Dr. Food: Homesick Comfort Food @ Home

My mom visited us a couple of weeks ago, and I couldn't be more excited. Of course I was very very very *very* excited to meet her off the plane in Spokane, but I was also salivating the entire time she was en route since she brought me a Cream Sausage from Jim's Meat Market.

It's not that I hate food in the Pac NW, but their idea of meat is usually not fatty (where the flavor is) and is generally pretty dry and tasteless. Alright, I hate it. With a passion. But when you grow up in the metro area made famous by Upton Sinclair's famous novel about meat production, what can you do? You can't fight city hall, people.

When I was just a wee little brat, my mom used to make cream sausage (otherwise known as breakfast sausage, but we're quite the breakfast-for-dinner family) and fruit dumplings for dinner, complete with melted butter for drizzling and cottage cheese. Whenever I get a cold or the flu, the first thing I think of is that meal, and I have to say, living in the land of tasteless meat, I really suffer through my sickness. I was so psyched that my mom bought a cream sausage to transport for this purpose, and even more psyched that she agreed to show me how to make her awesome fruit dumplings. They're quite simple it turns out, but really, I still think my mom is the greatest cook in the world. Isn't that how moms are supposed to be???

Early on in her trip planning, my mom assumed she would have some difficulties transporting a sausage in her carrying bag (it probably looks suspicious inside a bag) so when she told me the folks at O'Hare International (or was it Midway? I forget) put her sausage through a screening and it came out thawed from frozen, I wasn't surprised. Luckily, the sausage survived her harrowing journey and we were able to consume it after the 70 mile trek back to Pullman from Spokane. I might have melted down if it had spoiled. And then snuck inside her luggage so I could fly back and get another.

So here, ladies and gents, is my mother's famous fruit dumpling recipe for your enjoyment. May the tastiness be with you.

Snooty Snark's Fruit Dumplings
Recipe source: Judy Lynn Clark

Ingredients:
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. water
1 tsp. salt
1 tbl. butter
2 c. flour, sifted
2 eggs
About 1 can peaches (mine was 13 oz), drained

Directions:
1. Bring milk, water, salt and butter to a boil. Remove from heat and quickly add flour. Let cool.

2. Add eggs and mix until dough is soft and smooth. Roll thinly with rolling pin on a floured surface.

3. Cut into 2 in. squares and place fruit in the middle. Enclose in dough.

4. Heat a quart of water and slowly place three dumplings at a time in water, removing once they rise to the top. Serve with melted butter for drizzling (and preferably with sausage and cottage cheese for an awesome unhealthy but satisfying meal).