Not all dumplings are created equal!

Chicken and dumplings were not my favorite meal growing up even though my grandmother made the best there ever was.  I can still smell the hen boiling to make the stock and my grandmother making the milk whistle when the hot bones would burn her fingers.  She could roll out the dough and cut it into squares so fast if you blinked you'd miss all the action.  And you have to be fast because the stock has to be boiling when you add the dumplings and you can't take too long or they will sink to the bottom of the pot and stick (not the same thing as pot stickers).  As soon as you add the last one you turn off the fire and put a lid on it until its time to dig in.  

Our family uses a flour and milk mixture and rolls them out paper thin the way Jesus intended, some people use biscuit dough or canned biscuits - this is a sin.  I did make the mistake of telling a childhood friend's mother that I like this dish and she made them for me when I spent the night.  Unfortunately, she made her in the form of one big dumpling in a 9x13 pan and you just cut out a square for your serving.  I thought I would die.  It was so nasty.  At their house, what you didn't eat for dinner you ate for breakfast the next morning.  I think I did die that morning.

A couple of times a year I want to have a big bowl of piping hot dumplings and a big piece of buttered cornbread and it's usually when it's so cold outside - last week I wanted some so badly I almost couldn't stand it but I couldn't get a hen to even start.  Last night all that changed.  I got my 4lb chicken (best for being tender) and went to work.  I don't make these often enough to be proficient like my grandmother or her sisters but I can make them just as good - even if I do make a huge mess.  I can only eat one bowl and one piece of cornbread because I'm not used to eating this type of food anymore but I did manage to have TWO pieces of cornbread.  I almost died because I was so full but this was a good thing this time.

I look forward to making this for a crowd of folks again soon, I hope.  The smell, the taste, the slurps; it all reminds me of a big meal meant for a family.  A family wether you're kin or the family of your own choosing.  

 It was pretty!

The winter storm this past week was many things but I did enjoy the clean white snow blanket that covered my little home.

Sunday morning around 3am I was awakened to the sound of the printer resetting as the power went on and off several times.  It never occurred to me that we'd be without power for 4 days but the thought did enter my mind that I should open the door to my detached garage in case the power was out for a while...I didn't though.  So, for 4 days I had no power, luckily I had water and a gas cooktop, and a car trapped in the garage with no way to independently go anywhere.  It could have been so much worse if pipes had frozen or burst to flood this 1950's duplex but interior temps of 37º was as bad as it got here sans a frozen shower drain.

My friend Rob Brinkley picked me up Wednesday evening and took me to his high-rise that never lost power and I slept on a lounge chair - but at this point I would have slept standing up as long as there was heat present.  Hunger games mentality spread at local grocery stores with little to no perishables available so we ate PB&J's and meat trays with crackers.  His building has a coffee bar in the lobby so we were both wired for sound with an endless supply of caffeine.  

My experience was far less severe than the things I saw in the apartment complex behind me with cascading water coming off of balconies and images on the news of the like where construction had no inkling what hit it with unprecedented below freezing temps INSIDE.  I hope we never have to experience this again.  I hope this awakens the masses that you need to have provisions for worst case scenarios even if they're only used once.  That one time is reason enough to be prepared.  

Stinson's, Sue Adams speaking.

Sue, Mama Sue, Mrs. Adams.  You could tell how close you were to her by what you called her.  I called her by all these but when I called her on the phone I always said "Edna" and she'd reply with a big laugh, "J.R., How are YOU?"

I worked with Sue at Stinson's jewelers in downtown Camden, Arkansas from 1996 to 2002.  After school and on the weekends during high school and on Saturdays and breaks during college.  If anyone talked about shopping at the oldest jewelry store west of the Mississippi, they'd inevitably mention her.  She worked there for 50 years waiting on customers, dusting shelves, polishing silver, registering brides for their wedding gifts and always with a smile, big rouged cheeks, and at least one strand of gold beads.  She had her own style and way of doing things.  She read the paper everyday and if you dared to interrupt her she'd reply "must you?"  

