Three

Three is a wonder.  Last week, living with L was like living with a ticking time bomb.  Everything we said or did had the potential to set her off on the fast track to tantrum land.  This week, she is amazing: giggly, pleasant, and full of silly jokes.  If I didn’t know better I wouldn’t believe it was the same kid.

Tonight during M’s Chinese Club, L had a date at the local children’s museum with my parents.  As the middle grandchild (M and my older niece are close in age so they are treated as one and the same, then there is the new baby who is 7 months old),  L often gets the short end of the stick where one on one attention is concerned.  She had an awesome time with my parents and charmed the pants right off them.

L is getting so big and capable, she isn’t a baby any more.

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Dinner tonight:

Jiaozi Two Ways (aka Jiaozi showdown), Sugar Snap Peas.

The Jiaozi on the right are the Zhong Crescent Dumplings from page 100 of the Sichuan cookbook.  There dumplings were boiled (shuijiao).  I generally like the texture of the skin on boiled dumplings the best, not matter what the filling is.  This filling was kind of bland, but good.

The jiaozi on the left are Three Sisters Dumplings from page 63 of the Hunan cookbook.  I didn’t read the whole recipe before I chose it.  Once I had the meat mixed up, I realized I was supposed to use rice flour wrappers. I didn’t have any so I used the plain wheat ones as the other dumplings.  They were still pretty good, though I steamed them and they were a little dried out around the edges.  The filling tasted a bit like sesame oil, which I do not love, but overall they were ok.

The family’s consensus was the boiled ones were better for both skin texture and filling flavor.

I made a quick and easy dipping sauce of diced ginger, japanese seasoned rice vinegar and soy sauce.

The snap peas were cooked by dicing some ginger, sauteing it, then adding the snap peas and a pinch of salt.  Yum.

When I asked the family what they thought, M said the dumplings were “Hao, hao, HAO CHI!!!” She also ate four snap peas under duress.

L ate only one bite of dumpling because she ate a taco with my parents earlier.  I expect her to eat the leftovers for breakfast tomorrow.  She generally likes dumplings (and anything else we allow her to dunk in dumpling sauce).

Mr. A said (and this is a full quote) “They taste so good and I love them so much, it makes me want to have sex with you.”

Alrighty then.  I think they were a hit.