Dim Sum (or various fried things of the Asian variety)

From Left to Right:

Spring roll, Wasabi Edamame Dumplings and Pork Dumplings.

The Pork Dumplings

http://sacfoodies.com/2010/01/soup-series-wasabi-dumpling-soup/

I fried my dumplings and left out the soup....

The Wasabi Edamame Dumplings

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rescue-chef/fried-edamame-dumplings-recipe/index.html

The Spring Rolls

• Chopped Green onions
• the remainder of the pork dumpling filling
• a handful each of red and green bell peppers and carrots cut into thin strips.
• bean sprouts
• one serving of Japanese noodles

Spring Rolls

The Apple Egg Roll Pyramid

From after thought designed to use the extra wrappers, this dessert is now apparently a requested addition to a pot luck.

For these egg rolls, the filling is made much like a traditional apple pie filling and then wrapped like a regular egg roll. These were deep fried in olive oil and after draining on paper towels and cooling for about 30 sec. the outside dusting of sugar and cinnamon and sugar was accomplished by shaking each in a ziploc bag of cinnamon and sugar.

This batch was the creation of B. My only additions to the process was helping in peeling the apples (it was just too painful to watch ;) , adding a couple dashes of salt to the cooking apples and dropping the egg rolls into the fryer as B was doing the wrapping.

Beef Roast and Vegetables

So... on the way home, I figured that B- would not want another dinner of hot dogs (yep that is what we had the night before) so I dropped by the grocery store. ... I was thinking... something good that does not take a lot of prep. So, I picked up some Carrots, had potatoes and onions at home and I grabbed a 2 pound beef roast.When I got home I plopped that roast in a baking pan (after cleaning out the last few chess squares that had last been made in the pan) and then started adding the accoutrements. Around the roast I scattered a couple handfuls of baby carrots, about 3/4 chopped onion, a couple small white potatoes cubed and then I poured over the top about 1/2 cup of "italian dressing' I had made up the night before that consisted of 1/3 cup olive oil less than 1/4 cup Oregeno Basalmic Vinegar and some Tomato Onion Seasoning. Over that I poured a cup of warm chicken stock.

I put Aluminium foil over the top and baked it all in a low (325 degree F) oven for a couple hours.

When it was near done, B suggested that we add some of the Demi-Glace (aka. "Meat Jellie") that he had picked up recently at a Williams and Sonoma on a lunch break (on an aside..... must be nice to take more than a 5 min coffee break for lunch)

So we did... add a large tablespoon to the stock that had formed ..... cooked for about 20 more minutes and then served with some texas toast cheesy bread. By then I was on this Kim Crawford Chardonay that is in the pic.

Fish and Chips

OK....... so we needed dinner, and the WWE Raw filmed in Manchester England was coming on..... Though I did not know that when I suggested: ummm Potstickers or beer battered fish for dinner? to which I got the "Beer Battered FISH!" reply.

So... fish and chips it was.... I had some flash frozen whiting fish in the freezer and defrosted a couple filets (the were longer than the plate before I halved them) While they were defrosting I plugged in the deep fryer and added a bit more oil to the crisco that was already in there ( you know this will be good for you huh?) .

The batter:

One egg
A liberal couple dashes of Cothams seasoning (local burger place, it's basically onion garlic and salt)
1/3 or so bottle of October Fest Beer
enough flour for a thick batter.

The Chips: Cut about 3 Idaho (I think) potatoes into finger sized pieces and throw them into the fryer basket until nice and golden brown.

For the fish: Dipthem in the batter then dredge them in some flour, seasoned with more Cothams seasoning, and them dipped them in the batter again before placing them in the hot oil until golden brown.

The Tartar Sauce was a quick mix of Dill Pickle Relish and Miracle Whip.

Serve with Malt Vinegar

Nummie!

Sausage Mushroom Pizza

The Crust.... I use the recipe on the package of quick rise yeast. The yeast, some warm water, a tbs of sugar and 1/2 tsp of salt, enough flour for a soft dough. Kneed until elastic.

The dough was spread by hand on a cornmeal floured board until about 9 inches in diameter. I didn't have pizza sauce and was not going to make some from scratch (it was 9:00 PM when I started this) so I used some of the Spaghetti sauce in the fridge. To that I added sauteed mushrooms and some browned sausage. Top it all off with liberal amounts of mozzarella cheese. Cook in a hot (about 475 degrees F) oven until browned. On the second one I brushed the crust with some garlic butter.... but there wasn't that much of a difference.