Here's the Best Thing Our Contributor Made This Weekend

We get asked all the time: What do you cook at home? Here's some inspiration from Riddley Gemperlein-Schirm, one of our contributors.

Real talk: Dumplings petrified me. Not the eating of said filled parcles, but the making. Perhaps it was the pinching, pleating, or possibility of a filling explosion.

This week, though, I conquered my fear with pot stickers. And because I'm also a little crazy, I decided to do so without a recipe. For the filling, I added cooked shiitake mushrooms, crumbled tofu, and shredded napa cabbage (first salted, allowed to sit for 10 minutes, and squeezed to remove any moisture) to a bit of minced garlic and ginger, soy sauce, and cornstarch.

After meticulously filling 40 round wrappers with teaspoon of filling, moistening the edges with water, and crimping like I've never crimped before (and enlisting my sister's help—thank you, Kateri!), the dumplings were ready to be pot sticker-ed. A slick of oil went into a cast iron skillet, followed by a layer of the pleated packages, and onto the heat it all went. After things started to sizzle, I counted to 30, added a 1/4 cup of water, and covered the skillet for about 3 minutes. That was it! The pot stickers' golden brown bottoms assuaged any fears I had had.

What was the best thing you cooked this weekend? Tell us in the comments!