Happy Chinese New Year!

I needed a case for my new sunglasses. This ruffled glasses case looked cute. Sewing those seams on the opening was a bit challenging, but I think it turned out cute.

Happy Chinese New Year! It's the year of the dragon. We're celebrating by having pot stickers and egg drop soup for dinner. Miso soup for the picky child. Pot stickers are a labor-intensive endeavor, but they are a family favorite around here. I have a little press that makes them into pretty shapes, but there's leftover dough that is wasted. You can simply fold the won ton wrappers in half and pinch the edges or gather them into little purses too. No fancy gadget needed. And no waste.

I usually use ground pork and green cabbage as the main filling. You could also use shrimp. Or Napa cabbage. Other ingredients I like to add include red pepper, garlic, scallions, ginger, sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, water chestnuts, etc. Tailor these to what your family will eat. You can get away with a lot because everything is chopped finely. Use your food processor to get everything to a mince if you're starved for time.

The dipping sauce is usually pretty simple: soy sauce, sesame oil, black or rice vinegar, ginger and garlic if you're feeling garlic-y. Or, just serve some lite soy sauce on the side. They would also be good with hot mustard, pickled ginger or wasabi. Whatever floats your boat.

I had a bit of the filling mixture leftover, so I made teeny meatballs and froze them. I froze them individually at first and then transferred them to a zip lock bag. They'll be good simmered in some chicken broth. You could also throw in the trimmings from the pot stickers and have yourself a nice noodle and meatball soup. I've done it before and it was delicious. Any leftover filling mixture would also make a good fried rice ingredient. It seems like there's always leftover mixture.

Since today was National Pie Day as well, I made this peach blueberry crumble pie. I was out of brown sugar, so I used half white sugar and half demerara sugar. There are oats in the crumb topping, so I'm sure this dessert is really healthy. I crack myself up.