Life is returning to normal around here. We signed the papers to rent the new house, so it’s really happening now. I can finally start thinking about how we want to arrange the furniture and how our lifestyle will change without winding myself up for nothing.

For the past two days I’ve been furiously cleaning and staging our apartment for showings. We were supposed to have one yesterday but it never materialized. I really want to get this place rented quickly so that we don’t have people continuously coming over to see it for the next month and a half. It’s a pain to have to keep the apartment spotless every day and crate the cats when someone comes to see it.

I’ve been enjoying some delicious food lately. Donut peaches are one of my favorite fruits but I can rarely ever find them. I had them for breakfast one morning with strawberry goat’s milk yogurt, which I’m now addicted to!

Last night’s dinner was fantastic too. Turkey and apple sausages with mashed sweet potatoes and kale sauteed in the sausage juices with caramelized onions.

I like to mix butter and almond milk into my sweet potatoes to make them creamy. You’d think the almond milk would be weird, but it picks up on the sweet flavor of the potatoes nicely.

The kale is easy too. I just sauteed half an onion along with the sausages and when they were caramelized I added the kale right on top and let it wilt down. A few drops of water pulls the brown bits off the bottom of the pan to coat the kale leaves.

I cook a lot when I’m frazzled, and I certainly have been with all the packing and cleaning I’ve been doing.

This past weekend we visited Jeff’s family and were gifted these gorgeous homegrown tomatoes from his grandfather. (Hey Papa!) Aren’t they beautiful?

I used some of them to make an outstanding vegetable soup that I’ll share with you tomorrow or the next day. Seriously, these tomatoes are so good that I’ve been convinced to start growing some of our own when we move. They are so sweet and the texture is much less watery, more firm and supple.

And here’s another frazzled cooking foray…

Those are apple butter oat bars, yum! I made these same bars just last week with sliced almonds rather than oats and strawberry jam rather than apple butter. I’ll definitely share the recipe because they are killer!

Can you tell I’m ready for fall to start? I’ve been making soups left and right and I’m definitely craving fall flavors like baked apple and pumpkin.

What do you do when you’re frazzled? Ever had a homegrown tomato?

I mentioned the other night that I was planning to make pork potstickers soon. I used to make these all the time before Jeff an I were married, and as delicious as they were we got sick of them from just how often they appeared on the dinner table. So, this was actually my first time making them in over a year!

There’s a bit of a learning curve to making these, but they aren’t difficult by any means, just really different unless you’ve grown up making dumplings all of your life.

You can buy these round potsticker wrappers in the freezer section of most major grocery stores these days. If all you can find are the square wonton wrappers then those would be fine too.

Keep them in the freezer until about 20 minutes before you’re ready to use them. I just set mine out on the counter while I prepped everything else. When you open them they should still be cold but they should also be pliable and come apart from each other easily.

I had just under a half pound of the ground pork mixture that I used for the sweet and sour pork meatballs the other day. The recipe I’ve written out below is for a full half pound so you can recreate what I did more easily.

I have tried making this mixture ahead of time before and keeping it in the freezer but it doesn’t defrost very well, so I would plan on making the pork mix either right before you make potstickers or the day before and keep it in the refrigerator wrapped in plastic, but no longer.

Lay out a bunch of wrappers on a clean surface. Also have ready a plate to put the finished potstickers on and a small bowl of water (I’ll show you what that’s for in a minute,) and several napkins cuz you’re gonna get pork all over your fingers. 😉

Place a small scoop of pork in the center of each of the wrappers. I would say that this is no more than 3/4 of a teaspoon. Don’t try to load it up any more or you won’t be able to close the potsticker and it may burst when the pork expands as it cooks. I’ve found that using the side of a spoon to scoop the pork into a small football shape works best.

Here’s where that bowl of water comes in. Dip your finger in the water and run it along half the edge of the potsticker. The wraps are covered in cornstarch and they become sticky when wet. This is what’s gonna help to seal them up properly.

Fold the dry edge up to meet the wet edge and lightly press out any air, just like making ravioli.

Here’s the fun part and I promise it’s not as difficult as it seems. Starting at one side, fold over a small pleat in the wrapper edge and press it firmly to secure. Do this again and again all the way across until you’ve created this little fan shape and then press again all over the edges just to be sure they’re closed. I’ve found that exactly 5 pleats works the best for me, but don’t think that you’ve done it wrong if you have more than that or fewer. It really only takes a few tries to get the hang of it and start cranking these out.

I made this plate of 14 in under 10 minutes, so it really isn’t a lengthly ordeal.

