How to make a Dumpling

Last Sunday I learned how to make a certifiable Chinese dumpling. It was amazing. Let me in fact walk you through the steps.

1)Take small "dumpling wrapper" (looked like a mini tortilla covered in flour) and finger paint water around the edges.
2)Fill with William's magical pork concoction (not too full or it won't close, Jenny knows that from hard experience).
3)Fold over into a half-moon shape and seal moistened edges--see #1--together. I hate the word moist but its the best descriptor in this case.
4)Decoratively fan the edges by folding pleats in the tortilla wrapper thingy. In my non-creativity I would have chosen to skip this step and leave them plain, but the dumpling Czar (William) wouldn't allow it.
5)Repeat steps 1-4 over 100 times. Ok maybe not that many but that's what it felt like.

I had several difficulties with this new skill. First being I could not figure out how much to put in the wrapper. Second, my fingers were too clumsy to make the pleats look nice. Third, I couldn't figure out how to keep the flour from turning into homemade play-doh all over my hands when it mixed with the water.

Successes of the evening included lining up the dumplings properly on the pan (so as not to incur the wrath of the dumpling Czar), reliving my days of childhood finger painting (only with water this time), and forcing James to make "just one more." And, of course, eating the little pockets of goodness.

Overall, I feel like a pro at dumpling making. And to think someone (no names to protect the innocent) almost convinced me not to go for the pre-dinner lesson. I never would have appreciated those scrumptious morsels without all that hard work!

These are highly sought after and rare pictures of non natives constructing the elusive Chinese dumpling.