She and her husband, Tasker, owned a row of efficiency apartments in town located behind their big house that also had two apartments on the first floor and they occupied the full second floor.  Tasker sold everything from Levelour blinds to candy and tobacco.  They always drove a new Mercury car every two years but their last purchase before he died was a Lincoln Continental that was white with a persimmon top and interior that she drove for over 15 years.  In a small town, the pinnacle of success.   Aside from having the self proclaimed prettiest diamond ring and prettiest blue dress in Camden, you would never asses her her as having a pretentious bone in her body.  The first question she asked anyone was "Can I help?'  

I knew Sue for a long time before I started working with her and she is on the short list of people I've known in my life that were completely selfless.  If I told her it'd be forever since I'd had (fill-in the blank) food - the next day it was waiting in the back for either my snack or dinner.  She taught me how to be polite as a handicap and the difference between a dinner size fork and a cold meat fork and everything in between.  She came to both my high school and college graduations.  She gave me little gifts on my birthday and Christmas of which I still have along with the Waterford stems she gave me from my high school graduation with the enclosure card.  She never had children of her own but "adopted" two as her grandchildren and I was among those she said were hers.  She loved people and disliked them, too, and was the person that taught me that you can dislike someone but it's never alright to hate anyone.  

Sue would end most of her sentences with "and all like that" when she was telling a story.  She loved to tell stores and all like that.  My favorite one was about her brother who had a weak stomach and she was a teenager. There was a family that lived up the road who's last name was Funk. As you'd imagine, they were less than sanitary.  At the table she'd pass the butter to her brother and say "you want some of Mrs. Funk's butter?" and he'd gag.  He also put a hot biscuit on the back of her neck one morning and she jumped up and took her plate and smashed it over his head.  I never made her mad, as you can well imagine why.  

Sue was a lifelong optimist.  She had hard times for sure but you only heard her share the good times and all the laughs we shared have remained with me to this day.  We all have special people in our lives that aren't a blood relation - I've had many.  I loved her from the first time we met and I cried for weeks after she died but the day I realized she wouldn't have wanted me to be so sad because I was I knew the time for grieving was over.  I think about her every day and anytime I get a chance I talk about her and tell people about her.  I do believe that people never really go away even after they've died - our memories are forever and sharing the good times keeps them in our hearts.

Thanks for the laughs, Edna.

Step right up and get your red hot sleepless nights!  Send a Matt Damon movie deal (for me) to my agent, STAT!

After getting a text I to get some tax forms that were mistakingly sent to my old address - how many times does one have to update mailing address with the same companies?  Asking for a friend.  After I'd learned about a couple of months ago that this place will be going back on the market in the spring; I didn't sleep for about 2 weeks racking my brain on how I could come up with about $800K to buy it back for myself.  After a while that frantic feeling subsided but today the obsession came back all over again.  

Have you ever owned a home that checked all the boxes? This was THE ONE. Thousands of pies, cakes, and cookies baked here for customers and friends. The fun times with people around the pool that none of us remember how the evening ended. Entertaining out of town guests. Intimate dinners around the table where countless meals of fried chicken has been consumed and heavy app stop-by gatherings on the way out on the strip.

I’ve loved this house from the first time I stepped through the front door. When I first moved to Dallas in 2002 I lived about 8 blocks away and discovered this neighborhood, Perry Heights, and told myself I'd live here someday. Research on all the fascinating people that have lived here and one in particular who I got to visit with, 93 year old Terry Jenkins, who was a 40’s radio personality and got married in the living room.

So much history – so much love and immeasurable memories of this home that has barely been touched since it was built.

In the end it’s all just “things” and I get that so bare with me while I put on my big girl panties. My mother would have told me that something better is coming along and stop fretting about what I cannot change. Well, I've spent a lifetime changing things I don't like and trying to pave the way to get exactly what I want out of life. I don't like being told no, but I've gotten used to it. I don't like being forced to do things I don't feel comfortable doing, but I've dealt with it. I don't like it when things I really want come available and they're so unfathomably out of my reach, and for this I get even more determined to keep expanding the bridge to mind the gap between where I am and where I want to be.

I may post ONE more thing about this time in my life after this house sells to someone else but I'll try not to.

Copy and paste this link if you'd like to see the the house after Rob moved out and just before it sold and I had to find a new place to live.

https://www.zillow.com/homes/4424-n-hall-dallas-texas_rb/26693368_zpid/?view=public