Dumplings, Spring Rolls, Sweets, Tea

Some friends from high school came over for a small dinner of dumplings and spring rolls a few days ago. The pork and napa cabbage-filled dumplings were, of course, made from scratch. The dumpling skin and filling were made prior to their arrival. Once we were in the kitchen, I taught them how to wrap the dumplings. We had a good time wrapping the dumplings. Despite the teasing, they did really well. Although they didn't look that great, all the misshapen dumplings were cooked up using the fry-steam-fry method. Some of the longer dumplings ended up looking like cooked intestines after I had to coil them in the pan. Hahaa!

As for the spring rolls, I just took out some frozen spring rolls (that were homemade) and deep-fried them in vegetable oil. We had four different dipping dishes of sauces. There were two plum sauces, one hoisin sauce, and one red vinegar-soy sauce mix. I also made a pot of chicken, daikon and napa cabbage soup to wash everything down.

I should’ve made tea while we were eating. Fail. We had a brief tea break after we finished eating instead. OP brought over some Melissa herbs (aka lemon balm) from her garden. We made some Melissa herb tea and a pot of jasmine tea to have a little variety. The Melissa herb was quite a refreshing lemony, and almost sweet, tea. OP mentioned that iced Melissa herb tea is more enjoyable, especially in the summer.

To finish off the meal evening, we enjoyed a variety of sweets that JS bought from the Nutty Greek Bake Shop. OP also brought over some brownies chocolate cupcakes that she made. Out of all of the sweets JS brought, my favourites were the almond cookie and the icing sugar-topped shortbread cookie. I can't forget about the moist and tender chocolate cupcakes that OP made.

Both of the teas helped reset our palates as we enjoyed all the different sweets. I’m not sure if it was the overcast weather or if it was the mild sedative properties of the Melissa herb tea, but we all began to feel tired. *Yawn*

It was great catching up with some old high school friends. What are we making next? Samosas? Perogies?

~*~

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