I feel blessed to have great mothers in my family. They took good care of me growing up and their amazing qualities inspire me to be a better mom to my children.
My mom is a survivor. She immigrated to the United States at 16, got a college degree, found a job at a telephone company, moved 180 miles away to Upstate New York after she married my dad, found friends, learned how to drive, stayed home to raise 4 children. She did all this, cooked thousands of meals and always looked pretty.
My grandmother is clean and neat, and always helping. She takes cleaning very seriously, using certain cloths to wipe certain things and washing vegetables at least 3 times. I think she is this way because she grew up in a poor village in China where there was no running water. Things had to be kept clean to keep people healthy. My grandmother even taught my daughters how to wipe their mouths to remove the most amount of grease and food. She has a heart of a servant and is always looking to help. When I also lived in Chinatown, she would cook me dinner, pack me lunches, buy my favorite fruits, and even tried to find me a boyfriend when I was single.
My aunt has never-ending kindness and patience. She always made sure my cousins, siblings and I had everything we needed from sneakers to snow pants, to mending a hole in our pajamas. She always remembers our very favorite foods. At family gatherings, we will eat her amazing cream puffs, chocolate-covered pretzels, pizza bread, and her famous chocolate cake she only makes for Christmas. Whenever we lose something, no matter how big or small, she would look until it was found. I once lost an earring back and she found it in between the couch cushions. Every year she always gives me a birthday present, and I’m 39!
This year, one of our Mother’s Day celebrations was dinner in the city at a French Bistro.
I over-committed the weekend not realizing it was Mother’s Day. It was a very busy weekend, but we got through it!
My brother just came back from the Kentucky Derby so he bought the girls magic sets from the airport. This kept them entertained for a while, practicing the trick, then performing them on everyone.
I had escargot for appetizer and Baby patiently used the clamp and small fork to get each snail out. She was so proud of herself!
I hope you all had great Mother’s Day celebrations.
The Dumpling Mama xo
I started having health problems after I had my second daughter. I felt sluggish, had a foggy-brain and always fatigued even after 8 hours of sleep. Doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong so I started to change my diet and lifestyle and started to heal myself with food. Food is the fuel for our bodies to have good health and stay well. With only so much room in your stomach, it’s important to me to eat and feed my family nutrient dense foods. Here are the simple reasons I 
I’ve just come back from a weekend in Miami with my sisters. When I was pregnant with my second daughter, I was feeling fat and depressed, and my sister took me on a vacation to Palm Beach. That same sister is now pregnant with her second child, feeling fat and depressed, so I took her on a vacation to Miami. I use to work at a hotel company and after all of the traveling have created a list of favorite features that make an amazing hotel room. I love bright, spacious bathrooms with tall mirrors and strong water pressure.
I love an amazing view from the bed. I love balconies. The 
My brother sent a 
We had 
I ate all of my favorites, eggs benedict, caviar, raw oysters, sashimi. It was glorious.
The hotel was so grand.
The views were breathtaking. Grouchy Husband and I were in Miami last year and he golfed at the 
It was hard to leave but we were so full and just wanted to go back to our hotel and lay at the pool.
One night we ate at 
It was my youngest sister’s first time in Miami so we had to visit South Beach. I’ve always stayed on the beach in all my previous trips to Miami but this time wanted a more laid back vacation, away from the crowds and lots of young skinny people (request from my pregnant sister). We saw Rev Run at our hotel and that made our laid back vacation feel really cool.
I missed 
We are completely different. If we weren’t sisters, we probably wouldn’t be friends. Blessed to be family.
It’s Spring Break and I’ve decided on a staycation because we were just in New Orleans a week and a half ago and there are so many things to do in NYC. Today was family day at the 
While Grouchy Husband parked the car, we waited in the Oceans exhibit. The girls were scared of the scary black fish picture so they wouldn’t stand near it.
The girls really enjoyed the Amphibian and Reptile exhibit.
They thought the frog with the puffed out cheeks was so funny.
The snake skeleton was amazing.
They could not believe how big the Komodo Dragons were. 10ft and 200lbs!
The girls saw a dissected animal for the first time.
Baby had a hard time understanding that the exhibits were not alive so she would get scared sometimes.
