Food, Friends, Faith and more…

Hmm…brownies? Poopoo eh? Read up here for a little chuckle first.

Well, perhaps little man would appreciate this month’s attempt at making brownies look more like a moving truck. Then he wouldn’t be so quick to brownie bash!

To help out with a staff send-off, I offered to bake a batch of brownies. So, mustering the hidden elementary school teacher in me that completed a BS and MA in Education, never on the teaching track, I had to channel my unrealized teacher energies into making an unconventional display of brownie bites. So long Russells! God-speed as you move to Billings, MT (perhaps it’d be better not to take my proposed brownie trail).

And I’d say my co-worker’s amazing Frosting’s inspired homemade cupcakes were just the perfect complement. Thanks Paper Rosie! You did an amazing job!

Dinner is served!

To an Asian American, frying dumplings is equivalent to boiling water. As the Food Network’s How to Boil Water show attempts to bring in simple cooking for the novice “chef”, they don’t debut the simplest staple for the Asian American kid when you try to search with “dumpling” or “pot sticker” or “potsticker”. Now I’m not saying you have to know how to make the dumpling filling and fold the dumplings all Din Tai Fung style, but at least the art of frying dumplings should be mastered right? Well, this blog is a tribute to my cousin Amyty who’s been requesting the method from me so she can finally achieve success with making pretty much the only thing that stocks her fridge…and is pretty much the most substantial food item in her entire house next to the one can of soup in the pantry…frozen dumplings!

So if you have frozen dumplings in the fridge (be it homemade, weichuan, tung-i, random korean versions, etc.):

1. Turn on the stove on to about medium heat with a good non-stick pan. (Starting with a badly coated pan will just negatetheentire procedure and leave you with a mess of dumpling skin shreds and meat balls in the end).
2. Get a non-stick pan and add some oil to to pan enough to give the whole pan a nice coating of oil (pick up the pan and swirl it to spread the oil).
3. Start putting the dumplings in the pan as quick as you can -dip into pool of oil,
   

   Step 3. Pan arrangement.

   slide to outer edges of pan and arrange them until the entire pan is plenty-filled with space between all the dumplings (if you do this before the oil gets too hot, you won’t get as much hot oil splatter all over you from the ice that’s probably on your frozen dumplings).

4. Let the dumplings fry up a little so it’s slightly browned on bottom.
5. For raw dumplings, add some cold water into the pan at this point so the water level comes up to about 1/2 the dumpling height and cover with the lid (you can turn up the heat a little here). For variation, you can use a 1/2 rice vinegar and 1/2 water mixture here…it helps give it a gooey crisp and flavoring to the dumplings so you don’t need as much dipping sauce laterand cut down on some sodium intake(but this makes things vinegary aromatic in the house for a while).
6. After about 20 minutes, take off the lid and turn the heat down a little to medium.
   

   Step 6. Cook on medium.

   There should be some water still left and it should start kind of bubbling and the dumplings should start crisping.

7. Let the bottom of the dumplings crisp up to a nice golden brown and you can flip the dumplings on it’s 2 other sides to crisp to more golden brown (if you’re a fan of all over crisp…it’s the perfect opportunity to perfect chopstick skills by turning all the dumplings here without breaking the skin or you’ll lose all the juices to the pan).
8. Once they’re all nicely browned, pick up the pan and gently swirl all the dumplings in it to pick up all the remnant crisp factors stuck on the bottom of the pan (and it makes for cleaning the pan much easier).
9. Plate your dumplings, make your dipping sauce and chow down!

Ok Ames…there you go. Keep practicing until you perfect your dumpling frying skills (at which point they’re no longer called dumplings but potstickers) for the next time I visit and we can blanch some gai lan and round out the dinner menu with some greens.

Dude...Sweet...

