Spring Festival-Dumplings

In China everyone makes and eats dumplings for the spring festival.  Each part of China makes and folds them a little differently, but the basic process is the same.  So, we decided that we would make our own dumplings.  Some of us had made them with the help of the Chinese staff before, but since they are all home for the new year we were on our own.  We started in the early afternoon with finely mincing all of the vegetables which took an hour or two with 6 people working on it.  Then we mixed the fillings are were ready to make the dough and fill the dumplings.

Next it was time to roll out the dough and fill the dumplings.  The first try didn't go so well.  It wasn't a complete failure, its just that the dough wasn't soft enough and there wasn't enough.  So...we decided to try out luck and make some more.  The second try worked MUCH better.  First the dough was better, but more importantly out awesome building manager came and helped.  She, like many Chinese, is an expert at rolling and filling dumplings.  You see, when you roll dumplings there is a special way to roll it so there the middle is a little thicker so it is easier to seal the edges and the filling doesn't fall out when you cook them.  So, she tried to teach us and we all had a lot of fun making the rest!

In the end, they tasted delicious we all had fun so it was a great success!