Recipe Blogroll Review: Pot Sticker Pillows; Cooking+Homework = Disaster

Tuesday, February 2

Currently Listening to "Yellow," Coldplay: Live 2003

Happy February, Everyone!!

I'm still in whirlwind mode; Matt and I spent last weekend in Wilmington, NC (the beach!) for Alumni Weekend-- some of you may remember that we met as undergrads attending UNC-W--  and had a blast!

Matt, Leah and I at the Alumni Banquet
Matt with two dates-- me and my
beautiful friend Leah at the Alumni
Awards Banquet. We didn't win any
awards or anything but there was
good food and open bar!

Still... as fun as it was to see friends and such, I'm totally exhausted.

There's something about losing your whole weekend... I mean, I'm a routine kind of girl. I need the weekend to cook and blog and knit and basically just wind down, and then Sundays I get started on all the week's homework...

Not this weekend. Spent a glorious weekend in Wilmington, but with all the food (and drink) and friends and festivities, I'm still exhausted.

BUT! Don't you worry; I still decided to undergo a cooking adventure on Sunday. I was exhausted and simultaneously trying to participate in a 5-person conference call for my online class group project-- but I cooked nevertheless.

Of course, it turned out awful, but as always I learned a lot and have a fun story to share :)

~*~*~
Recipe Blogroll graphic

Pot Sticker Pillows:
Posted by Slim Shoppin
Slim Shoppin's Pot Sticker Pillows
(Pic by Slim Shoppin)
Meal: (what did I serve this with?)
Jasmine Rice

Recipe Difficulty: (how hard was this to cook?)
3 / 5

Recipe Quality: (how well was the recipe written?)
5 / 5

Dish Deliciousness: (did it taste great?)
3 / 5
(My fault, though... read on)

Number of cooking mistakes: (how many times did I mess up??)
Too many to admit:
  1. I couldn't find egg roll wrappers at the store
  2. I thought I could make homemade egg roll wrappers
  3. I thought I could make homemade egg roll wrappers and the rest of this meal before my group conference call
  4. I wasn't finished dinner and had to try and teach Matt how to finish the meal while starting the conference call
  5. I served dinner without trying ANY of it because I was on a conference call
  6. The rice was undercooked and my homemade egg roll wrappers SUCKED
Repeat Likelihood: (will I try to make it again?)
5 / 5
SO want to try again!

~*~*~
The Story:
So, like I said, we got home from Wilmington Sunday and even though I was exhausted I decided to try and cook anyway.

I thought I could finish dinner early and still have time for my conference call.

I thought that, even though I (1) had never made this recipe before and (2) was attempting to make homemade eggroll wrappers, which adds an extra step to the recipe, I would have time to make this in under an hour. It would have worked if it hadn't been for what I'm going to call the wrapper disaster.

The eggroll wrapper recipe looked fairly simple (see here), and was, but the dough was too elastic and didn't flatten well to fit over the filling.

I tried, I did. But the stupid dough wasn't cooperating, and I just kept making a bigger and bigger mess...

I didn't have time to finish the pot stickers, so I had to try and sign on to the conference call WHILE teaching Matt how to finish my unfinished cooking job.

(Good thing it was just audio and not video...)

He tried, but I didn't set up the pan to the right temp and they burned; then, we tried to eat and the rice was wayyyyyy undercooked.

Sigh...

Luckily...

I doubled the filling recipe and threw half of it in the jasmine rice.  It wasn't good that night since the rice was undercooked; BUT, I tried it again at lunch the next day over the stovetop and it was SO good.

Adding a little ginger to the ground turkey goes really well with the Jasmine rice!

Mmm.... seriously, best leftover lunch ever!

Now, I'm not giving up on this recipe because it looks like it would be amazing (if you did it right).

But... anyone know where to find eggroll wrappers??

:)
~*~*~

Comments: 
Thank you, Samantha, for this wonderful blog award:


Simply Fabulous Award
I simply love the simply fabulous award!


This award requires me to blog about a woman who I think is fabulous. This woman can be someone I know in real life, a celebrity, or a fictional character. Then, I must pass the award on to five other fabulous bloggers.

