So I am having one of those lazy afternoons…ya know the ones where you just don’t feel like leaving the house and you think you are a domestic goddess because you did a few simple chores like vacuum, clean the bathroom and put dishes in the dishwasher.  And let me just say I was struck this afternoon with a random thought while vacuuming, why does a vacuum cleaner have a light on it? I have never vacuumed in the dark and I really hadn’t planned on it. I have heard of dining in the dark, ghost tours in the dark, but vacuuming, really? Just saying.

Obviously after all of my hard chores I became hungry so I decided to try and make a Chinese Dumpling Soup. Yes, I am kind of cheating as the recipe I found does not require me to make the dumplings from scratch. However, I did buy them from the Trader Joe’s frozen food section so that has got to count for something.

And this soup is really flavorful as it has a broth that consists of chicken broth, soy sauce, Chinese rice wine, sesame oil, ginger, sugar, balsamic vinegar and salt. It has the added benefit of making my house smell like a Chinese restaurant….ok sure I am burning pumpkin candles because I was hoping for more of that fall/homey smell but Chinese restaurant works too…and really they don’t make a candle called Chinese restaurant so this is the only way I can get that smell.

Let me also just say there is a lot of ginger in this soup so if you don’t like ginger do not make this soup as you will be an unhappy camper. The recipe calls for a 2” piece of ginger julienned and let me also say that this was the most technical part of the recipe and even after all my time and energy cutting that ginger I still wasn’t completely thrilled with my knife skills. But hell I didn’t cut myself so I am thankful for that because honestly an emergency room visit would truly be a mood kill on this lovely afternoon…and I have already had one ER visit due to cooking in my lifetime…hope that will be my last.

I guess I will segway into my ER story just because it was pretty funny. So I was getting ready to work a morning shift aka. graveyards for my Nor Cal friends. And I was cutting a bagel that I was planning on taking to work with me. The knife slipped and sliced into my finger. There was a great deal of blood and before I knew it I had passed out on my kitchen floor…yeah now you know why I am a Dispatcher and not on the other side of the radio. So once I came to I called work and said “hey I think I need stitches I might be a little late to work.” At the time I was dating a cop who was on-duty so I called him and told him “hey I am going to go to the ER I think I need stitches.” Well he panics which is always a great personality trait to have in a police officer, yes he is a Lieutenant today. And he sends 2 Sheriffs deputies to my house…awesome I am wearing a Mets jersey covered in blood, holding a towel on my hand and trying to just leave to take myself to the ER. So they won’t let me drive so I get a ride to the ER from 2 very nice deputies who are probably like “why the hell was I called.” Love it!

So I get to the ER and I tell the charge nurse what happened and I sit down and I wait for my turn. And in comes the cop boyfriend in uniform…and because he was there the night before with a suicidal female…somehow the ER staff begins to think that I had intentionally cut myself. Yes, I would have probably had to be the dumbest cutter as I had sliced the tip of my finger instead of my wrist or arm…but whatever this was a hospital in Nor Cal so maybe the ER staff was a little high. So after repeating my story like 20 times…no, not suicidal just tying to cut a bagel…it was finally my turn to get stitches. So I ended up with 7 stitches in my finger, a bagel slicer for Xmas, a night off of work, a great respect for knives and a great story that I can tell on my blog.

This soup would be perfect for a cool evening and it is super fast to make. It would also be a fun first course if you were having a Chinese food dinner party as it won’t take a lot of time and energy to get it in a bowl. I am kind of at a loss for what kind of cocktail to serve with it, but if I had to chose I would probably go with Sapporo because seriously that beer can go with anything. Hope you all enjoyed your afternoon as much as I did. Cheers!