Each week, a group of friends and I participate in our own little dinner club in which we take turns hosting a potluck dinner.  The host usually takes care of the main dish, and the others bring sides, appetizers, desserts, or drinks.

It was my turn to host dinner club this past week. This time, instead of cooking a main dish on my own, I showed my guests how to wrap their own Chinese dumplings/potstickers and I put them to work.

All you have to do is drop a little scoop of filling in the middle of a pre-made dough wrapper, use your finger to swipe some water around the edges, fold it up, and voila! The filling is a mix of ground pork, scallions, soy sauce, sesame oil, napa cabbage, onion, ginger, and Chinese cooking wine.

Here they are hard at work. They were pros by the end.

And here are our little dumplings. (Um, don't mind the one in the corner with meat busting out...not sure what happened there.)

By the end of the meal, we had all turned into little dumplings. Full, round, and about to bust at the seams from eating too much. A success!

Pork Dumplings (recipe from Epicurious.com)

Dumpling filling:

1 pound well-ground, fatty pork

1 pound Napa cabbage

1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger

2 tablespoons water

2 scallions

(I added 1/2 a diced onion too)

4 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine or sherry

2 teaspoons sesame oil

1 teaspoon fine salt

Pinch of white pepper

1 package frozen dumpling wrappers (Available at specialty Asian markets)

small bowl of water

To make the filling:

If the pork is not finely ground, mince well with a knife. Place the pork in a large bowl and cover.

Bring a large pot of water to boil over high heat. Add the cabbage; blanch until just wilted. Using a slotted spoon, remove cabbage to strainer set over a large bowl. Press down on cabbage to squeeze out all liquid. Transfer to cutting board; roughly dice.

Meanwhile, place grated ginger in a small bowl; cover with water and let steep for a few minutes.

Slice scallions lengthwise, then thinly slice. You should have a good mixture of white, light green, and dark green pieces. Add to the bowl with the pork.

Place a strainer over the pork bowl; strain the ginger so that the juices are added to the bowl. Press down on ginger to squeeze out all juices. Discard ginger left in strainer.

Add the soy sauce, cooking wine, sesame oil, salt, and pepper to the meat mixture. Stir in chopped cabbage until completely incorporated. Add onion, if you choose to.

To wrap the dumplings:

Using a spoon or chopsticks, place one heaping tablespoon of dumpling filling in the center of the dumpling wrapper.

Using your fingertip, wet the outer edge of the dumpling wrapper with water. Fold up the sides of the dumpling into a half-moon shape.

While holding the dumpling lengthwise, curved side up, use your index finger and thumb to pinch the edges of the dough on one side of the dumpling into "pleats," pressing each pleat against the flat side of the dough to seal the dumpling as you go. Start at one corner of the dumpling and work your way to the center (making three to four "pleats"). Then work from the other corner to the center creating another three to four "pleats."

Firmly press the pleated side of the wrapper against the flat side to be sure the dumpling is completely sealed. If there is too much filling and the dumpling cannot be sealed, remove the extra filling to prevent leakage during cooking.

Line up the finished dumplings on a foil-lined cookie sheet to prevent them from sticking. You can freeze dumplings this way for up to one month.

To cook:

To cook the dumplings, gently lower them into a medium pot of boiling water and boil for approximately three to five minutes. They are done when the dumpling skins are translucent and the dumplings have been floating for about three minutes. Remove from pot carefully with a slotted spoon.

...or you can...

Fry them as potstickers! Just heat a few tablespoons of oil in a pan. Add dumplings, and fry the bottoms for 4 minutes. Add in a cup of water, and immediately put a lid over the pan. Let the dumplings steam for 5-7 minutes until cooked through.

Serve hot with soy sauce.

I enjoy really thick, chunky chocolate chip cookies with some crispy bits, but still have that soft, chewy texture. I've tried the Toll House recipe many times growing up and liked it, but they just don't cut it anymore. They taste amazing out of the oven, but the next day they harden into rocks.

I made the following recipe for chocolate chip cookies (which is a concoction by moi), which is based on the recipe floating around the Web claiming to be the Doubletree Hotel chocolate chip cookie recipe.

A few brave co-workers volunteered to give these cookies a taste test. Overall, the cookies received 3.6 stars, on a scale of 1 to 5 stars (5 being mind-blowing awesome). Music editor Jeff Hahne apparently is a super taster ... he detected the scant pinch of cinnamon. He said he had "no complaints" with the cookies. I guess this is a good thing.

Movie critic Matt wasn't fond of the crunchy edges, but liked the chewy, soft centers.

Our publisher thought they were a bit on the heavy side, but said they had great flavor. And our listings editor rated them as "yummy."

Try it and let me know what you think!

• Whip it. Whip it good.

• Want to lick the beater?

