locked and loaded.

i made spring rolls to take on the drive to DC so that we would have lunch when chloe and i arrived. included: salt and peppered lentils, grated carrots, cabbage soaked in sushi vinegar, cucumber, and sriracha. 

a note: if you don't keep your spring rolls refrigerated for all the hours before you eat them, they WILL fall apart when you do. 

i threw all of the remaining bits chopped for the spring rolls, along with a bunch of other random items from the fridge, into a soup. included: lentils, broccoli, vegetable broth, vermicelli, garlic, spinach, soy sauce, more sriracha.

an all-time fave.

yelena and i began making spring rolls in college. yes, we know you call them summer rolls in new york and other northern cities, but in vietnamese shops in houston, they are spring rolls. after ordering them 1000 times, we soon learned that, with a quick trip to an asian market (there are tons in houston, many not far from where we lived at the time), we could whip them up ourselves.

they live on as one of my favorite things to make. maybe because i like a food that houses itself (can we say burrito?), but also because it's easy and cathartic to put it all together, and it's fast and not terribly unhealthy. 

this time i stuffed them with carrot, cucumber, tofu (not fried), steamed kale, and vermicelli. 

i couldn't help but get the "three ladies brand" of rice papers last week. i mean, it's beautiful packaging for rice papers. and then i ate probably 6(!!) of them with a spicy peanut sauce (peanut butter, tamari, sriracha, garlic powder, sugar, and hot water).

so damn good. every single time.

mixed up.

shira's flight on wednesday was canceled so she was surprisingly home for dinner. it was a CSA pick-up day so there was certainly a bounty of goods! and i had just bought provisions in the asian market. and it was too hot for hot food, which means spring rolls.

 and lots of prosecco. (once you open a bottle, you have to commit to the whole thing, y'know.)

small spring rolls with beets, carrots, spring onions, basil, and vermecelli. with peanut sauce and sriracha and lime.

been too long.

tuesday night was a spring rolls kind of night.

with spinach, yellow bell pepper, carrots, and cucumbers. and a spicy peanut sauce with sriracha.

a spring rolls kind of night.

stuffed with spinach, carrots, yellow bell pepper, and carrots. eaten with a spicy peanut sauce.

good night, mai's.

we spent many, many late, late nights at mai's in college. i cannot count the number of plates of salt-toasted tofu i consumed, or the number of spring rolls.

and today, it burnt down. the end of an era of greasy vietnamese houstonian excellence.

comforted.

i guess we all have different versions of comfort food. my incarnation usually includes cheese or noodles or something savory and fried or all of the above. this week of below-freezing temperatures had me eating pasta on more than one evening. twice, i made pasta with tomatoes, garlic, onion, and collard greens, with slices of fresh mozzarella.

but, i also did some food shopping in chinatown. it's been a long time coming, but it finally happened. purchased: rice noodles, vermicelli, dried mango, panko, coconut milk, spring roll papers, soba noodles, and some spicy, savory snacks.

wednesday, i made rice noodles with peanut sauce, loaded with tofu, onion, and collard greens. the collard greens were an experiment, as i had never added them to this particular recipe before. it was excellent. healthier, maybe. and i ate a mound of it, as you can see.

and yesterday, in a hungover fog, i made spring rolls for myself and tracy. full of carrots and vermicelli and fried tofu and cucumber, with more peanut sauce. it's been a fatty week. so good.

recipe for peanut sauce and spring rolls here. (yes, i am linking to myself.)

reunited, and it feels so good.

in graduate school, i lived with 3 lovely people: lindsey, april, and hannah. we had not been together in years and so we organized a sleepover-reunion at my place this past saturday. of course, that meant that i had the opportunity to cook for everyone, in between the arm-wrestling and the discussions of sex and grammar.

we started with spring rolls in the backyard: rice paper skins full of bean vermecelli, cucumber, carrots, basil, and sunflower sprouts. a spicy peanut sauce made with chili oil. and of course, cocktails: whiskey sours made by lindsey with homemade ginger syrup and lemons.

we eventually needed more food, and while the girls munched on chips and hummus, i cooked a pasta dish with chickpeas and arugula. so easy for a group. i had found a recipe in the august issue of cooking light earlier that day. awesome.

1. cook pasta (i used a half-bag of the corn kind.)
2. in a pan, heat olive oil and add in chopped garlic (2-3 cloves) and crushed red pepper. when the garlic is browned, add in salt (1/2 tsp), tomatoes (2 cups chopped), and beans (i used one can of chickpeas, but you could use any white bean). cook for a couple of minutes.
3. toss pasta and tomato-bean mixture, with a little of the pasta water and a good handful of chopped arugula, a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice, and grated parmesan.
then there was more drinking. we finished most of the bottle of whiskey, in addition to a half-bottle of reyka vodka and an almost-full bottle of gin.

so, yes. we eventually went to sleep. i had been anticipating frying many eggs in the pan sunday morning, but my roommates were m.i.a. therefore, i only got to fry 4, not 6. that's ok, too.
we ate the eggs with fresh corn cut off the cob with butter and sea salt, in addition to carrots, cucumbers, sunflower-flax bread, and a baby plum.
(most photographs courtesy of hannah and her fancy camera.)

slumber party.

last night, april and tracy came over for a slumber party, which is the perfect time to eat fun snacks that don't actually have to equate to a proper meal. i made salsa and hummus earlier in the week just for the occasion, but, as far as i am concerned, one does not need an "occasion" for either. in addition, i made spring rolls. they are one of my favorite things to make. (in reality, i like most things that come wrapped up in packages, like burritos and tacos and sushi.) anyhow, spring rolls are super easy and fun. they remind me of houston. lots of tasty asian food there.

how to make a spring roll, if you have no idea. sharing the love here...
1. fry some tofu. you don't actually have to use tofu, but i think it's perfect. especially pan-fried in sesame oil.
2. use the leftover oil to cook some other veggies. i prefer carrots, peppers, mushrooms, and onions in the spring rolls. i also cook them separately, but there are no real rules to this process.
3. get out some rice vermcelli. boil the water and let the noodles sit in the boiling water until they are soft. rinse them under some cold water.
4. the rice wrappers. you get these at any asian market, or fancy grocery store, though the asian place will be cheaper. i go to the pearl river on broadway. fill a plate with hot water and put the wrapper in the water. when it's soft, take it out and put it on another plate.
5. put a small amount of lettuce in the center of the wrapper. then the noodles and then the veggies. not too much; you have to roll it up too.
6. fold in two opposite sides of the wrapper, and then fold one remaining side in over the food.
7. make sure it fits tightly under the that side and then roll it up. the rice paper will stick to itself, so you don't have to seal it like sushi.
8. you are done. eat. yum!

i like my spring rolls with peanut sauce. people seem to think that it is difficult to make peanut sauce, but it's not really. my favorite recipe is actually the one on the side of the smucker's natural peanut butter. (i am a huge fan of the recipes that come on the sides of packages. they are often so easy and so tasty. remember, the companies have food scientists and full-time chefs and so their recipes are super-tested.) this peanut sauce recipe is not on the website so i am including it in this enormous post.

1/3 cup peanut butter (i like the natural and organic kinds, because they don't have the ever-illustrious high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils.)
1 tsp. garlic powder
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. soy sauce or tamari
1 tsp. sugar
1/3 cup water (i use boiled water so that everything dissolves easily when you mix it.)
cayenne (this is optional; i like everything spicy.)

directions: mix it all together. eat with the spring rolls. or use as a sauce for rice noodles. mmm.