This is a favorite dish in our family, especially in the hard cold winter months. Only 47 days until spring, dish it up tonight and think ‘warm thoughts’ .

Homemade Chicken Soup with Dumplings!

The Berkowitz family of Ambler gathered yesterday for its traditional Christmas dinner: wonton soup, pan-seared pork dumplings, salt-baked shrimp and scallops, orange beef, and sweet-and-sour chicken.

This chicken and dumplings recipe is true comfort food.

The other day I was watching Americas Test Kitchen which happens to be one of my favorite cooking show. This time they made chicken dumpling soup and it looked wonderful. The dumplings where large and airy and doubled in size as they cooked. The whole meal looked quite nice and warming. So I had an urge to try this recipe out, or at least I had an

Jiaozi or gyōza and also known as mandu , is a Chinese dumpling, widely popular in China, Japan, Korea, as well as outside of East Asia particularly in the United States.The corresponding Chinese characters for "Jiaozi" is a reference to the arrival of the Chinese New Year at midnight. According to the Chinese calendar system, "Tiangan Dizhi" (Heavenly stems and Earthly branches) is used to designate the time in accordance to the Chinese zodiac. "Jiao" in Chinese means "join," while "zi" is a reference to the first and eleventh hour (branch) of Dizhi - where midnight is situated.Jiaozi typically consist of a ground meat and/or vegetable filling wrapped into a thinly rolled piece of dough, which is then sealed by pressing the edges together or by crimping. Jiaozi should not be confused with wonton: jiaozi have a thicker skin and a flatter, more oblate, double-saucer like shape (similar in shape to ravioli), and is usually eaten with a soy-vinegar dipping sauce (and/or hot chili sauce); while a wonton has a thinner skin, is sphere-shaped, and is usually served in broth.