Cookies are out of the oven...

Here I thought we might be heading into some spring-like weather, but no, it's 8 degrees and we've got 6-8" of snow on the ground since last night. The weatherman tells us we are under a winter storm warning for tonight with 6-8" of additional snow possible by morning.

Today....we've been scooping feed bunks, cleaning snow out of the feed lots and the open sheds, putting down new straw for the baby calves, and cleaning the barns along with the other daily chores. No calves born today. I guess they'll keep them warm and snug inside awhile longer. If there is more snow tonight, there will be more of the same work tomorrow. I didn't realize how tired I was at noon until I had my lunch and cleaned up the dishes. I just had to lie down for a little nap. Actually, everyone did.

From the kitchen... what better thing to do on a cold, snowy afternoon but to bake cookies? I've drunk up my cuppa coffee with a tipple of cream and gobbled 3 fresh cookies hot from the oven so far. (I'm done.....really)

Now it's close to time to prepare supper and that will be a turkey-dumpling soup. Kind friends smoked a turkey breast and gave it to us, so I took the meat off and boiled the carcass with lots of veggies to get a good broth. German dumplings, like Grandma used to make, will get plopped right in the boiling broth and I'll add some of the turkey too. It's one of my kids' favorite rib-sticking soups.

Grandma's Dumplings for soup

4 eggs, well-beaten
1 t. salt
a pinch of baking powder
a glug of milk (approx 1/3-1/2 c.)
4 cups flour (approx)

Beat eggs until foamy, add milk and the rest of the ingredients. Add flour one cup at a time. You want the batter to get thick enough that it follows the beaters around the bowl. The dough will be very sticky.

Allow the broth to come to a rolling boil.
Heat a table spoon (from the silverware drawer) in the broth until hot. Dip a little bit of the dough out and shake it under the broth to release. Continue until all the dough is gone. Turn down the heat to low and pop a lid on. Wait about 10 minutes and serve. The dumplings will triple in size and float up to the top. This recipe makes a chewy dumpling, similar to a homemade noodle. In fact, you can roll out this dough and make noodles with it if you like. Dumplings are for the Lazy Homemaker in me.