Happy Spring!

Here in Winona we celebrated the first day of Spring with 6-8 inches of snow. *sigh* Mobi and I did get out for a walk before the ground was covered again, and she was quite happy to be running around. Juan and I forgo Valentine's Day in favor of the first day of spring. Our celebrating usually consists of eating good food and going to the local bookstore to get each other a book. I got him A Thousand Splendid Suns, since he loved the Kite Runner, and he got me The Monsters of Templeton. I'm going to try to read it before bed when I'm too tired to work on the dissertation.

I decided to go for an Asian-style dinner because I wanted fresh food that would remind us that spring is not too far away. We started off with edamame dumplings. I recorded the process on our new camera:
I mixed edamame with cumin, fresh lemon juice, and sesame oil in the food processor until smooth.Then I placed a teaspoon of the mixture on the middle of wonton wrappers, then brushed water on the sides to help them stick together.After browning and then steaming them (taking all of three minutes the whole process), they were reading for dipping in the soy sauce, honey and green onion dip.The main course was glass noodle salad with shrimp and chicken in a spicy mint sauce over red lettuce leaves.For dessert, I went with a traditional tapioca pudding. I wished I had the green pearls they use in Thai restaurants!

Long aside:
Organizing my cooking magazines two weekends ago, I came across a series of how to make pudding from the August 2006 Cooking Light issue. I immediately made chocolate pudding. This week it's the tapioca and for next week I have my sights set on mocha. I am usually an ice cream freak, but I'm liking pudding as a winter, ahem, spring, substitute.

Happy Spring!