I Think Mamaw Would Like ‘Em, Too

9 September 2011 by

When I was a little girl, one of the dishes that was just flat out REVERED in my family was my Mamaw Davis’ chicken and dumplings. Except that we never, ever pronounced the “g” in the word “dumplings.” We said “dumplins.” Still do. So just know that from here on out I’m gonna type it like I say it. Chicken and dumplins.

Well.

Earlier this week I was temporarily overtaken by the plague, and on Wednesday, when I actually wore clothes that were not pajamas and started to emerge from my plague-induced haze, I decided that I had to have – HAD TO HAVE – chicken and dumplins for supper. I always think of chicken and dumplins as the Southerner’s answer to chicken noodle soup, and in light of the week I’d had, it sounded like the world’s most perfect food. So I went to the store, rounded up all the ingredients, then headed home to try to honor my sweet Mamaw’s memory.

I should probably tell you that I’ve tried lots of different chicken and dumplin recipes over the years. I’ve gone the totally-from-scratch route; I’ve gone the add-some-cream-of-something-soup route; I’ve gone the make-dumplins-from-canned-biscuits route. But Wednesday night, I have to say, is when I think I finally hit on the perfect combination of convenience and made-from scratch goodness. Because the chicken and dumplins? THEY WERE TASTY. And the next time I decide to cook up a batch, I’m going to make them the exact same way.

So on the off chance that anyone, you know, CARES, I thought I’d share the recipe. It’s a combination of (no kidding) about three different recipes, and for whatever reason, it works. Be advised that we don’t really enjoy it when vegetables interfere with our chicken and dumplins, so you won’t find any of them in this particular mash-up. You could definitely add them, though.

All righty. Here you have it.

My Favorite Chicken & Dumplins

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1 teaspoon table salt
1 cup buttermilk
(if you like fluffy, biscuit-y dumplins, add 2 teaspoons of baking powder – but we like dense dumplins around here)

*****

2 fully cooked rotisserie chickens
1/2 stick real-live (salted) butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 box chicken stock (32 oz. – I like Kitchen Basics)
2 cups water
1/4 cup half and half
1 teaspoon Worcestershire
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

*****

In a mixing bowl, combine 2 cups flour, 2 beaten eggs, salt and buttermilk. Once mixture is blended, cover the bowl and set aside. Don’t over mix – it’ll make the dumplins tough.

Pull meat off of rotisserie chickens. Chop into cubes, then set aside.

In a Dutch oven, melt butter over low heat. Once all the bubbles are gone, start sprinkling the 1/4 cup of flour into the pot. Add a little, stir to combine, then add a little more, stir to combine, etc. Once all the flour has been incorporated, continue to stir over low-to-medium heat until the mixture starts to turn a golden color. You don’t want it to get brown – just golden. It’ll only take a couple of minutes.

Once you see that golden color, start adding liquid to the mixture. Add about a cup of chicken stock, whisk it well so that everything combines, then add half the water, whisk to combine, more chicken stock, then whisk – and continue until all the liquid has been mixed with the flour and butter mixture. Turn the heat up to medium and continue to whisk frequently to ensure that you don’t have any lumps.

This is a great time to taste the stock mixture, by the way – the butter and stock already have salt, but you’ll probably need to add more salt and pepper to taste.

Let mixture simmer for about 10 minutes – until it’s thicker and not quite so brothy. Add Worcestershire, garlic powder, half and half and chicken. Stir to combine everything, then taste again. Add more salt and pepper if necessary.

Once the whole mixture is simmering and is season just like you like it, drop the dumplin dough into the pot by spoonfuls. It’ll start to look crowded, but that’s okay. Once everything is in the pot, let the dumplins simmer (uncovered) for about 15-20 minutes. They’ll cook through, and once they’re done, take the whole pot off the heat, cover it, and leave it alone for about 15-20 minutes.

After 15-20 minutes, take off the lid, grab a ladle, and serve the chicken and dumplins in some oversized bowls.

Be prepared for your people to pledge their undying and eternal devotion.

I’m just sayin’.

Because these chicken and dumplins are slap-your-mamaw good.

(But by all means, please don’t slap your mamaw.)

(I don’t think she would appreciate that.)

(Not to mention that it would be sort of tacky.)

