That's how I roll!- Shrimp Spring Rolls

This is my combination of my favorite Vietnamese restaurant's spring rolls and the ones you would buy at a sushi counter. Not fried, lots of colorful veggies, shrimp (I hate imitation crab!) and served with hoisin sauce with chopped peanuts! 

 ** These are so good my allergic-to-avocado-brother coughed, gasped, and sputtered through a half dozen before taking a break to let his airways open again! HA HA!

Ingredients

A sharp mandoline is a $10 piece of heaven in this recipe!!

• Rice wrappers
• Romaine Lettuce
• Shrimp
• Carrots
• Cucumber
• Red Cabbage (or Napa if you prefer) 
• Avocado
• Cilantro
• Bean Sprouts
• Jalapeno (The big mean one in the picture is a cayenne)
• Hoisin Sauce

Doing It

1. Using a knife, mandoline, veggie peeler, etc... get all the veggies you are using into small strips or shaved slices.
2. Cook shrimp (if needed and let cool) 
3. Rehydrate rice wrapper by passing it under the faucet for 1-3 seconds a side then lay it on a plate or cutting board. It WILL soften up! You probably aren't going to listen and soak it or something but don't be silly! Or be silly... they are cheap so go ahead and experiment! 
4. Lay a layer of lettuce, the spring roll is basically a bound together lettuce wrap!
5. I lay my flattest stuff first, just small bits of each layering the shrimp and avocado last. 
6. Roll the spring roll "subway sandwich style" Rolling one have over the spring roll, holding it tightly while you fold the sides in and then finish rolling until it is wrapped. 
7. Let sit a few minutes then cut in half at a slight diagonal! 
8. Serve with Hoisin! 

Notes

• People go crazy for these! I like to pour the hoisin in a bowl and serve the rolls all around on a plate. (See first picture) I made them for my nieces 1st birthday (yeah my family rolls like that!) and people still talk about them! 
• Practice Practice Practice!!!! No matter how many times I've done these my first one looks HORRIBLE! So I eat it right away!
• Most of this recipes time is prep. Buying shredded veggies and already cooked shrimp cuts your time in half!
• You can add or subtract anything you want!



Not my proudest examples but they look great after cutting!

• The avocado gets a little squishy.. the first time I bit into one with extra avocado I got a little weirded out by the texture! 

Ohhhh soooo nice! - Red Beans and Rice

*This is Roman, our 7 month old Berner. He's plotting how to get his paws on some awesome red beans and rice!


This is a pretty mild recipe (We had a few PANSIES at dinner)


The Oh So Nice Ingredients
1 lb Red Beans
14 oz pack smoked sausage *or Andouille links if you can find them!!! I couldn't :( *
1 lb of ham steak with bone and fat left on!!
**Bones from a roast with fat left on
2 medium onions chopped
4 stalks celery chopped
1 Fresh jalapeno  
1/4 cup beer
2 can beef broth
2 cans diced tomatos
2 bay leaves
2-3 cloves garlic diced
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 cayenne or more

2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 salt
2-3 tbsp fine chopped onion
1 1/2 cups rice
3 cups water
 
Doing it!

1. Check beans for pebbles and sticks (not joking.. it happens.. very painful to bite a rock!!)
2. Pour beans into a large pot with at least 6 cups of water, Bring to a hard boil for 10-15 minutes and let simmer 1 hour. After an hour add to the crock pot
3. In a seperate pan add cubed ham, and sausage (I cut my sausage on a diagonal for maximum browning surface area) start to brown.
4. Chop onion, celery and 'pena and add to meat. If the meat begins to stick us beer to loosen from the pan.
5. When thoroughly browned add to a large crock pot and use beer to get all the stuck bits off the bottom of the pan then add to the crock with bones, tomatoes, broth, garlic, thyme, bay, pepper and cayenne.
6. Let cook in the crock pot on high for 10-14 hours 
7. Heat olive oil, salt and onion in a pan. Add rice, constantly stirring until the rice gains some color. Add water, bring to a boil, turn to low and cover for 15 minutes.
8. Serve beans over rice with tabasco close! Maybe some fried okra, corn bread, blackend shimp or fish, or salads!

