A few weeks ago I purchased spring roll wrappers to make fresh shrimp spring rolls.


I had so many wrappers left over and I was over my desire for fresh spring rolls so I thought maybe I could fry these instead. Not sure if it was possible I did some research online and sure enough, yes, these can also be rehydrated and fried. Nice! So here are some Crispy Chicken Spring Rolls I made.


While not very pretty, they were pretty tasty so here's my recipe.

Crispy Chicken Spring Rolls

I had a little less then a pound of ground chicken.
1/4 cup of chopped green onion
2 Cloves of garlic minced
1 Carrot shredded
1 tbs. Hoisin sauce
Powdered ginger
Five spice powder, a mixture of five spices used in Asian cooking. You can buy a five spice powder that contains all five spices already or if you are feeling daring you can make your own using star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper and fennel seeds.
Salt & Pepper

In a pan cook the ground chicken along with the onion, garlic and carrots. Season with the remaining ingredients to taste. Cook until the chicken is completely done. Fill a large enough bowl for the wrappers to fit into it with water and a teeny amount of sugar. Take a wrapper and dip it into the water rehydrating it for about 15 seconds until it becomes pliable again. Place on wax paper. Fill the center of each wrapper with the chicken filling and then start by folding over the top side of the wrapper then folding in both left and right sides and then rolling it up into a little burrito. Does that make sense? I didn't think so... here I found this online. Once you roll up all your spring rolls, by the way I was able to make about 10 of these guys but I stuffed them pretty good, cover them with a paper towel and press down a little to soak up some of the moisture. You want to make these ahead of time so they dry out a bit before you fry them. Once they are ready to fry up heat some oil in a pan until hot and then drop your spring rolls in making sure that you only fry a few at a time. Don't let them touch as they will start to stick together if they do. Remove once these are brown and crisp and place on a paper towel to soak up some of the cooking oil. I served these with a dipping sauce.

Soy Sauce
Rice wine vinegar
Chili garlic sauce
Honey

I just combined a little of these ingredients in a bowl until it tasted good.


This is the chili garlic sauce I used.

Here is the kick off for a new summer segment starring Penelope, Cooking with Penelope! Because you gotta keep the kids busy so you don't drive each other crazy.

Hi! My name is Penelope I am eight years old. I am going to share how to make one of my favorite foods. I eat it every time I go to a salad bar with my parents.
 

Penelope asked for a surprise lunch today so I made her this pretty bento...

Top tier: Cracked pepper and Colby jack sandwich kabobs, BBQ chips

Bottom tier: Vanilla Greek yogurt with Nerds, pichuberries and a fancy hard candy

I found the pichuberries at Vons and after a little research learned it is native to Peru and also known as "aguaymanto" or Inca berry. It has 20 times the Vitamin C than an orange and is also a powerful antioxidant. It taste like a cross between a tomato and an orange and Penelope loves them!

Yesterday I made some slow cooker carnitas that I turned into tacos for dinner. Simple and delicious!

Slow Cooker Carnitas

2 pound Pork shoulder roast
A handful of pearl onions
8-10 Garlic cloves
Freshly squeezed juice from 2 oranges
Onion powder
Garlic salt
Salt & Pepper
Lard or oil for frying

Season your roast liberally with salt, pepper, garlic salt and onion powder. Place in crockpot with the onions and garlic. Pour orange juice over everything. Cover and cook on high for 6 hours. Once finished remove meat onto a cutting board or plate and shred. Warm some oil in a large frying pan, I think lard works best and gives the meat added flavor, but a corn or canola oil will work as well. Fry meat until it browns and crisps a little.

I served on warm corn tortillas with my guacamole.

Oh! and an FYI...Penelope made the talent show!

Today Penelope auditioned for her school talent show, she performed The Rose on piano. I thought I would send along some inspiration for lunch.

Top tier: Heart shaped mozzarella cheese, a pepperoni rose, some breadsticks.

Bottom tier: Raspberries and a heart shaped egg.

I also included some vanilla cupcake goldfish. We should find out in a few days if she made the cut, I will let you know.

Last night I made a BBQ Jalapeno Ranch Chopped Salad and meatloaf for dinner.

BBQ Jalapeno Ranch Chopped Salad

Small bag of coleslaw mix or you can chop up your own cabbage and carrot combo
Chopped romaine lettuce
Black beans
Corn
Shredded Colby jack cheese
Cooked and crumbled bacon
Crushed tortilla chips
Jalapeno ranch dressing, I used Litehouse
Barbecue sauce, I used Rufus Teague

Put your cabbage mix in a large bowl and toss with some jalapeno ranch dressing, add the remaining ingredients except for the barbecue sauce and toss. I used canned black beans and corn but this would have been even better with roasted corn. Drizzle the top with the barbecue sauce. Enjoy

Because you are tossing your tortilla chips in with everything else this salad is only good eaten the same day while the chips still have a crunch to them.

Last weekend we took a trip to Petsmart to look for an aquarium to create a snail habitat for Penelope's pet snails.


Every afternoon for a week she had been collecting snails from our front yard and having snail races with them. Every morning when she would go and check on her snails they would be gone...well she always managed to find them again because they really only got a few feet away over night. You know what they say about snails... Anyway she got the bright idea to mark their shells, first with chalk, but when that didn't work she decided to label them with stickers, she even named her snails; Green Machine, Violet, Speedy, Lucky and Blue. I suggested we make a little home for them so they couldn't run slowly slide  away again. So as I was saying, last weekend we headed to Petsmart for a snail home and ended up coming home with this little guy instead.


Top tier: Cheerios and fruit gummies, sour cream & cheddar chips and oranges because Cheerio loves to snack on oranges.

Bottom tier: C for Cheerio cheese, a piggy turkey and cheese sandwich on top of some non edible grass with a few edible jelly beans thrown in it. They are supposed to resemble guinea pig poop because that's all this little guy does, eat and POOP!

Oh and a bottle of water of course cause Cheerio goes through about a bottle of water a day. Whoever said guinea pigs were a low maintenance pet were sorely mistaken. And in case you were wondering what happened to her pet snails I think they finally made it to the backyard by now.