People love to say that things are “old family recipes”…but in this case, that’s actually true. My grandma grew up on a farm in North Carolina where she learned how to cook traditional Southern food. One of the recipes that kind of became her signature dish was her chicken and dumplings. She made it for my mom during her childhood and when my mom got older, she had grandma teach her how to make it. Once my mom had her own family, she would make it for us for special occasions. Both my dad and I requested it for every single birthday! It was and still is our absolute favorite meal!
My grandma taught me, my mom, my sisters, and my cousin how to make it. Thankfully, she also kept her hand-written recipe card for it in the house as well. After she passed away, my grandpa dug out the recipe and made it for himself when he was missing her 🙂 He said it wasn’t as good as when she made it, but it was “pretty darn close.” This dish has always been near and dear to my whole family because it was such a beloved part of our childhood…but now that my grandma has passed away, it’s become even more comforting and special 🙂
So I have this thing for pesto…it’s a huge thing actually. The flavor is just so satisfying to me! I ended up making a sandwich for lunch yesterday and it was kind of a kitchen sink project. I had some veggie burger patties in the freezer, some lettuce, some avocado…and then I realized I needed some kind of sauce to put on it so it’d have a little flavor and not be too dry. Typically when I have this problem I just use hummus, but I spotted a jar of pesto in my fridge and thought YES. So after I ate that for lunch, of course my brain was like yeah…we’re gonna need infinitely more pesto ASAP. Hence this dinner was born!
I’ve made this dish several different ways depending on what I have in my fridge that I can throw into it. There have been times where I really wanted to make this but the only veggie I had on hand was frozen green beans and I used those…it was still good! If there’s a will, there’s a way…and there’s always a will for pesto.