BBQ Memoir and Marinades

Memorial Day means BBQ to a lot of people. I had attended a BBQ a couple of times, but I had manned the grill once. About two years ago, a group of friends assembled a large BBQ at a park. Some uninvited guests also came, but at least the people I knew outnumbered them. I was assigned chicken wings and my mother helped marinate them. They were marinated with a Korean barbeque sauce which was not salty enough so we added some soy sauce into the marinade. We had some people bring hamburgers, hot dogs, kebabs, and chicken drum sticks. We also had people bring in a fruit platter, different drinks, a variety of cupcakes, and deviled eggs that I never got to eat because they ended up covered in dirt.

Heartwarming Mother's Day Dinner

For a few years already, I started cooking a special dinner for Mother's Day. I confess, I never bought a single thing for her and that is because I always made something whether it be a card or some funky jewelery box. It's not that (I don't have money) I don't like buying things, I just feel buying something feels less personal. Something made with your two hands is more direct. It is not to say that people that buy things are immediate disrespectful. Granted buying the perfect gift with intrinsic value may be more effective for you. I still needed after all to buy myself groceries to make a dinner. That night dinner was entirely managed by me. My dad had taken care of lunch and it was my turn. I made a cucumber and avocado salad, spaghetti alla primavera, chicken curry, steamed pudding, and cranberry spritzer. This year followed a formal menu formatting.

Have Some Dumplings on a Cold Winter Day (Recipe included)

It's hasn't been this cold in New York since forever.  I don't think it has been this cold here since fifth grade which is a long time ago.  I don't mind having cold days, but it's just that right now it's consistently cold for a very long time.  Lowest being twenty degrees when it's actually negative ten or something like that.  Usually during times of the Lunar New Year it gets extremely cold and it's been a lot warmer in the recent years.  This year however has surprised me.

There are two environments that I do not like to cook in, a very hot one and a very cold one.  No one wants to work in the sticky summers in a stuffy kitchen nor a freezing kitchen.  My kitchen right now is chilly if there isn't at least one burner running.  Even if I do have all four burners on, the kitchen still isn't as cozy as under the covers.  What can I say, the draft manages to get in the house.  So my mother decides that on one chilly night that we'll just settle for dumplings for dinner.  Everyone pitches in and everyone gets a full stomach afterwards.  You can put anything in dumplings and the basic filling has ground meat and scallions.  It is really up to you because I have replaced scallions with chives.

Daikon Pork and Shrimp Dumplings

• 1 1/2 - 2 lb ground pork
• 1/2 cup xia pi (dried baby shrimp)
• 1 large daikon
• 4-5 stalks of scallion
• 1 - 2 eggs
• cooking wine
• soy sauce
• salt
• sugar
• sesame oil
• 2 packs of dumpling skins