{"id":921,"date":"2013-02-15T15:38:01","date_gmt":"2013-02-15T20:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tastytangents.com\/?p=921"},"modified":"2013-02-15T15:38:01","modified_gmt":"2013-02-15T20:38:01","slug":"always-learning-notes-from-a-country-schoolhouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tastytangents.com\/?p=921","title":{"rendered":"Always learning: Notes from a country schoolhouse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Without any\u00a0further ado, a fabulous guest post from my good friend Warren:<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“Always learning: Notes from a country schoolhouse”\u00a0would be the name of my blog, if I had one.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I have enough time, or thoughts, to be able to have a regular blog though, so I thought I would hijack Amanda\u2019s.\u00a0 Just for a trial run.<\/p>\n

It is wintertime, and everyone seems to be drawn to \u201ccomfort foods.\u201d\u00a0 Different people and different regions will have a unique definition of what this means.\u00a0 For me, things like meatloaf, mashed potatoes, chili and pastas.\u00a0 Generally speaking, not soup.\u00a0 I\u2019m just not a soup person.<\/p>\n

A couple of weeks ago, on my way home from work I decided to roast a chicken for dinner.\u00a0 I grabbed a nice sized bird, some bacon and a couple of sausages from the meat counter. (I decided to stuff the chicken with a sausage based stuffing and blanket it in bacon)<\/p>\n

Anyway, after I got the chicken in the oven, and had the rice cooker ready to rock, I started to think maybe I should make soup out of the chicken carcass.\u00a0 Don\u2019t ask me why.\u00a0 I\u2019d only ever made soup once before.\u00a0 As I said, I\u2019m just not a soup lover.\u00a0 I\u2019m guessing it was that draw to \u201ccomfort food\u201d having its affect on me.<\/p>\n

The following afternoon on my way home for work I realized I needed carrots, onion and celery to start my soup. (Why exactly we use those three to make a base – mirepoix –\u00a0I have no idea.)\u00a0 I knew I had onions at home, but likely not carrots and most definitely not celery.\u00a0 Realizing that I would never use an entire bunch of celery, even if it would last for a year in my fridge, I came up with an alternative way of getting what I needed.\u00a0 I went to the local Casey\u2019s Grillhouse, had a beer and ordered a side of celery and carrots to go. Just 99 cents! \u00a0Brilliant!\u00a0 I got just enough and wouldn\u2019t have the leftovers rotting in the veggie drawer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The making of mirepoix, onions, carrots and celery.<\/p><\/div>\n

So as I was boiling down the carcass in one pot and starting my mirepoix in another, while also making dinner (I decided it was a two day event to make soup) my wife says \u201care you making dumplings too? I love dumplings\u201d<\/p>\n

My memories of dumplings as a kid would not fall into the \u201ccomfort food\u201d category.\u00a0 My mother is a fabulous lady.\u00a0 Happy, generous and still pretty spry for close to 80, but she has never been a great cook.\u00a0 Dumplings as a kid were these lumpy doughy things that were likely meant to fill a person up, but really had no flavour or appeal.<\/p>\n

And she wanted me to make dumplings?<\/p>\n

Okay, why not.\u00a0 Most things I try come out better than they should, so it was worth a try.\u00a0 I found a recipe online that sounded okay, and got mostly good ratings.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The making of dumplings.<\/p><\/div>\n

This one single recipe has made me a fan of soups again and made dumplings one of my new favourite foods.\u00a0 They are soft, smooth, melt-in-your-mouth yumminess.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0used this Bobby Flay\u00a0recipe on foodnetwork.com<\/a> with some small tweaks.<\/p>\n

Ingredients:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 cup milk
\n1\/2 cup butter
\n1\/2 teaspoon salt
\n1\/2 teaspoon nutmeg
\n1 cup all-purpose flour
\n3 eggs<\/p>\n

Directions:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bring the milk and butter to a boil, add salt and nutmeg. Remove from heat and immediately add flour stirring until dough leaves the sides of the pan. Incorporate the eggs, 1 at a time, forming a sticky dough.<\/p>\n

(I used large eggs and needed to add about\u00a01\/4 cup of extra flour, oh, and used garlic powder instead of nutmeg.)<\/p>\n

Bring soup to a nice boil.\u00a0 Add spoon-sized balls of dough and simmer until dumplings rise.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Chicken Soup with Dumplings<\/p><\/div>\n

I roasted a chicken again this week (this time stuffed with a head of garlic) just so I could make soup with dumplings again.<\/p>\n

Ah, comfort food!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Without any\u00a0further ado, a fabulous guest post from my good friend Warren: “Always learning: Notes from a country schoolhouse”\u00a0would be the name of my blog, if I had one.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I have enough time, or thoughts, to be … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[36,69,96,136,245],"yoast_head":"\nAlways learning: Notes from a country schoolhouse - Tasty Tangents<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tastytangents.com\/?p=921\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Always learning: Notes from a country schoolhouse - Tasty Tangents\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Without any\u00a0further ado, a fabulous guest post from my good friend Warren: “Always learning: Notes from a country schoolhouse”\u00a0would be the name of my blog, if I had one.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I have enough time, or thoughts, to be … Continue reading →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.tastytangents.com\/?p=921\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tasty Tangents\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-02-15T20:38:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/tastytangents.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/warrens_country_schoolhouse.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tastytangents.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tastytangents.com\/\",\"name\":\"Tasty Tangents\",\"description\":\"Food, life and other morsels\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.tastytangents.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tastytangents.com\/?p=921#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/tastytangents.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/warrens_country_schoolhouse.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/tastytangents.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/warrens_country_schoolhouse.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tastytangents.com\/?p=921#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tastytangents.com\/?p=921\",\"name\":\"Always learning: Notes from a country schoolhouse - 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