Woah! Nesting, much?

I'm pregnant, and not quite 13 weeks along... but my morning sickness has gone down and so I believe I'm in nesting mode.  Why?  Let me count the ways...

1. Friday last week I baked 1 dozen fruit bran muffins... strawberry and blueberry (they were tasty)
2. Monday I baked blueberry crisp... with fresh berries I got at 50% off which were already on sale for $4 for almost 1kg.  (that was tasty too... baked goods don't seem to last long here)
3. Tuesday I baked 5 dozen buns, freezing over 3 dozen of them.
4. Today I made a batch of lasagna, freezing 1/2 and having half for supper.
5. Today I cooked an extra lb of beef for perishky I'm planning on making on Friday
6. Today I used the last of the blueberries and made a blueberry pie (I've never made one before), then proceeded to peel, core, and chop 9 crab apples and 2 regular ones, and made 3 apple pies.  I think I've made an apple pie once before, but it's been forever (cause I hate making pie crust... and here I made for 4 two crust pies... at once... I'm insane).
7. Tomorrow's plan is to make mashed potatoes for supper with enough extras for the perishky on Friday.  I also plan to bake cookies.
8. Friday I'll be making the perishky.

Ways counted?  A little much, perhaps... but I started by power cleaning my oven with baking soda paste last week Wednesday, and so the kitchen mayhem continues.  Unfortunately, due to pie spillage, I need to clean my oven again.  Ah well.  Now that I know how, it won't take long.  :)

Plus... lately, it feels like autumn to me.  Fall means cooking, baking, pies, etc.  I'm not sure why.  And it's only mid August.  This is insane.

And here's a pic of today's pies...

Should have put the tinfoil on the three apple, but that tinfoil did NOT want to cooperate on the blueberry, so I left it off.  Hate working with something that won't stay!

Dumplings

I cannot find the specific site I used to make the dumplings, but I didn't use any one recipe anyway as I sort of made my own. They don't look great, but if you look up dumplings on google, and search out tips on how to fold them and make your own, you'll get there! It will take me a while to get better I'm sure.



Dough
1 cup flour plus 1/4 cup water (plus extra if you need, and extra flour for work surface).

Mix the flour and the water. Add a little water if needed. The dough should stick together and pull away from the bowl slightly. I read it is better if the dough is too wet rather than too dry, but it should be workable. Knead 20 times, then roll into a ball and place under a damp cloth for 15 minutes.

Roll into a log, and cut into 'rounds' (this amount should make 20, but I only cut enough for 12, so my dough was thicker, but that's ok). Roll into a circle shape using your rolling pin, place filling in center (about 1 Tbsp) and press filling until not loose. Grab the dough, fold over the filling, and pinch in the center. Then you can make folds all along one side of the pinch until you have a teardrop shape at the end, pinch that together, and do the same for the other side of the center. You should only see folds on one side of your dumpling, the other side would be 'flat'. Really, look this up. I don't thing it really matters how you close them for eatibility sake, but it looks kinda cool. I think this site may have some tips (it isn't the one I used, but I can't find that one now.) Boil until they float, and you are done! Serve with soya sauce for dipping.

Filling - What I used (not an actual recipe... haha)
1/3-1/2 cup (approximate) sausage (I used already cooked leftovers)
1 cooked chicken breast
1/2 Tbsp soya sauce
1/2 cup chopped cabbage (was already steamed and in the freezer...)
1 minced garlic clove
2 minced green onions
1 tsp rice vineger
minced fresh ginger... I'm guessing about 1 tsp? I just added a few dashes of the powdered/dry stuff.

Mix all the ingredients... make sure everything is minced really fine, and store in the fridge until ready to use. I had lots leftover after making only 12 dumplings, so I assume this would fill 30 or more. I am thinking I could use the rest in soup!

Tea Marbled Eggs

I found this recipe over at Steamy Kitchen. It looked awesome, so I had to try it for myself.



Ingredients
6 eggs
3/4 cup soy sauce
2 star anise
2 tablespoons black tea (or 2 tea bags)
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon sugar

I halved the recipe... and I think that may be why my marbling wasn't very dark. It still looked cool, though! I also used different tea, since I don't buy black, which may have been another reason for the lack of dark marbling.

Boil the eggs. I steamed mine until they were done. Tap the shell all over with a spoon (lightly) to crack it, but do not break the shell off (she has some awesome tips and pics on her site... go check them out if you need). Place all the other ingredients in the water used to boil the eggs... as it should still be hot. Place eggs in the mixture, bring to a boil, and then lower heat and simmer for 40 minutes (this mixture smells oh so good!). Remove from heat and let sit overnight (she did 5 hours... mine sat for 13, haha, as I forgot about them). Peel and enjoy!

Almond Cookies

For Chinese New Year, I decided I wanted to make some recipes that they may have usually for the New Year. One recipe I found that I had the ingredients for were almond cookies.
Adapted from About.com.

Prep Time: 15min
Cook Time: 25min

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
dash salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg (plus one for brushing on top later)
2 1/2 tsp almond extract
whole blanched almonds (enough for one per cookie... or about 30)

Preheat oven to 325F

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. With an electric mixer, in a medium bowl, mix the butter, shortening and sugar. Add ONE egg and almond extract and beat until well blended. Add the flour mixture... dough will be crumbly and hard to handle.

To make it easier to form into balls, roll dough into 2 10 inch logs, wrap, and place in fridge for 2 hours. I didn't bother putting it in the fridge, and it still worked out well for me.

Take each log and cut into 15 equal pieces... making 30 cookies. Roll each piece into a ball, place on a lightly greased cookie tray 1 1/2 inches apart or more. Place an almond in the center of each and press down.

Brush each cookie with egg (lightly beaten). Bake for 15-18 minutes until golden brown. Cool and store in a sealed container.