There are almost 100 of these in my freezer
Oh save me from myself — please! I’m buried under a mountain of fried wontons! There’s a backstory to this post. A little more than a year ago I was minding my own business recuperating from surgery when I read a Tweet from Whole Foods announcing a Budget Recipe Contest. I’m always up for a challenge and am never satisfied with the status quo, so rather than create just one dish for $4 or less, I created an entire meal. Alas, I didn’t win, but I did get runner up or honorable mention or something equal to non-winner status, but I was elated that I could come up with an entire menu and meet the deadline and do it for just under the $4 challenge with my Bacon, Egg and Pasta menu which was posted on my original blog.
A month later I stumbled upon a CNN iReport assignment asking for “Recessi-pes.” It made it to the front of the iReport page and brought it’s share of negative and positive comments. Many people were either angry that I posted recipes that were not low in fat or carbs and others were livid that I consider a meal “budget” if it’s $4.00. There’s nothing wrong with healthy debate, it’s just jarring when you haven’t experienced it before based on something you’ve written.
But I digress … The debate in the comments was interesting to read. It helped me remember that we’re all different, that what makes us such a great people is that no two of us are alike and our likes and dislikes in the culinary world is quite like art appreciation. One man’s love for McDonald’s is another’s disdain. But all the negativity didn’t stop me from submitting once again when I received mail a month later from the CNN iReport desk asking for a submission for a new assignment –”The Ultimate Brown Bag Lunch.” I put up my submission and the next day, still home recuperating I received a call from Tyson Wheatley at CNN asking if they could use my piece on the air. How do you measure a period of time less than a millisecond? In less time than it took to begin to exhale I said, “YES!”
And at just after 11am, after a short postponement due to breaking news of the airing of a message from President Obama, they aired my piece along with another woman’s ultimate brown bag lunch.
And that brings us to this weekend and new mail from CNN. They were once again looking for submissions to another food-related weekend assignment. This time it was,”Your Signature Dish.” The wheels started spinning and I came up with my submission. I just needed the plan.
In typical fashion, I made not only one kind of wonton, but three and I made two salads. Suffice it to say I had salad for breakfast and I’ve got a freezer full of wontons.
From 8am to midnight yesterday I was in the kitchen cooking, filming, cleaning, writing and editing. It’s exhausting work this video creation thing! At about 10:45pm I hit submit, went into the kitchen to finish cleaning up the mess I made in the 16 hours it took me to put the video together and headed to bed wondering what kind of comments I might wake up to. Good news, nothing negative — so far.
As my sister reminded me earlier in the week, I’ve been making these wontons since I lived in Connecticut. That was a very long time ago — 1983. It’s my go to dish for parties, whether I’m hosting or need to bring a dish. Wontons can be made ahead of time and reheated in the oven until warmed through. The recipes for all three wonton dishes can be found under the new Recipe tab above or by clicking here.
In 2007 my career with a large, but shrinking high tech Fortune 50 \"left me,\" leaving a void in my life. While lamenting the loss and flying around the world looking for a new career to get married to, I discovered a way to use a familiar outlet during tough times -- writing. My blog-writing morphed into writing about my favorite past time -- Food! I purchase food, sell food, make food, watch food being made, broadcast meal preparation, photograph and blog about food. Like I said; Food! To change this standard text, you have to enter some information about your self in the Dashboard -> Users -> Your Profile box. 
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Ok, woman, I am sitting here hungry, its late, I am trying not to go into the kitchen, and I look at these photos! Thankfully I have no wonton shells in my house, or I would be making something, now. These wontons look heavenly, I can see how wonderfully crispy they are, and I can only imagine what sauce I would pare with these as I crunch on these wontons.
Thanks!!
I think I will have a few for breakfast. Now, to decide — Chinese, TexMex or Dulce. Or all three?!
Fran, you are amazing! I know it was a ton of work, but you make it look so easy. Good job!
Thanks!! It was a lot of work, but the end result is so gratifying!