Chicken and Dumpling Casserole

Pulling another favorite from the files of my treasured family recipes to share with ya'll today. I've been making this one for 25 years and I made it a lot while we were raising our family. I haven't made it in many years now, but our boy was home this weekend (Hip! Hip! Hooray!) and I wanted to make food he loved and send him home with leftovers and this fit the bill.

Chicken and Dumpling Casserole

4 C cooked chicken, cubed
1/4 C butter
1/2 C chopped celery
1/2 C chopped onion
chopped garlic
1/2 C flour
4 C chicken broth
salt & pepper
cayenne to taste
1 16 oz bag mixed vegetables
3 C Bisquick (I have a homemade recipe that I've always used)
1 C milk
1 C shredded cheese
Tabasco, Sriracha, or hot sauce of your choice

I usually cook a ton of chicken with onions and salt and pepper at once - cut it up and keep it on hand in the deep freeze. It comes in handy for so many dishes and it's one of my favorite time savers when pulling a recipe together quickly. I do the same with ground beef.

Melt your butter in a large saute pan. Add the celery, onion, and garlic and saute for 5-10 minutes. Sprinkle your flour over this and stir it together to brown the flour and let it soak up the flavor of the sauted celery, onion, and garlic. Slowly add your chicken stock, stirring and simmering to create a thickened base. Stir in the cayenne and vegetables and chicken - let cook for a few minutes. Pour into 9 x 13" casserole dish. Mix your biscuit base with milk and stir in cheese. Plop onto vegetable and bake at 350° for about 30-45 minutes or until biscuits are baked through. DH is not picky, but he does not like doughy biscuits so I bake them longer if they are still doughy. We're a spice loving family so we like this with some sort of hot sauce on top.

Helping Hands

Last Thursday, DH and I left at 5 a.m. and headed up to help his dad do this:

My FIL is 81 and has recently, single-handedly, replaced all the windows in their home. We knew he had the 2 living room windows left. He's of the generation that doesn't ask for help, but it's handy to have an extra pair of hands when you're replacing an 8' window:

And these hands are working hands

My FIL orders one window at a time so we'll be back up for the 2nd window and some point, but window #1 was the order of the day:

Their little munchkin of a dog was the official supervisor

For these two, any job worth doing, is a job worth doing well

Don't know what was up with this styrofoam, but that stinker was NOT coming off! It was attached with some kind of ridiculous adhesive. It took longer to remove that than it did to install the window.

Even a job they don't particularly enjoy, turns into a treasured memory through a photo so maybe my pesky habit of snapping pictures all the time will one day be appreciated. 😉 I love this shot:

I loved watching these two work together

 My FIL is pretty handy and this is a case of the apple not falling far from the tree and I think he enjoys it

More than he'll let on

 After the window was installed, we took my MIL out for a Mother's Day dinner and we were back home by 3. I'm thankful that we only live 2 hours from them - close enough that we can help - even though they won't ask for it, but spending time with his Dad is the best part.

     

In the Branding Pen

It's taken a while, but I'm finally getting my 2nd batch of branding photos into a post. With 24 hours in each day, you would think I would accomplish more, but I never seem to get as much done as I think I ought to. And in the big scheme of things, my little posts aren't important, but I enjoy documenting the things that make up my days and sneaking out of the kitchen to spend some time behind my camera when branding season is at hand, is one of my favorite things:

                           

We sure do appreciate the help:

And I have yet to see a cowboy turn down the chance to throw a few loops

And drag a few to the fire:

                               

                         

                      

I know many of you have had more rain than you need, but around here, a little rain would sure be a blessing...it'd settle the dirt and grow grass for our livestock:

Sometimes branding and shipping season are about the only times we get to see friends and neighbors: 

The smell of branding smoke means that spring has arrived on our neck of the woods:

A good hand on a good horse:

Working up an appetite:

                               
The mamas didn't seem too concerned and were enjoying a short break from the their babies

But they were curious about my intentions

No worries girls - just enjoying my time behind the lens and capturing a bit of the action before I head back to dish up grub for the boys. Well maybe just one more shot:

Escape From the Kitchen

One day last week I was able to break out of the kitchen. Dessert was made and I made barbecue sandwiches, coleslaw,  Cajun potatoes, jalapeno poppers, chips and homemade salsa for dinner. They were working at Adobe Pens

and it takes me 40 minutes to get there, but I had everything ready by 9 (just needed to pop the poppers in the oven when I returned), so I grabbed my camera, and headed out. It's been too long since I was able to spend time behind the lens and I was tickled.

Sometimes I see photos...beautiful photos...of crews branding and cowboys working cattle that I admire. My first thought is always: That's a great shot! My second thought: I would be in so much trouble if I had taken that because from the angle, I would have been in the way. And the first rule of a photographer is Don't Get in the Way.

Or maybe that's just a special rule that applies to me. LOL. Don't spook the cattle...or the horses...or the men. Don't ride in front of the herd. Don't move. Pay attention. So, I have to choose a spot and park it. In this case, it was outside of the corrals, behind a fence, which was a good spot because I tend to get lost behind the camera and not pay attention to what's going on around me and the fence was a trusty barrier and kept me from getting run over:

It's pretty sandy here, thus there's lots of dirt that gets kicked up

But DH likes to work cattle easy and not get them stirred up:

But the sand here is like powder and it's impossible to not kick it up:

The feisty calves churn up clouds of dirt:

And it can make for a cool shot, but the calf's fine.

These animals are our livelihood and we do everything we can to take good care of them.

The crew works quickly and efficiently, but easy:

Usually someone is at the head, one on the tail end, one wields the branding irons, another is assigned to ear mark the calf, one vaccinates, and yet another cuts the bull calves. It all takes less than a minute and the calf is released back into the herd and quickly reunited with it's Mama.

It's hard work, but these boys love what they do:

And they're good at it:

We run a pretty small crew, but try to work two calves at a time in the pen:

That's probably a long enough post for today. Anyone that knows me knows I've got more photos to share, but I'll share more in a day or two. I was only out there for about 45 minutes and ended up with over 500 pictures. It takes a long time to sort through 500 photos and no, I won't make you sit through that many. I'm deleting as fast as I can. 😉