Dumplings

So, only about half my dumplings turned out, because I only had a random internet recipe instead of my mum’s recipe, but a basic recipe is this:

1 cup plain flour; 2 tsp bicarb soda/baking powder; 1/2 tsp salt; 1/2 cup of milk

Mix dry ingredients thoroughly, add milk, mix evenly.  Then take a soup spoon-sized amounts and put on top of stew/soup/etc.  Simmer (not boil! don’t boil them!) for ten minutes uncovered then a further ten minutes covered.

One really important thing is to keep the dumplings as far out of the liquid as possible.

That’s all I got for now – I will ask mum what her recipe is.  Most of the recipes I found on line were close enough to that – I suspect they might need a little more liquid but I’m not sure.

You can also add herbs and cheese and spring onions and crumbly bacon and all sorts of things.  Today I want to make cheese and bacon scones but I haven’t got any self-raising flour; I’ll have to check up in Stephanie Alexander how to do pl flour + bicarb to equal s.r. flour…

Foundling

I have a baby.  He is small, round, long legged, and feathered.

Having recently finally gotten aorund to signing forms and paying membership fees, Mark and I are almost members of the local wildlife rescue/care group.  I’ve done a rescue already (an injured osprey – very sad as they mate for life and he had to be euthanased as the wing damage was so severe – hope he wasn’t yet partnered) and our mentor last week took in a magpie chick.  She already has a joey (who pisses on her bed), 2 ringtail possums, 4 brushtail possums, a white eye, two kookaburras, a galah and another magpie.  Oh, and her two labradors and three kids.

So she asked me to take in the little magpie if I could.  I’ve named him Pudding cos he’s fat and round.  It seems he has something wrong with his foot – he doesn’t stand on it properly and it’s a little twisted, so I have to find out if there’s something I can do about that.  He’s so little he doesn’t have a tail yet so it’s like having a little black and white emu – he’s got these enormous long legs and a little body.

And it’s like having a baby.  Can’t leave him alone for days like I can the axlotls, he begs to be fed every other second, he poohs all the time and has to have his newspaper changed…has to be kept warm, and his cage comes into the bedroom at night so the room temp keeps his temp up. 

And this week I’m looking after Archie the Wonder Dog again so I have four animals this week.

And it’s been raining for almost 48 hours with little break.  It’s fine to stop now – my tanks are both overflowing, and the garden doesn’t need any more water!!

Luckily I bought a heap of trashy tabloid mags this morning so I can snuggle up on the lounge and read about jessica and nick’s break up, stedman’s tell-all book and tom’s demand that nicole not marry keith.

How terribly exciting.

Dinner plans:

Lightly spiced lamb shank soup with lemon and freekeh.  Yum.  Can I brave the rain for fresh rosemary or do I succumb to the ease of dried?  And do I have enough onions and carrots?  Do I have any potatoes.

Oooh, I think I might make dumplings.  My mum used to make dumplings for me…I’ve tried once and they were yummer but I don’t think of it often enough.  Yum, dumplings.