pork and napa dumplings

The boy wanted dumplings for dinner on his birthday. Done! I've been making them with my grandmother as long as I've been using chopsticks, and though it's a time consuming effort, the results are well worth it. It really doesn't matter what you throw into the filling, though I'm partial to ground pork as the meat base. These ones also sported copious amounts of ground ginger, shredded napa, and rehydrated shitake mushrooms. As per usual, swigs and dashes of soy sauce, sesame oil, ground pepper, and garlic powder were added to the concoction that amassed into the filling - my secret tactic for spice balance was to pan fry a glob of the filling to taste-test (plus I was feeling a little peckish). Then, onwards and upwards with placing the filling in store-bought wrappers (I should really make my own one day - it's merely flour and water). Needless to say, these pan fried beauties were consumed in a matter of minutes: