Some of the highlights included the following:
~ Celebrating: Thanksgiving with our friends Steve and Lisa, their daughter Z, Lisa's sisters V and Karen, and Karen's husband John. It's our St. Paul Extra Family. We've had an open invitation to this gathering for years as it rotates through the sisters' respective homes. John and I often comment that we're overdue for hosting, but I'm partial to bringing my mother-in-law's Southern Cornbread Dressing from the Columbus (GA) Junior League Cookbook (1957) and my Grandma Hattie's pumpkin pie while someone else handles the bird.
~ Cooking: As mentioned above, we made cornbread dressing and pumpkin pie, but we also spent an afternoon making dumplings. For years I have threatened to dedicate the year to making dumplings--gyoza, potstickers, pierogies, empanadas, gnocchi. You name it, I want to dumplingize it. Handheld food dipped or dragged through a sauce is perfect, efficient, and satisfying food. At long last, we did it! John, Simon, and I assembled the Dollar Dumplings from Lucky Peach's 101 Easy Asian Recipes. We purchased potsticker wrappers at the grocery store and filled them with a mixture of ground pork, ginger, scallions, Chinese cooking wine, sesame oil, and soy sauce. Crimping and pleating turned out to be the easy part. Steaming and browning has a bit of a learning curve. The dumplings stuck to each other and to the pan, but they were delicious. It was fun. We'll do it again. 2018 may well be the Year of the Dumpling.
~ Catching up: My dear friend Caryl and I had brunch at Bon Vie, one of our favorite St. Paul breakfast places. Chit-chat and hash browns were first order. I miss seeing Caryl. Last year, she entered a master's program and took a full-time job simultaneously after staying home with her children for 17 years. Her free time must be precious, and I am thankful that she can make time for me.
Around the house we winterized the patio by raking and bagging leaves. We also worked on our respective hobbies. John charged the battery in the Beetle and took it for a drive, as well as attended to various guitar-building tasks. I knitted and finished reading Artemis, Andy Weir's lousy newest novel. The boys were kitted out for the upcoming swim season.
Couldn't we have another day?
