A Cornish Game Hen is a perfect option for a Thanksgiving Dinner for two, it’s a lot more affordable and faster to cook than a turkey.  This recipe is based on one from .  “Memorable Recipes” by Renee Behnke. I was so excited to see a great deal on Cornish Game Hens at our local grocery store.  It was two hens for $6!  They’re just the right size to have half a hen be a very filling main dish for each of us.  It’s great to shop the sales and what’s in season, a guaranteed way to save some money in your food budget.

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I had really hoped to make a fun food item for April Fool’s Day, something that looks like something else, like my taco. I had all kinds of ideas from the simple (a pizza cookie) to the fun (a panna cotta and mango mousse deviled egg) to the extreme (a dessert sushi roll with mango juice “fish eggs” to test my molecular gastronomy skills). But with everything going in my family right now, there just wasn’t time. So instead I’ll just give you a couple of fun looking food items. The firecracker shrimp (here’s Jaden’s recipe) look just like little firecrackers. And for some strange reasons, wontons look (to me) like a woman in a kimono with a hood folding her arms, weird huh? Anyway, a great thing about both of these is you can make a lot in advance and freeze them, then just drop them in hot oil frozen and they’re ready in minutes. But make sure to freeze them on a cookie sheet (not touching) and only put them in ziploc bags after they’re frozen so they don’t stick.

These are great for dinner parties as an appetizer or side dish, especially if you have several dipping sauces to choose from, people love figuring out which sauce is their favorite. I also use them as the main dish with an asian slaw on the side. They are deep fried so that takes away some of the nutritional value, but we deep fry an average of once a month (actually it’s three times in a month because I filter and reuse the oil twice, but then don’t deep fry for three more months). I definitely wouldn’t recommend eating this everyday, but they’re so delicious you have to try them! You may notice the recipe is very similar to my eggrolls, and it goes great with the sauce from that post. You can easily substitute ground beef, chicken or pork for the turkey.

Crispy Wontons
makes about 60

Ingredients
1 lb ground turkey
1 tsp minced garlic
2 TBS Aloha Shoyu
1 tsp rice vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp sesame oil
2 carrots grated
2 cups shredded napa cabbage
1 TBS olive oil
1 tsp mirin
1 TBS Aloha Shoyu
60 wonton wrappers
a little cornstarch and water to make a paste for sealing wrappers

Instructions
Mix the first six ingredients in a bowl, let it sit while you prepare your veggies. I use a food processor to grate the cabbage and carrots and mix them together.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the meat mixture. Fry it, stirring until it’s cooked through. Add the veggies, mirin and shoyu. Mix well and transfer to a bowl.

(See my laughable attempt at visual instructions below) 1. Place a tsp of filling in the center of a wrapper. 2. Brush edges with cornstarch paste and 3. fold into triangle, press edges to seal. 4. fold bottom points onto eachother and seal with more sornstarch paste.

Heat a couple inches of vegetable oil in a pot on high. Carefully lower wontons in with tongs, let cook for 2 minutes or until golden (a little longer if frozen). Remove with tongs and drain on a wire rack over paper towels.

Eric is responsible for the naming of the sandwich. I brought his to him, and my wonderful husband made my day by saying “Whoa, this sandwich is epic!” This sandwich is similar to my cranberry bliss bars, in that Starbucks in Hawaii had a delicious oven toasted turkey pesto sandwich that I’ve been craving and wanted to create myself. Their sandwich was basically two slices of foccocia, pesto, turkey, tomatoes and a white cheese. I decided to add onions because they’re good! The white cheese I used was fresh mozzarella and the focaccia I made from a box that was on sale for $1 at Safeway. Woo-hoo! I love the discontinued shelf.

This sandwich is really pretty simple but tastes amazing. First spread each slice of bread with a pesto. I’ve been perfectly satisfied with those little $.50 pesto packets you mix with oil and water, this time I made my own and just left out nuts because I didn’t have any. It was still really good. Then pile on turkey lunchmeat, sauteed red onion, fresh tomato slices, and slices of fresh mozarella. Top with the other slice of bread and toast for a few minutes in a hot oven until the cheese is just melting.

Oh yeah, I think the one thing that would have made the sandwich better would be if I had made the bread right. I just read that the box said to spread it out on a baking sheet. So I used a normal sized baking sheet. But the dimensions they listed were for a cake pan sized. If I had done it in a cake pan it would have been double the thickness. I think I would have liked it better cut in half than like I made it. But Eric absolutely didn’t care. He just loved it!

Still trying to figure out what to do about my computer. I’ve been taking more pictures so I can do some posts from Eric computer soon, but life has kind of combusted right now so blogging is about 8th on my priority list. I plan to posting some new things in the coming week, but for right now here’s another just in case post I had sitting in my queue.

