Pot Stickers

Lately I have stumbled across several cooking shows that are vegetarian or vegan. It is so nice to be able to watch a show and not have to think about how recipes can be changed to exclude the meat! It's a luxury I've never enjoyed before. And to completely turn everything on its head, for once, the meat eaters can take this recipe and substitute to their tastes!

Kay's favorite item at our friend's Thai food restaurant is chicken pot stickers. She always gets a special "Kay-sized" order when she goes there. Even though this recipe calls for sausage, I thought it was worth a try. I couldn't help asking if these were as good as the others and she actually said they were better! What a compliment!!

If you are like me, the mention of folding individual items into special shapes sends you looking for something else to make. But I promise, these are not hard and it goes really fast. Kay was able to fold them herself so if you have kids hanging around, put them to work and it won't take you any time at all!

Pot Stickers

(from Delicious TV)

For the filling, crumble 6-8 thawed vegetarian breakfast sausage patties into a bowl (it must be the patties, not the links). Add 2-4 tablespoons soy sauce, 3 chopped green onions and 1 teaspoon sesame oil. Mix it all together with your hands.

Place a very small amount of the mixture on a wonton skin. Dip your finger in water and moisten the edges of the wonton. Fold the wonton over diagonally, forming a triangle. Then fold the bottom two corners in to the middle so that it looks like an envelope with the flap up. (Does that make sense? That's the best way I can think of to describe it!)

Place 1 inch of peanut oil in a skillet and fry the pot stickers until they are brown on both sides (2-3 minutes). Remove from pan and place on paper towels or a paper grocery bag to drain.

Dipping sauce:

Whisk the following:

4 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

2 teaspoons white rice vinegar

2 teaspoons minced garlic

2 teaspoons green onion, chopped or cilantro

Kay: These were really really good. I liked them a lot. The pot stickers at 5 Star are my absolute favorite thing but these were even better!!

Mom (Dana): I try to stay away from fried foods since they really don't sit well with me but these were worth the splurge. I just had to make sure not to eat the whole batch in one sitting!

New York Goodwich

This is one of the first vegetarian recipes that my mom found back when I first announced that I was becoming a vegetarian. It was a huge success from the beginning. My recipe says that it came out of Fit for Life, which I'm assuming is this book. The year is right and the cover looks vaguely familiar.

I always forget to make this for some reason probably because it takes more prep time than our other wraps. This time I found that if I took the time to get all the ingredients ready in advance, we could throw these together in just a few minutes during the next few days. That makes them perfect for soccer season when we are eating at crazy times and always rushing to get out the door.

I'm going to list the recipe as I have it written but I have to admit, I don't measure out my vegetables. I make whatever I have on hand and then we each put whatever proportion of ingredients looks good into each wrap. That means I go really heavy on the barbecued onions whereas Kay goes for extra pickles!

New York Goodwich

1 cup broccoli, chopped

1/2 cup cauliflower, chopped

carrot, red cabbage, zucchini, grated

1 tablespoon barbecue sauce

1/2 cup onion

mayonnaise

chopped lettuce

tortilla

dill pickle, thinly sliced

Steam the broccoli and cauliflower for 5-7 minutes

Combine the carrot, cabbage and zucchini in a bowl.

Saute the onion in oil until limp. Add the barbecue sauce.

To assemble the sandwich: Heat the tortilla in the microwave for 20 seconds to soften it. Spread with mayonnaise. Add broccoli, cauliflower and carrot mixture. Next add the onions and about 3 slices of pickle. Top with lettuce. Roll like a burrito (tucking in the ends) and cut in half.

Note: It is less messy if you roll it up into a piece of plastic wrap.

Kay: I thought these looked really strange so I asked my mom what was in them. She would only tell me one ingredient every time I took a bite. I ended up eating almost the whole thing before she was done. It tasted ok but I like a lot of other things better.

Mom (Dana): Yum!!

Snickerdoodle Cake by Kay

This is my dad's favorite cake. The night before he was looking for a snack but we didn't have anything. Everyday, he left at 7:30AM to go to work and on some days wouldn't come home until 9:00PM. He's really tried from work so I thought that I would made something special just for him. He really likes Snickerdoodle Cookies. I got the recipe from The Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn. She makes cakes that are easy to deal with by putting cake mixes in them..

Snickerdoodle Cake

1 package plain white cake mix

1 cup milk (we used vanilla soy)

8 tablespoons butter, melted

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 9 inch round cake pans and dust them with flour.

Place the cake mix, milk, melted butter, eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer for one minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed.

Divide the batter between the pans, smoothing it out with the rubber spatula. Place the pans in the oven side by side.

Bake the cakes until they are golden brown, about 27-29 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 10 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edge of each layer and invert each onto a rack. Allow them to cool completely, about 30 minutes more.

Frosting

8 tablespoons butter at room temperature

3 3/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

3-4 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and add the remaining ingredients. Blend with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is incorporated, 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy. Blend in additional milk if the frosting seems too thick.

Mom (Dana): Personally, I love chocolate anything but Bill is the real cake lover in this family and this is his absolute favorite. I'm not sure what he did to deserve it though!