Thai Spring Rolls

I made these Thai Spring Rolls for Election Night last year....that's a holiday/party in the house. My darling friend gets all psyched up with me and we spend the night talking, eating, and drinking. This was one of the snacks we had that night.

I made these again for our House Warming and they were LOVED and people asked for the recipe. I'm ashamed its taken me this long to get to posting the recipe.

I saw a spring roll recipe on a blog, and adjusted the ingredients for a Thai theme. I don't have exact measurements because it really goes by quantity and taste. Rice paper was hard for me to find, I had to go to an Asian market a few towns over.


Thai Spring Rolls

rice paper
rice noodles
shredded carrots
shredded purple cabbage
roasted red peppers, julienned
cilantro, chopped
green onions, chopped
peanuts
wonton strips
edamadme, cooked and cooled

1. cook the rice noodles as directed and cool by running under cold water
2. one at time, soak the rice paper in warm water until pliable, add small amounts of each ingredient and wrap like a burrito
3. serve with peanut sauce

**Squint close and you will see them on the white plate!

Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

I saw something similar on Pinterest and developed my own recipe. It's delicious and I think I will make these instead of wings for Super Bowl, so much easier and less time consuming.

1lb chicken sausage
2oz cream cheese
3T celery, finely diced
1/2 cup plus 1T Frank's Hot Sauce
2T blue cheese crumbles
2c panko
pepper to taste
1/2 cup butter

1. combine butter and 1/2 cup of Frank's Hot Sauce in a sauce pan until melted and combined, set aside.
2. mix remaining ingredients. form balls. brown in a skillet
3. place in baking dish, cover with butter mixture and bake at 350 until cooked through (20-30 minutes)
4. serve with blue cheese dressing

Picnic Table Makeover

I had this idea to have my cousins over for a bonfire in October. Great idea, right? It was, until I remembered that I didn't have any lawn furniture.

We had decided that a picnic table was the best choice for us because we don't have a patio for a table and chairs. Then I looked at the price of a picnic table. It was an unexpected surprise to see them go for $100 minimum. That just wasn't going to happen right now. So my sister in law suggested Freecycle. That night I searched and posted on Freecycle, Craigslist, and a buy/sell group I belong to on Facebook. Within 24 hours I found a style Joe and I agreed on and that was in reasonable shape for $10.

I quickly recruited someone with a bigger car then mine to help me pick it. After seeing it in person I became a little nervous. It wasn't in quite as great a shape as I had thought. It also didn't help that the guys wife, who was home at the time, seemed a little confused as to why I was buying something so old. (This is where I would like to show y'all a before picture, however I wasn't smart enough to take one or copy it from the listing before it expired.)

Never one to give up, we brought in home in several pieces, and determined that four of the supports had to be replaced, as well as one of the boards on a bench. We acquired some wood, stain and borrowed a power sander. That's when I got REALLY nervous. How were the new boards going to blend it? What am I sacrificing in my attempt to be ridiculously cheap?

And then Joe started sanding, and I breathed a sigh of relief. It was going to be ok. I obviously have never done this before, or I wouldn't have gotten so nervous. Lesson learned.

And then it was time to stain. This was another decision based on cost. I wouldn't have chosen this stain, but thankfully it works out wonderfully! Especially with the red in our house and garage. Getting it back together was a little difficult. It also required a quick run to the Depot for some screws. We are still slowly acquiring things homeowners should have on hand.

Tada!!! Some other boards will be need to be replaced in the coming years. But it fulfills our needs for the rest of this season, and maybe even next. I, as always, was very happy to cross something off our Home To Do List (it really exists, I'm an organizational freak).

Total project cost: $10 for table, $10 for stain (with TONS left over), $15 for wood (also with lots left over) and a six pack for the gentleman who helped me pick it up. Not bad for our first project of this type.