Mad Wonton Skills

I MADE THAT!!! Sometimes I get chills just thinking about it! You know I love to cook and you know I love chinese food and I especially love good wonton soup. I got a hankering and literally woke up in the night getting excited thinking about making wonton soup. Is that weird? Researched several recipes on-line, read lots and lots of user comments and reviews of the recipes, applied some of their changes, added a few of my own, watched several "how to wrap wontons" videos on you-tube and successfully made amazingly delicious soup! What did we do before the internet? Ah...that's right. We learned how to cook from real live humans, like grandmothers, and stuff. Unfortunately I never knew my grandmothers, and doubtful they made wonton soup so thank goodness for the internet.

I combined recipes for egg-drop and wonton soups, added some extra veggies and presented it to Schaun (and Winnie, who just stared at it) for his approval. It was met with a resounding, "This is SO good!" I wouldn't do the egg-drop thing again, it was a bit overwhelming, and since this first time I made it again (there were so many wontons I froze a ton of them) with a fairly simple broth and fresh veggie goodness.

Winnie's not diggin' it.

Here's my best recreation, from memory, of my latest favoritest soup. I'm sure a new one will come along soon but for now...enjoy!

Wonton Soup
Serves 4-ish
(adapted from Pf Changs Wonton Soup Recipe)

The Soupy Part

8 cups chicken stock

2 tsp freshly grated ginger

1 Tbsp light brown sugar

2 Tbsp dry sherry

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 Tbsp fish sauce (I like Tiparos brand, found in most asian markets)

2 medium carrots peeled and thinly sliced

10 baby bok choy, halved
1 small pckg cremini mushrooms sliced
2 slices canadian bacon, julienned.
2 thinly sliced scallions, the entire onion...not just the white parts

Bring chicken stock to a boil, add ginger, sugar, sherry, soy sauce, fish sauce and carrots. Cook until carrots are tender. Reduce heat to medium and add bok choy, mushrooms and canadian bacon, cover and simmer about 5 -7 minutes. Add scallions right before serving. This is tasty on its own without the wontons...you could add some thinly sliced chicken or just some nice rice noodles.

The Wontony Part
(makes about 50, 1/2 to eat now 1/2 to freeze and eat later)

1 lb ground turkey (for this recipe I like dark meat)
1 tsp light brown sugar
1 Tbsp dry sherry
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 scallion, finely chopped
1 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
2 Tbsp ketchup

Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl. Use one teaspoon (and I mean only one teaspoon...don't cheat...measure it) in the center of precut wonton wrappers. Fold as instructed here or whatever way your creative heart desires. I recommend testing the structural viability of your creation before using any method for all the wontons. Boil in a separate pot. They're done when they float. Transfer to individual soup bowls and be amazed at your mad wonton skills!

Winnie's First Snows

The first snowfall of the 2010 Winter season came in early December. It was just a light dusting but as brand-spanking new parents, we promptly swept up our daughter and dragged her outside at which time she looked around and looked at us like, "what the heck are you doing to me?!" and took lots of pictures. We (or really I) squealed with excitement of "Winnie's first snow!" like she cared. Maybe someday she'll care that we took all these pictures of her looking dazed and confused. At least she'll see how very thrilled we are to be her parents, right? That's worth something!

We're all excited and Winn says, "This is lame."

THEN a couple weeks later we got a bigger snowfall that stuck around for a whole day or two (thank you Virginia!). That pushed me to finally knit her a cute hat so she could look the part of snow princess and have a warm noggin. Schaun promptly got her dressed and brought her outside for a taste of snow, literally.

So proud of her hat! Made up the pattern (kind of) myself.

She so doesn't want to eat snow.