happening. By the time the adults rounded the corner the boys were on their second trip down the hill with that Rooster. Once dad and Uncle Ancil caught sight of their mom coming around the corner of the house they knew they were had.  When Grandma Deckard was close enough and caught site of that Rooster hanging limply from my dad's hand with most of his feathers missing, his mom was on the warpath.

His mom’s prized Rooster had died somewhere mid-hill during his second ride down and dad was the one left holding him. So I bet by now you can guess which one of those boys got the worst licking out of the deal. Grandma Deckard wasn’t going to let that Rooster go to waste so she stewed him up in some chicken and dumplings. My dad said I sure learned two valuable lessons that day. Number one is that no matter how many times you drag a Rooster down a hill it won't lay an egg, only hens can do that. And number two is that you could drag that Rooster up and down that hill all day but it won't make it tender. Dad said that old Rooster was so tough he could have pulled off his boot, put it on his plate and chewed it up alot easier than that old bird.

This brings me to this weeks recipe that was requested by my cousin Tina. She asked for my moms' recipe for the Chicken and Noodles she brings to our family gatherings. Please keep in mind that when you make Chicken and Noodles or Dumplings you need chicken with skin that has some fat. It is the fat from the chicken that helps to create the rich broth you need for tender tasty noodles and dumplings. If you remember when you are creating a roux to help thicken sauces you use equal parts of butter to flour. When you make your noodles and dumplings they are made from flour and usually have some flour clinging to them where you have rolled them out. The extra bits of flour mixed with the chicken fat helps to thicken the broth making it nice and creamy around your noodles or dumplings. If all you have is the boneless, skinless chicken breast than when you put them onto boil add in two tablespoons of cooking oil and two to three tablepoons of butter. This will help to make your broth rich and tasty.

Grandma Dolly's Chicken and Noodles:

3 chicken breast (bone-in and skin-on) or 3 leg and thigh quarters (bone-in and skin-on)

            Note: You need the fat to make your noodles tender and to add flavor. Also the flour left on the noodles along with the flour helps to create a roux. This will thicken the chicken stock and make it into a nice creamy sauce over your noodles.

1.      Rinse the chicken pieces and place them in the bottom of a large stock pot. Add water until it is a couple of inches over the chicken.  Add some salt to the water to season and bring chicken to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and let cook until the chicken is tender.

2.      Cool the chicken pieces and pick off of the bone and add back to the chicken broth. Also add in a about ½ a stick of butter to the hot broth.

3.      Add a few drops of yellow food coloring to make your chicken and noodles look golden and appetizing.

4.     I sometimes stir in a couple of cans of Cream of Chicken soup into the boiling broth to add that little extra creaminess before I start dropping in my noodles.

NOODLES:

4 eggs

1 teaspoon of salt

2 tablespoons of oil

Few drops of yellow food coloring

3 cups of flour (add in a little at a time to make a soft dough ) it may take more or less flour depending upon the size of your eggs.

1.      In a large mixing bowl add the eggs, salt, oil and food coloring.

2.      Whisk until blended.

3.      Start adding in the flour a little at a time. I use a fork to do this and eventually you will have to start using your hands.

4.      Add the flour until you get soft dough that you can handle, but it isn’t sticky. (Note: the dough consistency is almost like pizza dough or canned biscuits.)

5.      Once the dough is the right consistency. Sprinkle flour on your counter and dump the dough onto the flour. Using the heels of your hands start kneading the flour into the dough for about 8 minutes. Sprinkling flour onto the dough as you work it around into a smooth ball.

6.      Once the dough has been kneaded let it rest on the counter by covering it with the mixing bowl. I usually let mine rest for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

7.      Cut into about 6 sections and on a floured surface roll each section into as much of a rectangular shape as is possible and as thin as possible. You will need to flour the surface of the dough and the counter while working with the dough. I flip mine back and forth between rolling each side. Once I have the dough as thin as I want I make sure that both sides are covered with flour so they won’t stick to one another. Then I roll up jelly roll style and using a sharp knife I slice them about ¼ inches.

8.      Unroll the noodles and break off into pieces into boiling chicken broth. Stir while dropping so they do not clump together.

Enjoy!

Until we meet again God bless you and your families,

Melanie