We Are So Asian

I think everyone has figured out by now that I have a baby sister. She is 3 years old, small, Asian, and adorable. Strangers who see us together seem to automatically assume I am a teenage mom. Guests who come to our house are only too quick to mistaken my baby pictures for photos of her. Everyone who meets her loves to hug her, talk to her, and play with her. Except me.

Is that horrible? Probably. But it doesn't change the fact that the thought of "playing" with my sister, running after her on her tricycle, changing the outfits on her Polly Pocket dolls, pretending to be princesses together, makes me inwardly cringe. For everyone who thought that my love for cooking and baking (and eating) means I'm a motherly, domestic type, I'm sorry to crush your hopes and dreams. It's not that I dislike children, but I am really more of the book-reading, creepy-movie-watching, note-book-doodling type than anyone you really want babysitting your kids.

Naturally, this fact horrifies my father, among many other things about me which would if he only knew about them. He's always pestering me to spend more time with my sister, and doesn't believe that making bentos for her is an admissible expression of my care for her. So, recently to placate my father and simultaneously get some bonding time with my baby sister, I have been cooking and baking with her. She can now crack an egg cleanly on her own, a feat that I didn't accomplish until I was 13, and I am very proud. Dinner tonight? Wontons.

Wonton Soup
Okay, so here's a confession...in most Chinese cooking, there is not so much a "recipe", with exact measurements and whatnot, as we just chuck the correct ingredients in in the amounts we feel are right. I've tried to approximate it down for this blog...but basically assume that everything here is "to taste", because I did not actually measure any of this.

1 lb ground pork
1/2 cup chopped scallions
3/4 cup portobello mushroom caps, diced fine
1 tbsp salted butter
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 package of wonton wrappers

~Mix the ground pork, scallions, egg, sesame oil, soy sauce, salt, and pepper together in a mixing bowl.
~In a small pan, melt the butter and saute the portobello mushroms until brown(er). Mix in with the pork.

~Go here to learn how to fold wontons, oldschool style.
~Bring a pot of water to boil, and drop the wontons in one by one. Cook for 3-5 minutes. Wontons will be done when they float to the surface.
~Serve immediately in a bowl with soy sauce and sesame oil to taste.

Makes enough for 5 people.