What's cooking?

It's beginning to look a lot like a kitchen!~ Day 2 in my new house; prepping a late dinner, as I test out the new stove and some new cookware. :)

Play-testing my new kitchen. :D (between the unfamiliar space, unfamiliar stove, new cookware, and trying to cook and take pics at the same time, my timing was a bit off; but it had a muchness of yum, and my house now smells like buttery garlicky mushrooms. :D )

Play-testing my new mini-cocotte. :)

Kitchen experiments continue: my first attempt at dumplings. :) Made a couple of rookie mistakes - remembered to buy the parchment paper, but forgot to actually use it, so the raw dumplings started sticking to the pan (and each other, because i squished them too close together) by the time i was ready to start cooking them; and i cut my blobs of dough too big, and didn't roll the wrappers out thin enough, so ended up with 1/3 of the filling left over... But it was fun, and they didn't look *too* bad, and they tasted good; i'm calling it a win. :D

Kitchen experiments continue: my first attempt at dumplings. :) Made a couple of rookie mistakes - remembered to buy the parchment paper, but forgot to actually use it, so the raw dumplings started sticking to the pan (and each other, because i squished them too close together) by the time i was ready to start cooking them; and i cut my blobs of dough too big, and didn't roll the wrappers out thin enough, so ended up with 1/3 of the filling left over... But it was fun, and they didn't look *too* bad, and they tasted good; i'm calling it a win. :D (the scallion pancakes were also yummy (well, the second batch anyway - the first ones were too thick so more doughy than flaky) - will definitely do those again too, although maybe not at the same time... :) )

My old blender-stick suffered a catastrophic attack of gravity a while back, and I never got around to replacing it; so once the soup was pretty much soup, and the pumpkin (already pretty soft after baking) was nice and mushy, I fished out all the chunks (along with some of the garlic and ginger ;) ) and mashed it with a fork. Then when it was back in the soup I (carefully, because hot and splashy!) whisked it all together for a few minutes. I actually liked the texture I got this way - "rustic", still really creamy but with some bigger chunks - much better than the much smoother and more even texture I get with a blender, so for now I've crossed "blender stick" off the list of things my kitchen still needs... :)

Hot and spicy pumpkin soup on a cold hi-desert night... :) ("making-of" pics in the notes :) )

I painted cookies! :)

Adorable - and seriously yummy - balls of hand-crafted "instant" miso soup. :)