These little guys should be cooked the same day. I’ve tried freezing some before and they just defrosted soggy and misshapen. I wouldn’t let them sit in the fridge too long either or the same could happen. There are liquids in the pork after all that can dampen the wrappers.

To cook, generously oil a pan that is not non-stick. These are “potstickers”, they are supposed to stick to the cooking surface. I’ve done it in a non-stick pan before and it’ll work but it’s not traditional.

Anyway, use an oil like sesame or peanut or even grapeseed, just not olive because it won’t taste right with the asian flavors. I used a paper towel to spread it evenly around the pan. Set the pan to medium heat.

When the pan is hot, arrange the potstickers however they’ll fit.

Traditionally, you let them brown only on one side, but I like more crunchy stuff so I flip them before they start sticking and let them brown on the other side too.

Once they’ve stuck to the bottom, pour in a couple tablespoons of water and cover with a lid. You’ll hear them steaming away in there. Take off the lid after about 20 seconds, just before all the water has steamed away, and take out your potstickers. The water not only helps to release their grip on the pan but it also changes the texture of the wrapper to a chewier consistency.

You can see here that they’ve taken on a golden color all over and are more translucent.

I like to serve these with 2 dipping sauces – a sweet chili sauce and some soy sauce with a touch of mirin. They are very filling and really do make a meal on their own, but a fresh gingery salad would cut through the richness of the pork really well if you wanted something to go with them. I usually can’t eat more than 8 before I’m completely stuffed.

I know it’s so easy to buy a pack of frozen potstickers from the grocery and just heat them up, but this recipe really does come together very quickly and is pretty cheap too. Once you get the hang of the potsticker fan pleat you’ll be churning them out quickly and eating them even faster!

Are there any foods that you prefer to make from scratch that are readily available pre-made?

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!

We had a bit of an unusual one. On Saturday we attended a yo-yo competition!…….

We heard about it online from someone that was hosting it and decided to drop in and see what it was all about. It was at PushPush Theater near downtown Decatur and was basically several hours of competitive yo-yoing! We got there towards the end so we got to see about an hour of competition and the winners announced.

There were kids of all ages with some pretty impressive yo-yo collections…..

One kid even won a $200 yo-yo! I didn’t realize there was such a thing as a $200 yo-yo, but apparently there is.

The competitors twist and flip the yo-yos so fast that I couldn’t even snap any photos of the action. It was pretty amazing to watch and I’m so glad we took a chance on checking out this unusual activity because it was a blast to watch and the music was rockin’.

I almost bought a yo-yo while we were there but I restrained myself.

That night we went out on a little date to a restaurant I’ve been hearing rave reviews about from so many people – Escorpion.

This place is known for their tacos and ceviches. But first, they started us out with an amazing salsa, you could tell that the ingredients in it were roasted and charred, very interesting.

The cocktail menu was too good to pass up. I got a drink called the El Chamuco that had tequila, blackberry and cassis in it. It was fantastic! So often drinks like this can be thick and syrupy, but this one tasted fresh and crisp. Jeff got a cocktail infused with rosemary. It had just a hint of herbal flavor without hitting you over the head.

The first thing we ordered was the tuna and watermelon ceviche with serrano chilis and smoked sea salt…

Isn’t it beautiful?!?!

This was incredible. We were both unsure of how the watermelon would go with the tuna, but combined with the sour and salty brine it was the perfect balance of flavors.

Then we got three tacos to share. Clockwise from the back these are goat, grilled shrimp, and beef tongue.

Unusual, right?

The goat had a flavor like it had been stewed in milk, very flavorful. The shrimp were perfectly bouncy and you could taste the slight char from the grill. The tongue was my favorite. If you’ve never tried tongue you are missing out, it is one of my favorite meats. It is meltingly soft and has a buttery flavor, delicious!

We also shared a pork tamale. Sadly, this wasn’t wonderful. Usually tamales have the problem of having too much masa and not enough meat. This one had the opposite problem, it was almost entirely a giant slab of flavorless overcooked pork with very little masa to balance it out. It wasn’t awful, just a little dry and heavy.

We were having such a good time that we ended up ordering two more cocktails to chill out with. Jeff got the traditional margarita which was easily the best margarita I’ve ever tasted, mellow and not too sour. I got a drink called La Dahlia that had hibiscus syrup in it. I felt like such a girl with my sweet pink drink. 😉

Overall, I was knocked over by how awesome Escorpion was. We will definitely be back!

A weekend of yo-yos and tongue tacos, definitely a little different. 😉

Do you have any unusual hobbies?