Eggrolls and Coconut Chicken Soup

On Friday, I drove over to my friend Lily's house. Where she taught me how to make authentic Thai Eggrolls and Coconut Chicken Soup. It had so much fun and it turned out to be a lot easier that I expected.

I took lots of notes and photos. Those I will upload later.

Basic Eggroll Recipe by Lily Davis.
8 cups finely shredded cabbage
4 cups shredded carrots
8 cups cooked rice noodles, cut into 2"-3" lengths
1 cup sugar
3-4 tsp salt
liberal amounts of black pepper
3 packages of eggroll wrappers (we only used about 2 1/2 pkgs)

Mix the all your filling ingredients together and let them set to marinate. Lily said the longer you let them set the better the flavor will be, but we on a time limit, so ours only set for 1/2 hour or so. Next, you have to get all the liquid out of the filing mixture. Take a cotton towl and lay it in the sink. Put a double handful of the filling mixture on it, wrap it up and begin squeezing all the moisture out. This step is important otherwise your wrappers will get soggy. Repeat until you until you are done.

Lay out the eggroll wrapper on the diagonal. Place a pile of the filling in that corner. Pull the point up and over the filling. Keep it tight. Roll the eggroll to the center of the wrapper. Then fold in each side corner. However at this point you want to pull them in enough and at an angle the last point is slightly skinnier that the eggroll itself. It won't absorb as much oil that way. Repeat, Deep fry and enjoy!

Edited 2/24/09: I found a blog mentioning baked egg rolls and I plan I trying that on the 10 I have in the freezer. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray. Cook 6-7 minutes on each side until they are brown and crisp.

Coconut Chicken Soup by Lily Davis:
1 can coconut milk
1 can water
2 cans mushrooms or fresh if you prefer
1 chicken breast, thinly sliced
Lime Leaf: 2-3 if fresh or 3-5 if frozen
6-8" piece of lemon grass cut on the diagonal
3 Red Thai peppers
1/2 cup sugar
fish sauce (2-3 Tbsp/ to taste)
Juice of 1 Lime
Cilantro

Mix coconut milk, water, pepper, lime leaf, lemon grass, sugar in a pan over medium heat. Be careful, coconut milk can skald just like regular milk. Once it is hot, add chicken and fish sauce. Simmer to cook the chicken and bring out the flavor of the lime leaf and lemongrass. Add the mushrooms, simmer a little longer. Once you turn off the heat, add the lime juice. Adding it while cooking will make it bitter. Serve with cilantro on top.
NOTE: I found a recipe in my Everything Thai cookbook for this also, however it adds red curry powder or paste. I think the Cambodian Thai restaurant that I go to does this and it is very good.

Eggroll dipping sauce:
Ok, we didn't make this, but Lily told me what was in it and I tried to make it at home. Mine tastes good, but isn't as thick as Lily's. So I think I added too much water.

Chili peppers, simple syrup (water/sugar), garlic and white vinegar.

These all tasted very good and I hope you try one.

Winter is Back!

I woke up this morning to 4 new inches of snow. I actually had to wear my boots to work again. And the latch on my car door was stuck in the open position, so it would stay closed. This has happened before in cold weather, but it didn't happened when we were have the sub-zero temps, so I wasn't expecting it. I sprayed WD40 in the latch mechanism and connected a bungy cord around the handle and over to the passenger seat. As soon as the car warmed up (about half way to work) I tried shutting the door again and it finally caught. What a pain though.

Sheesh I was so hoping the snow was over with.

New Topic: I have decided that I need to get back on my exercise program. I kind of petered out over the last year. I did so great last year. I lost 30 lbs and over 27 inches. I was working with a group (B100 fit club) sponsored by the local country radio station. But once that ended I lost my momentum. I work better with a group then I do by myself. With the group, I am held accountable if you know what I mean. By myself, I'm not accountable to anyone but myself, so if I don't exercise no one knows. Well, I've fallen back into the same routine as before I lost the weight and gained back about 15lbs. I go home tired and nap on the damn couch. Then I can't sleep when it's time for bed, stay up late and wake up tired again. It's a vicious circle.

I also donated blood last month and got a new reading (non-fasting [NF] of course) on my Cholesterol In January 08 when I lost all the weight, my NF Cholesterol total was 132. So that has definitely gone up. And I pretty positive that means my Triglycerides have gone up too, which was one of the reasons I had originally started my exercise program.

I am determined to do something. So I dug out the book "The Cardio-Free Diet" that we were using with the B-100 Fit Club. And I am re-starting my exercise program. I know when I mention the book on my blog, that the author Jim Karas will get dinged on his blog. I'm kind of embarrassed for him to read this, because I was doing so well before.

I'll keep you all posted with my results.

Color Swap #2

Last Friday was a really trying day. I stopped off the post office to ship my Color Swap package out to my Swapee. Then headed out of town for a funeral. When I got back home that night I was totally surprised to see that I had a package sitting on my porch. It was my package from my swap partner. If that's not Karma I don't know what is.

