My favourite ingredient is flour

I spent the long weekend up in Mountain View to celebrate my and Mei's February birthdays. Cooking seemed like a good way to spend time together without requiring a lot of logistics (to get two kids out the door). Everything we made had flour in it. We made dumplings (shui jiao) from my mom's recipe. Turned out pretty darn good, although we decided the filling needed to be a little saltier and could have used more napa cabbage. We baked a chocolate cake from a Cook's Illustrated recipe, which was sooooo good, chocolate with whipped cream frosting. And finally we made pizza with fresh made dough, which makes such a difference. I love baking and making dough, there is something so satisfying about seeing something double in size all on its own! And since I love almost all dough based products, the eating is fun too!

I also got a chance to visit Tegan and Patrick at their new home in San Rafael. Annette and Toshi were also there for a wonderful dinner and the conversation was amazing, fun, deep, grownup, silly. We were there until quite late and could have continued talking for hours more (if it wasn't for needing our beauty sleep).

Last but in no way least, the kids were great. Mason is fully alert and really curious about his surroundings. He really doesn't like to be left out of the action and wants to be able to see what everyone is doing. Neve is talking a blue streak, loves playing with her various baby dolls and doing puzzles. She's still shy around new people, but I think she remembered me from Christmas, because she warmed up very quickly.