Cobb Salad

Spring is coming, so we thought.  All we have here in the Northeast are rain showers on the warm days and chilly winds on the sunny days.  I am no longer able to eat the yams in my cold storage – I must eat greens.  I finally went to the grocery store and for the first time in a very long time I bought lettuce.  I tried to eat a seasonal and local diet, but if you live in the Northeast like I do then at some stage you have to give up and just throw the green potatoes away.

Cobb Salad

Nothing in this salad was local, not the bacon, bleu cheese, avocado, chicken, lettuce, nor the cranberries.  It was very delicious and gave us hope that spring is on the way and soon little lettuce and arugula shoots will sprout and fill our CSA box once again.  In the meantime I have to buy my lettuce for $3.49 a head at our local rip-off Met Foods.

To make a Cobb, just arrange all the items I mentioned above over lettuce dressed with a simple vinaigrette.  It will make you feel like you are dining at a country club on a bright sunny day.

Egg Rolls

Sometimes I like a greasy egg roll, but I’m not brave enough to consume anything from my neighborhood Chinese dives.  They all seem to sell a combination of General Tso’s and tacos.  The silver lining is that my local grocery has egg roll skins at a reasonable price that fry up so nicely in about a 1/2 inch of hot oil.

Egg Rolls with Pork
You can put just about anything you want in an egg roll so I used whatever I had.  Roll them according to the directions on the package and seal them with egg wash for good results.

For mine, use 1/2 lb. ground pork, browned; 1 small cabbage, shredded; 2 large carrots, shredded; 6 scallions, chopped; 1 tsp. celery seed, and 1 sprinkle curry powder.

You may be curious to know why I used curry powder?  Well, it’s all I had and oddly enough it worked and made our little egg rolls much more compelling than they would have otherwise been.

Fry them in about 1/2 inch of screaming hot vegetable oil until browned and bubbly.  Let them rest of paper towels and serve with a chili or plum sauce.

It was better than being at a Chinese restaurant for me!