Dumpling recipe

Here are a couple of versions of the dumpling recipe. I'll give you the easiest one first.
This is what Summer told me that she put in her dumplings:
one package of ground pork (I'm guessing about a pound)
one small green bell pepper
celery (which I didn't detect)
one green onion
a bit of soy sauce

She put everything in a blender so that the veggies were all very finely chopped and then added the meat and soy sauce. Put a little bit of the mixture in the center of a wonton wrapper and wet the edges with water then press the edges together, you can also just fold the wrapper to make a triangle, too. She put them in a big skillet with maybe 1T of vegetable oil and put the lid on. When the dumplings puffed up, she took the lid off and moved them around. They were lightly browned on the bottom. She just put the platter of them on the table and we dipped them in our own bowls of soy sauce mixed with some Chinese vinegar and some red pepper sauce.

Here is the recipe that I used: I had found a basic recipe in a Chinese cookbook
around a pound of ground pork
half a green bell pepper
one green onion
one stalk of celery
1/2 t of ginger
2T or so of soy sauce
1T of Chinese cooking sherry
dash of sugar

I put everything in the food processor - this was the easiest part.
As for cooking them, my recipe called for putting 1T of vegetable oil in the pan putting the dumplings in and then adding some stock over the dumplings. Honestly, though they tasted good - the wrappers stuck together - so it was a bit messy. None of my pans were officially nonstick - so maybe that was the difference. Mine didn't puff up like Summer's either. But like I said - they were yummy - had a little more flavor than Summer's, they were just sticky - hers weren't.
I'll have to experiment more.

Overall I do recommend them - nice for a change. It took me about 45 minutes - an hour just assemble them.

I do want to know if any of you guys try it and how they turn out!!!

Dumplings for dinner

A couple of weeks ago, our Chinese friends, Steven and Summer invited us over to their house for dinner. Summer was making dumplings for dinner for all of us. She was still making them when we arrived, so I was able to help her out. They're actually pretty easy to make - though a bit time consuming. Steven and Summer said that these are pretty common for dinner in China. They were soooo good! Even Mark used chopsticks - he's really getting the hang of them. :o)
As a treat, for Mark and me, I made dumplings for dinner tonight. I haven't cooked them yet - Mark's not home from work. But, if they turn out well, I'd like to make some up and keep them in the freezer.

Rubbing it in - just a bit

Okay, anyone who has read the blog or knows me, knows that where we are geographically right now isn't exactly my preference. Thankfully, I can see baby steps of growth!! I accept my fate right now rather than being resigned to it - which I see as a step of growth. Contentment is still the goal that I am working toward.

So, please indulge me in gloating just a little - it's been in the 70's all week down here. Currently, it's in the upper sixties and humid - windows open and flip flops on.

Tomorrow the cold front comes through - it will be in the 40's and 50's for highs.

We're heading over to another couple's house for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. I'm bringing a pumpkin pie and homemade dog treats for their dogs(which are their children).

HAVE A BLESSED THANKSGIVING!!

Brotherly love

Overkill??

Today, we received a gift for Matthew(thanks Gaylene!!). I couldn't get over the fact that they(WalMart - not Gaylene) put this package of onesies in this huge box! Too funny.

Four more weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Makrothumia, please!

This past week in my Bible study (we're studying the fruit of the Spirit), we focused on patience. The Greek word for this aspect is makrothumia. It's not the hupomone or enduring under hardships type of patience, but rather the merciful, unjudgemental type of patience when dealing with people. Giving up "my right" to be angry is not usually my preference - obviously, in my head and heart, I'm justified to be angry at whomever or whatever person has injustly treated me - intentionally or unintetionally.

Boy, is that convicting!!! I have been reminded time and time again how judgemental I am - thereby - how impatient, unmerciful and unChristlike I am. I'm thankful for the Holy Spirit's convicting - you can't grow and work on something if you don't know that you need to work on something. I need to be humbled and reminded of what I truly deserve - if it were not for the mercy and patience of God, I would be going to Hell.

It's the little things

I'm so excited - my eBay win has arrived! It's a Pottery Barn Kids crib bumper. I paid $10.50 for it(not including the $10.50 for s&h)! I can imagine how much something like this would have cost retail. I didn't really have a desire to purchase a whole matching set - well, it would have been nice - but I couldn't justify a whole new matching set.

One last hurrah!!

My knight in shining armor surprised me with booking a nice hotel room in North Little Rock/Riverfront last Friday. An hour is the furthest that I'm supposed to travel these days, so this get away was perfect! We had a wonderful time!

We walked around LR's riverfront, went to the North LR mall and bought some stuff along the way. Saturday, we did more shopping and then finished the day with catching a movie on the way home - Dan in Real Life. For a predictable romantic comedy, it was one of the better ones - we both enjoyed it.

Mark is wonderful!