Pork Gyoza

They were another item I discovered at when I went to Trader Joe's the other day. This is one thing I want to learn to make someday. I've actually folded them into their shapes, but I've never actually prepared the meat that goes on the inside. I'm sure it would not be too hard to do, but I just need to find a good recipe for them. Granted I haven't even looked for a recipe yet, but someday I will.

Anyways, while I was strolling through Trader Joe's a few days ago, I found a package of about 30 pork gyoza in a cute little frozen bag. I figured I would try them, especially since they were only three dollars and had no weird preservatives like MSG in them. I finished my shopping and then right as I was about to check out, I forgot that I did not have any soy sauce or anything to dip my little gyoza in. So I wandered back around the store looking for soy sauce and stumbled across a gyoza dipping sauce. It has soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and some other spices in it and looked pretty good, so I figured I would try it. Another plus was that it was only three dollars too.

So, tonight, after spending three hours in class and then another four hours at the library writing a paper, I came home craving the little pork gyoza I bought. I got out a frying pan, added a little vegetable oil, threw some of the gyoza in and let them brown. Then I added a little bit of water, put a lid on the pan, and let them steam for three minutes. (That is what the back of the bag said to do).

I added some of the dipping sauce to my plate and started eating. They were so delicious. I did not actually think that they would be as good as they were, but they were fabulous. The dipping sauce was great too. I am so glad that I picked them up.

Caramelized Onions

On my walk home from the gym today, I decided that I was going to make a trip to Trader Joe's to buy some pizza dough. The one thing I like about Trader Joe's is that they sell pre-made pizza dough for only 99 cents. All you have to do with it is roll it out, put your favorite toppings on it, and bake it for 6-8 minutes. Delicious!

So, as I was driving to Trader Joe's (normally I would walk, but it was way to cold and windy out), I decided that I wanted to make a caramelized onion pizza. My mouth started to water. I just wanted to get to Trader Joe's, buy the pizza dough, drive home and pop it in the oven. Unfortunately I hit a whole bunch of traffic. Welcome to living in the city. It took me almost twenty minutes to get there and about fifteen to get home. (It is only about 1.5 miles from my apartment).

Anyways, about an hour after getting the idea to make a caramelized onion pizza, I was home and slicing up onions. Caramelized onions are the most amazing things in the world. They are super easy to make and taste delicious. The only this is, they take about 30 minutes to make. I think I was drooling as they were cooking. I could not wait to take a bite of my pizza.

The second the onions were done, I rolled out the pizza dough, covered the dough with the succulent onions, and popped it in the oven. I think I walked circles around my apartment just waiting for the pizza to be done. It smelled so yummy in the oven and I could not wait until it came out.

When it finally was done, I got so excited. I have determined that caramelized onions are one of the best foods ever!!

Day 1 of Winter Term 2010

First of all, I want to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR! I cannot believe that it is already 2010. Where has time gone? I feel like it was just 2000 a few years ago. Time is moving so quickly. I want it to slow down.


For New Year's Eve, Adam, Deb, Bill, and I went to a friends house for a humongous party. There was a ton of great food and lots of people. We wound up playing a poker tournament until almost five o'clock in the morning. Yes, that is right; I said I was playing poker. Deb, Bill, and Adam forced me. Surprisingly I wound up placing third. I have no idea how that happened.

Anyways, Adam and I saw the sunrise on New Year's day. It was really pretty. But once we saw it, we both realized that it was time to go to sleep. I have not stayed up that late in forever and my sleep schedule is completely off. Now that it is the first week of classes, I need to get back into some sort of routine.

Granted, none of my classes start before noon and they do not run past five o'clock any day. I have the easiest class schedule this term, but that is because I have two online classes. And even though I only have a few hours of class each day, I HAVE NO CULINARY CLASSES. I am not happy about this. I do not understand how our curriculum is formatted so that we have a nine month break from culinary classes (six months of co-op). Not cool!!!

I would much rather have five culinary classes than five hospitality classes. It is so weird to have to sit in a little desk for one to three hour periods. I would much rather stand on my feet for five hours than have a two or three hour regular class. Plus, I feel like regular classes have so much more busy work to fill up the time. I just want to learn what I need to know and then be done. I do not know if I would have been able to survive four years of college if I was a normal major, like business or something. I would be so bored!!

Well, all I can hope for is that this term goes better than last term. So far, after one day of classes, I already have seven chapters of reading for next week. I guess I am going to have at least one book permanently attached to my head at all times. What fun!!