BF brought back dinner from a Dominican spot in Perth Amboy, NJ. He had beef stew while I had chicken, plenty of arroz con gandules, and we shared yucca fries, and mofongo with a garlic sauce. We also had a glass or two of Chardonnay. Not bad for a Monday!
And could not resist sharing this pic from breakfast yesterday. Can’t get up for a second!
i dunk the rice paper wrappers in warm/hot water for a max of 5-8 seconds, rotating around to make sure the whole disc gets softened, but then you do have to work very quickly and make sure to lay the softened (now saran wrap-like) disc on a flat surface without folding over on itself. after piling on filings sufficient enough to make a nice plump roll, but not too much as to tear when rolling, then folding in the sides and the rolling just tightly enough just takes practice, a bit of luck and holding of breath. Mrs. Ps rolls look lovely!
Hah! So I guess you fall on the free-form side of the ongoing meatloaf debate? I go back and forth, but that looks terrific.
Cool kit kat !!
Lovely grouper !!
Yes, it is a very clean Vodka, with a refreshing post gusto !
We had some cocktails prior to the lunch.
Thanks. Have a nice week ahead.
Try wetting them on a plate instead! Less acrobatics. Trick a friend showed me.
Yep!
Used to make a ton of spring rolls ( lumpia ) both with Vietnamese rice paper as well as very thin flour paper as my husband was diagnosed with gluten enteropathy back in 1972 when readily available gluten free products were virtually non existent. Il would roll out a hundred of them each time, then freeze them readily to pan fry when needed,
Personally, I prefer the very thin flour/duck egg sheets that our family chef used to make, smearing a very thin layer on a wok for just a few seconds but nowadays, one can buy premium lumpia sheets from Asian stores, and even better, they come in individually separated sheets so there is no need for the painstaking time to defrost, separate them and hope they will not tear as they are very delicate, There are 2 versions from the same company, Simex. Be sure it is labeled as individually separated sheets. They can be rolled fresh and eaten shortly after or pan fried which is quite crunchy. This is nothing like the spring rolls sold at restaurants.
https://www.heb.com/product-detail/simex-individually-lumpia-wrapper/1893571
As for Vietnamese rice crepes, . For mass production, I usually would have 4 dinner sized plates ready , a bowl of lukewarm water, filling readily to assemble, then soak the sheets briefly, place them on my dinner plate , then the filling, and by the time I got to this stage, , the sheets will soften and be stretchy as one works and roll.
When we used to visit a 5 star Vietnamese restaurant in DC, they have a bowl that was custom made or them for their guest. They bring the bowl to the table with the wrappers and filling for the guest to make their own rolls by a quick dip of the sheets in the warm water, rotating it as it can only accommodate half the sheet, then roll themself. It is now available in the internet, both amazon and Ebay if and when Mrs. P would like her guests to prepare the rolls and eat it fresh themselves
I hope this helps! Try the Simex , I promise Mrs. P will like that. .
Thanks @ccj @MAH and @ChristinaM for your advice!
Another problem that Mrs. P found was that after wetting the rice rolls they become practically invisible, and it is hard to find the ends to start wrapping them 
I’m sure she will figure it out next time.
dinner last night at sister’s was BUTTER. and a little bread, tomatoes, and anchovy-stuffed olives. Tomatoes macerated slightly with salt, garlic, olive oil, basil. But the French butter stole the show. Best we’ve ever had, even in France. We’re lucky there’s some left… a little…
You’re really going to make me make meatloaf, aren’t you.
Yum to all that!
^ Words fail me in expressing how much I love this sentence. 
Which one?
I’m all ears, especially after @winecountrygirl’s thread about transporting butter for her move from NY to FL 
rodolphe le meunier - beurre de baratte (which just means churned as opposed to being extracted with a centrifuge.)
described here as being more like cheese than other butters, which is exactly what it tasted like while eating it.
Dinner last night was Frittata cooked by my son. This is one of his specialties after living in Italy for many years. Half of the Frittata had precooked bacon while the other half for me was sans bacon bec of my allergy. It was excellent , cooked on stove top ,finished in oven. Unfortunately, no picture as I was busy and by the time I got to the kitchen, he had already consumed his half!!
Dinner tonight was D’artagnan’s Moulard Duck Breast. Followed linda whit’s advise to cooked on top of stove in a cold cast Iron pan then finished in the oven.
This was dipped with the usual soy sauce/vnegar. garlic. Pepper sauce
Roasted broccoli with EVOO, finished with guarande sea salt and a small amount of colatura di alici ( thisi is an Italian equivalent to Asian fish sauce whereby anchovies are layered by hand and aged in a barrel for 3 years. ) Love driving colatura with Evoo 1;3 ratio on roasted vegetables.
Roasted sweet potato tots
Granny Smith apple caramelized with evoo and butter, added small amount of brown sugar, a pinch of salt and finished with splash of amaretto.
