By Kelli Bowen
April showers bring May flowers.
April blizzards make me want to rip out a gizzard? Isn’t that how the saying goes? Pretty sure it should be.
Just kidding! I really do like a good storm, and we’ve been so dry the past year, I welcome the moisture. I mean beggars can’t be choosers, right? We are in the middle of a big storm. The kind of storm that I assume is making all the meteorologists just giddy because they’re throwing out phrases like “significant”, “high impact” and “crippling”. I’m assuming if my gig was weather and there was a prolonged significant weather event, that would be my time to shine, right? Anyhoo, I hope the meteorologists are enjoying this monumental event. I hope the western side of the state gets some much-needed moisture without too much of the significant crippling side effects.
If we are destined for another snow day, there are a few things I hope to tick off my snow-day checklist: reading, napping, gaming, spend some time in the kitchen, and sipping something warm out of a mug. Depending on the attitudes of the small humans who live with me and Hubby, will determine how strong the warm sips in the cup will be.
Hubby is great at cooking and seems to enjoy it, so he does the majority of it. I enjoy baking. Snow days are made for the things I don’t make time for in my daily grind, so on snow days (before working from home was a thing) I’d do the things I hadn’t made time for. My go-to snow day recipes are as follows:
Chicken Tortilla Soup
1 pound cooked and cubed chicken
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 can nacho cheese soup
1 can chicken broth
1 can red enchilada sauce
1 cup salsa
The great thing about this recipe is that I can crank up the spice and consistency depending on who is eating. I make a cheddar dill bread when I’m feeling extra domestic and then Hubby and I basically go into a cheesy-carb-induced coma afterward. The girls don’t always get onboard with spiciness, but they love chicken soup, so their favorite storm dinner is chicken dumpling soup.
Chicken Dumpling Soup
1 pound cooked and cubed chicken
Diced carrots and broccoli
Chopped onion
Chicken broth
Simmer for a few hours. Then boil another kettle of broth and add dumplings:
Dumplings:
Beat 1 egg well
1 tsp salt
½ cup milk
1 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
Stir up the concoction, drop in the boiling broth and let cook for 20 minutes
Badabing-Badaboom comfort food for a stormy afternoon. So snuggle in, fire up the soup pot and enjoy Mother Nature’s show. We don’t always get a frosty white blanket in April.
If you’re REALLY not feeling this weather, try my other recipe: one part cocoa – one part peppermint schnapps. Cheers!!
Kelli makes her home in Cass County with her husband, two daughters (8 and 5) and two dogs. She works for a regional seed company by day and tries to be an alright mom, wife, friend and writer by night.
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