Enjoy, y’all!

Filed Under: Cooking, The South

Third World Symphony

8 September 2011 by

So here’s the thing that I’m a little bit embarrassed to tell you: for the longest time – for most of my life, really – I would see pictures and videos of people living in extreme poverty in this country and in other parts of the world, and my first reaction would be to fight my inclination to care. Honestly, I was scared to care. I was scared of how caring would change me, of how it would wreck my priorities, of how it would take everything that I’d always thought I’d wanted and render that stuff absolutely meaningless. So I would look at the pictures and watch the videos and nod my head and occasionally feel a tug at my heart, but that was as far as it went with me. It wasn’t that I was callous, but on some level I was pretty dadgum obstinate about not wanting to get pulled outside of my comfort zone. Sometimes it’s just easier to stay insulated in our shiny happy suburbias, you know?

But.

In the spring of 2006 our pastor invited a group of men from the Sudan to speak at our church. And that Sunday, as I listened to the stories of how the people in their village had been persecuted for their faith, how they’d risked their lives so that they could worship together, how they’d suffered in ways that I could not fathom, some of my resistance and reluctance started to give way. In fact, as a result of that particular Sunday, my prayers eventually started to change. And by the beginning of 2007, I had stopped saying “God, am I supposed to go?” – and started saying “God, show me where to go. Show me how to go.”

And get a load of this craziness: in August of 2007 I got an email from someone at Compassion International who wanted to know if I’d be interested in going on a blogging trip (OF ALL THINGS) to Uganda. It was an invitation that seemed to come straight out of nowhere – probably one of the most surprising things that’s ever happened to me in my life – but at the same time I instantly knew that it was something I was supposed to do. Sometimes God whispers, and sometimes He screams – and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God was pretty much screaming, “HEY! YOU! REMEMBER THOSE PRAYERS? WELL, HERE’S YOUR ANSWER.”

And yes, in case you’re wondering, I do believe that God occasionally enjoys the use of ALL CAPS for emphasis.

The trip to Uganda was life-changing for hundreds of different reasons. It was every bit as difficult as I expected that it would be, mainly because the depth of poverty was shocking to me. It was profound. But I have to tell you: in the midst of those heart-breaking circumstances, I saw so much hope. I saw the beauty that happens when Light shines on dark places. And I was reminded that Joy – deep, lasting, eternal Joy – doesn’t necessarily shine brighter in poverty-stricken areas, but it’s definitely more noticeable when it’s not surrounded by all the junk and the stuff and the things that I tend to cling to in my safe little day-to-day life.

I believe that’s what you call a lasting life lesson, my friends.

On our last day in Uganda the people in our group shared communion on the banks of the Nile River. And as we stood in a circle and prayed together, a guy named Shaun Groves – the guy who dreamed up the whole crazy notion of taking a bunch of bloggers to Uganda and then setting them free to blog about what they saw and experienced – began to sing a song called “Kingdom Coming.” Well, “Kingdom Coming” is one of the songs on Shaun’s new CD, Third World Symphony, and I asked him if he’d do me a big ole favor and sing it for y’all. It never fails to encourage me and remind me of the grace of the Gospel. I hope it does the same for you.

Kingdom Coming for Sophie at BooMama.net from Shaun Groves on Vimeo.

It’s overwhelming sometimes to look around the world and see the extent of people’s spiritual and physical needs. In fact, it’s easy to feel discouraged and think that there’s absolutely no way that we can make a difference. I know that most of us are trying our best to serve our families as much as we can and as well as we can, so it’s not always possible to spend big chunks of time serving people outside of our homes, whether those people are in our own cities or across the ocean in a third-world country.

But what we can do – what is oh-so-possible and oh-so-practical – is to support people like Shaun. His CD sales make it possible for him to continue to get in front of large groups of people and tell them about the work Compassion is doing. And when he tells an audience about Compassion, many of those people will respond by sponsoring a child who’s living in poverty. That sponsorship ensures that the child will have all the medicine they need, all the clothing they need, all the school fees they need. And most importantly, that sponsorship ensures that the child will be involved with a local church where they’ll hear the truth and the hope of the Gospel over and over again. It’s life-changing. It’s life-giving.

And if you ask me, that’s a mighty good return on a a $9.90 investment. Oh yes ma’am it is.

