A Winter Celebration Of Sorts

It sort of freaks me out how easy it was for me to quit thinking of Sam as a rooster I'd raised from a chick to meat. I had wondered if I could really do it. I had fretted about it, discussed it, pondered it and worried.
And then it happened so quickly and there was this chicken in a bowl, so clean and beautiful and I put him in the pot and I boiled him and it was no longer him, it was it.
And part of me thinks there's something wrong with me, something hard and mean.
But part of me thinks I'm just a realist. And let me tell you- that was good meat.
I took all the meat off the bones and the leg meat, the dark meat, was so moist, so beautiful. And all the while I was doing it, I was perfectly aware that this was the meat of the bird I'd had to chase away from my hens this morning. And you know what? It didn't really bother me at all.

Now let's talk about dumplings. I was raised on Yankee dumplings- the ones that are fluffy and more like biscuits than anything else. I just take some self-rising flour, add a bit of baking soda and enough buttermilk to make a moist batter that I can drop into the boiling broth off a spoon. But Mr. Moon was raised on southern dumplings. These are more like pasta and even though I have his mama's recipe, I have never made them properly. They turn out like thick wads of dough. But because he was the one to sacrifice the rooster, I made the southern dumplings. They weren't as wretched as the last ones I tried to make but they weren't that good. I think perhaps I don't roll them out thin enough. Shit. I don't know. Maybe I'm not as southern as I think I am. But here is Mr. Moon's mama's recipe for dumplings:

3 cups of flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 c. shortening
1 egg and enough milk to make very stiff dough

Mix this up and roll it out on a floured board. I would say to roll it out pretty thin. Thinner than I rolled it out tonight. Cut strips with a sharp knife and then cut dumplings in diamond (slanted) shapes from the strips. Place them carefully in the the simmering broth which has the chicken, carrots, onions, celery, and garlic in it. Also, rosemary, sage, bay leaf, celery seed, salt, and whatever sounds good to your taste.
Cover and let the dumplings simmer until they are cooked through. Serve in bowls with plenty of the chicken, vegetables and dumplings for each serving.

Jessie made a salad to go with this of arugula from the garden, avocados, tomatoes, red onion, mozzarella and a vinaigrette of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, dijon mustard, sesame seeds, lots of smashed garlic, and a dash or two of soy sauce.
This was an amazing salad.

I also made mashed potatoes, which is overkill but damnhell, they were good.

I have so many leftovers. I wish you could all come and stop by to eat some. You've certainly gone through a lot with me to get to this point and I, for one, have learned a lot about myself, my husband, chickens as animals, pets and meat. And you know what? I feel really good about all of it.


Isn't this how we're supposed to eat? Consciously and with gratefulness? I think so.

And now, in a completely unrelated topic, I would like to say that Heather and Mike Spohr, after having gone through the very worst that a parent could go through last year, have a new daughter, born last night. Her name is Annabel Violet Spohr and she is a beauty. Go here and see if you haven't already.