Dumplings

2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 to 2 Tbsp. melted butter

Mix dry ingredients.  Blend eggs and milk and stir into flour mixture. Stir in butter.   Drop into soup or stew.  To drop, dip tablespoon into water, then into batter for each dumpling.  Place dumplings so they are barely touching.  Cover and simmer 5 minutes.  Don't peek.  Turn dumplings over and cook 5 minutes more.  Serve at once.

 VARIATIONS:  Add one-half cup chopped parsley OR 2 Tbsp. fresh herbs OR 1 tsp. dried herbs OR 1 tsp. grated onion to dumplings before cooking. 

These dumplings are light and airy, not like heavier Southern dumplings.  The recipe is from my Mother's cousin, Stella "Ted" Becker.  The other dumplings I remember are made from yeast dough.  When I was a child, most farm wives made bread every week.  On baking day, they might form some of the dough into bun-size dumplings.  My mother cooked chunks of ham and potatoes together and then steamed these dumplings on top. That was my favorite meal as a child.  The yeast dumplings were also fried in lard or oil and served with syrup.  I remember this was the last meal we ate in North Dakota at neighbor Rena Kolpan's house the day we left to move to Florida in 1951.