Garden-fresh veggies and comforting dumplings make this birthday luncheon dish appealing

In scads of ways my hubby and our only daughter are birds of a feather. They form our nuclear family's "blue-eyed duo"; the other two of us--myself and our son--are the dark-eyed contingent. Both Hubby and Darling Daughter thrive on multi-plate spinning--they're totally in their element when they have scads of projects under way at the same time. She takes after her dad in seeing the "big picture" of how things will be accomplished. And our girl definitely inherited her dad's entrepreneural gene and sound business sense.

Their likes and dislikes in food, however, are where the similarities ends. With few exceptions, most of Hubby's faves, which tend to be food items that are grown in a garden, wouldn't end up on any of our "meat-and-potatoes" daughter's wish list.

One of those rare exceptions, however, is Chicken and Dumplings. That's why I've chosen to serve my homemade "Weekday Chicken and Dumplings" recipe for her birthday luncheon this week. Her dad couldn't be happier. It also would be his first pick if he were choosing a birthday meal for himself as well.

Prevention magazine featured this recipe some years back; I tucked it away in my fall recipe binder because I knew both of the blue-eyeds would be thrilled with it. Fresh carrots, celery, and onions are plopped into the steaming broth until they are tender, are drained and set aside, and are returned to it after the sauce is thickened. This dish gets a "double-yum" from me every time.

So Happy Birthday to our baby girl, who this year celebrates her first birthday as the mother of a new baby boy that she and her husband welcomed a few weeks back. Here's hoping her little one ultimately will have vast numbers of foods--both the meat-and-potatoes variety as well as those that are garden-fresh--in his food repertoire.

Weekday Chicken and Dumplings

4 cups defatted reduced-sodium chicken broth

1 bay leaf

2 cups baby carrots

1/2 cup sliced celery

1 cup frozen small whole onions, or 1 cup chopped, fresh onions

1 cup frozen peas

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning

2/3 cup skim milk

1 3/4 cup cubed, cooked chicken breast

Dumplings

1 1/4 cup fat-free biscuit mix

1/3 cup skim milk

dash paprika

In a medium saucepan bring broth and bay leaf to boil over medium-high heat. Add carrots and celery. Cook 5 minutes. Add onions and cook 2 minutes. Add peas and cook 2 more minutes until tender. Strain vegetables and set aside. Collect liquid; add broth or water to make 4 cups. Discard bay leaf. Return liquid to saucepan. In a small bowl whisk together flour, seasoning, and milk. Whisk into broth. Cook and continue whisking over medium heat for 2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in the chicken and reserved vegetables.

For dumplings: In a small bowl stir biscuit mix and milk to form a soft dough. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto simmering stew; cook according to package directions. Dust paprika over the tops of the cooked dumplings. Serves 6.

This fresh celery recipe is beyond weird, but what a favorite it turned out to be!

It had to be the weirdest of the weird--a recipe for Stir-Fried Celery. Celery is a stretcher, an enhancer, a crunch- and texture-provider for other dishes. Why would anyone build an entire recipe around chopped celery? Loser, I thought as I eyeballed it more carefully. And for a stir-fry? Celery is an ingredient that goes into a stir-fry to complement other veggies. But this recipe had nothing else added except low-sodium soy sauce, white vinegar, and sesame seeds. Now really.

So what dish at dinner last night got the most rave reviews? Not the Mustard-Lemon Glazed Tilapia that I spent far more time cooking for the entree. The Mustard-Lemon Glazed Tilipia, I might add, only sprang alive when I put the Stir-Fried Celery on top as a relish.

The Stir-Fried Celery was utterly amazing! In previous blogs I've mentioned the guilt factor when I end up having to throw away a bucketful of limp celery stalks because of non-use. This recipe gobbled up the vast majority of the celery in my fridge's veggie bin.

But the taste! Hubby served his over some fresh corn-off-the-cob. I liked mine over the tilapia. But by itself the dish clearly was a stand-alone. By now I should have learned never to look askance at any recipe provided by my little booklet, "Celebrating a Healthy Harvest", that I cite frequently. Always, always, somehow, the folks at the Chickasaw Nutrition Services (who dreamed up the booklet) manage to have a success story.

Weirdest of the weird--still a correct assessment. But I couldn't have asked for a more tantalizing side dish.

Stir-Fried Celery

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 bunch fresh celery, washed

3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoons white vinegar

sesame seeds

Chop celery in 1/2-inch slices. In a heavy frying pan or wok heat oil over medium heat. Stir-fry celery for 1 minute. Add soy sauce and vinegar. Continue to stir-fry for 6 minutes or until desired tenderness. Place in serving bowl. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Makes 4 servings.

Recipe with highly unusual title is a wonderful discovery

Am I the only person alive who never heard of this unusual recipe?

In my "Celebrating a Healthy Harvest" cookbooklet I stared at it for weeks and wondered how on earth someone could make an entire salad out of celery. At best celery is a filler--designed to give some crunch to salads such as tuna fish and chicken salad or to the occasional casserole.

Yet I hate to see a growing-limp celery bunch sit around in my refrigerator and be headed for the compost heap just because I can't seem to think of any last-minute use for it. Celery is one of those food items that a typical cook uses just a little bit at a time--one or two stalks at the most. Timing food preparation so that an entire bunch of celery gets used until the very last crunch is difficult.

That's why the Warm Celery Salad recipe from the Chickasaw Nation ultimately drew me in. I hate to be a wasteful cook and believe in being a good steward of the food that God has provided for our table. I knew the Warm Celery Salad recipe would gobble up the remaining three stalks in my refrigerator. I just had to try it.

Man, was I (and was my Hubby) surprised! Warm Celery Salad (indeed, served warm--right out of the skillet on top of the stove) was impressive--so much, in fact, that we ate everything the skillet held and then tipped the scales a little bit the next day. (Each of us does a daily weight monitoring as part of our lifestyle fitness program.) We couldn't help ourselves from going back for repeated helpings. The black-eyed peas are a great accompaniment to the celery as well as a provider of fiber and bulk.

To top off the Warm Celery Salad we put a few of my friend Mary Ann's Sweet Garlic Dills pickle chips on top. (Her recipe appears on page 149 in Way Back in the Country Garden.) No better summertime menu combo than this one exists.

Warm Celery Salad

2 tablespoons cooking oil

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

2 cups canned blackeyed peas (or canned garbanzo beans/chick peas)

2 tablespoons vinegar

3 large stalks celery, chopped

Cook oil, onion, garlic, and thyme in a large skillet over medium heat until onion is soft, about 6 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in vinegar and blackeyed peas until blackeyed peas are warmed. Stir in celery. Cover and cook for 2 minutes or until celery is warmed. Serve warm. Makes 4 servings.