Vietnamese Summer Rolls

Ask my husband what his favorite thing to eat in the world is and he will always say Summer Rolls.  Since it takes quite a bit of prep time to make, I will have to sadly admit that I don't make it very often at home.   I did surprise him last week when I decided to make it for lunch.

Everyone likes to put different things in their rolls, but here is what my family likes.

 

Ingredients:

green leaf lettuce, washed and leaved

cucumbers, sliced length wise

onions, thinly sliced

bean sprouts, washed

large shrimp, peeled, deveined

crab meat, calamari, octopus (optional)

pork shoulder/butt, thinly sliced (butcher can do it for you)

rice vermicelli, prepped according to package and cooled

rice paper

butter

nuoc cham sauce recipe found here (scroll down)

The ingredient list may sound scary, but you can put whatever you want in this recipe.  For the crab meat, calamari, and octopus, I just buy a seafood medley bag I find at my grocery store.  The rice paper looks like this:

 

You can find it at any Asian grocery store.  There are a dozen brands and I just go with the one that looks the thinnest.  Typically, growing up, I would cook this meal on the dinner table among family and friends.  We would sit and talk for hours as we cook, rolled, and ate.  Fast forward in time, 4 kids later and a dozen activities to get to, I've had to speed cook and get to the rolling and eating part.  Saute any uncooked meat or seafood with a little butter.  I also saute the onions.   A healthier route would be to boil the shrimp and meat, but I'd still saute the onions or eliminate them all together.

 

Therefore, I started out with this:

and ende up with this:

 Doesn't everything look tasty?  Now that are ingredients are ready, lets roll!

Take one rice paper and wet it completely.  Lay it on a plate and place your ingredients in the center.

 

I just pile it on.  Normally, it goes all in my mouth anyways so making it line up and look pretty is only for pictures :)

 

Fold the two sides of the rice paper towards the center.

 

Then fold the bottom paper up and roll the entire roll to the top.

 

Make sure to keep it taut. There you have it, a beautiful summer roll.

Dip it into the dipping sauce and enjoy.

 

This is SOoO good.  It's probably one of my favorite recipes as well.  I remember the kids coming home and saying the house smelled so good.  It may take some time to make these rolls, but let me tell you, its so worth it.

Making a Better Guitar Case

Not surprisingly, E. has decided to join the guitar club.  At this rate, he'll be a one man band by the time he turns 10.  This year will be the fifth year he has been taking piano lessons and has become quite good.  Learning guitar should be a piece of cake since he knows how to play the violin.  Yes, my 9 year-old plays 3 instruments and it amazes me how dedicated he is to them.  

Since he has to bring his guitar to school, I wanted to find him a case that he can wear as a back pack, but I wanted one that was as sturdy as a hard case.  I'm not a fan of hard cases because they are quite heavy.  Since he plays with a 3/4 sized guitar, finding a nylon case that was sturdy in this size is a little more difficult.  Therefore, I decided to buy a nylon case I found online.  It seemed sturdy enough, but since it collapsed, it made putting the guitar back in the case a little more difficult.  I decided to reinforce the exterior of the case for both protection and at the same time, making it a lot easier for E. to store his guitar.

I decided to use card board and luan (thin wood).  I took a piece of cardboard, measured and cut it to fit the bottom and top of the case.

I made sure it was exactly the same size or it would be difficult to slide in.  I also cut pieces for the sides of the case that would go all around.

 

Next is the messy part.  I removed the stitching on the largest side of the bag.  Its always hard to destroy something that is perfectly new.

 

Then I slid the piece of cardboard right in.  I made sure to have the padded side towards the inside of the case to protect the guitar.

 

I then slid cardboard all around the sides of the case, bending to fit the case.  Towards the head of the case, I used pieces of luan (wood) to enforce the sides instead of card board.

 

I hand basted the top and sides together.  I know, it doesn't look that pretty yet, but just wait.

 

Last, I pinned the edging over the new stitched ends to cover it up.

 

Voila!  I have a new semi-hard case.  Its hard, but has a soft surface.

