1014 day of the dumpling

Koinonia met at Sam's place in Monterey Park for a special group activity. Sheri and Wendi came by to pick me up.

We made dumplings by hand. There were both won tons made with square wrappers and gyoza-like dumplings made with round wrappers. We filled every seat at Sam's table and proceeded to wrap each one by taking a flat wrapper, spooning a small dollop of filling, wetting the edges with water, then folding and sealing. The won tons also needed to have the two ends tied together, which was not that easy.

All members of Koinonia were there: Sam, Sheri, Wendi, Liz, Eric, Jennifer, Stephanie and myself. We were joined by special guests Brian, Anjie, Chris and Sunny (the last two are a.k.a. "Liz's Posse").

As soon as the first batch was done, Sam steamed the dumplings and added the won tons to a soup base. We ate heartily, but we had made so many that everyone was able to take home some uncooked ones. I understand that Liz and Sunny put together to-go plates, but then made sure that Chris received instructions on how to cook them. Hmmm.

We also celebrated Brian's belated birthday. He just turned 32, although Sunny thought he was more like 26. Hmmm.

Liz experimented with shapes other than the half-circle for the dumpings. She ended up with a few flowers and what appeared to be a sphere. Eric and Brian pushed the envelope (literally!) by putting too much filling in, then stretching the wrappers to fit. Jennifer was using surgical precision with each one that she made. Wendi sampled the first batch of steamed dumplings that were slightly undercooked, and almost choked while trying to dislodge one from the roof of her mouth.

I've only been in Koinonia about a year (since August 2006) but I've known Sam for quite awhile. But he still does things that continue to amaze me. He offered a prayer of thanks to the Lord for bringing everyone to his house for the fellowship that we all shared. During the prayer, he addressed the Lord as "dude", which told me that Sam has a special, personal relationship with Christ. We can all learn something from this.

The gathering ended around 5pm.