Cold-weather food

I love to cook. I know it's not for everyone, but dicing, stirring, smelling, mixing are things that relax me, help me focus and just plain make me happy.



Before I forget, I want to post that strawberry frosting recipe. I found it on Martha Stewart's site *cough*icantstandthatwoman*cough and the only reason I wanted to try it was because the recipe wasn't hers, but from the famous Sprinkles cupcakery in L.A.



It. Was. Divine.



I'm not a fan of measurements, but I'll try my best. I tweaked it a little, but it was still awesome.

• 2 sticks SALTED butter, softened (NOT melted...that means no microwave!!)
• 1 teaspoon-ish kosher salt
• 2t vanilla extract (don't use fake vanilla...it's the devil and I won't be your friend any more)
• 3 1/2 cups-ish of powdered sugar
• 3 - 6 T strawberry puree (get frozen strawberries, thaw them, mash them to bits and scoop out desired amount)
• heavy whipping cream (I have no idea how much I used...I'll explain later)

In a stand up kitchen mixer (or large bowl if you don't have one) whip butter for about 2 minutes on med-high. Add salt and vanilla.

TURN THE MIXER TO LOW SPEED and add sugar, a little at a time. If you don't turn the speed down, you will be attacked by a large cloud of powdered sugar. It's not as fun as it sounds, trust me.

While the sugar is mixing in with the butter, add some heavy whipping cream, a splash at a time. I probably wouldn't use more than 1/4 cup. If it ends up being too wet, add more sugar.

STOP THE MIXER and scrape the bowl. If you don't stop the mixer and try to scrape the bowl while the whisk is running, you will lose an eye ball, maybe even both.

Turn mixer to med-high for about another minute. STOP THE MIXER and scrape the bowl again.

Add strawberries.

Turn mixer to low-med until the berry slime has been worked in, then turn mixer to med-high for another 2-3 minutes.

Add to some sort of cake or eat it straight from the bowl...I won't judge you.

So, this cold-weather food I was talking about. It was pretty darned good, if I do say so myself. I made chicken and dumpling stew a few nights ago and the whole batch was gone by the next night. It might not be the prettiest thing you've ever seen in a bowl, but it's tasty.

Again, I suck at measuring stuff, so I'll just give you an idea of what to do:

• In a large pot, brown about 1/2 slab of bacon (I like the center cut stuff, less fat, more meat)
• When bacon starts to brown, add 1 great, big white onion, chopped
• Brown the onions
• Add about 3-4 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, chopped into bite-sized pieces
• Add some kosher salt
• Toss for about 3-4 minutes
• Add chicken stock (Trader Joe's sells a great, organic chicken stock. I also like this stuff.)
• Add some fresh thyme and rosemary and a bit of fresh-ground pepper
• Cook for a while on med-low heat. Definition of "a while" varies from person to person, but I'd say in this case, it means when the chicken is cooked through.
• Add chopped celery and carrots
• Cook a while longer (and in this case, "a while longer" means until veggies are tender but not mush)
• In a large measuring cup, with about 1/2c bisquick, spoon in some of the liquid from the pot. Stir and pour this sludge back into the pot. (This makes this dish more "stew" and less "soup")
• In that same measuring cup, measure out about a cup of bisquick. Add about 1/2c of milk and mix. (The mixture should have the consistency of plaster. Sounds tasty, no?)
• Spoon the dumplings into the pot. (Dumplings should be slightly smaller than a tennis ball)
• Spoon some of the soup over the dumplings (this helps cook them a tad faster)
• Cook for about 10-ish minutes, or until dumplings are cooked-through. (Man, there is nothing nastier than a raw dumpling)

Enjoy!