A warm welcome to Melissa Bourbon Ramirez today. She's giving away The Lola Cruz Christmas Story for free right now, so if you have an e-reader, be sure to take advantage of this opportunity. Details are just below the recipe.
http://www.mysteryloverskitchen.com/2011/02/please-welcome-guest-blogger-misa.html
Today I thought about discussing the merits of fried okra, but I fear it is a regional thing and there’s something a lot of people don’t like about the slimy vegetable, so I nixed that idea.
I also considered caramel corn, a recipe which, like Sheila’s Home Ec Pizza, came from my high school home ec class and is still something I make several times a year, particularly during the holidays, and which my family goes gaga over. But I’m angling for another invite back to Mystery Lover’s Kitchen to share this recipe as fall settles in so I’m going to keep it under my hat for now. We’ll see if they bite.
Which leads me to dumplings.
Today I want to share with you my love of these little balls of goodness. A good dumpling is like nothing else. Did you know there are whole entire websites devoted to nothing but the dumpling? It’s true. And fascinating to read about the lengths dumpling fanatics will go to in their search for the perfect dumpling.
I’m not quite so fanatical as all that, but I do love me a good dumplin’, as we say in the South.
Let me interject for a moment to say that while we now live in North Texas, we’re from California, home of dim sum (2nd home, actually, after, you know, China). Dim sum is Chinese breakfast and while I’ve heard they have some good places in Dallas, we’ve not found them. So we have truly been on a dumpling adventure since our little Podunk town does not have a Chinese restaurant, let alone dim sum.
My son is another dumpling fanatic. We started our dumpling adventure together by making gluten free pot stickers (he has celiac disease, so we’re always experimenting with different non-gluten flours). We’ve become very good at our dumpling making, getting much more ambitious. And when I say much more, I mean by leaps and bounds. The steamed dumpling and a variety of fillings to tickle everyone’s taste buds have now eclipsed the simple pot sticker with the ready-made wrappers.
Making dumplings is surprisingly easy. What got complicated for us when we made them recently is that we decided to make 5 kinds. That’s what happens when you have a vegetarian child, another with celiac, yet another with type 1 diabetes, and some meat-eaters, all in the same household.
But even meeting everyone’s tastes and needs, our dumpling-making extravaganza is always a huge success. The greatest thing about a dumpling adventure is knowing that the gluten free steamed dumplings are gluten free by nature. They’re made of white rice flour and tapioca starch and are JUST like the ones in the dim sum restaurants we love so much. That’s a bonus for my son who hates to be different.
This time around, we made gluten free pork and gluten free shrimp dumplings. We made pork dumplings and shrimp dumplings with ready-made wonton wrappers. And we made vegetarian dumplings with bean sprouts, scallions, nappa cabbage, and ginger.
The recipes were from this awesome website all about... DUMPLINGS! (
http://www.asiandumplingtips.com/)
I’m including the basic Shrimp Paste filling here for you, courtesy of Andrea Nguyen and her Asian Dumpling Tips website. You can use the ready-made wonton wrappers or get adventurous, like we did, with the steamed dumpling dough. Either way, enjoy!
Basic Dim Sum Shrimp Paste
Makes 1 cup
1/2 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined (6 1/2 ounces net weight)
Salt
1 teaspoon cornstarch
Scant 1 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry
1 tablespoon egg white, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons finely chopped scallion, white and green parts
2 tablespoons minced bamboo shoot
1 1/2 teaspoons minced pork fatback or canola oil
So, if you have an hour... or three... try your own dumpling extravaganza. You won’t be sorry.
About
Deadly Patterns
Bliss, Texas, is gearing up for its annual Winter Wonderland festival, but when a mysterious Scrooge ends the merriment with murder, it’ll take more than a ghost from Christmas past to set things right.
Designing a holiday fashion show set in the town’s most prominent historic mansion seems like a job tailor made for dressmaker Harlow Jane Cassidy. But with the mansion’s restoration still in progress and threatening weather on the horizon, she’s feeling on pins and needles more than reveling in holiday cheer.
Having volunteered to play Santa in this year’s festival, Dan Lee Chrisson was ready to move on after his divorce—until Bliss became his final resting place. Discovering his body puts Harlow at the scene of the crime. She’ll need plenty of help from friends and even her late great-grandmother’s spirited sleuthing if she’s to have a ghost of a chance of catching a killer who’s just jumped to the top of the naughty list….
About
Sacrifice of Passion
Texas rancher, Vic Vargas, finds himself facing more than his stubbornly silent son when the chupacabra, a supposedly mythical blood‐sucking beast, starts killing his livestock—and stalking Delaney West, the town’s newly returned veterinary assistant, the sensual woman who ran from the altar and broke his heart twelve years earlier.
Reluctantly, he seeks her help to get to the bottom of the disturbing animal mutilations, only to have her break through to his sullen son...and rekindle the love he’d thought was lost forever. But her refusal to share a terrible secret sends her running straight into the lair of the chupacabra, plunging her back into her worst nightmare, and forcing them both to confront the wrongs of the past—in order to stay alive for the future they desperately want.
Also available from Melissa Bourbon Ramirez:
Bare Naked Lola
Going undercover is second nature for Private Investigator Lola Cruz, but she’s out of her league when the case of a murdered Royals Courtside Dancer leads her to a local nudist resort. Parading around the sidelines of Sacramento’s professional basketball scene in a barely-there cheerleading outfit is one thing—but parading around in nothing but smile? If she has any chance of hiding this from her traditional family and on-again/off-again boyfriend Jack, she’s going to have a lot more than her duct tape bra and killer dance moves to keep under wraps….
About Melissa Bourbon Ramirez
Melissa Bourbon, who sometimes answers to her Latina-by-marriage name Misa Ramirez, gave up teaching middle and high school kids in Northern California to write full-time amidst horses and Longhorns in North Texas. She fantasizes about spending summers writing in quaint, cozy locales, has a love/hate relationship with yoga and chocolate, is devoted to her family, and can’t believe she’s lucky enough to be living the life of her dreams.
She is the marketing director at Entangled Publishing, is the author of the Lola Cruz Mystery series with St. Martin’s Minotaur and Entangled Publishing, A Magical Dressmaking Mystery series with NAL, and is the co-author of The Tricked-out Toolbox and two romantic suspense titles.
Pour over the popcorn and mix it well. Bake at 200 degrees for about 45 minutes,
stirring halfway through baking time.
To celebrate the season, I’m giving away a copy of Deadly
Patterns, a holiday-themed Magical Dressmaking Mystery! Just weigh in here by giving us your all-time
favorite holiday treat and you’ll be entered to win! 
