Check out these dumplings

Our dinner Sunday was on,  then off, then on again... When we woke up we were snowed in so I cancelled the dinner.  DH thought he could get out with the 4=wheel drive...NOT.    About 11am the plow came and cleared our road.  First thing he had to do was pull DH out.    So I called everyone and the dinner was on again...We had the duck with sweet potato crepes and blackberry/plum bourbon  sauce and dessert was a sour cream pear tart...

Today I am using the confit to make duck dumplings with plum sauce. I put the duck bits in the food processor, added an egg, soy sauce, ginger, Chinese 5 spice, and some onion..   I see a another culinary quest in the offing... I bought this little contraption to make dumplings but it is pretty useless.,,, but I think this is something fun to learn by hand...sorta like ribbon folding with dumpling wrapper.  I made one with it and hand folded the rest.

I have visions of serving them looking like this but actually they are looking more like this...













but I am intrigued with how to do them and there are endless videos on folding them

My favorite restaurant is a dumpling restaurant in Seattle... Din Tai Fung is a famous chain that has restaurants all over the world.  While you stand in line waiting to get in you can watch the help folding dumplings... I'm hoping to get there for my birthday.

Like any craft there are those who really excel.  I can only dream on being able to fold these works of art.  There are even dumplings folded to look like ducks and have a  duck filling.  I saw a girl folding dumpling wrappers which she said were Cinderella shoes... and they did indeed look like tiny slippers.

The best is this fish dumpling. Don't you just love it... I would feel guilty eating  it...

Well tomorrow we leave for Mexico and I am little anxious.. A limo is supposed to pick us up at the airport and take us to the wedding venue which is quite remote... I sent DIL pictures of us today in case we disappear she will have something the authorities can use while hunting for us....  more later on the outcome......

I am packing and hopefully we will get out.  We have been drifted in three times in the last two weeks. We were drifted in again yesterday.  Our neighbor plowed last night and it took him over an hour to get to the end of our road.     We had such a mild winter and now it wants to go crazy...

 

The spider bag is progressing and I'm done with the lace leaves and will start on the ribbon and thread leaves and am taking it with me to Mexico.. There will be plenty of people around to thread needles for me...

 

I hope to finish all the greenery sitting by the pool.  I over-dyed some more ribbon to take.  This much ribbon fits in a cup and I add a couple tablespoons of water and a few drops alcohol ink.  This ribbon was yellows and pinks....now green.