Got up at 7:00 and got to work. Jake and Carla said they'd be over this afternoon. So, I peeled potatoes and carrots and threw them in the crockpot along with some peeled shallots (trying that instead of pearl onions). Next came an English beef roast, seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Then I pressed additional cracked pepper into it. This allowed me to use my mortar and pestle for the first time (I'd picked a small marble one up at World Market a while back).
Note to anyone who might think using a mortar and pestle to crack peppercorns could be "fun." Forget it! By the time I got anywhere near a meaningful amount, my hand was sore, my arm was sore and my countertop and kitchen floor looks like terrorists had set off some sort of a pepper bomb. I did learn the secret, though. Only put in a small amount of peppercorns, work them until cracked, dump and repeat.
Anyway, then topped the roast with rings from a sweet onion, fresh herbs (parsley, thyme and rosemary) still on the stem (makes it easier to fish them out later) and a pound of small button mushrooms. Added about a cup of beef stock and a splash of red wine, closed the lid and turned it to "Low" and we should have dinner sometime after 4:00 PM.
Next - housecleaning and laundry. Neither too difficult, as I haven't had any projects to mess up the house and I did laundry during the week. Listening to "Saturday Morning, over easy" on the radio. Finally, shaved and showered around noon.
I had decided to make Carla's favorite appetizer (well, Jake and I like them, too) Shrimp Spring Rolls. Now, I am sure many of you are familiar with how to make Spring or Egg Rolls, but I am including this for my Mother, who I am pretty sure is not.
So, I infused some oil with ginger and warmed up a combination of shrimp, bean sprouts, chopped shittake mushrooms, a grated carrot and a couple of finely sliced scallions. Then I added rice wine vinegar, some tamari soy sauce and a splash of sesame seed oil. Let that all simmer until the liquid was almost gone, then pulled it off the stove to cool (I set it on the front porch railing).
Made some dipping sauce from essentially the same mixture: rice wine vinegar, tamari sauce, sesame seed oil, a little sugar and two finely sliced scallions.
Now to my Spring Roll factory (I always set this up on my big wood cutting board on the kitchen table. It allows me to work sitting down, it controls the mess and, well, it looks good!) Put a won ton wrapper on the board, added two tablespoons of the mixture to the middle, folded one flap in, pull the mixture back as tight as you can without ripping the wrapper, fold in the two other flaps and roll towards the fourth flap. Just before you get there, wet the flap with water (the flour and water form a glue that holds it together). Finish rolling and repeat... and repeat... and repeat... I got 18 Spring Rolls out of this.
Now I heated vegetable oil to 365 degrees F. Added in the Spring Rolls four at a time (you don't want to crowd them) and watched them close. Recipe times vary, some say two to three minutes, other three to four, but I've done this enough so that I am not looking at time, I'm looking for color. Too light and the wrap is doughy; too dark and it's unpleasantly crunchy and "burned" tasting; but a beautiful dark golden color and they are perfect!. When I pulled each batch out, they went on a rack sitting on a cookie sheet covered with paper towels to drain the oil. When I finished them all, I put the rack in a warm oven to await my guests and started clean up.
Got done and took a break reading on the office daybed. After a bit, Jake and Carla showed up. We chatted a while, ate some Spring rolls chatted a bit more, then decided to play Scrabble. Big mistake! It was one of those games where about half-way through there's really nothing left to build on. Very frustrating! However, thankfully, it was finally over: Carla won, Jake was next and me dead last!
We were listening to quite an eclectic mixture of music: at various time we heard Rock and Roll, Rap (or Hip Hop, I can't tell the difference!) and some Swing (Jake is into the Swing years right now). Now we switched to playing cards: 500 Rummy. Different game, similar results. This time Jake won, Carla was second and me, Mr. Loser again!
Dinner time. Carla mixed together the cornbread dough and cheddar cheese and put it in a greased cast iron skillet. I put that in the over for 20 minutes. I'd turned the crockpot to "Warm" a while back, but the meat still fell apart when I tried removing it, so "presentation" sucked. But, taste-wise, it was all quite good, the shallots adding an interesting touch.
Jake insisted on cleaning up, so Carla and I put away leftovers, passed him plates, etc. Then they left about 8:30 or 9:00 PM. I thought about TV, but it seemed like too much trouble. So, grabbed my book from the office and went to bed. Petted Scruffy a bit (who had really enjoyed the attention he got all day) started reading and fell asleep before finishing another chapter...
