Making Buuz / Dumplings + Ruby Warrington (author of Women Without Kids)!

Mongolian Lunar New Year, Moms / Not Moms, and Really Good Shoes

This week, I’m sharing all about making Buuz (Mongolian dumplings) and a Things That Freaked My Week with Ruby Warrington, author of the new book: Women Without Kids.

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This week, we celebrated Tsagaan Sar (Mongolian Lunar New Year) with a big party. I got pretty emo about the whole thing, because eight years ago I had never even heard of Tsagaan Sar. And then my son came into our lives – and it opened up a whole new world of celebrations /

connections to a new culture.

A big part of Tsagaan Sar’s celebration is bringing friends and family together to feast, and a big part of the feast is eating Buuz (dumplings) – so we decided to have a Buuz-making party. With the help of a Mongolian friend and lots of YouTube videos, I practiced a lot leading up to the party. There is a real art to getting the dough exactly right (not too sticky) and figuring out how to properly fold the dumplings (which is not as easy as it looks).

I watched this video at least a dozen times…

And watched this family make 2,000 dumplings for their celebration (highly encourage – it’s a fun watch!)…

Buuz is traditionally made with mutton or beef, onions, and spices. I replaced the beef with vegan sausage, scallions, onion, and caraway (worked out great!). Altogether, we ended up making about 100 dumplings. Everyone got a turn at making some, and it was truly one of the best days ever. Cannot wait to do it again next year.

D rolled all the dough…

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Before we get to Ruby Warrington’s picks…
Ethnographic researcher and strategist Karen Faith is hosting a workshop called The Connection Course: empathy, listening, and tough conversations. It’s great for long-time ethnographers/researchers/strategists and for ones getting started in the field (or wanting to). As I’ve been getting into this line of work, Karen has helped me so much, and I know this course is going to be incredible. You can sign up here! You can see Karen’s popular Ted Talk (How To Talk To The Worst Parts Of Yourself) here. And if you have no idea what ethnography is, I think this is a good review!