Soup's On!

So I decided that one thing I want to do more of in my unemployment is cook.  I discovered a couple of years ago that I really enjoy cooking, but since I moved to Minnesota I've been working such long hours and traveling so much that I haven't spent much time in the kitchen.  While I do believe frozen meals have a purpose, I had gotten to the point that dinner was whatever was on the top of the stack in the freezer.  Now that I have some time on my hands I want to try some new recipes and get a little more creative in the dinner department.


Last winter my friend Julia made Armenian Wonton Soup and brought it over to my place.  It was amazing.  She explained that she makes a bunch of wontons and freezes them so they're ready whenever she wants to have the soup.  I understood that a little labor now means ready-to-eat soup all winter long, so I decided I was up for the challenge and asked for the recipe.

I've been thinking about the soup a lot lately, so when I went to the grocery store on Friday I decided to pick up some wonton wrappers and try my hand at this new recipe that night.  I was feeling domestic so I thought I'd spend my evening making Armenian Wonton Soup, banana muffins, and maybe a loaf of bread for sandwiches.  After more than three hours (and some serious back pain) I had made less than 1/3 of a recipe of wontons.  Fortunately I was only planning to make 1/3 of the recipe, but when the second pan full of wontons went into the oven I made five small meatballs out of the remaining meat mixture, threw them in a pan, and into the oven they went!

I found out yesterday that I was wrapping them all wrong, which is probably why it took me so long.  Apparently it usually takes Julia about 3 hours to do a full recipe's worth.  I think it's going to be awhile before I tackle making them again (My back needs to recover, after all.), but the soup turned out SO good that I'm pretty sure they're worth the pain.  Hopefully it will just go a little faster next time since Julia showed me the correct way to wrap the wontons.  For now I should have enough wontons to last me a couple of months, but I'm going to be stingy with them to make them last as long as possible!


Thanks Julia, for sharing your recipe!  And the secret of proper wonton wrapping!