Of course!

Oh, my god, that took forever to do. I suck at dimensions and ended up lying all over my floor because I don't have a tape measure. The reds are closet space and we're ground floor, so doors through the front and side of the living room.

http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/...r/crashpad.png

I want to put plants out this year, but there are jerks in our neighborhood, so I'll probably have a pot right next to the sliding door and leave it open when I'm home... did I really spend an hour mapping my house?

You seem to have a decent amout of space there! Though am I judging that by UK standards?

Maybe. This is becoming a "small" two-bed now. Due to the oil boom all the housing owners are building massive apartments for ridiculous prices despite the fact that it's been proven that living more than 3 hours away from the west side of the state and paying a good $1,200-$1,600 on housing alone is like working at McDonald's and walking a block to get there. I've got two jobs and was looking at some new, hopefully cheaper, places the other day and I found one that had 20 cubic feet more... for another $200 a month. Not furnished. It's farther from work, but costs more because it's walking distance to a cinema.

All I want is a decent kitchen. [emo] Maybe a porch. I love this place, but being ground floor I'm paranoid as hell about someone breaking in.

This just made my day :)

Why thank you! I also enjoy the flamingos dancing to Michael Jackson.

Oh yeah, so the soup and dumplings combo that I had yesterday, as documented in p o p p e t ♥'s recipe thread

http://i.imgur.com/Fy2qsvY.jpg

Dumplings aren't very photogenic, are they? [lol] I'm absolutely going to make these again though, once I've figured out easy quantities for cutting the amount down further. I used normal milk for these, not buttermilk, as that's a needless expense for me. I'm thinking about infusing the pepper in the milk and adding some parmesan to the mix. This recipe could take on all kinds of flavour I'm sure. Maybe caraway seeds in them and use to top goulash?

Anyway, they were good and I recommend. :D

Stealing that recipe for dumplings. [drool] I thought it was biscuit in some type of onion-y broth/soup.

Dumplings in England are traditionally made with suet: Basic suet dumplings

So ones made without that were intriguing for me, they had very much the same kind of texture though, and of course the joy with dumplings is they're so very fast! I'm not sure they'd survive the journey, Suzanne [ninja] Let's be frank, I'm not sure they'd ever begin the journey to be honest. [lol]

Alex, have you not had this kind of thing before then?

Around here we do potato or egg-based dumplings. I can't think of our family recipe off my head, but this Knefla Soup recipe looks close.

Our potato dumplings are just boiled mash with some egg, flour, and salt.

Suet sounds intriguing, but I have no idea where I'd get that here. I wish we had more butchers...

Oh my goodness, those look delicious. [drool] That will be why I buy cornmeal. Soup is my go-to meal at the moment, for its ease, so I can just plop those right in them. I know what I'm making soon!! [heart]

I love dumplings... mmm. The type I make has flour, salt, baking powder, eggs, melted butter, and milk. I sometimes throw some pepper in, depending on my mood. I really only ever make them when I make my chicken and dumplings dish. The recipe (and your actual dish!) you posted looks awesome!

That's about the only time I make dumplings too. I'm too lazy to look up my recipe right now, but they are called 'Feather Dumplings'. They are light as air, soft and ...'biscuity'. "Biscuity" as in bread, not the British sense of the word, which is equivalent to our "cookie".

Actually, (True Confessions Time!), I usually just take the easy way out, though, and buy a tube of canned biscuits at the store, open them, and cut each one in fourths, and cook those in the broth or soup. I learned that from my mother. Delicious!!

I hear that frying that type of biscuit dough and rolling it in sugar creates a decent quick donut, too. I've not done it though, so
I can't say if it actually is. (:

Jelly, you can make buttermilk - all you do is get about a cup of milk, and add a tablespoon of white wine vinegar (or lemon juice).
Leave to sit for 5 mins, and voila!

^ I do that often, because I can never find decent buttermilk here. It's a great tip!

Yeah I've read the various tips for turning milk into faux buttermilk, but to be honest I don't see the point? Though I might try it at some point to see how much of a difference it makes.

I'm surprised my unattractive dumplings got the response they did, lol. Now I need to try them with course cornmeal to see how they turn out (I used fine ground for mine).

That recipe seems to be the healthiest so far. No animal fat or egg in it. I never realised there was quite so many versions of the humble dumpling!

Got to say, putting dumplings into soup turns that into a very filling and sustaining meal! For basically no extra effort or cooking time, so win/win there!

I found some cornmeal super cheap at Aldi's! So tonight or tomorrow I'll be trying out those dumplings with a soup. Maybe now I can be convinced to make some of that polenta. [:O]

Mmm, polenta. Sometime next week I'll make that stewed short rib thing with polenta. Or the week after. It takes a few hours. :P

Oh excellent Cherry, enjoy your experimenting! I made the dumplings with course cornmeal as well as fine, and both worked nicely. Which one did you get?

Hm... the only descriptor applied to it is "yellow." Should I be worried? [lol]

Lol, does it look like flour, or more like semolina maybe?

._. I don't know what semolina looks like. Not in pure form, anyway. We sell a semolina loaf at work, but that's not helpful for this situation.