Dumplings Are Delicious!

A few weeks ago I held a children's program called Dumplings Are Delicious based on a book with the same title written by Deb Capone and Stan Jaskiel. The story is about an adopted Chinese girl who makes traditional Chinese dumplings with her adopted American Mother. The girl brings her dumplings to school and sees her friend also eating dumplings, but since they are Russian dumplings they look different. It goes on to empanadas and raviolis, but bottom line they are all dumplings! They may look different, but they are all the same just like people! Since I'm part Russian and grew up eating the dumplings from the book, pirozhki's, I made them from scratch for the program. I got empanadas, pierogies and pot stickers. Well, I'm from the school of make it work. So there I am 20 minutes to go before the program with throw away cookie sheets, an omelet pan and a small Tupperware container to cook all of the dumplings. I realized I needed oil to fry the empanadas, so a nice co-worker went across the street to get me some. I start getting everything ready. He comes back and I start frying. Now for those who have worked in a library know that there is little to none cooking utensils in these kitchens. I couldn't find anything to flip the empanadas. They start to burn. I found plastic coffee stirrers so they must do. I do get them to flip, but then the stirrers start to melt from the heat and the oil. At that point another co-worker comes to take some publicity photos for another program. He starts taking pictures of me "cooking". I realize the stirrers are not going to cut it and find plastic spoons. They work much better, but they melt as well. I was not sure if the empandas were cooking long enough so I poke them. This is all on film! I finally get all the dumplings cooked. I must thank the mighty force because all of the dumplings got cooked by way of the oven, microwave and the lovely tiny pan! The kids loved it and the story. Overall it was a success, even though it was a little sketchy at some points! Hee Hee!!