A cute little chocolate shop in Dallas, Texas…another point of inspiration. My friends say they could see me opening up a shop like this, featuring happypeggy granola. The owner of the shop that day was working on her next new chocolate creation, a dark chocolate covered nougat bar (yet to be named). She said she thinks she has the flavors dead on this time and that its taken her several rounds of trials to get to this flavor. We went back the next day and were able to sample some. The flavors were exquisite, a party in your mouth, almost like you had a floral bouquet exploding in your mouth (if it were possible to eat flowers, that is). You have to use your imagination on this or head to Dude, Sweet Chocolate yourself for a sample!

Well, as for happypeggy granola, the latest idea is to take on an Asian American identity to the product line (many thanks to the amazing Ms. Lam for her creativity). Featuring exotic flavors…orange flower blossom, almond flower blossom, cherry flower blossom…with exquisite clean and simple graphics to complement the brown paper packages tied up with string. What flavor would you like to see in the happypeggy granola line? Throw me a suggestion or cast your vote for your favorite flavor/essence/concoction in a comment below.

To the Costco guy I exclaimed with big big smile, “Send out an ABP. I lost my keys. They were clipped to a cart, we don’t know where that cart is!” So I lost my keys at Costco today. Stupid me, yes, but how did that happen you wonder? Well, I clipped them to the cart seat since I didn’t have any pockets on my work outfit (pencil skirts don’t come with pockets!), didn’t want to lug my entire work bag into Costco..had my phone and wallet in hand. Went all around Costco with Cchu only to find a kilo of Fage yogurt worthy of purchase today, checked out at the register, grabbed yogurt, left cart behind and thought now to hand carry yogurt, phone and wallet, met Cchu at food court for hot dog and sundae, finished eating, got up to leave and realized my keys were still attached to that cart, went back to where cart would have been at the register, saw no cart with keys hanging off of it…aiyayaya. So Cchu positioned herself at the exit being a creeper holding her kilo of Fage yogurt staring everyone down that passed by (really just looking at the carts for keys), I walked the larger half of the Costco parking lot, up and down every aisle looking for a cart with the keys attached to it and saw nothing, and exclaimed to myself “how many carts does Costco have! They have 100s of carts! This is impossible), went back inside and started walking the Costco floor, went from the registers down the main way, looking intently at every cart I passed by, passed the clothing area, got to the freezer section, quietly sighed while maintaining a smile, “oh Lord, where are these keys”, passed the fruit and produce section, rounded the meat corner, walked by the bakery corner and…AHA!!! there was the lone cart with keys hanging off it, no one around the cart, still nothing in the cart, hanging out by its lonesome in the furthest corner from the register with the baked goods. Go figure!! But it was another fun adventure in the lives of CC and PC.

I was never one of those kids that could run. Swimming I was pretty decent with if it didn’t exceed 4 laps or 100 meters, but when it came to running, every time it felt like my lungs were going to either explode or implode from inefficient breathing. It’s been so long since I ran I can’t even remember the sensation enough to describe it, but let’s just say it was no fun.

However, when it comes to spiritual exercise, joining the church in Irvine in their truth pursuit program for the Life-Study of Exodus by Witness Lee has been a test of endurance to say the least. I wouldn’t say it’s painful on the lungs, as the reading has actually been healthy in terms of spiritual breathing, but it has been more like a disjointed sprinting, tripping, running off the track, finding the way back to the track, going at a steady pace, and jumping over hurdles, warming up, cooling down, and a 3-legged race kind of experience to get through the 185 chapters.

I’ve tried sequestering myself at coffee shops to carve out the time to read a chapter or catch up on a “few” missed chapters…

I’ve tried catching a page or two at yogurt shops while waiting to meet up with friends for lunch…

But the best help I’ve had so far is sticking to Thursday night readings with a couple other gals from my small group. This has definitely been most helpful in staying on schedule and being accountable. Thanks Cchu and P.Zo for being such faithful study buddies!! Only like 100 more chapters to go…well…according to the schedule, I don’t think we’ll finish until March 2012. Not too bad…since we’re in the 3rd volume of 4 for the greenbacks..and we just finished chapter 92 tonight out of the 185…almost 50% complete, minus the handful of chapters I have yet to make up in the 80s. Woohoo!!