** I had made a loin-end roast weeks ago, cut all the meat off, wrapped it up and stuck it in the freezer with bits of meat and fat left on it. Makes a HUGE difference but you could use hocks or bacon or my favorite get a cheep pack of neck bones and rub them with olive oil and salt, put them under the broiler until you get some brown or fat sizzling then add to your crock pot.

• Notes!!! 
• If you want it milder take the seeds and veins from the jalapeno.
• Spending the extra $0.50 on better beans is totally worth it. You will have less odd ball crunchy beans if none at all.
• The beer I used was a strong IPA. But unless its a stout I don't ever notice a difference in the end product with different beers (Stout would be AWESOME in this though!)  
• Really flexable recipe.. I've used left over smoked pork in it... no jalapeno and no ham... Its a great dish you can adjust for what you have. 
• If you like to add okra or sour cream to top things those would be great!

Mish-Mash: To Many Limes!!!

• So we had a bunch of vodka drinkers over (my people!) so I bought lots of limes, lemons, tonic and club soda, etc... NO ONE USED ANY LIMES!!!  
• I needed a dessert for a FRG Potluck so I googled lime cookies... found LOTS of amazing recipes and couldn't decide between a shortbread with glaze, standard 'tollhouse base' with lime and basil, and a cornmeal cookie. COULDN'T DECIDE!!! So I mish mashed them!! 
• Heaven resulted.  Great texture, no crunchy corn feel just more crumbly and soft at the same time! The basil isn't a huge part its just a refreshing hint of flavor that people probably won't be able to put their finger on! My favorite kind of flavor: SNEAKY!

Citrus-Basil Cornmeal Cookies

Cookie
1 1/2 c unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 c cornmeal (I used Indian Head Stone Ground its pretty fine ground)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 sticks unsalted BUTTER (REAL BUTTER)
1 c sugar
2 tbsp lime zest (2-3 limes required!)
1 tbsp lemon zest
1 1/2 tbsp finely chopped fresh basil
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs (My eggs were fresh and really big so you might add an extra tbsp of egg to get exact results)
3 1/2 tbsp fresh lime juice

Glaze
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon lime zest
1/2 cup lemon/lime juice (whatever you scrape up)



Doing it:

1. Wake up in the morning and set out our butter and eggs so they are room temp ;) or put them in your pocket :D
2. Preheat oven to 350
3. Whisk flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt 
4. In a separate bowl (*cough* stand-mixer *cough cough*) Combine BUTTER and sugar. 5-8 minutes (Until "fluffy" but not in a "that dog is really fluffy kinda way... just til it changes texture!)
5. Add zest, basil, vanilla, juice, eggs. Blend until just together.
6. Pour in flour mixture in 3-4 segments
   waiting til blended 
7. Scoop in 1in balls 2-3inch apart on parchment.
8. With wet fingers or a spoon spread out the mixture slightly
9. Bake 10-12 minutes until edges are just brown.
10. Mix powdered sugar, zest and juice well.
11. Spoon glaze on to cookies. I like a half a spoonful and then a quick smear with the back of the spoon so its more completely covered. And to avoid little wells of glaze! 
12. Let sit 45-60 minutes to set glaze.  

Hints and such:

• Most houses in Northern NY don't have AC. INCLUDING ME!!! So it was pretty warm in the house.. by the last batch my dough was weapy... I don't recommend it
• Next time I make these I will probably use Almond Extract (Just because I love Almond and Lime together!)
• I'm a heavy glazer. Its a problem. But most of my glaze ended up under the rack.. 
• I don't have a zzzzzester at the moment due to a fatal dishwasher accident, scraping the limes with the points of a cheap serrated steak knife works fabulous!
• Yields 36 small cookies... or I ended up with 36... counting casualties and dough loss I would say close to 42-45 cookies :D I like cookie dough :D