happy love day to us

'twas quite a lovely valentine's day here at the house of wan.

i had a friend who contacted me with a super duper, fairly sizable last-minute request for valentine's day cookies...the day before v-day.  heh.  but i'm always up for a challenge and i like to help my pals whenever i can, so i accepted.  hence, the table-ful of heart-shaped treats:

the teen helped me a lot with these, handling the sprinkles and keeping an eye on how many we were making.  it was she who pointed out a fun coincidence - i'd made 143 of them.  and if you used a pager back in the day and sent silly codes to your boyfriend or girlfriend...well, you'll know the significance of that particular number.  i remember being all surprised to hear other people using "my" code - you know, the one i was totally convinced i'd made up all on my own.  it was a sad, sad day when i realized that i wasn't as clever as i thought.

anyway, the bean and i were up and out early on valentine's day to make that cookie delivery.  and since we were out, i decided to make a stop at places i don't necessarily have easy access to, like asian grocery stores.  the prime focus was to stock up on these:

but i might have picked up a couple of these, too, in a new flavor i hadn't seen before.

oh, and the bean pointed this out - and of course, we had to take it home to see if it's any good (i don't know yet, because we haven't cracked it open):

and then as we got in the car, she piped up:  "mommy, i've gotta go potty."  crap.  well, not literally.  i didn't want to take her to a gross gas station, but as i drove along i realized something:  we were just around the corner from the mall.  and i still needed to pick up some presents for the valentine fairy to leave for the hub and the teen.  so despite the still-early hour, that's where we went.

after using the facilities we strolled around to window-shop, killing time until the stores were open.  she got to take a spin on the carousel, and we discovered something fun...and free.

giant tic-tac-toe!  we had a ball playing game after game, giggling the whole time.  is this the perfect valentine's day activity, or what?

back at home, i scurried around trying to organize the piles of clutter that i keep all sorts of stuff in (which drives my poor hub absolutely crazy) and doing a little decorating.

the bean discovered an unopened happy meal toy on the table, which kept her occupied for a good long while as i made dinner.

the hub arrived bearing gifts.

another fabulous pinterest find - cheesy chicken bacon ranch lasagna!  well, i added the bacon on my own.  duh.

with the cards signed and the gifts in their bags, we sat down for dinner.

even the dog got something - a giant treat to chew on that turned out to be quite appropriate for the occasion.  not that she noticed as she gnawed on the thing all night.

how can you not love valentine's day?  it's a day for love! 

my little dumpling

to celebrate the addition of one new employee to our little office, the boss treated us to lunch. when we were talking about it last week, i blurted out "can we go to din tai fung? that sounds SO good."

i'm awesome. but hey, we're talking about soup dumplings here, folks.

and that's where we ended up going, despite my super tacky ways. whee! and although i've been a few times before, i'd never been to the "new" DTF. bigger, better, nicer. one look at the crowd in front of the "old" one and we hightailed it around the corner.

apparently, a shitton of other folks also decided that soup dumplings were the perfect way to beat the monday blues. we ended up waiting about 15 minutes for a table.

while we waited, we perused the menu and made our selections.

when a bench opened up, we went inside and sat down to wait.

and within moments, it was our turn and we were shuffled along to a table near the back.

the boss knows that i blog, so she pointed to the window into the kitchen, where the dumplings are made by hand by a slew of dudes. "go take some pictures," she said. i happily complied.

the guys nudged each other, flashed grins my way, and proceeded to make themselves look busy as hell. this dude decided he wanted to look good in my photo and looked right at the camera.

as soon as i sat down, the first item arrived - spicy and sour soup. yum.

i turned my chopsticks over and took a refresher course on how to enjoy my soup dumplings.

as my friend venn says, these green beans are laced with crack or some shit. they are so damn tasty.

and then they arrived - the first order of soup dumplings. mmmmm.

i poured some vinegar into my dish of ginger:

gingerly picked up a dumpling, trying not to rip it open and lose all the savory, soupy goodness:

and nibbled on the skin, letting the soup run out into the spoon.

my mouth is watering just thinking about these. oh, they were so good.

we also got some shrimp and pork shiaomai. these were quite different from the shu mai i'm used to at dim sum restaurants - they were like bigger versions of the soup dumplings, with a little twist at the top that made them look like crowns, and topped with a whole shrimp. oh. mah. gah.

more soup dumplings - this time, with crabmeat. this sounds awesome, but i uncharacteristically found myself preferring the original pork versions.

all gone!

soup dumplings are definitely pricier than dim sum, but worth every penny. and, um, i wasn't buying.

i'd taken my own car so i could run some errands after work, and after we parted ways, i decided to wander into the asian market next door. i had to muffle my squeal of laughter when i saw this:

in the frozen section, i picked this up:

and then made a spectacle of myself when i turned it over and snorted really loudly at the ingredients.

i didn't buy this:

but i did end up with all of this:

quite a productive afternoon, i'd say.