Sunday, July 11, 2010

Lumpia

My Mother worked with a Filipino lady when I was a little girl and she would make these for my Mom.  I quickly learned how to fry them myself and they were always soooo good! When my Mom left the job I never had them again until I ran across this recipe one day! I was so happy and excited that I went to the international market and bought all the ingredients and EOP and I had them for lunch! 




Ingredients:
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 3/4 cup shredded carrots
  • 1/2 cup chopped onions
  • 1 teaspoon or 2 cloves minced garlic
  • 3/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 2 teaspoons season salt
  • 1 package of 50 Lumpia Wrappers or 2 packages of 25 individually separated Lumpia Wrappers
  • 1-1 1/2 cup(s) vegetable or olive oil
  • Small bowl of water
First, you'll want to brown your ground beef with your chopped onions, shredded carrots, garlic, pepper, and season salt, over medium high heat in a skillet or frying pan. (I recommend using a frying pan that is at-least 1 1/2" to 2" deep. I use the same pan to fry the lumpia in once it is rolled and finished.) When the meat is nice and brown drain the excess grease and set aside.
Now, here comes the fun part. Separate the Lumpia wrappers. In all my years of making Lumpia I have not found any easy way to separate this darn things but I will tell you how I do it; maybe you can come up with an easy way. The wrappers need to be defrosted if they are frozen. You'll also want to have a plate to set them on as well as a damp kitchen towel to cover them, we don't want our wrappers to dry out! Open the package and take out the stack of Lumpia wrappers, start at the edges and gently start peeling the edges upward, continue around and round until you eventually get to the center and loosen the individual sheet off of the stack. Now, place the loose sheet on your plate under the damp towel or cloth. And basically repeat until the stack or package is done. Sounds easy right? It's not! It will take you a few times of separating before you get the hang of it, probably midway between the stack.
We are now ready to assemble our Lumpia Rolls.
  • Take 1 of the Lumpia wrappers and spoon 1-2 tablespoons of your ground beef mixture into a line near the edge on the Lumpia wrapper.
  • Fold Lumpia wrapper over the line of meat you just spooned.
  • Now, you will begin to roll the meat into a tube. Stop rolling when you are to the middle of the wrapper.
  • Fold the right and left sides of the lumpia wrapper to the center
  • Continue to roll to the end of the wrapper
  • Dip your fingers in the small bowl of water and lightly moisten the exposed edge of the lumpia wrapper
  • Fold wrapper edge onto itself pressing it down gently. So it seems to glue itself down.
  • Place to the side for now and repeat, repeat, repeat! Until there isn't anymore wrappers or meat left.
All that's left to do now is heat your oil in your frying pan on medium high heat. You only need about 1/2" of oil across the bottom of the pan. Once the oil is hot place about 4-5 Lumpia across the pan and lightly brown each side of the lumpia. About 3-5 minutes each side. It will also vary with your stove. So if it seems like they are burning quickly turn your burner down. They should be a nice golden brown color. Now you want to let them cool and drain some of the excess grease off of them. My mother and I have always used a colander, feel free just to set them on paper towels or napkins. Repeat until you've made desired amount or they are all done. You can store extras(before they are fried in oil!) in the freezer to fry later on. That's another great benefit to this recipe, you can make 50 at a time and only fry 10 one day and saved the others for when you feel like it.

Serve with Ketchup!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

UMMMM COOKIES!!!

I don't eat very many sweets but when I get a sweet tooth it HAS to be satisfied!! I recently tried another cookie recipe and the cookies were very good but they weren't as soft & chewy as I would have liked.  So I tried again and thought I would use the recipe from the back of the Nestle Toll House Milk Chocolate Morsels package.  SUCCESS!!!  I hope you all like these cookies as much as me and my boo enjoyed them! 


Smooches! 


Ingredients



  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Milk Chocolate Morsels
  • 1 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans they are my fav!)

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.
COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets. 
BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. 

*This recipe makes about 5 dozen if you spoon them small enough!

Monday, July 5, 2010

Simple Pleasures...

Happy 4th Everyone!

I grilled this year as I have every year since Ive been on my own and my menu went a lil' sumthin like this...

Brightleaf Hot Dogs & Red Hots (yum-o, my fav hotdog in the whole wide world!!!)
Grilled Jerk Chicken Wings (my babe's specialty..)
Hamburgers
Grilled Turkey Legs (xtra yum-o)

Butter Beans w/ smoked turkey
Mac & Cheese

Sounds Yummy huh? Wish I had smell-o/taste-o vision so you all could experience the yumminess!!!!

But for now what you've all been waiting for...

Grilled Turkey Legs

Take the raw turkey legs and place em over a charcoal grill.
Turn while cooking to insure they brown on all sides.
Cook until done (varies depending on size)
Remove & Enjoy...

*Speckled Butter Beans w/ Smoked Turkey

Smoked Turkey Wing boiled until tender and water looks cloudy (its seasoned) add 1 bag frozen *speckled butter beans add salt & pepper to taste.  Cook until done. (about an hour or so)

Really easy huh? It is and it's really healthy!  

*I like the speckled butter beans because it makes the "gravy" dark and they have a better flavor than the reg green ones to me but you can cook either one this way.

Ciao, Infinity



images from: http://whatdidyoueat.typepad.com & http://mangoandlime.net