Chinese egg rolls

I found this little vintage dish (soap dish? pin tray?) with its charming dove family on ebay. It’s made by Erphila Germany.

Look how tender the momma bird is with her two babies. Kinda reminds me (in my ongoing fantasy) of me and my kids.

We have doves all over the place here. Big fat grey ones (pigeons, as my husband calls them), that wake me up with their soulful cooing nearly every morning. In the spring, they seem to favor the tree under which I park my car, which means — you guessed it — that often times my car is sporting a fair amount of bird poop.

When my kids were younger, I drove a minivan. It helps to have a self-deprecating sense of humor if you want to drive one of these with your head held high. Personally, I appreciated the remote-controlled sliding doors, and how my kids could scramble into the van without waiting for me to open the doors for them. Most men are unaware of this, but a minivan is actually quite a chick magnet, for when women realize the ease with which you can safely transport 6 kids, they are on you like flies on honey. Trust me on this one.

There was one occasion, however, when my van-driving sense of humor failed me. I was sent at the last minute to fill in for someone at a continuing legal education luncheon for antitrust lawyers. This particular species of chest-thumping lawyers, in my opinion, operates under the false notion that they are really, really important, despite the fact that as best I can tell, there’s not a whole lot going on in the world of antitrust (at least that was my take-away from the luncheon). I did my best to stay awake at the stuffy event in a suit-filled room, but was relieved when it was over. Standing outside the restaurant with the suits waiting for the valets to bring our vehicles, I cringed when they brought my poop-covered van around. And then I did something that I have never done before — I pretended it wasn’t mine. I refused to own it. I turned and went back into the restaurant, and acted as though I had to use the ladies’ room. When the coast was sufficiently clear, I went back out and claimed my crap-covered kid-hauler, joking with the valet (as I overtipped him), “Geez, did you have to park it under a tree?” I was deeply ashamed.

When the doves are not pooping, it seems they are nesting. We have a tree outside our bedroom window with a nest in it that the doves have reused over and over. It’s really neat watching the momma bird sit on the nest for what seems like weeks, and I always gasp with delight the first time I see one of the baby dove’s heads poking up out of the nest. The babies grow fast, and in a very short time, the momma bird is pushing them out of the nest, encouraging them to fly off on their own.

It makes me smile when the baby doves come back to visit.

One of my own “baby doves” is getting ready to leave the nest this fall. My daughter is heading off to college in August, and although I think she’s ready to go, I’m not sure I’m ready for her to go. Sure, I’m excited for her. But geez, I’m gonna miss her. We’ve been having fun this summer getting ready for college, having lunch together, and playing in the kitchen. We made a trip recently to Super H Mart, a gigantic Asian grocery chain store, and came home with all kinds of stuff to play with.

Gochujang sauce

The Great Wall of Kimchi

Rice cakes

Japanese sodas

One of the items we scored were some egg roll wrappers. We’d been talking about making egg rolls forever, and we were excited to finally give it a try. Although they weren’t difficult, they were a bit of work, and were definitely more fun to make with two people. Once you get the hang of rolling them, they’re really pretty easy. You’ll notice there’s no picture of one cut open so you can see the filling, which should give you an idea of how good they were — they were devoured in no time at all.

CHINESE EGG ROLLS

Author: Tag Sale Tastes

Ingredients

½ pound lean ground pork
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups shredded cabbage
2 large carrots, peeled and grated
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 package egg roll wrappers
3-4 cups peanut or vegetable oil, for frying

Instructions

Place pork, soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice vinegar, cornstarch, garlic. and ginger in a medium bowl, and mix until well combined.
Heat vegetable oil in a wok or large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Cook the pork mixture until meat is no longer pink, stirring frequently.
Add shredded cabbage and carrots and cook for 2 minutes longer. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Place one egg roll wrapper on a clean surface rotating it as a diamond shape. Spoon ⅓ cup of the pork mixture in the center of the wrapper from left to right, leaving a 1" margin on either side. Fold the bottom corner up and over the mixture, tucking it in under the mixture. Fold the sides in and roll the egg roll until there is no more wrapper. Dab the top corner of the egg roll wrapper with water and press to adhere to the roll. Continue to make as many rolls as there is filling.
Heat oil on medium high. When oil is hot, fry egg rolls in batches, being careful not to crowd pan, until egg rolls are golden brown. Remove to a paper tower-lined plate to drain. Serve hot.