Chicken and Dumplings

This is a dish I make so often I no longer use a recipe! I put about 2 pounds of chicken breasts in a pot of water, add chicken bouillon (No, not proud that I use that, but it does enhance the flavor) and seasonings to the water and cook for a good hour or hour and a half, making sure to temp the chicken at over 165*f before it's done, but not cooking it so long it turns to mush. I pull the chicken out of the water, cut it into pieces and set it aside. In the same pot of water I boil a bag of frozen stew veggies until they're tender, then dump the chicken back in. After that I make a slurry of cornstarch and cold water and stir it into the pot of hot water and stir it until it thickens. For the dumplings I use a premade biscuit mix (Again, not proud of using it but it's a quick shortcut) I make a thick biscuit dough and drop spoonfuls into the boiling soup. Put the lid on for 15 minutes or so and let it cook until the thickest biscuit is cooked in the middle. Done! Serve. It WILL be hot! I always put an ice cube or 2 in the kids' bowls for them to stir in, so they can cool it down fast enough for them to eat before they die of starvation!!! My kids don't know what patience is... But they do know how to eat. And this is something my kids and husband would eat a couple times a week if I made it!

Candy Cane Christmas Cookies

These are cookies I made last Christmas. They came out beautifully and had a wonderful light peppermint taste.

I love baking dozens of cookies for Christmas, and you HAVE TO have cookies for Santa! Along with plenty for friends and family. :-) What would the holidays be without tons of unhealthy, delicious, indulgent baked goods to stuff yourself with?

I made the dough, split it in half and colored half of it with a few drops of red food coloring. Made 2 "snakes" as my kids called them, one of each color, and twisted them together. The shortbread type dough came apart easily so they had to be handled carefully. They took a little time to form them all but they look so pretty!

I baked them on parchment paper. I left the first batch in the oven too long and they turned brown and too hard so after that I watched very carefully and pulled them as soon as they turned golden on the bottom edges.

This is one of those projects where you could talk to the kids about how a candy cane represents a shepherd's crook or a J for Jesus and how the red can represent Christ's blood and the white is purity. There are many moments that can be good opportunities to talk to kids about Christianity, I especially like to teach them when they're having fun.

I don't have the recipe I used for this right now, but as soon as I find it I'll add it to this post. :~)