Eggrolls and Posting Frequency

So it's been a couple of days since posting... I've talked with A a lot and I've all but decided to make this a blog that posts twice a week instead of daily.  This may come as a surprise (read: not at all) but I'm very boring.  And I am made more boring when I have to set aside time each day to write about my boring life.  I would rather spend that time on projects (gardening, home improvement, trying to untangle the mess of cords behind our entertainment center... seriously I don't think that one will ever actually happen).  We're also reaching the point where we're beginning to talk marketese about this book - I'm not sure what that means for this blog (it will definitely continue to exist, just perhaps not in its current form).  More updates as we get them!


So I tried my hand at making Sweet and Sour Chicken, which I've tried before we moderate success (though it did get very very soggy the next day).  And as an impromptu "what the hey" I also threw in homemade eggrolls, because heck, I'm tired of paying $8 for 10 frozen ones.  I ended up settling on this recipe with a few modifications (mainly that they were incredibly meaty and they needed more vegetables).

The chicken is very straightforward (also I forgot to take a lot of photos); probably my least favorite part about this recipe is how "clumpy" the sweet and sour sauce gets when it cools.  It's kinda like a very loose gelatin.  I added garlic and black pepper to the batter (because I'm a garlic kind of girl - seriously, there's no threat of vampires around here), then deep fried those bad boys to a beautiful golden brown.  On a random note, I'd forgotten how much deep frying makes you feel like you're walking around in a cloud of grease afterwards.

The eggrolls were a lot of fun once I got started - it was as easy as browning the meat (though I don't think I'd use a full pound of sausage next time - 1/2 lb would be plenty!) and sauteeing the vegetables to loosen them up.

As it turns out, it's a lot of fun to make eggrolls.  You just plorp some filling (I saw a recipe for apple dumpling eggrolls... doesn't that sound divine?) about 2 inches from the bottom and roll.  Roll roll roll.  Moisten the top of the eggroll wrapper and roll some more.

Here we have 8 pretty eggrolls ready for frying.  I ultimately got 20 out of this batch, which means I spent about $7 for about twice the eggrolls.  That's a pretty okay thing, I think.

Here we are frying... I just put some oil in the bottom of my skillet.  I hate wasting stuff.  Anyway, these didn't take long to cook at all.  And they smell divine.

Annnd here's the finished product (with an extra photo of my dinner plate.  It was as delicious as it looked!)  The back three ended up kinda well done, but the top ones turned out nice.  These reheat really well, in fact I kinda like them more the next day (after the flavors have had time to meld and such...)