Dumpling fun!

Oh, before I forget. Yesterday was my 300th post. I feel like I should celebrate or something.

Anyway, the promised scoop on a dumpling. If you're thinking chicken and dumplings made with Crisco (or Bisquick Light depending on preferred calorie intake) think again. This post is on dumplings Asian style. Traditionally, folks eat these at midnight on the lunar New Year (which we did). Practically, we eat them a lot. With every meal you eat a "main thing" which where we live is usually rice, sometimes steamed bread, sometimes dumplings (jiaozi) and could be noodles or something else.

Jiaozi are labor intensive little creatures. First, you make the skin/wrappers from a big lump of dough. You have to pinch off and roll out all the little discs.



Then, you make the filling by chopping up lots of meat and vegetables really tiny and adding oil, salt, MSG, etc.



Next, it's time for the stuffing. Your jiaozi are supposed to stand up but mine flop over.



Tada! No, I didn't make all these jiaozi. I think I only made one or two. My kids gave me the perfect excuse to watch TV and text message all night while everyone else worked.



If my American friends are now craving jiaozi, you can buy frozen dumplings in the store or fresh ones in Chinese restaurants in America for insane prices. You can also make them yourself. Homemade are best. It's great fun to have a dumpling making party with conversation and friendship, but I like taking advantage of the little store across the street that sells them insanely cheap for my daily use consumption. (Come visit if you want to do that.)

FYI: Jiaozi are one of Archie's favorite foods. They were also one of his first table foods.