 

E. has no trouble putting his guitar back in the case.  He doesn't have to worry about pulling the sides up to zip it all around. Before reinforcing, it the sides would just collapse.  Now it stands straight.

 

He loves his new case as do I :)

Candy Bar Bouquet

I like to give gifts to my kids' teachers on their birthday.  Generally, I have time to get to know the teacher so that I can pick a gift that they will like.  It just so happens that A.'s teacher's birthday was the first day of school.  I frantically had to figure out what his likes were.  Reading the list of things that were his favorites the only thing that came up was candy bars.  He didn't drink coffee so no starbucks, so I ran with the candy bar theme and decided to make a candy bar bouquet complete with a Kit Kat vase. 

First I went to my stash of styrofoam and I cut out a piece that was the length and width of a Kit Kat bar.  You can use floral styrofoam as well.  I just used what I had.  I taped the Kit Kat bar to each side of the styrofoam.

Voila! I get an instant vase!  It looks cute already, huh?

I used skewers and taped them underneath the candy bar wrapper flap so they wouldn't be seen.

Only the bottom of the skewer is shown.

 

Once all my candy bars were skewered, I stuck them into the styrofoam to make my bouquet.  Easy Peesy!

 

I thought it turned out pretty yummy myself.  One birthday down, a couple more to go!

Teacher Appreciation Gift - First Day of School

Every year, I like to make a little gift to give the teachers the first time we meet them.  It just so happens to be apple oriented in some way.  I remember a friend of mine making chocolate covered oreos at her daughter's birthday one time and I loved that idea so much I knew I wanted to copy it in the future, but was always unable to find the cookie molds.  The ones that I normally spot have a theme or picture on it, and I wanted plain molds.

Fortunately, on the 11th hour, I found the mold at a local bake shop in town.  I decided to make these little apple pops made from chocolate covered oreos.  Aren't they cute?

First I filled the cookie mold half way up with red melted candy melts.

 

Next, I placed my oreos on top.  Do not use the double-stuffed oreos as they are too high for the mold.

Next pour more candy melt on top of the oreos and scrape the top with a knife so that it is level.

Place in the refrigerator for 10 minutes and then pop them out when they harden.  I love the way they look already.  It may look a little marbly in the picture, but that's just because of the condensation.  Once they dry up, the color is perfectly uniform! 

 

I placed it on a skewer and added a piece of a pretzel stick on top for the stem.  Green tootsie roll was used to make the leaf.  Instructions on how to make the leaf can be found here.  I used a little bit of the candy melt to adhere the leaf. 

I wrapped the apple with a small cellophane bag I bought at Michael's and tied it with a green ribbon. I found a little note template online that said, "Roses are red, and apples are too.  I can't wait to spend the school year with you."  Total project I thought was pretty easy and it turned out pretty adorable if I say so myself.

My kiddos handed out their apple bouquets on Meet and Greet the Teacher night.  The apples were a success.  E. said they were delicious to eat as well!  He got to eat the not so perfect ones ;) 

Chicken Nuggets

What kid doesn't love chicken nuggets?  My little A. is obsessed with Chick-fil-A so I promised him some if he could give me a great swim practice.  It became a tradition so when I saw this recipe on how to make chick-fil-A tasting chicken nuggets, I knew I wanted to try it.

I modified the recipe I found here.

Copycat Chick-fil-A Nuggets

• 1 large egg
• 1 cup milk
• 2.5 lbs. skinless and boneless chicken breasts (about 3 chicken breasts)
• 1¼ cup flour
• 2 tbsp powdered sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• ½ tsp chili powder
• oil for frying

 Directions

In a large bowl whisk milk and egg together.  Place chicken on counter and cut into cubed bite size pieces; trim any fat that you may see.

  

Put the chicken in the milk mixture and mix so that all is coated and place in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. In another large bowl combine the dry ingredients listed above and stir. In cast iron pot or sauce pan pour in oil so that its at least an inch deep on med/high heat.

