Pork Wontons

For over a week I researched recipes for pork wontons. I ended up using a combination from one I found on a website and one from a video on youtube, believe it or not.

Pork Wontons
1 pound ground pork
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 scallion
½ teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1 pkg wonton wrappers (45 – 50)

Mix all the ingredients together by hand. Beat one egg in a small bowl to use as “glue” for your wrappers. Lay your wonton out and put a little less than a teaspoon in the middle of the wrapper.

Brush the left and right side of the wrapper facing you with some of the egg wash.



Fold the wonton in half.


Then pinch the middle like this.


Put a little more egg wash on one side of the wrapper and pinch them together.


I made these a few hours before I fried them. I kept them in the fridge tightly covered so they wouldn’t dry out.
Fry in 2 inches of oil (canola or vegetable) until golden brown.

They were good, not great. Still tasted like something was missing. I’ll have to try and research a little more to see what I missed.

Well I’m off to watch the Super Bowl!

What a mess!

So I was in the kitchen, prepping food for the Super Bowl, remembered that I needed to jar and seal up some of the stuff I had bought at Whole Foods yesterday. Got all the jars ready, carried 3 of them over to the cupboards and this happens.......

Glass and organic popcorn all over the place. Uggghh.

Of course Moose hears the commotion and wants to check it out. I had to put him into the living room and blockade him out so he wouldn't get cut on the glass. As I'm dumping the first batch into the trash, Fatty my cat that is very old and has a failing bladder, decides this is the time to pee on the floor. Pee mixed with glass and popcorn to clean now. Lovely. I didn't take a picture of that mess. Oh bother.

What's in your Fridge?

I few of the blogs I read did a "what's in your fridge?" thing this week. Not that any of the people who write the blogs that I read even know mine exists. I thought I'd participate too (and I just cleaned out my fridge, something I tend to do a bit compulsively).

Right now it holds Super Bowl ingredients…filling for the pork wontons, salsas, cheese, dips, avocados, olives, German pickles, wings, little weenies, etc.

Usually the door of my fridge is filled with 2 - 3 gallons of milk. I'm down to a mere 1/2 gallon today. Dangerously low for our house. Time to head to the store or we won't make it through breakfast tomorrow morning.

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

Didn't think anything could taste better than a Reeses? Hell, yes it can.

I promised my chocolate and peanut butter fiend Evan that I would make him homemade peanut butter cups this weekend. He is almost as much of a chocoholic as I am, although I don’t love peanut butter as much as he does.

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups
1 cup creamy peanut butter, divided
4 ½ teaspoons of butter, softened
½ cup confectioner’s sugar
2 cups (12 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 milk chocolate candy bars (1.55 ounces each) I used Hershey bars

1 pinch salt
Mini paper muffin cups

In a small bowl combine ½ cup peanut butter, confectioners’ sugar and salt. Mix by hand until smooth. Set aside.

In a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips, candy bars (break the bar into little pieces) and the remaining ½ cup of peanut butter. I checked the chocolate mixture at about 1 ½ minutes on full power, gave it a good stir and put it back in for another 30 seconds.

This is the method I used for filling the cups. Get out a big baking sheet, have all the paper cups on the sheet ready to be filled. I used a small ladle to drop a little less than a teaspoon full of the chocolate into the bottom of the paper cups. Top each cup with about a half a teaspoon of the peanut butter mixture, then top with more chocolate. I went back and took the back of a teaspoon and gently pushed the top layer of chocolate down a little and made a little swirl on top. Totally not necessary, but just one of those little things that I do. At this point you can also add some sprinkles on top. I made a few with red, white & blue stars on them in honor of the Patriots.

Refrigerate until firm, store in a covered container.

For the other John

Who asks me "how come I'm not on your blog huh?".

John is my oldest and one of my dearest friends. We met 27 years ago. He and I were in Mr. Coyles English class 1981. He sat behind me, would talk to me, make me turn around to tell him to shut up, and at that very moment, without fail, Mr. Coyle would catch me turned around and yell at me for not paying attention. Of couse John would put his head down and pretend he had no idea on earth why I was turned around to "bother" him. He got me in trouble lots of times in high school. About 22 years ago he left to join the army and came back with a picture of a Slovenijan girl in his wallet who he told us he was going to marry. We all laughed. 2 years later he married her. Best thing he ever did. Ya done good Picklehead. Now to go dig up those pictures from the prom......

Rosemary Oven Roasted Potatoes

John was hungry for steak and potatoes. I had gone through a few cookbooks the night before looking for a potato recipe. Nothing struck my fancy, so I decided to go with an old stand-by recipe. Once again, one that I make often but have never written down. There are no exact amounts. It's easy-peasy. Who says that all the time??

Rosemary Oven Roasted Potatoes
4 - 5 large potatoes (I used Yukon Gold this time, I normally would use an Idaho potato but all I had was the Yukon’s)
Olive Oil
Rosemary
Salt & Pepper

Pre-heat oven to 375. Cut the potato into quarters and then into smaller strips. Throw them in a big bowl and toss with enough olive oil to lightly coat them. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle in a good tablespoon or so of rosemary.

Spray the bottom of a baking sheet with Pam or equivalent. Spread the potatoes into a single layer. Bake for 45 - 50 minutes or until golden brown. I flip them about 3 times during baking so all the sides get nice and crunchy. Sprinkle with a little more salt just before serving.

Whole Foods Haul

Tati and I went out this afternoon to Whole Foods Market. It was only the 3rd time that I had even been in a Whole Foods. I went to one in Providence with Mitch a few years ago and I went to the one that we visited today a few weeks back when I was in the middle of my bread crisis.

Let me just say this....if I could afford it, and didn't care how much I spent every week on groceries, I would shop at Whole Foods all the time. Everyone who works there is so happy and helpful too, kinda like the Disney World of grocery stores. I am so jealous of all the high falutin' folks who had their baskets full to the tippy top. Tati and I shared one of those mini double decker baskets. I did get some stuff that I had been looking for though. I love the aisle where everything is in bulk and you fill your bag up with as much as you want. I got some organic popcorn, wheat berries, French lentils, red lentils and organic barley. I also picked up some steak sauce for John, some blood oranges for me, a bag of Whole Foods tortilla chips (we tasted them at the store, they were fabulous) and a big bunch of fresh basil. Finally! I was beginning to think that I would never find fresh basil again until spring.

You should have seen Tati and I standing at the cheese counter. I could have spent hundreds on cheese alone. Then we moved on to the breads. Oh my, my, my. Beautiful, beautiful breads. We each bought a crusty Tuscan Boule and Tati got a few little rolls that looked like footballs, too cute. Here's a picture of my loot.