Mmmmmm turkey. This is my go to recipe after the holidays. I always want leftover turkey, if you’re like me and have some in your freezer bust it out and give this a try. It is light and fresh and full of flavor. The turkey is a delightful change from the other meat we normally have in pasta. This is one of Eric’s favorites, the funny thing is that he doesn’t remember it. I make it every December or January and he gets so excited and talks about how delicious it is!

Turkey, Spinach and Red Pepper Pasta

Ingredients
serves 2-4
1 cup shredded turkey meat
1 cup fresh baby spinach
1 red bell pepper thinly sliced
1 TBS shoyu
1 TBS rice vinegar
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp pepper (or a good sprinkling)
2-4 servings of spaghetti
Olive oil
3 scallions chopped up
1 clove minced garlic

Instructions

Mix the turkey with the shoyu, vinegar, cornstarch, lemon juice and pepper in a bowl. (I like to refrigerate it and let it marinate at least 15 minutes). Cook your spaghetti according to the package directions.

In a large skillet heat a little olive oil and add the turkey, peppers, scallions and garlic. Cook on medium high for about 3 minutes or until the peppers are getting slightly tender. Add the spinach and cook another minute or two until the spinach is just wilted. Dump in your hot drained noodles and mix well.

I love eggrolls, lumpia, mandu, and potstickers. Basically fill something with meat and veggies, fry it and give me a shoyu based sauce to dip it in and I’m a happy camper. It started in Korea where I lived pre-school through 1st grade. We would have yakimandu at every church potluck, school event, or birthday party. I loved it, my favorite joke was “This mandu isn’t yucky, it’s yummymandu!”

Then we moved to North Carolina for a few years and I settled for premade eggrolls frozen in a box. Now, after 15 years living in Hawaii and eating fresh homemade eggrolls and lumpia, I don’t think I could settle for anything else! (Well, except Ling Ling Potstickers, they’re one of Eric’s favorite things to make me for lunch)

I love homemade eggrolls, although they can be kind of a pain to make, if you make a bunch at a time you can freeze them and then they’re ready to go the next time you want some. They freeze really well. I usually make firecracker shrimp at the same time since I have the wrappers out, they’re really good and Eric prefers them over eggrolls. They freeze well too. One important thing is to make sure you use the frozen wrappers from an asian market (unless you’re in Hawaii or an Asian country you probably won’t find them at your regular grocery store). Defrost them overnight in the fridge and always keep them covered in a damp towel, even after you’ved filled them, until they’re fried or being frozen. Seal any leftovers in a ziploc bag.

I like to use ground turkey in my eggrolls, I figure it makes them a little bit healthier than beef since I’m deep frying them. I don’t use pork because I’m allergic to it and can only eat a little at a time, this way I can eat more! I always use Napa Cabbage (I love the stuff!) and the other ingredients vary depending what I have on hand. I have a big bag of dried shiitake mushrooms that I rehydrate by steaming (you’re supposed to do it in water overnight, but I’m lazy and this is faster).

I love serving them with some fresh mango. If I just have a few left and need some side dishes, it’s great with asian slaw and sweet garlic noodles. I also love to make different dipping sauces, having more sauces gives variety and makes it seem more special somehow. The easiest one that requires no prep is Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce. I’ll also give you the recipe for a yummy soy based sauce.

Turkey Eggrolls

Ingredients

1 lb ground turkey
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp cornstarch
2 TBS Aloha Shoyu
1 tsp rice vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp sesame oil
2 carrots grated
2 cups shredded napa cabbage
6 rehydrated shiitake mushrooms
1 TBS olive oil
1 tsp mirin
1 TBS Aloha Shoyu
30 egg roll wrappers
a little cornstarch and water to make a paste for sealing wrappers

Instructions

Mix the first seven ingredients in a bowl, let it sit while you prepare your veggies. I use a food processor to grate the cabbage, mushrooms and carrots and mix them all together.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the meat mixture. Fry it, stirring until it’s cooked through. Add the veggies, mirin and shoyu. Mix well and transfer to a bowl.

Fill one wrapper at a time with a TBS of the filling. I tend to use more and kinda overstuff them! Rather than drawing out how to fill and wrap it, I found this site for you.

Heat a couple inches of vegetable oil in a pot on high. Carefully lower eggrolls in with tongs, let cook for 2 minutes or until golden (a little longer if frozen). Remove with tongs and drain on a wire rack over paper towels.

Egg Roll Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

2 TBS Aloha Shoyu
2 TBS Rice Vingear
a few drops of sesame oil
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 TBS chopped green onion

Instructions

Whisk ingredients well.