Nostalgic Dumplings

Last night's dinner brought me way back to my childhood.

A few weeks ago Matt requested chicken & dumplings for dinner, but I kept putting it off since I thought it would take a long time to make. I wasn't in a rush last night, though, and figured a big Dutch Oven full of homemade soup sounded like a great Sunday dinner, so took the plunge. I was surprised that it actually didn't take too long - about 40 minutes from start to finish.

I used the recipe from my favorite Joy of Cooking cookbook (you can find it online here), but changed things up a bit to make it vegetarian and a little healthier:

- Subbed chicken for Morningstar Farms Chik'n Strips (cooked separately, then chopped up and added toward the end)
- Used vegetable broth
- Subbed a splash of skim milk for the 1/2 cup of heavy cream
- Added extra carrots
- Added frozen peas
- Added celery salt to the dumplings (love this stuff and it reminds me of my mom's chicken pot pie)

This is such an old-fashioned meal and I haven't had it since I was at least 12 years old. It'll definitely be making an appearance in my kitchen again, though. It was so homey and satisfying, delicious even when made vegetarian, and nutritious when you amp up the veggies and cut the fat.

Can't wait to dig into the leftovers!

We spent the rest of the evening video taping Riker toddling around the living room and playing with the dog before heading to bed early to read our books. Riker is so much fun to watch lately; he is walking all over the place and gets a kick out of it, and he and Butters have become total BFFs. So cute.

***

This morning started with an egg & cheese sandwich on a light English muffin with a side of kiwi before a family gym session.

In an effort to kick the gym monotony I did a similar workout to Friday's mixup, but this time I did a longer cardio session and focused on arms instead of legs & abs. I started with a nice long jog on the treadmill, interspersed with random periods of high intensity uphill fast walking. Once I reached the elliptical I was really ready to move, so turned on the Dance Pop station on Pandora and went as fast as I could for 20 minutes, split up with two short intervals of "walking" at a strong resistance level.

David Guetta always gets me movin'!

Just got back home to gobble up a big salad for lunch (I made waaaay too much salad for our Sat night Italian feast, and refuse to let it go to waste even though it was already dressed), then it's time to be productive and get things in order for the work week. I'm hoping to get a bunch accomplished in a few hours so I can relax and enjoy the last few hours of this 4-day weekend.

Hope you're having a great Monday, whether you're at home or at work!

Sunday Brunch Reunion

Homemade sauce night was a success. Matt made a huge pot of meat marinara and a small pot of vegetarian sauce for me using our usual recipe. We had enough sauce for dinner last night with 5 adults and 3 kids, plus about 5 canning jars worth of leftovers to store in the freezer for another night.

I was hoping to try the sauce in a crockpot this time as part of the crockpot challenge, but we didn't get home from grocery shopping until 2:00 and that's just not enough hours for sauce to do magic in the slow cooker. The stove top version turned out just as good as always, though.

I didn't snap a picture of my plate, but you can bet it was filled with rigatoni and red sauce, salad with homemade balsamic vinaigrette and fresh garlic bread. A glass of cabernet was sipped on the side as well. This is always a favorite meal of mine, but it's so much better shared with friends or family. Thankfully we had a group of pals to join us!

Our friends Matt, Chris and Karla all came over with their kids, which was great. It's not always easy to get a babysitter, so having Saturday night play dates is a good way for us all to get to hang out without leaving the kiddos at home. Having friends come over also means there will probably be dessert. ;-)

Karla brought a strawberry, banana chocolate cake from Baldanza's Bakery near their house. So good.

After dinner the boys rough housed with the kids, who all took turns getting rides in Riker's play truck. That thing was a hit last night.

So cute!

***

This morning we woke up and got right to showering and heading out for the day. A few days ago my friend Lauren called and asked if we were up for an impromptu little reunion of sorts. For several years, Matt and I took part in an annual Presidents Day weekend trip to the Adirondacks with a fun group of friends from college, including a few of my sorority sisters, his fraternity brothers and my roommates from when I lived in DC for grad school. We skied, went sledding, rode snowmobiles, drank cheap beer and played card games by the fireplace; there were usually about 20 of us, and I always loved those weekends. The trip didn't get planned this year, but Lauren wanted to get us all together anyway so hosted a mini friends weekend at her house complete with wine tasting, a hockey game and a Sunday brunch. We couldn't take Riker wine tasting obviously, and didn't want to leave him home since we already left him Friday night, but Sunday brunch with the whole family sounded like a great idea.

