Sunday, November 19, 2017

19 November 2017






The election is finally over, and I am coming up for air just in time for the holidays. Of course, I was very pleased with the results and look forward to serving the citizens of Canton for another four years. We have so many exciting projects going on, and the enthusiasm is contagious. With all the activity, however, I have not had time to cook in several weeks. With Thanksgiving coming up on Thursday, I was determined to get some prep work done today and escape into the kitchen for some therapy. Between work, the election and other activities, the past couple of months have been unbelievably busy, and the next couple don't appear to be less hectic.

In addition to my regular work and Council duties, I had a couple of extracurricular design engagements this past week. Last Wednesday, I had the honor and privilege to be the featured speaker at the last Lunch Circuit series in Woodstock, sponsored by Fresh Start Cherokee, an initiative of the Cherokee Office of Economic Development. Jonathan Chambers does an excellent job with the program, and it features the stories of different entrepreneurs in Cherokee County. I enjoyed telling my story and background at Grant Design Collaborative to an engaged and gracious crowd, including a lot of friends and colleagues. It was a great day. Last night, I ventured down to Atlanta for AIGA Atlanta's Big Night event at the Center for Civil and Human Rights. This humbling museum always leaves me in awe, but last night we were there to celebrate our local design community and our latest AIGA Atlanta Fellow inductee, David Laufer. I was named a Fellow quite a few years ago, and our other Fellows were there to honor David and celebrate together. It was great catching up with old friends and participating in a beautiful evening hosted by the current AIGA Atlanta board.

So today was all about planning the Thanksgiving menu, grocery shopping and prepping as much as possible. I made cornbread and homemade chicken stock for the Southern dressing. Since I needed to make stock, I decided to double up and cook enough to make tonight's Sunday Supper, old-fashion chicken and black pepper buttermilk dumplings. It was a long, but satisfying day in the kitchen, and I enjoyed every minute. In addition to the scratch stock and stewed free range chicken, I also made and rolled the black pepper dumplings by hand as well. I even went as old-school to use lard in the dumplings, but of course it was lard that I rendered myself. You can also use vegetable shortening as a perfectly acceptable replacement. I also used buttermilk instead of whole milk, and the dumplings were very light and fluffy. They turned out very well, and it was the perfect comfort food after my time away from the kitchen. For dessert, I made a simple standby, a rustic pear tart with a cream cheese crust and pear brandy whipped cream.

I'll only have three days to catch up this week but hope to find a little time to relax over the holiday weekend. Whatever the week brings, I will take time to be thankful for an abundant life, a wonderful community, talented colleagues and the most loving friends and family ever. May your Thanksgiving be equally filled with blessings, great food, fond memories and unrelenting joy.


The Menu:

- Chicken and Buttermilk Black Pepper Dumplings

- Rustic Pear Tart with Pear Brandy Whipped Cream


The Recipe – Chicken and Buttermilk Black 
Pepper Dumplings

Ingredients:

Chicken and Stock:

1 whole chicken
4 large carrots, halved
2 large yellow onion, 1 quartered for stock, 1 chopped for stew
4 stalks celery with leaves, 1cut into large pieces for stock, 1 sliced for stew
2 bay leaves
10 peppercorns
2 sprigs thyme
1 TBS butter
Salt and pepper, to taste

Dumplings:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 TBS baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon course ground black pepper
4 TBS lard or shortening
1/2 to 2/3 cups buttermilk


Directions:

Place the chicken in a pot and cover with cold water and half of the vegetables in large pieces. Add all of the herbs, bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce it to a simmer. Boil the chicken until it is done and falling off the bone, 30-40 mins. Slice the remaining vegetables that were not originally placed in the pot.

When the chicken is done, pull it out of the water, cool and separate the meat from the skin and bone, tearing into bite-size pieces. Strain the stock from the pot, and place over medium high heat to reduce by half.

For the dumplings:

Sift the dry ingredients together into a large bowl. Cut in the lard or shortening until the texture becomes crumbly. Add the buttermilk and combine to form a thick dough. Roll the dough out on a floured board to 1/4 inch thickness, and cut it into 1 x 1 1/2 inch strips.

Add the the sliced vegetables to the reduced stock, and cook until tender - around 15 mins. Add the chicken back to the pot, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Return the stew to a low boil. Drop the dumplings into the stew one at a time, cover and simmer until dumplings are puffed and firm, 5-8 mins.

Serve hot, and garnish with chopped parsley or chives if desired.