And it was such an awesome package from Mary a.k.a (Silverbirks) too. It was just what I needed after a long day. I had only stopped at the house to drop off some food and then I was heading for the Red Purl which has open knit nights on Friday night. So I took the package with me and opened it there.

I liked the blue tissue paper so much I kept it and am going to re-use it for packages. Just a perfect color.

I will tell you that I loved all my blue goodies. I especially love the felted bowls/scissor case and the Fleece Artist Somoko sock yarn. Mary was worried that it wasn’t as blue as it looked on-line, but Mary you don’t have to worry. It is great; dark navy blue, green and purple. I can’t wait to make the Cherry Swirl Socks that came with it. Everyone at the Red Purl was drooling over it too. I also got the leftover yarn from the bowls, a skein cotton yarn to make dishcloths, buttons, beads, notepads, scissors, quilting highlighter tape, Wintergreen Altoids, Nestle Crispe Bar, Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate Carmet bar and Oreo Cakesters. If you haven’t tried the Cakesters, you must. I love them, but try not to buy them because I know I would eat the whole box. Oh I almost forget, She included dried blueberries, which I had never tried had before. They are good too. Once you start eating them you just can’t stop. And then they are gone.

Here's a close-up of the Fleece Artist yarn. I am currently working on a vest and sweater, then I have a baby sweater to work on, but once those are done, I AM working on these socks. I just can't wait.

And here is the close-up of the bowls. I'm planning to use one of them to keep my keys in, because I am always laying them down and then forgetting where they are.

Thank you Mary!!

And here is a view of the package I sent. I can't tell you who it went to thought, because it takes 6-10 days to get there.

Books

I went to the library last night before you guys left me books to check on and picked up 3.

Salvation in Death by J.D. Robb - Futuristic Cop murder mystery. I LOVE this series and have been waiting to get this one.

Velocity by Dean Koontz - A guy gets a note to do something or a young school teacher will be killed. The cops think it's a hoax, so he does nothing and the woman is brutally murdered. Sounds kind of interesting.

While My Sister Sleeps by Barbara Delinsky - One sister has a heart attack and is in a coma.... I've read a couple of Delinsky's books before and thought what the heck.

Thanks for the book suggestions. I will look into them during my next trip to the library. The medical thriller sounds good. I've heard that Robin Cook was good, but never tried any. Tess Gerritsen writes some good ones too. Harvest was excellent. And I've heard several knitting friends discussing "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time", I just can never remember the title. Now I have it written down. :o)

On the knitting front, I started my Celtic Vest again; my third attempt. The first time I accidentally felted it. BooHoo! The second time, the colors just didn't come out right, they kept pooling when I didn't want them to. So this time I have a lovely lavendar/green/aqua yarn that I got at Lorna's in Chicago paired with a solid aqua. I only have 10 rows done, but it is looking great!

I've also been working on my Tomato Sweater; in Pink/White. It's knitted top down and I have it knitted down to the decreased just below the bust line. I tried it on before I started the decreases and it was a little loose, but I don't think it was too terrible. I tend to where my clothes loose anyway. I don't like clothes the cling to you. I have 5 skeins of the pink cotton ease and I'm hoping that is enough to make the sleeves 3/4 instead of caps. I'm really liking the feel of the Cotton Ease yarn.

I need a Book to read!

I desperately need something new to read. I have been re-reading a couple of my favorite books, but I've read them so many times, I practically know what's going to happen when I turn the page. Any suggestions?? I like mystery, sci-fi (fantasy), romance.

I think I'll head for the library tonight before my knit group to see what's new.

Wristlet Project Bag

Picture courtesy of Vicki from Simple Knits

I am announcing the debut of my very first pattern. Ok, I've made patterns before, but never to sell.

I designed this small bag to carry my sock knitting projects in. But it would be perfect for any small knitting or sewing project. It hangs from your wrist, enabling you to carry your projects with ease and comfort whether you are on the go or just hanging out with friends.

The pattern is being sold for $5. However, if you do not sew and you would still like a bag for your own, I will be making the bags to sell also. They are $15 each. If you are a Ravelry member, my user name there is: moonlightserenad.

Additional photos:

I have not been lazy!

I just wanted you to know that although I have not posted in a week, I have not been lazy in that time. I have been working on knitting, sewing and (yuck!) cleaning.

On Friday, my day off, I actually took the Christmas decorations down. They are packed, and just waiting for me to transport them to the basement. Since the tree is only 4ft tall, and I don't have a box to store it, I am going to leave it intact and just put a garbage bag over it. Yes, I took the ornaments off and pack them away. But I did leave the lights on it. Then I proceeded to clean the living room. I am notorious for getting something out and not putting it back, so I had to take care of all that. And I vacuumed too. Dang can those cats shed!

I finished knitting a small feltable bag on Sunday and last night I felted it. It is so cute. I'm going to be adding a fabric lining and handles. It is for an on-line knitting swap, so I cannot post photos of it until my swap partner receives it.

I have also been writing up the pattern for the small project bag that I designed. I will add a separate posting for that with pictures and information.