Chocolate Chip Cookies, the CL way

Ingredients

1/2 cup rolled oats

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup wheat flour

1-1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup shortening

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1-1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. lemon juice

2 eggs

3 cups semi-sweet, chocolate chips

Directions:

Grind oats in a food processor or blender until fine. Combine the ground

oats with the flours, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl.

Cream together the butter, shortening, sugars, vanilla, and lemon juice in another

medium bowl with an electric mixer. Add the eggs and mix until smooth. Stir

the dry mixture into the wet mixture and blend well. Add the chocolate chips to the dough and mix by hand until ingredients are well blended.

For the best results, chill the dough overnight in the refrigerator before

baking the cookies.

Spoon rounded 1/4 cup portions onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Place the

scoops about 2 inches apart. Bake in a 350°F oven for 16-18 minutes or until

cookies are light brown and soft in the middle. Store in a sealed container

when cool to keep soft.

Creamy, crunchy and fresh, Ina Garten's recipe for Chicken Salad Veronique is delicious. The crunch comes from both celery and grapes. Did you know 'Veronique' in the name of a recipe implies that grapes are one of the ingredients?

Bake, chop, and mix - that's it. The hardest part of the recipe was searching the aisles of Walmart for tarragon (and after 10 minutes of searching, I still didn't find it). If you don't have tarragon, do what I did -- use dill. Instead of using the four split skin-on chicken breasts, I used plain skinless chicken breasts and it worked just fine.

Chicken Salad Veronique

(Courtesy of Barefoot Contessa at Home)

It's hot out and I couldn't resist a trip to Cookout for a milkshake last week. My default shake flavor is always the mint Oreo, but this time I asked to get their fresh peanut butter shake mixed with Oreo chunks. Genius idea, if I do say so myself.

Inspired by this milkshake flavor combo and since it is National Ice Cream Month, I whipped out the ice cream maker this past weekend to create some Peanut Butter Oreo Ice Cream. For the ice cream base, I used David Lebovitz's Peanut Butter Ice Cream, then I mixed in chopped up Oreo cookies in the last few minutes of churning.

If you like crunch, you can even use chunky peanut butter and mix in chopped peanuts into the ice cream as well.

The recipe is quick and easy - the churning part takes less than 20 minutes. The trick is to get your ice cream maker's canister frozen real well (set your freezer temperature to the coldest setting and freeze it for 24+ hours) and chill your ice cream mix thoroughly before churning it (I put mine in the freezer for an hour or so to make sure it was nice and icy cold).

Peanut Butter Ice Cream

Source: The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

¾ cup smooth peanut butter

¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar (I used only 3/4 cup sugar)

2 2/3 cups half-and-half

Pinch of salt

1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chopped Oreo cookies

Puree the peanut butter, sugar, half-and-half, salt, and vanilla in a blender or food processor until smooth.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  During the last few minutes of churning, add in Oreo chunks.

These Blueberry Crumb Bars from epicurious.com look scrumptious. I think I'll try to make these for my Fourth of July feast this year. What makes them attractive is that they are blue (so they go with the red, white and blue theme), call for only a short list of ingredients, and the directions are pretty simple.

I instruct you to make them with me. Here's the recipe.

Blueberry Crumb Bars

Ingredients

Crust:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds

Filling:

• 3 cups fresh blueberries (about 15 ounces) or one 12-ounce package frozen blueberries (do not thaw)
• 1 cup blueberry preserves (10 to 11 ounces)
• 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel

Directions

For crust:

Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter bottom of 13x9x2-inch metal baking pan. Whisk flour, oats, sugar, salt, and cinnamon in large bowl. Add 1 cup butter; rub in with fingertips until mixture sticks together in small clumps.

Transfer 2 cups to medium bowl; mix in almonds and reserve for topping.

Press remaining crumb mixture evenly onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake crust until golden and just firm to touch, about 22 minutes. Cool 10 minutes.

For filling:

Mix all ingredients in medium bowl. Spread evenly over crust in pan, then sprinkle reserved topping over.

Bake bars until filling bubbles thickly at edges and topping is golden brown, about 40 minutes; cool in pan on rack. Cut lengthwise into 4 strips, then cut each strip into 6 pieces, forming 24 bars.

Don't let the "pound" in the name if the recipe scare you. This recipe doesn't actually require a pound of sugar, a pound of butter, and a pound of flour; nor does it cause you to gain a pound.

This Blueberry Pound Cake is from Cooking Light. It tastes full fat, but actually uses low fat cream cheese and lemon yogurt. Though the recipe is reduced fat, the texture of the cake is still fine, yet dense like a pound cake.

Drizzled with a lemon glaze, this makes for a delicious breakfast or even a dessert.

