My cute little dumpling...

I got up a little early on Thursday. I wanted to put together a slow cooker meal for my supper and should have prepped it Wednesday night, but I didn't.

As I may have mentioned, I have been looking for new slow cooker recipes. I like coming home to the smells and having dinner ready. It's like having a wife, but without the associated problems, LOL! So, here are some slow cooker things I learned in my travels:

1. Most slow cooker recipes call for a specific size of slow cooker. That really is important for proper cooking.

2. You can certainly prep it the night before, but there are two things they do NOT recommend: You shouldn't put the slow cooker insert in the fridge (I've done that). You should put everything in covered bowls. The cold insert screws up the cooking time. And, they don't recommend mixing the wet ingredients with the meat and veggies the night before. These should be mixed together the morning of, but why, I still don't know.

3. Most slow cooker manufacture's do not recommend filling them more than 3/4 full (I'm often been guilty of filling them so full the lid barely fits). Again, it’s got something to do with proper cooking time and temperature. I've never noticed it, but on the other hand, I often exceed the cooking time because I'm at work.

Anyway, I am making chicken and dumplings. So, I cut up about 1 1/2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts into one-inch pieces. Then I cut up two good-sized Yukon Gold potatoes into one-inch cubes. I peeled and cut up two cups of carrots (the recipe suggested two cups of those whole baby carrots, but I never buy them – they are stupid). I also sliced up two stalks of celery.

Then I mixed together two cans of Campbell's condensed cream of chicken soup, one cup of water, one teaspoon of dried thyme leaves (crushed) and 1/4 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper.

Now, before any of you foodie's start calling "foul!" for using the soup, my feeling is that once you're using a slow cooker to prepare your food (instead of, say, a Dutch oven, for example) you've already crossed a line. It's a slippery slope from there...

I added the sauce to the meat and veggies and thoroughly mixed them. I put on the lid and turned it on low. Then I got ready and left for work (the dumplings come much later in the process).

It was a cold, grey day (okay I gotta ask: is it spelled “grey” or gray”? When I was a kid, it was “grey” (I think) but now it seems to be “gray.” I checked my Webster’s dictionary and they list “grey” as a variant of “gray.” So does anybody know which is correct? This had annoyed me for years...) Anyway, It's a cold, grey (or gray) day, with some rain forecasted, BTW.

Sidebar: Writers are sooo fncked up! This grey versus gray thing really, REALLY does annoy me! Can anybody help? (I still think its “grey”.)

On the way into work, I got $200 out of my savings for the new gutters and dropped off another box of books at the Salvation Army store (I sorted them out Wednesday night while watching TV - My bookshelves are finally not bulging at the seams).

It was one of those days at work, with long spurts of activity and also long spurts of boredom. I hate that as I would rather be busy all day: it makes the time go by quicker.

At lunch, I stopped in at Home Depot again and got some things for the projects I planned on doing tonight.

Back home after work, I took the top off the slow cooker and stirred up the contents (not wanting to mix them so up as much cool them down – It has been 10 hours on an 8-hour recipe). I left the lid cocked to let things cool and turned the knob to “Warm.”

I returned a voicemail from my granddaughter, Riese. As part of her class project, she has to interview some family members, and I am one of them (at least she didn’t say she had to interview some old people, lol!)

Most of the questions were the usual: “What was your favorite class in school?" and so on. But the one that threw me was “Do you remember where you were on 9/11?” I actually know that, but the question I was used to was “Do you remember where you were when President Kennedy was shot?”

I guess time has moved on...

After we were done, I walked the $200 over to my neighbor. I asked again if it was really enough, but he insisted it was. I asked him about borrowing his taller step ladder this weekend to install those gutter guards (mine is only six feet tall and on some of the gutters you’re standing on the top step). He said sure and volunteered to help. I declined his offer.

Back home, I did a little this and that, but really was NOT feeling ambitious enough to start into my projects. So, I watched the rest of the Nightly News and then went out to make the dumplings.

I got out my old box if Jiffy all-purpose baking mix (do we need to go into that “slippery slope” thing again?) And, I do mean old! I noticed that the “sell by” date was 2009! I figured that flour probably wouldn’t go bad, so I used it anyway.

I mixed two cups of that with 2/3 cup of milk. Then I dropped the mixture here and there on top the chicken & veggies. I turned the slow cooker on high and tilted the lid to vent it. I let it all go for about 30 minutes until the dumplings were cooked in the middle.

I plated some and wandered in to watch TV. The chicken and dumplings were excellent!!!

I debated about eating more, but then decided I’d had enough. When it finally cooled (a slow cooker takes a long time to cool) I put the rest in my Tupperware bowl and tuck it in the fridge for weekend meals. I filled the slow cooker insert up with water and let it soak overnight. Then I went to bed.