Dumpling Night

The first evening was a resounding success. I fully intend that a periodic dumpling night will continue on during my tenure here. It must be reported that the dumplings themselves were, well, goopy. This could be because I used undrained ricotta rather than farmers cheese, forgot some key ingredient (such as flour, I can't quite remember adding the flour) or was merely unlucky, but the topfenknoedel came out more like topfenmush.

My guests were extremely gracious about this failing, however, and the rest of the meal came off without a hitch. The chicken was particularly tasty, I thought. It had to go in the oven rather than be pan-fried, as suggested in the recipe, but otherwise the bird behaved totally as predicted. That I'll make again for sure. Thanks to R and G for smashing the hazelnuts and grinding up the bread respectively. As well, thanks to my mother and the nifty little blender she gave me for Easter, which made making the breading a snap.

My next endeavor will be Turkish: Turkish manti with yogurt sauce, to be precise. We'll see how those little darlings turn out.