Blueberry Pound Cake

Yield: 16 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

Ingredients

• 2  cups  granulated sugar
• 1/2  cup  light butter
• 1/2  (8-ounce) block 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
• 3  large eggs
• 1  large egg white
• 3  cups  all-purpose flour, divided
• 2  cups  fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1  teaspoon  baking powder
• 1/2  teaspoon  baking soda
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• 1  (8-ounce) carton lemon low-fat yogurt
• 2  teaspoons  vanilla extract
• Cooking spray
• 1/2  cup  powdered sugar
• 4  teaspoons  lemon juice

This Sweet & Spicy Sticky Chicken is a tried and true recipe that I've been making for years now. It takes about 45 minutes to make from start to finish. It's so tasty, you'll want to lick the sauce off your fingers.

My recipe, which was Xeroxed from a Fine Cooking magazine at least 8 years ago, shows signs of wear -- the paper is yellowed, it has many creases and is covered with a sprinkling of soy sauce stains -- true signs of a good recipe.

In addition to being sweet and spicy, this chicken is salty, too, due to the fish sauce and soy sauce. Don't over do fish sauce -- it's quite pungent. (If you can't find fish sauce at your local grocery store, you can most likely find it at any Asian grocery store.) Serve it with steamed rice and a side of veggies.

Sweet & Spicy Chicken

Ingredients:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup fish sauce

1/3 cup water water

3 Tbs rice wine vinegar

2 Tbs soy sauce

1 Tbs fresh ginger, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

½ tsp crushed red chile flakes

1 Tbs oil

3 spring onions or bunch of chives, thinly slices

6-8 chicken thighs (fat and skin removed)

Cilantro sprigs as a garnish

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, fish sauce, water, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, black pepper, and crushed red chile flakes.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the scallions andcook until soft, about 3 min. Add the thighs and the brown sugar mixture. Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. As soon as it comes to a boil, reduce the head to low and simmer, turning hte thighs occasionally, until cooked, 25 to 30 min.

Remove the thighs from the pan and cover with foil to keep warm. Increase the heat to high and reduce the sauce by half or until it is slightly thickened and resmbles a bubbling caramel sauce. Serve the chicken with the sauce, garnished with the cilantro sprigs.

My favorite contessa, Ina Garten of the Food Network, always goes all the way and never takes short-cuts. She never skimps on butter, oil, or expensive ingredients. She makes everything look so simple and easy.

On her show last week, she made this Roasted Shrimp and Orzo as part of her nautical-themed lunch. Ina created a "tablescape" using a boat flag as a tablecloth and real rope from the tack store as napkin holders. I can only hope to one day to be a hostess-with-the-mostest like she is.

Last night I tried my hand at making the orzo dish featured on the show. It turned out pretty well. Between bites of eating, my bf proclaimed that this dish was possibly one of his favorite meals so far. Light and crisp, it is great for summer entertaining. And since the dish can be served at room-temperature, it's perfect to make ahead and serve later.

• The ingredients. * oops. Parsley was left out of the photo.

• Mise en place.

Roasted Shrimp and Orzo (courtesy of Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa)

Ingredients

• Kosher salt
• Good olive oil
• 3/4 pound orzo pasta (rice-shaped pasta)
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (3 lemons)
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 pounds (16 to 18 count) shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 cup minced scallions, white and green parts
• 1 cup chopped fresh dill
• 1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 hothouse cucumber, unpeeled, seeded, and medium-diced
• 1/2 cup small-diced red onion
• 3/4 pound good feta cheese, large diced

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Fill a large pot with water, add 1 tablespoon of salt and a splash of oil, and bring the water to a boil. Add the orzo and simmer for 9 to 11 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it's cooked al dente. Drain and pour into a large bowl. Whisk together the lemon juice, 1/2 cup olive oil, 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper. Pour over the hot pasta and stir well.

Meanwhile, place the shrimp on a sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to combine and spread out in a single layer. Roast for 5 to 6 minutes, until the shrimp are cooked through. Don't overcook!

Add the shrimp to the orzo and then add the scallions, dill, parsley, cucumber, onion, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Toss well. Add the feta and stir carefully. Set aside at room temperature for 1 hour to allow the flavors to blend, or refrigerate overnight. If refrigerated, taste again for seasonings and bring back to room temperature before serving.

A haiku:

Cool, creamy, and pink

Dotted with red strawberries

Tastes like the summer

And a recipe:

Strawberry Ice Cream

1 small box instant vanilla pudding (made with box directions, milk added)

2 cups mashed berries

2 cups sugar

1 pint whipping cream

1 can evaporated milk

Mix all the ingredients together and chill until very cold. Then pour into your ice cream maker's canister. Churn until thickened, then freeze for a couple hours to firm it up.

I made this recipe yesterday. Pudding mix is an interesting ingredient, but it works -- this ice cream is good. The recipe made enough mix for two batches of ice cream for me (I used a Cuisinart duo flavor ice cream maker and the canisters are a bit smaller than other makers). Be sure not to overfill your ice cream maker -- fill it 3/4 full only to leave room for the ice cream to aerate and grow.