Yummy Chinese Food!

It's been a crazy week. Sophie has been sick (possible pneumonia?) and just a tad bit needy. K took her to the doctor on Wednesday and they started her on some antibiotics. She seems to be much better now, just NEEDY!!! She also developed this little "habit" over the holiday break of waking in the middle of the night.

Usually, we would hear her fuss a bit, go to her room, rub her back for all of 5 seconds and she was fine. But this was different, she was very awake - standing in the crib, wailing, etc. We tried rocking. She immediately would go back to sleep in our arms and then wail again when we put her in the crib. Then we thought maybe she was hungry, so we'd make her a bottle and about an hour later, she'd go back to sleep.

The last few days, we decided we'd had enough. It was time for tough love. And she has slept through the night the last two nights. She woke up at 12:30 last night and cried a bit, but by the time I could get out of bed and find my slippers, she was quiet again. And when she awoke again at 5:20, K went in to lay her back down and then left. She cried for about 5 minutes, and then slept until 7:15. It was simply glorious to get 8 hours of sleep last night!

Okay, enough about that. All week, I have been thinking about my Chinese recipes I learned last week. Enough so that I went in search of ingredients this week. My first attempt near where I work was a bust - the store had closed. So, on the recommendation of a few people, I went to the Super 88 Market in Malden (there are other Boston area locations). That's right, I drove about 40 minutes to get what I wanted, and it was worth every minute of it.

What a cool store! All kinds of produce, dried mushrooms, sauces, fresh noodles, and a HUGE seafood department complete with live fish. I bought some oyster sauce, fresh lo mein noodles, dumpling wrappers, dried chilis, and some bok choy. I stopped at my regular market on the way home and bought my other groceries. And then I went to work. I pre-cooked the lo mein noodles, chopped up all the veggies, marinated some chicken, and made the pork filling for dumplings.

It was all delicious--the dumplings, the veggie lo mein, and the sesame chicken. But, I reiterate that the dumpling recipe alone was worth the cost of the class for me. I haven't been able to satisfy my craving for the little potstickers since I returned from China. I made about 80 dumplings today. We cooked about a dozen of them for dinner, and then rest will be waiting in my freezer for easy access on weeknights.

The woman who taught the class, Rose Lee, has a cookbook. You can click here to see it on Amazon. It's out of print now, but there are used copies for sale, although they start at $55! I picked up a used copy on another site for much less.