Stephanie

 I'm not sure how to write about Steph without Kav and vice versa - not because I assume couples are just one entity... but because their dumplings are timed with them moving away forever *sobbing emoji* and them being awkwardly engaged against the perfect backdrop of Utah *sobbing emoji but like with happy connotation*

Steph identifies are American, white-washed. I think the first time I officially met her was after one of my shifts at the Exploratorium back when she and Kavin were still just friends. But the first time I knew of her existence was around a campfire just before backpacking in Enchantments... *winking emoji* Either way, I'm so happy to have another someone around to indulge my enthusiasm-but-fear-of-watching-alone for thriller/horror movies.

So Steph's heritage dumpling had to be pasta based because she gave me a lot of pasta-y things. Plus I thought it would be fun to roll a wrapper out of pasta dough... and then half way through shaping my dumps, I realized I was basically making ravioli.

These little pasta lunch-sacks are filled with tomato sauce, tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, (ALL the tomatoes!) cheddar, and mozz inspired by the recipe she sent me of sopa de fideo. Sopa de fideo is a noodle soup made with stock and super thin and short noodles, or fideos - probably originating in Spain and has become a staple Mexican comfort food item so the Interwebs tells me. Steph's mom would serve it with a side of tortilla to scoop up all the soup, and I considered for a bit if the wrapper should be tortilla based instead... but going to save that for another project maybe.

Anyways, it was basically reminiscent of grilled cheese with tomato soup (which if you ask me, is almost peak white-washed American cuisine, so I feel like I get extra points for that connection).

Served room temp with a pasta-less pasta salad of tomatoes, cukes, olives, and cotija cheese because pasta salad was one half of the typical lunch her mom would prepare for outings to theme parks or beaches.

Things I would do differently: take a filling shot before they all get eaten, chicken pieces in the filling, forgot the red onion in the pasta salad.

Steph's complete list:

top ramen (but no egg)

fideo

bologna and mustard sammiches, or even just the rolled up bologna

chicken tenders and pasta salad