Should We Make Reasonable Dumplings Now? - 05/11/19

I just adore these youngins'. At the beginning of Spring term during project period, Jill gave me the idea of doing a cooking day with my Mandarin students at Proctor. It seems so crazy that back then, I hadn't even started teaching Mandarin to faculty kids at Proctor, and now I have 8 students that I teach Mandarin to regularly on Tuesdays and Fridays. Teaching Mandarin to these 8 students has become a highly anticipated part of my week, both when I was in classes and during senior project. Anyway, Jill kind of made the suggestion in passing and we didn't really talk about it after that, until I remembered that senior project was coming up and my weekends would be relatively open. I didn't know how feasible it would be to get 8 little-ish kids in the kitchen with me, but I am lucky to be part of a community in which so many people are willing to offer their support to make things happen. I met with Barb last week in the morning before heading to AEMS, and when she told me I could do it, I was so overjoyed and so eager for today to come.

I was up at 9 doing some last-minute prep before heading over to the dining hall at 10. Audrey decided to join me early to help me make the dough, because we had to let it sit for an hour. I was super happy and grateful that she came early to help out. First things first, Audrey is the new mother of a flour baby girl, who I believe ended up being named Abby. Audrey said the baby looked like me, and I thought it looked like her. We went back and forth for a while, but it DEFINITELY looked like her! She was so happy when I passed the baby to her, carrying her everywhere and showing it off to her little sisters and mom. Little things can mean so much. She is such a sweet girl. As she helped me mix the flour, water, and salt, she asked when the other kids were coming, and when I told her they wouldn't be there until 11, she said "yay! I get to spend extra time with you!" which made my heart feel warm and fuzzy. Her mom also told me that Audrey had asked about "hiring" me to continue teaching Mandarin next year over FaceTime or being her college pen pal, and it made me so, so happy. I'm way far from being a dumpling-making expert, but I taught her the basics of how to mix and stir the ingredients, knead the dough, and roll it into a ball. I told her to press, then fold, then press, then fold again to knead the dough. As she did it, she said "press, fold, press fold" with every motion. She did the same when I taught her to shape the dough into a ball with her fingers as corners, saying "push it, push it, push it" over and over again. It was probably the most wholesome thing I have ever seen. Watch the video!

Everyone else started to arrive right around 11, and I put them to work right away, cutting the scallions and cabbage, and mixing it into the ground pork. These guys have such a great work ethic, constantly asking what they could do next. I'm not an actual mother yet, but I definitely felt some mom-ish feelings kicking in because I was SO TERRIFIED to let them use the knife. Will, Ada, and Grace kept insisting that I let them use the knife and that they're allowed to cut food at home, so I obliged, but I had my eyes glued to their little fingers around that massive blade as it sliced through the vegetables. Once the dough was ready, I gave each student a piece of dough that they rolled out into a long sausage shape and then cut into little pieces of dough for rolling out. Paige started out with the rolling, and rolled out those dumpling wrappers like it was her job. They all swapped in and out with the rolling, but once we had a few wrappers ready, I taught them how to fold the dumplings. Mine didn't look great, but you could tell what it was, so it counts. The fun part was that they were able to try to fold a traditional dumpling, but they also had fun folding different shapes. Will even made a frog shaped dumpling popup, and it cooked surprisingly well. They spent a long time trying to see who could fold the craziest or tiniest dumpling, and after a while, Audrey made everyone freeze and said to me "guys, should we make some reasonable dumplings now?" It was hilarious. 

Kids started to get distracted by other things by the end, which I totally understood, because doing the same thing for 2 hours can get a little repetitive. I was really grateful that Paige stayed and worked right up until the very end, rolling and filling dumplings until there wasn't a single bit of meat or dough left. This girl is a superstar. She was mature when it came to guiding the younger ones, she always stepped up to do the work that everyone else was bored of, and she stayed to fold the last of the dumplings with me, even though all the other kids were on the other side devouring the plates of dumplings. Also, she managed to divide the dough and the meat so we had NO LEFTOVERS. Now THAT takes talent. Grace, Audrey, and Ada took the lead in the boiling of the dumplings - keeping time, and scooping the finished ones out onto plates. 

Everyone, parents and kids, were all so helpful when it came to cleaning up, which made my life a lot easier. People said the dumplings were tasty, and that was the goal, so I'm glad. We had lots of leftovers (we probably made like a hundred dumplings!), so a hungry lad named Nelson that hadn't eaten yet came by afterwards and ate up a whole plate of dumplings. I have never tried to manage a bunch of youngins' in a kitchen at once. I've never been great in the kitchen, so taking the lead on this was definitely a challenge, but I think it turned out well. There were lots of smiles and laughs, so I'd say it was a success. I'm a lucky girl!! (And a huge thank you to all the parents for their support in making this happen!)

I spent the latter part of the afternoon working on plans for my lessons next week. 

Time: 9:44

Hours: 7

Total Hours: 98