Dumpling Empire + Early Chinese New Year Dinner

My last dumpling night post was only about the sauces that I mixed and the dumplings that I ate. This time, will discuss the dumplings that I made!

We had an early Chinese New Year get together last night which involved a game if dumplings - hidden in some of the dumplings are some coins, which are each assigned some dollar amount. If you are so lucky as to eat a dumpling with a coin in it, not only are you bound to have good luck for the year, but also you get $$$. Unfortunately, while I was not so luck as to win anything this year, we still had our red envelope tradition which I as an unmarried "kid" can still partake in. Granted, we had to earn it by reciting Chinese New Year sayings (in Chinese), which is actually a rather stressful experience!

After we all got our envelopes, there were games...involving dollar bills...and die. And I'll just leave it at that.

Speaking of last night's dinner, among other delicious dishes, there was also a roast pig - head included, which has minimal relevance to this post other than the fact that it looks really cool/creepy.

Back to the my original focus - dumplings. There were many leftover packs if dumpling skins and containers of the filling, which we for some reason ended up bringing home with us (I'm not complaining!). So in preparation for our dinner tonight ad well as for New Year's Eve dinner tomorrow night, I said I'd be in charge of making the dumplings.

8 packs of dumpling skins, 5 containers of filling, 1 bowl of water, 5 trays, 1 rather achey back and 4 hours later, I, the Dumpling Queen, had my Dumpling Empire, with about 400 "citizens" at my disposal, armed with deliciousness and ready to be made into a meal!

The set-up

Progress...

My little dumpling

My Dumpling Army!

I started running out of room, so I had to consolidate a bit - side & aerial view

Le Cirque

So I had written up this whole thing last night after dinner...only to find that it didn't go through [sad face].

So here goes my second attempt to summarize dinner last night at Le Cirque.

First of all, you know a place has hot to be some kind of fancy if they call you that day to confirm your reservation. Then the first thing they ask you when you walk in is to check your coat,which I did after a most frustrating attempt at taking the cross town Queens bus to get to the restaurant in the first place.

All that being said, at least when I finally made it there, the food was awesome - and they came on the most adorable plates with little mischievous monkeys everywhere (get it? Cirque? Circus???). And good thing I was prepared as I'd been drooling over the menu all day before dinner.

Table Setting

Appetizer - Artisanal Pasta (looked like elongated infinity signs w/ a dollop of ricotta cheese)

Entree - Braised Beef (was so tender I didn't even need a knife! Though not QUITE as melt-in-your-mouth as the fish dish that I tried)

Dessert - Apple Cobbler a la mode (a tad on the sweet side, but still good...I also just want to give a shout out to the creme brûlée that I also tried as it was one of the lightest, and not to sweet creme brûlées that I have had AND they had a hidden recipe at the bottom of the bowl).

Good food, good drinks, good friends - 2012 is off to a strong start!

Artisanal Pasta Appetizer

Braised Beef Entree

"Apple" Dessert

"Hidden" Recipe...it's like they KNEW we would make it to the bottom of the bowl

Shout out to the bathroom decor - I always thought one could judge a lot about a restaurant based on their bathrooms!

Waffle

I made myself hungry. So I found a solution.

Dumpling Night

One of many dumpling nights that I've had lately - I actually didn't do any of the cooking other than prepping the sauces (garlic & soy sauce and garlic & vinegar w/ hot sauce), but thanks to Instagram (how did I live without it before???), I have some photos I wanted to share from the meal.

And now that I've successfully made myself hungry again by looking at these pictures again...I'm off to find some food! Perhaps an Ego Waffle with chocolate chips? I think yes...

love love LOVE garlic

 

 

We also had some fish ball (teehee) soup

Christmas Cookies

About a month ago I found the 12 days of cookie recipes for the holidays as a great idea for coworker gifts but never got around to my version of the cookies.

While I didn't actually end up making 12 different versions, I did end up with 4 types of cookies:

Candy Cane Blossoms Cookies (except I used Kisses w/ Almonds b/c I couldn't find the peppermint ones)

Oatmeal Cherry Pecan Cookies (except I used Craisins, Raisins & Walnut)

Chocolate Peppermint Sandwich Cookies (pretty much the only one where I followed the recipe)

Lemon Meringue Cookies (but without the lemon filling because I knew I'd have too much left over)

     

Start & Finish of the Sugar Blossom Cookies 

(I call them sugar because really, that's what they mostly are...even though the colored granulated sugar didn't cover the cookies as well as I'd hoped it would).

Start & Finish of the Oatmeal Cookies

I mean, how do you go wrong with any type of oatmeal cookie, right???

Let it be known, that while these are not difficult cookies to make, they are very much TIME CONSUMING!!!

A result of over an hour or two of chilling the dough in the fridge

  + = 

Peppermint Filling!

So many cookies...so so many... 

I started experimenting with Instagram for these cookies b/c whipped egg whites look so cool...

Look ma, no hands!

So pale...someone isn't getting enough sun...

Lookit how beautiful and plentiful they look!

Mini Lemon Meringues

To Try - Cookie Bowls

Just saw read this handy dandy article on The Daily Buzz -  "25 Clever Ideas to Make Life Easier" and while I plan on trying many of these creative and/or space saving ideas, this one in particular caught my eye. It's food related of course, # 21 - Turn your muffin pan upside down and bake cookie-dough over the top for cookie bowls in which you can add fruit, ice-cream...or ANYTHING YOUR HEART DESIRES!!!

But seriously - anyone care for a cookie bowl of ice-cream sometime soon?

The recipe doesn't seem to call for any chocolate chips, but the picture looks like there's some kind of chocolate going on...perhaps I'll throw in some chocolate shavings when making the dough just for kicks.

Chocolate Covered...

...strawberries & clementines.

I was first moved by the desire to cook something last night when all I ended up doing was eating and watching tv on the couch all night...literally, I only got up to get more food or pee. Way to start the new year, right?

Today I was a bit more productive and actually dragged my butt to the gym, which was packed with new members and their freshly made New Year's resolutions to lose weight/be healthy. We'll see how long that lasts for.

When I came home, I noticed a box of strawberries sitting on the table, and [insert lightbulb moment here], I was inspired to cover them in chocolate! And cover them I did.

Then since I had some extra melted chocolate (I really didn't plan things very well...or at all rather), I grabbed a few clementines that happened to be lying around, and proceeded to dunk them in the remaining chocolate.

A few tips for melting chocolate...ok, really just one - adding a touch of milk helps to get the smooth texture necessary for successful fruit dipping. Otherwise, may turn out slightly grainy for some reason...maybe due to bad timing for heat settings? Regardless, the milk definitely helped!

Still grainy melted chocolate pre-milk

The drizzling of the white chocolate didn't work out quite as well, as I was starting to grow a bit impatient at this point, but I'm sure they'll taste the same anyway.

Happy 2012! It's going to be a most awesome year!

Helloooo yumminess!

The "overflow" of strawberries ended up on their own small plate
(again, due to poor planning, or lack thereof)

They look like mini clementine-zebras, no?