This is becoming a habit

It seems like just yesterday I was writing about Thatbaby's 2 month shots.  Hard to believe it was over 2 months ago.  Time flies very quickly when your main mode of entertainment is Pandora's Muppets station and your main exercise routine involves doing chest presses with a 13lber.  (Apparently WAY more entertaining than playing airplane)

The passage of 2 months means we recently made another trip to the doctor for Thatbaby's 4 month vaccinations.

I consider us to be lucky in many respects when it comes to babies.  I joke that we paid extra for the deluxe model that doesn't drool, spit up, and manages to keep his bodily waste neatly tucked away in his diaper.  He's also fantastic when it comes to shots.   Well...fantastic in a relative way.  He does cry when he's getting the shots, but within minutes after he's perfectly fine - just doing that dry sobbing thing that I do after I get shots too.  Needles are traumatizing.

The only issue with all this is that because he's such a healthy baby, we've only had his regular well-baby doctor's visits.  Which means every time we go to the doctors, he ends up getting these shots.  And I'm sure eventually he's going to put 2 and 2 together and realize that.   

I decided to do chicken soup for dinner after the appointment.  It's kind of the opposite of "an apple a day keeps the doctor away"   - chicken soup after the doctor cures whatever ails you from the appointment itself.  Things like PTSD from vaccinations.  In general, Thatbaby doesn't get the soup till several hours after I do, but I like to think that I'm still providing him with something warm and healing by eating it.

If you recall, I wasn't thrilled with the dumplings in the Cooking Light chicken and dumpling recipe.  I wanted something with a little bit more substance - a little more matzah bally.  So I decided to work on those dumplings.  I took the easy way out by using a baking mix - I love Trader Joe's multigrain, and just added milk until it was nice and thick and dense.   I figure I can play with the actual flour/baking powder/salt ratio another time.  This gave me some amazing dense dumplings.

I also added some mustard seed to the broth to give it that golden color I prefer in chicken noodle soup (a little bit of curry powder could also work and I'm thinking delicious).  Not only is it more photogenic this way, but I swear golden soups taste better!  I tossed in some frozen peas only because they were taking up valuable freezer room.  As with any good soup, you can feel free to add or subtract your own favorite vegetables.  Zucchini would be fantastic in this, if I had any on hand.

This soup, with the golden color and dense dumplings is far superior to the last one I posted.  It was amazingly delicious.  As you've seen over the past few months we do a lot of soups round here in the winter - and I have some more to share with you over the next few weeks.  But this definitely ranks up there as one of my new favorites.

Make it now before the weather gets warmer!  Even if you're not sick.  I'm not a doctor (and I don't even play one on tv) but I'd be willing to bet that eating this soup is a surefire way to stave off any illness that may be lurking around the corner.

Chicken and Dumplings (adapted from Cooking Light Chicken's Chicken and Rosemary Dumplings)

7 cups chicken broth

1 boneless skinless chicken breast

2 thyme sprigs

2 tsp olive oil

1 cup diced carrot

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup diced onion

1 cup frozen peas

2 Tbsp flour

1/2 tsp ground mustard

1 cup baking mix (I used Trader Joe's Multigrain mix)

1/3 cup milk

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1. Combine chicken broth, water, chicken and thyme in a dutch oven over medium high heat.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes.
2. Remove chicken from broth and cool.  Shred chicken with two forks.  Remove thyme and discard.
3. Heat oil in pan over medium high heat.  Add the carrot, celery, onion, and peas.  Saute until onion is translucent.
4. Sprinkle the vegetables with flour, stirring until the mixture thickens. 
5. Add the vegetables and 1/2 tsp salt to the broth and stir until well blended. 
6. Stir in the ground mustard. Simmer 10 minutes.
7. In a small bowl combine the baking mix milk and garlic powder. Stir until just combined.
8. Add the chicken to the soup, stirring well. Taste and add more salt and pepper as needed.
9. Drop the dumpling dough into the soup.  Cover and cook 8 minutes.

Kitchen Helper

This year for New Year's Eve we headed out of town. Thatmom had suggested a family trip to our timeshare in Palm Desert. Since it was just a quick couple of hours away, we thought it would be a safe first vacation with new baby in tow.

A couple of days before we were to leave, I received this email from Thatmom:

Hello my loved ones,

Next weekend we are dining at Zins in palm springs for dinner on Friday eve, then having breakfast at Cheeky's the next day. On New Years eve, we will cook indoors at the Time Share and if okay with you, I have assignments for dinner.

Thatbrother will do the appetizer (caprese is fine)
UDubb will do a small salad
Thatboy will pick out the wine
Thatgirl will prepare the filet mignon
Thatmom will do the side dishes
Thatbaby will do the desert.

Everyone had a job to do. And it worked out really well for the most part. I ended up making some baked potatoes to go with the filets, and UDubb and Thatbrother ended up bringing the wine. Really Thatboy was the only one who got out of doing anything. Even Thatbaby got in on the action, taking his duty of dessert very seriously.

Because my mocha walnut cake had been such a hit, he thought he should try a Fannie Farmer cake also. He chose a velvet cake - so called because of "velvet texture." The recipe was unlike anything I'd ever seen. It called for 1/2 a cup of cornstarch and 4 tsp of baking powder. And it called for beating the egg whites until stiff before folding them into the batter. I figured the cake would probably float away! Or explode.

I'll have to do some Alton Brown research on those ingredients, but I can tell you that they made this cake perfectly light, crumbly, and buttery. (Well the butter probably made it buttery.) With a simple boiled chocolate frosting, this cake is classic and simple, but a sure fire winner. Thatboy thinks it's the best homemade cake he's ever had. Which I'm sure is partly due to Thatbaby's loving hand in it's creation.

One tip - on New Year's Eve we cut the cake cold from the fridge. It was alright. It wasn't until the next night when we took it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature that it really shone. So make sure you let it come to room temp before serving.

Velvet Cake (From the Fannie Farmer Cookbook)
1/4 lb butter
1 cup sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray 2 8-inch cake pans with baking spray. Cream the butter in an electric mixture.
2. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time.
4. Beat in 1/2 cup of cold water.
5. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in stages and mix thoroughly.
6. Beat the egg whites until stiff, but not dry. Stir a third of the whites into the batter.
   
7. Fold in the remaining whites and spread the batter into the pans. Bake for about 25 minutes. Coll in pans for 5 minutes before turning onto racks. Cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate Butter Frosting
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1/4 lb butter
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate, melted

1. Boil the sugar and 1/4 cup water until the mixture reaches 240 degrees F.
2. While the sugar syrup is cooking, beat the egg yolk well. Pour the syrup over the egg, beating constantly.
   
3. Beat in the butter until it's incorporated.
   
4. Mix in the melted chocolate and continue to beat until the frosting is of spreading consistency.