Remove the chicken from refrigerator and place about 8 pieces in milk mixture and then into the flour mixture.  A. and E. wanted to help out and weren't afraid to get their fingers dirty.

Make sure all the chicken is coated with the flour and then place into the hot oil.  Cook each side for at least 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Place the chicken on some paper towels to soak up any oil.  Repeat the same steps with the rest of the chicken and serve.

Add some waffle fries and you have a perfect meal!

 

 What's the verdict?  It was so goood.  All my kids said it was even better than Chick-fil-A and they'd be happy to have home made nuggets any day!  I was actually a bit shocked to hear that, but I'll take it.

The best part was the price.  It was only $5 to make for my entire family.  The waffle fries were another $1 so that makes $6 for a family of 6 with plenty of leftovers :).

A. offered to "help" me cook it so that he could eat it again :)

Trip to NYC and DC

E. asked me if he could go to New York City for his birthday.  I said, "Sure, why not!"  The only caveat was that he would have to wait until school was out to go.  That is what started this family vacation.  A couple of weeks later, R. told me all the things he learned in school about the Lincoln Memorial and the White House.  He then asked me if we could go there one day so I said, "Sure, how about this summer?" 

We had plans to go to Florida for the summer, but decided to take a road trip to New York instead.  We, as a family mapped out all the major landmarks we wanted to stop and visit.  We are definitely not shy when it comes to driving long distances, but this one would definitely be the longest drive we ever made with all four kids.

My hubby and I drove 26 hours straight.  Yes, straight!  It ended up taking us 27 hours to reach NYC because we needed to get an oil change along the way.  What's a trip without an oil change right?  We did make it though.  Our hotel was a block away from Grand Central station making it so convenient to go anywhere.

We took a ferry to see New York along the water.

 

Can you spot the Statue of Liberty?

Here's a closer picture.

A little bit of the city.

 

One of the days we were in NYC, they had a fair along the street.  It was great seeing all the vendors.

 

A. just had to have his roasted corn.

 

 

We went up the Empire State Building.  The sites were amazing from above.

One of the kids favorite places, which they certainly put on their "to go" list was Nintendo World at Rockefeller Center.

 

After visiting Time Square, Battery Park, China Town, and all the other major attractions, we headed to Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell.  We tried Philly Steak Sandwiches at Pat's.  Sad to say that we were not impressed.

We then headed towards Washington D.C.  After driving hours in the rain, it was nice to see the sun out.

 

We walked passed the capital on our way to dinner.

 

We stayed only a block from the Smithsonian Museums which was perfect.  Even though the Metro was downstairs from our hotel, we didn't even need it.

 

We visited nearly all the museums.  One of my favorites was the Butterfly garden at the National Museum of Natural History.  

They landed right on you and wouldn't fly away.

 

We saw the White House.  If I'd plan the vacation 4 months prior, we could have requested tickets to go inside.  That's what happens when you do everything last minute!

 

The National Monument was under construction.  There was a scaffold all around the building due to an earthquake creating some damage.

 

We went to the capitol while it was pouring outside.  We snapped a picture a few moments after the rain had subsided.  That's probably why there were no other person insight (except for the lady in the black dress in the back).  Everyone was hiding from the rain.

 

One of the favorites for our kids was the Postal Museum.  No one ever thinks to go there, but after visiting Union Station, I wanted to check it out.  It was a great Children's museum.  Since everything was interactive, the kids had a blast.

 

They scanned and sorted mail.

 

Look at all the different kinds of mail boxes around the world.

 

The grand finale was visiting the Lincoln Memorial.  This is what R. came to see.  

 

The trip ended with a big bang!  We camped out on the capital lawn to watch the fireworks.

 

I've seen fireworks in D.C. three times now and it never ceases to amaze me.  

 

The best part of the evening was NOT having to take the metro home.  We walked a block back to our hotel, ending our perfect evening.

 

We saw and did so many things and when I ask my kids what their favorite part of the vacation was, everyone said the fireworks!  After driving another 23 hours home, my husband and I suggested to the kids that perhaps our next family vacation could be a little closer to home :)