Bookmarking: Textile Dictionary.

Chicken and Dumplings!
We successfully christened our new pressure cooker tonight! We made Alton Brown’s Chicken and Dropped Dumplings. The pressure cooker worked great for cooking the chicken, and the resulting broth was delicious. While I picked the meat from the bones, the Snook mixed up the dumpling dough (which is basically a choux pastry). He then loaded it into a bag and squeezed out small dumplings into the broth. We thought they looked pretty dubious at this point, but once he put the lid on they swelled up big and fluffy and beautiful. Eight minutes later the dumplings were done and the chicken went back in the pot. LOVERLY.

Of course, this isn’t quite the way my family make it back home in Indiana. This made more of a clear soup with chicken and discrete, pillowy dumplings. I can’t find the recipe, but I’m pretty sure my Aunt Berb’s “dumpling” mixture there is more of a thick, lumpy batter that gets spooned in. I’ve sent out emails to the relevant relatives and hopefully I’ll get the mystery solved soon.

I read Obama’s speech at the memorial in Tucson today, and it brought tears to my eyes. It was a moving and powerful tribute.

And while I appreciate Obama taking the high road, I still think Sarah Palin is a monster and a terrible human being.

Chunk from The Goonies on an antique china plate. My sister will be ALL OVER THIS.

Grrr. I wish my hair would get longer so I could do fun stuff with it like this 1940’s braided headband style.

Hey family! Oprah’s Australian shows are going to air next week. They start on Tuesday the 18th for you guys in the U.S. Record them! Then come visit and we can show it to you in person. 🙂

Pressure cookin’
How excitement! We had some Amazon gift certificates from Christmas and decided to spend them on a kitchen gadget we’ve been lusting over: a pressure cooker. Last week we ordered the Fagor 9 Piece Pressure Canning Set from Amazon, and today it’s here! It’s got a 10L pressure cooker and all the bits you need to can (aside from jars). I can’t wait to get it home and try it out.

Resources to bookmark:

• MeFi questions about pressure cookers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
• Serious Eats “Cooking Under Pressure” recipes
• Alton Brown’s Chicken and Dumplings, Pressure Cooker Chili
• MeFi questions about pressure canning: 1, 2, 3

I’m interested in the canning part of it, but we’ll need to get some jars first. Anybody know where I can get proper Mason jars? Does Bunnings carry them? (The fancy “House” store at Broadway has them but they’re like $7 each.)