Normally I would include my comments for this recipe with the main dish for the night, but I have quite a bit to say about these guys that I decided to create a post just for them.
Perfect Potstickers?
You might ask, what are potstickers? I was wondering myself what they were when I opened America's Test Kitchen Cookbook to the Let's Do Takeout chapter and saw the first recipe listed entitled Perfect Potstickers. There is a picture of them above the recipe, but that didn't really tell me what they were because I had not recognized them from any of the Chinese restaruants I have eaten at. The book stated, "To achieve the "perfect potsticker" there goal was to create soft, savory pillows filled with tender ground meat and crunchy cabbage and spiked with a pleasing hit of garlic, ginger, and soy. And they didn't want to make the wrappers from scratch." Hmmm.
So this recipe can be made in advance, which from my experience is probably what you want to do especially if you plan on having other items with them. The filling is very easy to make, basically like making meatloaf except with ground pork, cabbage, and scallions. The time consuming part (the part I became frustrated with) is the working with the wrappers. The recipe suggested to purchase 24 round gyoza wrappers...what's that??? Ok, so there is a side note that you can subsitute wonton wrappers instead. Oh great! I know actually what those are and where to find them at the grocery store (fyi: I'm being extremely sarcastic). After many trips up and down the Asian food isle and frozen food isle at Meijer, I finally located them in the produce section (go figure) by the mushrooms. What I found were wonton wrappers and they were square.
The filling process seemed simple enough on paper and even simpler with a step-by-step picture process on the next page, but I struggled on the first few. The book stated that they prefer round wrappers, I had square. They said if using square wrappers, fold diagonally into a triangle. Ok I did that. The book states, fill 1 tablespoon of filling into 1 wonton wrapper. Problem. One tablespoon is way to much for my square wrappers. Filling is pushing out everywhere and I had a major problem trying to get the wrappers sealed. I finally determined that 1/2 tablespoon worked well on the square wrappers then folding them over into a triangle and sealing the filling in. To seal the filling I first got a bowl of water for my fingers and dampened the wrapper before placing the filling on them. Once the filling was on, and the wrapper was slightly damp the sealing process went fairly easy by just pressing and pinching the air pockets out of the dumpling.
After about 15 minutes of doing this, I realized that I had hardly made a dent on the filling. This was going to take forever. So, I thought maybe I would try using 2 wrappers with 1 tablespoon of filling. This worked, but end result was too big of a serving. Also, I had left over filling. I used that to make meatballs. Once the potstickers were made, they were very easy to cook, you just have to make a small batch at a time. That was fine, because fortunately the potstickers freeze very well. So you don't have to cook them all in one day.
The scallion dipping sauce can also be made up to 24 hours in advance, but not really necessary it only took about 5 minutes to put together. It had a very good, spicy flavor to it.
Now for my review on the potstickers. Despite their ugly appearance, they are quite good. My son gobble up several of them right away. He wasn't a big fan of the sauce because it was a little too hot for his liking. My husband was leery about trying them because he said that he had had them before and didn't like them. But after begging him to just try one he said that he liked them and the dipping sauce very well and then proceeded to eat more.
I don't know if I will make these again after I use up my freezer store, because they did take a long time to make. Perhaps if I come across some better wrappers I may give it a try, but if you want to take the time to make them, go for it, they tasted great!
In addition to the picnic chicken we also had American Potato Salad with Hard-cooked Eggs and Sweet pickles. This recipe was prepared ahead of time and called for red potatoes that were required to refrigerate in red wine vinegar and salt and pepper for 20 minutes after cooking and before adding the dressing. This definitely gave the potatoes more flavor. This recipe turned out great and is a repeater along with the chicken!
As requested by my husband, I made Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies. This was a very easy recipe, especially since I already had all of the ingredients. This cookies required 2 sticks of butter (these are not low-fat cookies!). The recipe did require the use of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. My mixer just has the regular beater attachments, it worked fine but I had to scrap the beaters often. Everything went fairly well until I realized that I had forgotten to add in the brown sugar. I added regular sugar, but completely spaced the brown sugar. I realized this mistake after I had already added the oats and raisins. I tried using the mixer again to blend in the brown sugar, but it was just too thick. So I used my hands and basically kneaded it in. These cookies are meant to be very large. On my first batch (I had to make my batches separately, since I only have 1 cookie sheet) I made the balls too small and they are slightly more crunchy than my second batch which turned out perfect. My husband loves them. They have a nice buttery, oat flavor and are very chewy. Will definitely make again.
In addition to the chicken breast, we also charcoal-grilled Potatoes with Garlic and Rosemary. I chose this recipe to go with the chicken breast because they both required both the direct and in-direct method of grilling. Basically I timed it by placing one on the direct side and the other on the indirect side, then switched when the time was right. The recipe was fairly simple but it did involve several steps of oiling the potatoes. This was where I think some of my problems with the final flavor came about. For one, the recipe required the use of wooden skewers. I had forgot to get them at the store, so I had my husband pick up some while he was out. He came home with metal skewers. Problem. The recipe requires the potatoes to be microwaved on the skewers prior to grilling. Since I was unable to do that, I just microwaved them in a bowl instead. All was OK, until I realized that I was suppose to oil and salt them first. They were almost completely done in the microwave when I realized this, so I oiled and salted them at that time. Once they were done in the microwave, I then placed them on the skewers (hot potatoes, ouch!) and completed the remaining oiling and grilling steps.
You might ask, what are potstickers? I was wondering myself what they were when I opened America's Test Kitchen Cookbook to the Let's Do Takeout chapter and saw the first recipe listed entitled Perfect Potstickers. There is a picture of them above the recipe, but that didn't really tell me what they were because I had not recognized them from any of the Chinese restaruants I have eaten at. The book stated, "To achieve the "perfect potsticker" there goal was to create soft, savory pillows filled with tender ground meat and crunchy cabbage and spiked with a pleasing hit of garlic, ginger, and soy. And they didn't want to make the wrappers from scratch." Hmmm. 
The Smashed Potatoes were a big hit. I had never had potatoes this way before. They had a rich and creamy flavor, with a chunky texture. The red potatoes that were used in this recipe were literally smashed with a wooden spoon and folded into butter-cream cheese mixture. 
So how did I make it? This pie was time consuming, I'm not going to lie. However, it was not overly difficult. I am usually intimidated making pies because of soupy insides, soggy crust, and pieces that fall apart when you cut them. For this pie I used the Basic Double-Crust Pie Dough recipe, which called for 2 parts flour to 1 part fat. The fat was key in this crust. It called for a stick and a half of butter and a 1/2 cup vegetable shortening. Now I most would use Crisco for the shortening. I don't like Crisco. I think it is unnatural and unhealthy. Instead I used Spectrum Organic Vegetable Shortening and it seemed to work just fine. The recipe also recommended that I use a lattice-top structure to allow for maximum evaporation while the pie cooks so that some of the peach juices cook down making the filling not as soupy. The other technique that helped with the juices was to let the sliced peaches sit in the sugar for a while and then drain most of the liquid. Like I said before this was a time consuming pie due to a lot of waiting for crusts to chill and peaches to get juicy. But overall this pie was fairly simple to prepare. The only complaint I have is my poor crimping skills. I suppose that will get better with time.
On the menu for tomorrow is:
