In praise of soggy bread

I made my first dumplings tonight.  I know - shocking - I'm Southern and I've never made dumplings (to the best of my knowledge).  My grandma is spinning in her grave.  Or maybe now she's stopped spinning.  But there's a reason why I never made dumplings.

When I was young, I never ate anything even remotely like soggy bread (with the exception of biscuits and gravy).  You see, my mom hates (HATES!) soggy bread, so I just assumed that I also hated soggy bread.  But then there were the biscuits and gravy (but even my mom likes biscuits and gravy).

I'm not exactly sure what made me realise I actually love soggy bread.  (I should clarify, I'm not talking about a piece of bread that's been sitting in water, and I've never had bread in milk.)  I don't know if it was realising that biscuits are bread and gravy makes them soggy.  I don't know if it coincided with my soup revelation (i.e., I like soup), the day I had a delicious soup at my friend Julie's house with a piece of bread to dip in it.  All I know is, I like soggy bread - biscuit-topped cassoulet, the lump of cheese-covered deliciousness atop French onion soup, sammiches moistened by condiments, and dumplings.

Incidentally, the recipe I made was Seitan and Dumplings from American Vegan Kitchen as part of week 2 of the cookbook challenge.  I have to say, it took a long damn time to make.  If you were to make it from start to finish (from the seitan to the bowl), it would take about 4 hours.  Luckily, I at least made the seitan ahead of time.  That said, it's totally worth it.  So delicious.  I might see if I can figure out a way to make it take less time.  I don't know how, but there must be a way.  Anyway, even taking as long as it does, I would definitely recommend it.