Spring roll Mozzarella Sticks

I found a recipe for a "different" mozzarella stick.  I really wanted to try this recipe.

Click on photo for the original recipe.

So, when I was at my local Asian Market, Mom's House, I picked up some spring roll wrappers.

I recently bought fresh mozzarella.  I LOVE fresh mozz.  BUT, when I make these again, I will stick to the original recipe and use string cheese.

Caution: Fresh Mozz has a high water content - which causes a volcanic eruption of hot mozzarella water to come spurting out when you bite into them.  OUCH!

Also, the egg roll wrappers have a different texture that would work well with this dish, so I might try those next time too.  Either way, Jared and I really liked these.  Here is what they looked like...

Kitchen Sink Spring Rolls

Since the spring roll package came with like 50 wrappers, I have decided to make spring rolls for dinner.  I do not have a lot of meat and vegetables, so I will call these...

Kitchen Sink Spring Rolls

...because they have everything, but the kitchen sink in them.  (Side note:  I also make kitchen sink soup that is AWESOME!  Just don't ask me to repeat it)

So for this dish, I started by grilling some chicken thighs that were in my fridge.  One they were grilled almost all the way through, I diced them up into a small dice.  I diced up a left over chicken sausage from last night's dinner (Spicy Mango with Jalepeno  - Chicken Sausage... yum).  I diced up left over BBQ onions and peppers from dinner 2 nights ago (recipe here). Added all of this and shredded carrots (diced) to a saute  pan.  I cooked this over medium heat for about 5 minutes.

Kitchen Sink Filling

Next I brushed a cookie sheet with vegetable oil, and preheated the oven to 425 degrees F.  You can also deep fry these, but I wanted to save the calories.  (Did you see my appetizer?!)

While working with the wrappers, make sure you have them covered with a damp cloth.  I just wet 2 paper towels, rung them out, and laid them on top.

 Add a couple scoops of filling to the wrapper...

fold the middle over the filling, then fold in the sides...

Wet the top corner with a little bit of water on your finger, and finish rolling.  Place them on the oiled baking sheet.

Brush the top of each with a little oil, and bake for 20 min.  To make them extra crispy, flip after 10 min.

Kitchen Sink Spring Rolls

Serve with your favorite utensil and dipping sauce.  Enjoy!

The morning after

Is the best part of baking muffins.  See what I mean...

Toasted with Butter

Right out of the pan

What to do with brown bananas? Buy some more...

Recently I have been staring at my last banana, which is too brown to eat, but perfect for banana bread...

I was shopping at Randall's Farm today... which I love!

I found reduced bananas.  They were $0.79 for all of these!  and look how perfect they are...

So I came home and decided to make banana bread... muffins

I don't like how the bread takes so long to make, and the pan is harder to clean.  So I went with muffin tins with cupcake foils in them.  I did spray them quickly with baking spray so they wouldn't stick.  The great think about this recipe is ONE BOWL!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Then start by adding 3 or 4 bananas to the bowl.  I like it to be really banana-y, so I added 4.

You can mash them with a fork, or just squish them with the back of your wooden spoon.  Then melt 1/3 cup of butter...

and add it to the bananas...

Next you will need to add one cup of sugar, one egg, and one teaspoon of vanilla (very easy to remember).

After those are mixed in sprinkle a pinch of salt, and one teaspoon of baking powder on top, and mix in.

Finally, add 1.5 cups of flour to the mix.  I used 1 cup of all purpose flour and 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour.  I know, with all the butter and sugar, who wants to be healthy now.  But I actually like the taste of it.  How you make your's is up to you.  Now is also a good time to sprinkle in some ground flax seed if you like.

Then spoon the batter into your muffin tins.  As you can see I do it with a mini ice cream scoop.  I LOVE this scoop.  I use it for cookies, cupcakes, muffins, etc.  It helps me make them all the same size, and therefore cooked equally.  I used 2 scoops with this, and it filled them about 3/4 of the way up.  Perfect.

Now, bake for about 20-25 minutes, depending on your oven (and how much you filled your muffin tins).  I checked them after 20 minutes and they were just right.

Now go make your own, because Jared and I are not sharing ;)

Creating a logo for our business...

After many many trials and tribulations with creating a logo.... It is now complete. I spent many hours researching ideas, begging for someone to design it, playing with fonts, etc. After that, I threw caution to the wind and started creating.  And my friends, we have a logo...

Shoots to Roots, First hole in the ground

So we have been planning the nursery for a while now and mom has been buying plants. Now it is time to make some holes in the ground for the plants to live in. When we arrived at Market Hill, Mom was ankles deep in dirt...

She was pretty excited about making our first beds...

It is always fun when you have power equipment to help.  This little Honda does a great job.  It worked well for this size bed.  Look at the healthy soil it is kicking up...

Finished product....

We have a couple of raised beds that my mom and I created 2 years ago.  These were intended to be small vegetable beds.  We were successful in growing LOTS of basil, and a couple tomatoes.  I believe that is all we were successful with, out of about 50 various veggies planted.   Though our vegetable endeavor did not go as well as planned, the raised beds are now a great asset to Shoots to Roots.  We started using them as healing (heeling?) beds.  When the plants started arriving in the mail we didn't have anywhere to plant them (hence, the new bed).  We found advice on the forum about healing (heeling) them.  Which we did in our raised beds.  They will live there in the soil until we can move them to their new homes.

After a long day of working at the Nursery, we still have smiles on our faces.  The first 3 Shoots - of Shoots to Roots - are right there.... (from left to right) Heather, Jared, Betsy...

Oh yeah, and we cannot forget Jimmy, who was there for moral support.  Well, maybe just some brush burning, a couple of beers, and a roasted wiener.  Either way, we were happy to have him.