.wonton wrappers.

while my hpff was visiting us this summer, she offered to make dinner one night. when she asked what we wanted, i suggested she whip up one of her specialties. she was trying to think of a meal that would be meat-friendly for her and my husband and also veggie-friendly for moi. we both screeched with delight when she suggested making potstickers.

later that day, we headed to the grocery store to get all the ingredients. being that i didn't have many, ok any, of the necessities, we were loading the cart. the last item on the list was the wonton wrappers. after looking in several different sections from ethnic to produce to the sushi station, we finally caved and asked a store associate to help us. he walked us around to the same sections we had already tried and we all came to the conclusion that they did not carry them.

our only choices were to either put back a million ingredients or change the course to something like lettuce wraps or spring rolls instead. with potstickers already stuck in our head, we both had mopey faces on. until.

i offered, 'why don't i make them from scratch?' she may continue to deny this, but her face spoke deep tales of doubt. after convincing my friend i had faith in myself, we kept all our potsticker insides and headed home for me to prove myself.

now, what i'm not being completely forthright about is the fact that i actually had quite a bit of doubt myself.

as i began adding the suggested amount of water to the dry ingredients, my confidence was as sticky as the uncooperative dough. i ended up adding almost double the amount of water suggested to form a semblance of a pliable product. with all the ingredients mixed and resting in their bowl as a mound of dough, i started gaining some more hope that maybe i could pull this off.

after allowing the dough to rest for 30 minutes, a nice little snooze, it was time to roll it out. i had to get my rolling muscles ready. little did i know how very difficult rolling these potsticker wrappers would be. unlike rolling pie dough, these wrappers were supposed to be super-duper thin. my hpff was kind enough to let me know that my original ones were not thin enough. so, i think i pulled a few muscles on this job, but about 2 hours (ok, more like 30 minutes) later, i had an adorable stack of wrappers waiting to be filled with yumminess.

the yumminess stuffing portion was all thanks to my hpff and i hate to leave you hanging. i know she added cole slaw ingredients, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, garlic, salt, and oh boy...a lot of other stuff, sorry.

most importantly though, the wrappers were a piece of culinary art! (i hope she's reading this)

these potstickers really were absolutely delicious and both my hpff and i were quite proud of our joint efforts. my husband's taste buds were proud of us too.

.wonton wrappers.
ingredients
1 egg
3/4 tsp salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 to 1/2 cup water
extra flour as needed

preparation
Lightly beat the egg with the salt. Add 1/4 cup water.

Sift the flour into a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and add the egg and water mixture. Mix in with the flour. Add as much of the remaining water as necessary to form a dough. (Add more water than the recipe calls for if the dough is too dry).

Form the dough into a ball and knead for about 5 minutes, or until it forms a smooth, workable dough. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out until very thin, and cut into 3 1/2-inch squares. Store in a plastic bag in the refrigerator or freezer until ready to use.