Happy New Year

We made wonton soup in celebration of the oncoming Year of the Ox.

Last night, I made roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli, gravy. The chicken was undercooked. The mashed potatoes undermashed. I dropped the whole pan of gravy on the floor. Erik mopped while I ate potatoes.

So I had a lot of leftover chicken. I made stock with parsley, celery, onion, carrot and lots of pepper. Then, Zoe and I made wontons stuffed, following recipes from both Cooking Light and the Frugal Gourmet's Three Ancient Cuisines) with ground pork, sesame oil, super chopped (perhaps by that I mean minced?) carrots (substituting for water chestnuts. Why don't I have water chestnuts in my cupboard), green onions, and rice wine vinegar. Zoe painted the edges of the wontons. I pressed them together--hoping I actually got most of the edges sealed.

We tossed the wontons in the stock (into which I followed no recipe and added ginger and star anise). I also sauteed some shitakes and cut up some bok choy and added that.

Z tried a wonton, ate a ton of raw bok choy, and sipped the broth.

Super delicious happy New Year making up, somewhat, for last night's gravy disaster.

My new new year's resolve: Make my own stock. That seems like a hard times, more delicious recipe for a happy future.

To the year of the ox.