Carol

 

I wasn't allowed to get any in action shots of her because she didn't think she was picture worthy that day. So here is one from a couple days (weeks) later. 

Amid the gossip and many failed attempts to stuff the dumplings artfully I asked Alyssa’s mom, Carol, a few questions. Only just a few.

“What was the first meal you made that you were proud of?”

Alyssa reminded her mother of the first meal that she made that she was not proud of.

“A couple green beans.”

Apparently, Carol did not know how to cook when she first started seeing Alyssa’s dad but she wanted to cook for him. So she put a handful of green beans into a huge pot of boiling water and that was their dinner. If you don’t think that’s cute, you need to acquire a heart.

“What is your favorite food?”

“Noodles with tomatoes and egg.”

I wish I knew how that tasted

“What is your favorite food to cook?”

“Dumplings”

Apparently when Carol came to the US she would make dumplings and sell them to restaurants for 10 cents a dumpling to pay for life. Mad respect. And also, I find it crazy that even though she stopped selling them, she hasn’t gotten sick of making them yet. Maybe she has continued to enjoy it because they are so tasty.

Potstickers and Polar Vortexes

Mary Price was my photographer. That is some artsy ish. I appreciate her skills.

Before

after

Mary Price and Courtney. I ship it. Just kidding.

Alyssa being elusive.

We ate this. It was like crunchy air. It was delicious.

Josh eating it.

 Josh after eating it.

Me lookin' classy and filling some dumplings. Observe the cheekbones.

sexy

Courtney looking hawt.

WE MADE THESE AND THEY WERE DELICIOUS SO WE ATE THEM ALL

We have had 10 snow days this year. It's like Frozen except not really. Because of all of these snow days I have not gotten anything done. While that does seem counterintuitive, it actually makes a lot of sense. Snow days mean vacation. It is hard for me to work on vacation. And that is why my grades have been falling like the temperatures. That was my poor excuse for not posting anything for a month. Maybe I should just say that my pet unicorn, Herbert and my pet dragon, Dudley, got into a tiff (because they have been stuck inside for too long due to this damn polar vortex) and Dudley accidentally angrily breathed fire on my laptop and it took me a month to fix it. That sounds better. Yes? yes. Moving on.

Before all of these snow days hit and knocked me off balance, before finals even, my friend, Alyssa, invited me over to her house to learn to make Chinese food. More accurately, I begged Alyssa to let me come over until she said “ok”. Finally, a month later on one unnaturally warm weekend right before the polar vortex hit (thanks for showing off your skills, climate change),

I drove over to her house to make dumplings. She texted me about two hours before I was supposed to show up and asked if I wanted to invite anyone else. I suggested one person. She suggested ten. I was overwhelmed. However between the two of us and ten invites to work with we settled on Mary Price, Courtney, Olivia and Josh. We love them so much we settled on them. You’re welcome, friends.

It was grand. We laughed through old yearbooks, watched intently as Alyssa’s mom whipped up the tastiest potstickers of life, and gossiped like no other.

After we made the dumplings into potstickers by frying them, we sat down with some soy sauce and ketchup and ate all 60 of them. I recognize that sounds disgusting but it actually was glorious. The disgusting part is that we ate cake after eating the dumplings.

Then we went downstairs to her dance studio (which still bewilders me because, to the best of my knowledge, Alyssa doesn’t dance) and gossiped, laughed, watched youtube videos, laughed more, and read Amazon reviews of Haribo Classic Sugarless Gummy Bears, and laughed so hard that pee might have been involved.