Wontons

A couple weeks ago I made potstickers for Chinese New Year. Having gained some confidence in my ability to cook Chinese food, and because I had some leftover wonton wrappers, I decided to make wontons tonight. I made a few changes to the filling I made before which made it a million times better.

  Pork Wontons

1 package Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage (it’s so much more flavorful than the ground pork)
1/2 head Napa cabbage, thinly sliced
2/3 c green onions, thinly sliced
a couple shakes of soy sauce
a couple shakes of crushed red pepper flakes
2 cloves garlic, minced
 wonton wrappers
 oil for frying (I used canola oil)

 Cook the breakfast sausage over medium heat until done and drain oil. Add the remaining ingredients (through garlic) and cook until greens are wilted. (note: I did not like the food processed filling in the potstickers I previously made so I skipped that step this time) Lay a wonton wrapper on a flat, dry surface and put a Tbsp of mixture inside. Using your fingers, wet edges and fold in half into a triangle. Press edges together well so filling will not fall out during frying.  Heat the skillet and then add oil. Add wontons, flip when the downside is golden brown.  Watch them closely as they cook quickly.  Enjoy!  

My New Favorite Wine

We had an amazing brunch at the Four Seasons Biltmore this morning to celebrate our 6 month anniversary. I had heard it was good but between the carving station, caviar station, seafood station, omelette station, waffle/crepe stations, sushi station and dessert station I was in heaven.

I am not much of a wine drinker but over the past year I have started to try more and actually found a few I like. We have been full all day from our incredible brunch, but decided to open a bottle of wine and have some salsa (which is definitely better after 24 hours). This is one of the smoothest, best tasting wines I have ever had. We are definitely going to buy more Ruffino Chianti 2005.

Artichoke Hummus

We have been having a lazy day around the house today and I decided it would be a great day to organize our kitchen cupboards. What seemed like a tedious task became exciting as I began encountering items I forgot I owned. One such item I came across was my mini food processor. My sister and a couple friends are always making hummus so I decided to give it a try. Mark does not like plain hummus so I made artichoke. When I purchased 10 cans of artichoke hearts on an amazing sale he complained that we would never use them. I bet he’s happy now that I stocked up.

I used this recipe from allrecipes as a place to start .
Ingredients:
1 clove garlic (I missed the second one in the original recipe and 1 clove was enough for us)
1 can garbanzo beans, liquid reserved (mine was 15 ounces, I didn’t use any of the reserved liquid)
4 Tbsp lemon juice (I ran out so it was about 3)
2 Tbsp tahini
cumin to taste (subbed for pepper, per author’s recommendation)
(I omitted salt and did not top with olive oil)
4-5 ounces artichoke hearts (my own addition)

In a food processor, chop the garlic. Pour garbanzo beans into blender, reserving about a tablespoon for garnish. Place lemon juice and tahini in food processor. Add artichoke hearts (I would do this first next time). Blend until creamy and well mixed.

So simple and so delicious. I have to go…my hummus is quickly disappearing and I have only had a couple bites.