If you’d like more information about Shaun and his ministry, be sure to check out his blog. And if you’d like to buy your very own copy of the (most excellent) Third World Symphony, you can do that on iTunes or on Shaun’s website.

Thanks, Shaun, for doing what you do.

And thanks, bloggy people, for being so willing to help him.

Filed Under: Compassion, Jesus Music, My Friends Rock

Still Pinning

7 September 2011 by

Whenever there’s some big new interweb fad, it’s tough to tell if my initial fascination is going to last. Because, I mean, Google Plus? Not so much. I don’t understand it.

But Pinterest? YES MA’AM.

In fact, I think Pinterest and I may be in this thing for the long haul.

Here are a few of my recent favorites:

Source: etsy.com via Sophie on Pinterest

Source: howjoyful.com via Sophie on Pinterest



Are y’all still pinning, too?

Filed Under: Rambling

An Oversized Tea Cozy Might Also Work

6 September 2011 by

I’ve mentioned before that my mama is the queen of form over function. She likes for everything on display in her house to be aesthetically pleasing, which is precisely why she keeps all the bed pillows in a closet and not on the beds.

It’s also why she is constantly looking for new and inventive ways to hide Daddy’s computer. What with all those unseemly cords, you understand.

So when D and I bought the new-to-us elliptical motion machine last week, I have to confess that the part of me that shares my mama’s decorative gene pool desperately wanted to figure out a way to make everything pretty, to figure out how to cleverly disguise the six foot-long black steel contraption that is now taking up residence in our home. I even thought about putting the elliptical in another bedroom, but since we tend to have a good bit of company, it seemed silly to tear apart one of the extra bedrooms when there was plenty of room in ours.

After a couple of days of considering all of the possibilities, I made a final decision. The best place for the elliptical really is in a corner of the master bedroom. It would only require moving one little piece of furniture, so for the most part it would be a super-easy transition. It was the right thing to do.

However.

Once we got everything moved, I walked in our room and felt just the slightest sense of hesitation. Because, well, DADGUM. The elliptical is just so, you know, big. And imposing. And not made of wood. And not capable of displaying family photographs or stacks of favorite books.

(sidenote: That big thing on the wall to the right is the previous owners’ headboard for their bed frame. We’ve thought about removing it, but it’s so securely attached that the whole wall would come down with it. And that is why I try to pretend like it’s a decorative feature and not an annoyance, though sometimes it definitely feels more like that last thing.)

After we adjusted the angle of the elliptical a little bit and scooted it as far back into the corner as we could, I realized that I was just going to have to make my peace with it. It’s not the most attractive accent piece in our room, but it’s hopefully going to help me to feel better.

So as I stood there and stared at it and vowed that I wouldn’t let it rob me of my decorative mojo, D apparently picked up on the fact that I was hesistant. He knows how much I like for a room to have a good “flow,” and he knows this because he would’ve stationed some sort of recliner with a cooler as well as a massage feature in the dead-center of our living room a long time ago if he didn’t have to take my love for “flow” into account. And so, considering the fact that we’d just moved a 200-pound piece of machinery into the corner of our bedroom, he was able to recognize that I was feeling a little unsettled.

And that is when he grabbed a throw from a nearby chair, grinned, and said, “Here. I’ll fix it just like your mama would.”

God bless him. It made me so happy.

And just so you know: I didn’t leave it that way. I like to think that I’m growing as a person.

But you’d better believe that I reserve the right to construct some sort of elaborate six-sided decorative screen in order to conceal all those handlebars and and pedals and wheels.

I think I’ll call Mama and see if she wants to start drawing up the plans.

Filed Under: Decorating, Family Fun

Monday Night

5 September 2011 by

This morning I woke up and (Rachel Zoe-ism alert) felt like a truck had LITERALLY run over me. At some point in the night the plague settled into my head and my chest, so I’ve spent most of the day either blowing my nose or trying to cough up a lung. I’ve also spent a considerable amount of time watching clips from old Mississippi State football games on the YouTube, but that was mainly to distract me from reaching for some sort of anvil in order to alleviate the blinding sinus pain and pressure. Some people like to watch chick flicks when they’re sick; I, on the other hand, prefer a sassy pick-six or a particularly powerful quarterback sack.