Lauren put out a spread, and everyone brought goodies to share as well. I made a batch of banana muffins, and made sure to eat one of those as well as a pancake, some scrambled eggs and a bunch of fruit.

Mimosas are always on the menu at brunch with this group, but champagne tends to give me a headache so I stuck with my morning coffee. My friend Robyn brought a treat for us all to try, though - Rum Chata - and when she said it tasted like the milk leftover from a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, I had to give it a taste.

And she was right, it was so so good. I think it would be awesome blended up with ice for a summer poolside drink.

We spent a good part of the day hanging out chatting at Lauren's house, and it was so fun catching up with some of the girls I hadn't seen in literally almost a year. I think everyone is getting together again for St. Patty's Day, so hopefully another year won't go by before I see them again!

We just got back home and I need to rustle up some dinner for this crew. Hope you had a great weekend!

Belated Date Night

Yesterday's plans for going to the park and getting some stuff done around the house got hijacked when Riker started acting like he wasn't feeling well. He cried for over an hour and nothing would console him, which isn't like him at all, so we packed him up and headed to the pediatrician. Sure enough, the poor little guy has an ear infection. :/ Thankfully his meds seem to start working right away, so he was back to playing in no time.

AND this week he finally started walking! He's been testing the waters for the last two months, but this week he started walking long distances totally on his own without any prompting from us. So exciting! Along with walking he's climbing, including climbing all over his big snow tube. He loves that thing.

Around 4:00 Matt's mom picked up Riker so we could have a belated Valentine's date night. We've been wanting to see Argo forever, so hit up a late day matinee with the old folks crowd. ;-)

We both loved the movie. It was intense the whole way through, but with bouts of comedy throughout. I especially love movies when they're based on a true story, so the real life stories and photos at the end made it even better.

After the movie, we came home to quickly change and then headed to dinner at Fuji Japanese Steakhouse, a hibachi and sushi restaurant. We were told the sushi is amazing there, and we weren't disappointed. Fuji has a few traditional Japanese tables where you take your shoes off and sit on cushions, which I thought would be so fun, but unfortunately they were all reserved and we had to sit at a regular table. Womp womp. Guess that means we have to go back again!

We started off with a few veggie appetizers, including the seaweed salad and vegetable dumplings. Both were delicious. The seaweed was super fresh and the dumplings were the most tender I've ever had. They were definitely handmade.

For our entree, we ordered 4 rolls and split them. Fuji had literally over 20 specialty rolls to choose from, so it took us forever to decide. We eventually went with three special rolls featuring black pepper tuna, tempura lobster, shrimp, king crab, and even banana. We also ordered a regular salmon/cucumber roll to cut through all the richness of the special rolls.

The fish was incredibly fresh and so delicious. The green one in the middle had the banana in it; we both liked it, but I probably wouldn't get it again. A little too sweet for my liking. Either way, I guess you could say we liked everything enough to polish off the whole plate. ;-)

We had planned to pick up Riker after dinner, but on our way out Matt's dad called and said he was already sleeping and we could come get him in the morning if we wanted to stay out a little later and then catch a few extra zzz's this morning. They are pretty great grandparents, I'll tell ya. We took them up on their offer and decided to meet a few of our friends who were having drinks at Klee's, an Irish bar in Seaside Heights.

Seaside is slowly starting to come back to life after Sandy, so it was nice hanging out there and supporting one of the few local businesses that's been able to re-open. We just went for one beer and to say hi, then hoofed it home for a lovely 9 hours of sleep. Aaah. I have to say, I felt super refreshed when I woke up this morning.

***

Since we were on our own this morning for breakfast, Matt and I decided to take advantage of it by skipping the gym and going out for a bite before picking up Riker. I had a gift card sitting on my wallet for over a year, and it was high time it got used, so we went to one of my favorite spots, L. Gourmet.

I've eaten here plenty of times for lunch - most often to grab sandwiches to sit by the pool - but have never tried their breakfast. I had a hankering for Eggs Benedict after the one I had over Christmas break, so I zeroed in on it when I saw they had it on the menu. No salmon this time, but I did ask if I could swap out the Canadian bacon for fresh spinach, and they gladly obliged.

Yum.

I spent the last few hours running some errands and taking a little me time - getting my hair and nails done ;-) - and am now back home spending some time in the kitchen. Matt was in the mood to make a big pot of homemade sauce, and you can't have a big pot of sauce without some friends to share it with, so we invited a bunch to come over for dinner. Time to put my apron on and get cookin'!