Creative Fridays: Rainbow Yarn Wrapped Branches, Shamrocks and Dumplings

Today I am joining Linda at Natural Suburbia for a Creative Friday post.

This week, I tried Linda's knitted Shamrock pattern which I really enjoyed. I used Cascade 220 Worsted. The colour is Ireland (very appropriate!). Thank you again Linda for generously sharing this great pattern!

The girls and I also worked on some rainbow coloured yarn wrapped branches. We got the idea from The Magic Onions. The arrangement is quite cheerful on it's own, but it might also welcome many of our spring crafts and decorations to come...

We finished our week with lots of fun in the kitchen with our dear friends who showed us how to make Chinese dumplings...

First, we chopped and grated lots of vegetables (carrots, sweet potato, cabbage, bok choy, mushrooms, celery, green onions or whatever you fancy) and mixed them with some soy sauce (we used tamari and shoyu) and sesame oil (you can also add some ginger if you wish). We then let the vegetables marinate for a little while (half hour) and drained and squeezed them (getting rid of the liquid in the bottom of the bowl). With our finger and some water  we wet the outside (contour) of the thawed pastry disc (dumpling wrappers which we bought frozen), put a teaspoon or two of veggies in the middle, folded it in half and pinched it tightly closed. The dumplings can be frozen and cooked later. To cook, heat some oil in a pan. Brown one side of the dumplings, turn, add some water to the pan and cover to create steam and finish cooking. Delicious!