My favorite exhibit was about bacteria and microbes in the body and digestive track.
The girls were really looking forward to the Butterfly Conservatory. When we were in New Orleans, we went to one and they had butterflies come onto their fingers.
They saw so many butterflies and planned on using their experience in New Orleans to have a butterfly come onto their fingers.
Baby tried.
And tried..
She even got Grouchy Husband to help her try…but no butterflies landed on her fingers. She left crying and it was heart-breaking.
We headed to see the dinosaurs and the Titanosaur, one of the largest dinosaurs and is 122-feet-long. Baby lost her museum spirit after the butterflies.
Even with the butterflies, we had a great day together.
As parents, when our children are young, most of their care is physical effort. Once they can start putting on their own shoes and taking their own baths, the care changes from physical to preparing them for their lives. Below are the 10 values I want to teach my daughters before they leave for college. I hope I can get it all done in 18 years.
My daughters and I just met my cousin’s new baby, Rose. She just had her first round of immunizations and could start seeing germ-y people like us. Baby Rose has chubby cheeks and loves to be held. We all took turns holding her and she sleep like this the whole time.
She sometimes would make funny faces while she was sleeping. We thought she smelled something yucky in her dreams when she made this face. The girls loved holding her. They felt like little mommies.
The American custom is to celebrate the coming of a new baby with a baby shower. The Chinese custom is to give a 
It’s taken me 3 years to stop using soy sauce. It’s been used in my family for generations so I feel a little less Chinese saying this. Here is why I did it:
My mom is an amazing cook. Everything she makes is delicious. Since moving to the suburbs, having a family, and wanting to cook for them, I’ve tried to learn her recipes. Most Chinese moms (at least the ones I know) don’t write down recipes, they cook from memory. The direction I get from my mom on how to cook Chinese food is a list of ingredients and some order of instruction. From there, I reference cookbooks and do A LOT of recipe testing to get things to taste exactly how she makes them.
Danielle Chang’s team gave me permission to share one of my favorite recipes from the Lucky Rice Cookbook, Sichuanese Chicken Wings. These chicken wings have so much flavor with an added kick from the hot chiles…yumm-my.
Line a large rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and spread the chicken wings out on it. Sprinkle them generously with salt. I used Himalayan pink salt to pack in as many minerals.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until the wings are golden brown and crisp. Drain off the fat and transfer the wings to the a serving bowl.
In a cast iron skillet set over medium-high heat, toast the red chile flakes, cumin seeds, Sichuanese peppercorns, and star anise, shaking the pan constantly, until the spices are toasty and fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes.
Immediately pour them into a bowl to stop the cooking. Cool slightly, and then grind to a powder in a spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle.
Pour the ground spice mixture on top of the chicken wings and toss with your hands (best tools in the kitchen).
In the same dry skillet, toast the dried chiles, shaking the pan constantly, until they are darken in color and smell fragrant, 3 minutes. Then add the toasted whole chiles and the julienned ginger on top of the chicken wings.
To serve, toss the wings, spices, and ginger with your hands. Taste, and add more salt if necessary. Sprinkle with the chopped cilantro and serve at once.
Grouchy Husband completed his first 
He had some time before his heat so he did his best to keep himself focused but not too focused. The workout was as many rounds as possible of 25ft overhead lunges, then 8 bar-facing burpees, then 25ft overhead lunges, then 8 chin-to-bar pull-ups in 20 minutes.
About to start.
Focused and looking strong. The weight on the barbell is 95lbs! Everyone who had done the workout before him gave the recommendation to start slow and pace yourself.
Burpees are one of his favorites. What kind of a person likes burpees?
More lunges.
His weakest part of the workout were the pull-ups. He tried all different strategies during the workout. Started out doing sets of 4.
So tired at the end, he was doing singles with an underhand grip. I can’t do any chin ups and my coach said it would take me at least a year to train to do only one (yikes!).
Halfway through, tired but keeps pushing on.
Exhausted.
I cringed watching him pick up the 95lb barbell.
Finally, the finish line. Every bit of energy went to every step to get there.
Done!
The girls made him cards when he finished. I don’t even know if he could comprehend what they were saying at this point.