Monday Morning Pick Me Up: Delicious Slow Cooker Chicken & Dumplings

Who doesn’t love food?  You don’t have to be a foodie, but good food is good times.  A cool fall Monday morning is always made better when you know that there’s some delicious food waiting for you at home.  This is why I love my slow cooker.  Even on Monday nights, which are always crazy for my family with Girlie and Boyo’s simultaneous activities.  Yes, that’s right, they both have activities at the exact same time.  Thank goodness for supportive, involved grandparents!

Today’s pick me up isn’t a poem, it’s a recipe, along with another little glimpse into my life.  I love to cook.  I’m pretty good at it too, if you believe my family.  Now, I’m no food blogger, so you’re not going to get step by step pictures, but I’ll take you through my process.  Given that it’s a slow cooker, it’s pretty easy:

1. Throw most of the ingredients in before work. Even before coffee. 
2. Turn on the slow cooker.  
3. Go to work. (And get coffee) 
4. Come home.  
5. Add the final ingredient.  
6. Help the kids get changed for their sports.  
7. Eat delicious food.

I realize that it takes 7 steps, but you have to admit, they’re pretty easy steps.  I have confidence that you can handle them.  Feel free to adjust the steps where I go do other stuff while the food cooks to whatever activity you prefer.  You could go shopping instead of going to work, binge something on Netflix, or watch an afternoon of football. It’s your call.  Basically, go do something for a few hours the first time, then go do something for about a half an hour after the final ingredient goes in.  I trust you to find something worthwhile.

This recipe is very forgiving.  Sometimes I add other veggies.  Over the summer I like to use a dozen ears of fresh local corn.  I’ve got the basics below, but please tweak it as you see fit, and if you create a masterpiece, let us know what you did differently!  I’d love to make a new and improved version of a family favorite.

Chicken & Dumplings

Ingredients:

-4 Chicken Breasts

-2 15 oz cans Cream of Chicken Soup

-2 15 oz cans Chicken Broth (or water)

-1 15 oz can Creamed Corn

-1 15 oz can Sweet Corn

-1 tube refrigerated ready to bake biscuits/rolls

Instructions:

1. Place all canned ingredients in slow cooker & stir until combined.
2. Place chicken breasts on top of mixture
3. Turn slow cooker on, cook on low for about 8 hours or high for about 4 hours
4. Mix all ingredients, shredding the cooked chicken
5. Shape biscuit/roll dough into half inch balls, toss into slow cooker and mix.  
6. Cover & cook for another 30 mins on high, stirring once or twice.
7. Serve and enjoy!  Watch out, it’s hot.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/355151120592986315/
(Another option, but I'd add corn to this.)

Friday Free For All: Avoiding Politics

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/216454325823777956/

Awwww, isn’t the bunny so cute??  Welcome to what I do when politics gets overwhelming on social media.  Not only do I not follow politics, I actively avoid political discussion.  All you get is spin, and all too often is people trying to tear others down.  I prefer to lead a life full of positivity, and politics doesn’t really jive with that.  

So, when one or the other politician does something that everyone jumps all over, my social media feeds are flooded with people bad mouthing the latest devil incarnate.  My response?  Slide on over to my Pinterest, browse my pin board on cute bunnies, choose whichever one strikes my fancy that day, and put it on my social media platforms.  I hope I can be one cute, bright spot in someone’s rage-fueled political-filled feed.

Brokenness

Living in your brokenness

Is barely living at all

It is scraping by

It is eking out life

On its most basic level.

Fractured bits of existence,

Scattered here and there--

Fragments of your former self--

Litter the floor.

Those who try to approach

Do so at their peril,

Treading lightly

Amongst the shards

Of what once was you,

Lest they are pierced.

Your injury is contagious;

Fear of infection

Driving others away

Dreading a demolished life.

Writing Wednesday: Revision

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AQEpJQVpSdw5X0euONPbSIc2dfSxFFk6CXPOQ9IvKQbyCGvocH5Xlcs/

I’m getting back into the groove of regular posting here, and I want to stick to the loose format I came up with before, so on Wednesdays I’ll be posting insights into my writing process and tips for other writers.  

When I post my poetry, the final product you read falls into two categories: brand spanking new or well aged.  Sometimes a fresh poem just feels so right that I’m ready to put it out there for the world to see the moment my pen leaves the page.  (Yes, most of my poetry starts out hand written.  But that’s for another Wednesday.)  There’s not really any rhyme or reason to it, and I can’t quantify the reasoning for which poems I share right away versus those I keep back.  Much of how I handle poetry is instinctive.  

The poems I keep back can go through several rounds of editing and revision before they make their way onto my blog.  Sometimes the original is very personal and I change some aspects to create some space between myself and a difficult topic. Sometimes when I revisit a poem, I’m in a different mood and I read it in a different light.  Suddenly the words just don’t fit right.  So, I scratch and I scribble until I find the right words that fit the right way with the right mood.  It’s quite a process, and a given poem might go through several rounds of aging before it’s fit for public consumption.

Sometimes, no matter how much I age a poem, it’s just bad.  Like, really bad.  I don’t trash poems, but there are a few on the “Do not post, EVER” list.  They stay in my journal as a learning experience.  They still have value to me, but they do not belong in the light of day.  Or the light of the internet.  Or anywhere other than that journal.  I don’t quite have it locked away in a vault, but sometimes it is tucked under my mattress.