Dinner A Love Story's Pork Dumplings

Happy Chinese New Year! I decided to get festive and make a million dumplings for the two of us. Ok, like 40. It felt like a lot. I think the best part of this was that I got to do my shopping at my long lost love, Wegmans, while I was up in Fredericksburg. I need to do that more often.

These were from the book version of this recipe, which is almost identical.

I liked them a lot, but I think I like steamed dumplings a little more. I also think I put them in the food processor for too long because the pork was a little gritty in texture. 

Looking back and going forward

I wanted to start this post with my review 0f 2009 and my resolutions for 2010. Looking back, this was a really big and exciting year for me. My family and friends were healthy and happy for the most part and I had some huge life changes. I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of things, but here are some big ones that I remember.

• Went to President Obama's inauguration.

• Started blog!
  
• Saw Duff speak

• Finished Help Center
• Graduated from UMD with my bachelor's in psychology

• Saw Paul McCartney!

• Moved to Baltimore in August with my boyfriend

• Started Master of Social Work program at UMB
• Started field placement at hospital in pediatrics
  
• Got on-call job with hospital in the domestic violence office
  
• Got Ollie!

Looking forward into the new year, there are some things that I want to work on.

School:
I want to dedicate more time to my school work.  This semester wasn't too hard for me because it was a lot of psychology review, but I know that it's not going to be like that the whole way through.  I want to be more organized with my studying and continue to set deadlines for myself and know my best habits.

Eating:
I've gotten into a habit of feeling like I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want, and that's just not true.  I need to get back into moderation and balance.  Moving in with a guy who can practically eat whatever he wants and 2x more than me was something I didn't realize would effect me the way it did.

Working out:
I want to be more serious about it.  I've gotten really lazy and sometimes go weeks without going to the gym.  I want to be held accountable for working out because I know that it makes me feel better.  I need to get a workout in 3-5 days a week along with yoga.

Weight:
Right now I am at the highest weight that I can ever remember being.  I am not happy about it.  I want to lose 14 pounds.  I don't think that I need to go on and on about this because it's something that a lot of us struggle with, but I know if I concentrate on my other goals then weight loss will come naturally.

Ollie:
I want to take Ollie on one long walk per week while it's cold out and then increase that a lot when the weather starts getting nicer.

Others:
-Drink more water
-Relax more
-Go on a real vacation! (even for a couple days)
-Explore Baltimore more and do more of the Baltimore 100
-Cook more from cookbooks
-Eat at least one vegetarian dinner per week

That was one of the longer posts that I've had for a while!  I was going to include my eats for the past few meals, but I'll hold off for another post since this one was so long.

What was your favorite part of 2009?  What are you looking forward to in 2010?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Wow, 2010?  That's pretty crazy.  This year went by so quickly and so many great things happened.  I wanna get to that, but first I've been having some pretty amazing food over the past couple of days.


Yesterday for lunch I made a BLT, with real bacon, which I've never done before.  And it was quite yummy.

I should also mention that I've been having a major downfall to these almond biscotti.  I hope they disappear soon (which means I just need to eat them faster!).

Since we had to have a pretty lowkey night last night, we decided to make it awesome with food.  We started off with some steamed shrimp from the grocery store.

I thought their texture was kinda funky, but G didn;t have a problem with them.  But the main event was food from Trinacria.

Right here we're looking at cheese lasagna, a couple of meatballs, some garlic bread and some asparagus that I made.  YUM.  I want to live inside of that place.

I also wanted to make a special dessert and tried for molten lava cakes, but they didn't bake right.

Still tasted good, though!  I think I just needed to leave them in longer.  I've made them successfully before with a different recipe, so maybe next time.

This morning I made us a new year's breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and 1/2 english muffin.

For lunch it was more leftover lasagna and an apple.

Man, I really want to try everything that that market sells.

I also made some banana muffins and I just finished snacking on one.

I'm making a couple of recipes from my new cook books tonight!  I'm really excited!  Don't forget to eat your black-eyed peas on New Year's day!

What is your favorite cook book?

What are your New Year's traditions?

Thanksgiving recap!

Hello!  Wow wow wow I have been a little bit busy over this little Thanksgiving break!  I really hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday and able to spend time with their families and friends in good health. 

It's probably best for me to recap Thanksgiving and then move on.  I love my mom's cooking and Thanksgiving is always my favorite holiday with my family.  We don't have many family traditions, and our family is pretty small, so Thanksgiving always means a lot to me.  My mom cooked pretty much everything, except I baked the pies and made the cranberry sauce.

Here's some photo evidence of the awesome food, including what I had.

It really was a nice dinner and as you will see, I made it last all weekend.  Friday was cranberry oats, Thanksgiving sandwich, and more Thanksgiving food.  These are the only kind of leftovers I really like.

Saturday we took Ollie to the beach.  He had a lot of fun!

I had toast for breakfast and (more) leftovers for lunch.

We had pizza and salad for dinner.  I got pineapple chicken.

My dinner tonight was a Bertolli frozen entree.  I got a little scared when I took it out of the bag.

But it looked ok with my asparagus and tasted alright.  This was a total impulse buy and I did enjoy it, but I'm not sure if I would buy it again.

I hope to hear more about everyone's holiday!  I can't wait to get some more inspiration from everyone.