Potstickers

A little know secret about me is that I'm addicted to The Food Network. I don't usually go for the cooking shows with their fancy recipes and what not, but there was recently an episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats that caught my attention. He did a show on Potsticker's, (which is something that Glenn happens to love) and the recipe seemed pretty easy. So I bought all the ingredients and enlisted the help of my trusty sous chef Garrett and we went for it.
Garrett is always my accomplice in my adventures because he likes figuring things out and he is especially game if it involves food. Two years ago when I was canning peaches for the first time Garrett and his curious nature happened by and my sidekick was born.
The fun part about potstickers was the unsticking. The first batch quickly attracted the girls and William and we had an audience for a while. First you cook them in the pan for two minutes and they end up sticking to the bottom, hence the name, then you add some chicken broth and cover the pan and let it steam for 2 more minutes. Then they are unstuck just like magic! When you add the broth the pan steams and sizzles like crazy so that's the exciting part.

Here's the recipe. I'd recommend it, it's easier than it looks and quite tasty! On the adult scale I'd give them a 10 and about a 7 on the kid scale. Our kids had a split vote because they were a tad spicy. I think it was mainly from the black pepper because our pepper grinder leaves it a little course.

Perfect Potstickers by Alton Brown

Ingredients
1/2 pound ground pork
1/4 cup finely chopped scallions
2 tablespoons finely chopped red bell pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons ketchup
1 teaspoon yellow mustard
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
35 to 40 small wonton wrappers
Water, for sealing wontons
3 to 4 tablespoons vegetable oil, for frying
1 1/3 cups chicken stock, divided
Directions
Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.

Combine the first 11 ingredients in a medium-size mixing bowl (pork through cayenne). Set aside.

To form the dumplings, remove 1 wonton wrapper from the package, covering the others with a damp cloth. Brush 2 of the edges of the wrapper lightly with water. Place 1/2 rounded teaspoon of the pork mixture in the center of the wrapper. Fold over, seal edges, and shape as desired. Set on a sheet pan and cover with a damp cloth. Repeat procedure until all of the filling is gone.


Heat a 12-inch saute pan over medium heat. Brush with vegetable oil once hot. Add 8 to 10 potstickers at a time to the pan and cook for 2 minutes, without touching. Once the 2 minutes are up, gently add 1/3 cup chicken stock to the pan, turn the heat down to low, cover, and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove wontons to a heatproof platter and place in the warm oven. Clean the pan in between batches by pouring in water and allowing the pan to deglaze. Repeat until all the wontons are cooked. Serve immediately.

Road Trip Down Memory Lane

On Saturday Glenn and I took my dad on a road trip to Malad ID, where he grew up, to take pictures of the houses where he lived and to record some of his memories. It was a really fun day. It's about a two hour drive which is not too long and traffic and weather were perfect. Like most kids back in the "good ol' days" my dad ran free through the whole town and has some great stories. Some favorites are running a small gambling ring, their shoe shining business, stealing their dog back from another family and of course rolling a tire down the court house hill and right through the door of the corner tavern.
Malad is still very small and quaint. There has not been much growth there which was good for our purpose because most of the houses and buildings were still there. I loved the old brick buildings like the hospital, court house and High School.



This yellow brick building was my favorite. There used to be apartments on the top level and the bottom was a drug store with a soda counter. It doesn't get any more "small town USA" than that does it?

Dad's family lived in the apartments when he was about Jr. High age. The door that he's standing by used to be the entrance but it is closed off now.

I had to take a picture of the Dude Ranch Cafe because we ate there once when Dylan was little and he still remembers it as the best milkshake he ever had. I think it was because they brought the leftover part out in the metal mixing cup and that made an impression on him for some reason. It's funny to see a big teenager get all excited about "the milkshake in the metal can".

On our way home we had to complete the trip down memory lane with lunch at Maddox. I decided to go nostalgic all the way and get the chicken fried steak like I did when I was little. It was delicious. World's Finest Beef you know:)


So a big Thank You to my dad for letting us hijack his Saturday, for footing the bill for lunch and for an all around wonderful day! Love you Dad!

Ouch!

Well it's official, Glenn's car is crunched!

Glenn was driving home from work yesterday and went through a green light only to be stopped shortly after by backed up traffic from the next stoplight up the road. The girl behind him didn't stop for the backed up traffic from the next stoplight up the road and plowed right into him. He then hit the car in front of him and they hit the car in front of them. That's right 4 cars total, ouch! The girl was only 16 so we felt terrible for her. She says she sneezed, hmmmm, I haven't heard that one but she was definitely distracted for a minute and that's all it takes. She was driving an SUV so our little Accord was no match for it. Glenn was on the phone with his friend Brett when it happened so Brett called me and we both went down to check on things. Our car had to be towed so I was able to clean it out while Glenn worked on the paperwork. When we were free to go Glenn got in the car and said "you're taking me to the hospital". His back was hurting pretty bad and we wanted to make sure everything was ok, mainly as a precaution for all the legal crap that follows this type of thing. The x-rays did show a mild compression fracture so they ordered an MRI for today which will show whether it is a new injury or something that he'd done in the past. He really got the run around with getting the MRI done but I won't get into that whole story. He's doing ok but just ok. He's really sore today from the seat belt and nauseous and generally feels yucky. His back is best when laying down because it takes pressure off the vertebrae but of course Glenn doesn't lay down much. He was really surprised when he got up this morning because it didn't hurt but soon after being upright the ache started in.
We are pretty sure the car will be totaled. Especially because it's a hybrid and the batteries are in the back and they are extremely expensive.

Glenn's laptop was in the trunk so he managed to pry it open and get it out. Luckily the laptop was fine.
We were surprised by the buckling clear up to the top of the back windows.


The front end doesn't look too bad but you can see the bumper is detached on the right side and the hood lines aren't snug like they should be.

Well that's it for our little adventure. Please be careful driving out there and especially remind your teenagers to slow down and never, ever, ever text while driving. (I'm not saying that she was texting, just a friendly reminder.)

William walked through the kitchen carrying a blue bandana and casually stated, "I'm gonna decorate the dog."

Good thing Otis is such a good sport.

Don't worry a little beef jerkey will cheer him right up.