Well, I have three sisters (four now, with the twins! (; but more on that later), and I think they're all fabulous for different reasons... and there were 4 girls in Sex and the City, so it's just too perfect :)

Me and my sisters
Courtney, Siobhan, Me and Caitlin at
Siobhan's birthday dinner last summer.

5 bloggers for the Simply Fabulous award:

Enjoy, ladies!
~*~*~

So I don't have a great start to February seeing as I'm still reviewing my January blogroll items-- but don't worry; I've got my eye on some sweeeeet February recipes and I'm almost done with January!

Meanwhile, I haven't knit a stitch in about two weeks. So... I'll go ahead and let you know that I'll give a blanket update next post, that way I have to knit some :)

Your just-finished-first-paper-of-the-semester,
enjoying-snow-on-the-ground!, still-pretty-tired,
New Girl Blogger

14 comments:

Amy on February 3, 2010 at 8:03 AM said...

Thanks for the award!! The recipe looks great...it was very ambitious of you to try to cook before a conference call :) An Asian grocery store would probably have egg roll wrappers, or the international foods section of a big supermarket. I'm not sure. I get lost at the grocery store on the regular!

thegamerswife on February 3, 2010 at 10:50 AM said...

How sweet of you to give me an award - Thank you!! I absolutely LOVE potstickers. We buy the ones from Trader Joes and I swear we eat them with basmati rice at least once a week! I will now have to try and make them myself :) I've bought egg roll wrappers before at Lowes Foods in the produce section. Try there!

Nikolett on February 3, 2010 at 11:51 AM said...

Aww, thank you for the award! So sweet of you, and I think it's great you have a close group of fabulous friends!

It's so funny, we have the same laid-back weekends with doing homework on Sundays (though I'm not the best knitter), but I think it's good to have busy weekends every so often! And I'd love to try that recipe but I'd probably make even more cooking mistakes! It looks delicious, though :)

Hope you're had a great week so far!

Kim on February 3, 2010 at 3:07 PM said...

The oriental store! You've been there now; you have no excuse! Sorry to hear about you trying to be Supergirl and do everything in a blink of an eye and it NOT working out. Silly. But, I love it and you. :)

knitseashore on February 3, 2010 at 3:21 PM said...

Reading about your cooking experiments comforts me. I tried a tortellini soup recipe last night that was blah, and had a hard time with a green bean/hazelnut side dish for dinner with friends last weekend. Ack! If you keep practicing, so will i!

Hope that school and knitting is going well!

Brittany on February 4, 2010 at 12:09 AM said...

Wow, I'm so jealous you got that award. LOL! But you look GORGEOUS in that photo!

Iva Messy on February 4, 2010 at 11:13 AM said...

I'm glad you had a nice time! I am a bit the same, I like my weeks for unwinding and relaxing and getting things done that I can't get to during the week ;) ...but still a beautiful weekend with friends is amazing! Congratulations on your award!! Very well deserved indeed!! I love pot stickers ;)

Unknown on February 4, 2010 at 2:24 PM said...

awww, thanks for the award Sarah! Glad you had a great time but sorry to hear about your eggroll disaster!! Have you tried your local asian stores? they've GOT to have them!

Krysten @ Why Girls Are Weird on February 5, 2010 at 9:11 AM said...

Yay, congrats on the award!

Rebecca on February 6, 2010 at 12:02 PM said...

Just been catching up on all your great posts. It seems I've let my blog reading slip a bit. Laughed muchly at the "man...." post. I made my boyfriend a scarf last year in our favourite football club colors. It was a huge hit with him and his male friends alike, I was so chuffed.

Loving the new recipe roll...

BonBon Rose Girls Kristin on February 6, 2010 at 3:46 PM said...

Mmmmmm. That recipe sounds delish. I just love Jasmine rice!!

sarah on February 9, 2010 at 7:20 AM said...

sarah helloooooooooo. long time! i love the layout, a LOT. one day i shall employ your services to make my site look as pretty as yours.

i have a request to make

i WOULD LOVE you to make a COOKING VIDEOOO. i love love your recipes and stories and think you would make an awesome cooking tv celenbrity girl next door chef. i want to test my theory! lets go!

Sierra on February 16, 2010 at 5:55 PM said...

What a wonderful time to relax and love the recipe - yum!

Chelsea Talks Smack on February 21, 2010 at 6:56 PM said...

that recipe looks awesome!

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