As I have often mentioned, I am a delicate flower.

Mama and Daddy drove over yesterday so they could spend Labor Day with us, and their plan was to leave this afternoon and drive home. The weather has been really nasty all day, though – something like six and a half inches of rain in the last 24 hours – and the flash floods and downed trees dictated that they spend one more night with us instead of trying to navigate the less-than-ideal driving conditions. Fortunately we still have power at our house, but it is pitch black dark all around us. There are lots of people without electricity in our neck of the woods.

It’s been strange to sit here and listen to today’s seemingly endless rain, mainly because I know that the folks in Texas would give just about anything to have had even a fraction of it. Off and on I’ve found myself praying, “Lord, send this rain west – just send it west” – because we’ve had such an over-abundance of it and Texas has such a desperate need for it. But the rain just keeps pouring here, sitting on top of ground that’s far too soaked to absorb anything else, and the fires keep burning in Texas, blazing a trail across land that, at this point, is basically acre upon acre of kindling.

So tonight, as the rain continues to beat against the trees, I’m reminded to pray for the people in Texas. I’d love it if you’d join me. Because even though we can’t send the rain to Texas, we know the One who can.

Have a good Tuesday, everybody.

Filed Under: Faith, Rambling

It Has Been A While

3 September 2011 by

I hardly ever post on Saturdays, but considering that we have had a day with absolutely nothing to do and nowhere to be (though I did make a quick trip to the Steinmarts since I had a coupon burning a hole in my pocket), I thought I’d check in here.

So. Let the checking in commence, I reckon.

In all honesty, the last 8 or 9 days have been sort of a WHITE HOT MESS in terms of some junk that I’ve been walking and wading through with people I care about a whole bunch, and while I think everything (Martha-speak alert) is going to be fine! just fine! it’s all going to be perfectly fine!, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s made for a pretty tiring week-and-some-change around these parts. A few nights ago I met some friends for supper, and as much as I was trying to be a gamer in terms of contributing to the conversation, there were several points during dinner when I nearly dozed off. My friends were hilarious, mind you, but there was something about the combination of the dimly-lit booth and being able to sit still for an extended period of time that left me a wee bit drowsy.

And that’s pretty much been the norm around here lately: plow through the day, try to stay awake during meals, fall asleep during a TV show, crawl in the bed, wake up at 5:30 the next morning – and repeat. And repeat. And repeat.

Oh, it has been a refreshing time.

Last weekend I told D that since I’m pretty locked in to several different obligations, this isn’t really one of those times when I can just decide to cut back on a couple of things in the interest of feeling more sane and rested. So, since I can’t necessarily do less, I have to figure out how to work smarter. I feel fortunate because I love everything that I’m doing / working on, but I’m not much good to my people if I’m so worn out from it all that I’m walking around in a daze half the time. And that is precisely why we now have a new addition to our family.

Yes. You’re seeing correctly. That would be a (used) elliptical motion machine. We bought it from one of our neighbors earlier this week, and I’m hoping that it’ll help Mama here have a little more energy and as a result be significantly less likely to fall asleep in the middle of TV shows and/or conversations. It’s HUGE, so today we’re going to try to figure out the best place to put it.

And by “best” what I really mean is “least conspicuous.” BECAUSE IT IS SO VERY GIGANTIC, MY WORD.

I have to say, though, that over the last day or so things have slowly been feeling a little more normal. We watched the Bulldogs play Thursday night, and I loved every single second (for the record, I made Southwestern Salad and a rotel dip with white cheese – both were tasty). Last night D and I went to see this guy in concert, and it was A DELIGHT. We had such a good time. Right now I’m watching the Ole Miss / BYU game, getting ready to fry up some chicken and looking forward to the LSU / Oregon game tonight. This morning on Twitter I mentioned that I don’t know how Les Miles is going to eat grass since he’ll be coaching tonight on artificial turf, but I’ll tell you what: I’m excited about the possibilities.

Anyway, enough about me. How are y’all? How’s your team doing this weekend? Do you have any fun Labor Day plans? Have any exciting naps on the horizon? Any wide stretches of time where you can hang out in your pajamas and spend quality time with your people and hopefully laugh a whole bunch?

A girl has to prioritize, you know.

Filed Under: Rambling
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