a busy sunday

Chicken and dumplings.................

Cranberry-Grape jelly---HOMEMADE!

It was sooo good!

It got really chilly here last night-I think it got down to 38*F,so this morning I got up with the idea of making chicken and dumplings-good stick to your ribs food when the mercury takes a nose-dive.I chopped up some skinless,boneless chicken thighs and some chicken tenders I had stashed in the freezer and cooked them in some chicken stock I made a few weeks ago.I made some dough for dumplings by using some boxed baking mix.They turned out better than the other time I made chicken and dumplings.LOL But we won't talk about that disaster.Hubby came home and had a bowl and said "needs more dumplings".I wasn't in the mood to make another batch from scratch so because he was going to the store anyway, I told him to just get me some canned biscuits.It turned out nice-even thickened the broth better than the scratch dumplings I added first.I think next time I'll do it with canned biscuits instead of homemade dumplings.Sorry,it's just easier for me this way.

A few weeks ago I got a holiday recipe mag and found a quick and easy homemade jelly recipe I wanted to try.Instead of the usual fruit,it had juice and red hots.But I wanted a different flavor so I picked up some cran-grape juice and a box of pectin.Since there are 3 diabetics in the house I was trying to cut back on the added sugar so I didn't add any sugar to the first batch.And I'm not sure if it was that or if the pectin was bad but it just didn't set.I picked up some "no extra sugar needed" pectin from the store when I went yesterday and tried again.BINGO! It worked like a charm.It is so delish.I can't wait till spring to try it with fresh fruit.I'm also going to get a bunch of different juice blends and make this quickie jelly for what few gifts we give out this year.It was sooo fun to make my own jelly! (Yeah, I can be easily entertained!)