My head has been filled with dumplings lately. Not only is my new work-in-progress novel tentatively titled "Dumpling Days," one of the stories in my upcoming
early reader Ling & Ting prominently features dumpling making:
![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ivRDSeXHgUg/SW0tpm4BXrI/AAAAAAAADjU/3_UZjxXwYH4/s200/LT_dumpling.gif)
With so many dumplings in my head, I decided there was no time like the present to accomplish
#4 of my new year's resolutions:
make my own dumplings!My goal this year is to try a few different dumpling recipes and figure out which one I like best. When I recently read on
Jama Rattigan's blog that her book "
Dumpling Soup" was having it's 15 year anniversary (wow!), I knew her recipe was the one I wanted to try first.
![](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ivRDSeXHgUg/SW0tlYWINSI/AAAAAAAADjM/w88kQkJC-Sc/s200/dumplingsoup_book.gif)
"
Dumpling Soup" was one of the few multicultural picturebooks around when I began my journey as an author/illustrator, it was one of the books that inspired me to write about my own cultural heritage. So, why not start my dumpling making experience with a book that started my book-making experience? Seemed fitting to me!
So, following the
Yang family recipe, I murdered a cabbage. It was gruesome, I chopped it into many pieces. I didn't know I could be so cruel:
![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ivRDSeXHgUg/SW0teQVe5vI/AAAAAAAADjE/l2dISb-3qvo/s200/choppingveg.gif)
Then I mixed meat:
![](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ivRDSeXHgUg/SW0-SFHepcI/AAAAAAAADjc/l0Hc2W789zU/s200/mixmeat.gif)
and folded the dumplings:
![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ivRDSeXHgUg/SW0sqldWIII/AAAAAAAADi8/mAVytbNnf1E/s200/makedumpling.gif)
Don't they look good? They are not as nice as my mom's, but I was proud.
![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ivRDSeXHgUg/SW0sm5VdOII/AAAAAAAADi0/V9xd3n0w4wA/s200/dumplings.gif)
Then I cooked them
![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ivRDSeXHgUg/SW0si80B5qI/AAAAAAAADis/c2b7lKqeHoU/s200/cook.gif)
and ate them! YUM!
![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ivRDSeXHgUg/SW0sfFDYhuI/AAAAAAAADik/N4cnsQDG33w/s200/eat.gif)
These dumplings are going to be hard to beat, but I plan on making the Lin family recipe next...