My Grandson's iFLY Birthday Cake 2012

 All the lift for this chiffon cake depends soley with the well beaten meringue.

 

The real challenge is to assemble all this in the back of my Prius at 90'F outside temp and take it into Fudruckers where the party was going on.  It got done, though.
It was a difficult decision as to how to elevate the fondant figurines to give that floating effect.  Maybe the white frosting or the blue frosting would be better?  naaa,,,,  it worked.

 Seven cones to represent seven candles.

 I really had fun making it. 

My Greek PSOMI Bread

I finally ordered the Culinaria - Greece.   Not only does it contain wealth of information about Greece, it's culture and people, it contains wonderful recipes.    PSOMI is a Greek bread recipe that got my attention.   I added Fresh Black Cherries and homemade Almond Paste, Kalamata olives, and walnuts.   The bread turned out wonderfully tasty.    The original recipe is intended for the plain bread, but I have so much wonderful ingredients in the pantry, and I got tempted to add them.   They turned out great.

 Two different portions.
Kalamata Olives, Almond Paste, and Walnuts.

Fresh Black Cherries, Almond Paste.

 Let it rise side by side in a large loaf pan with another loaf pan as a cover.

 The secret!! when you bake the bread this way, you don't need to Spray the oven with water bottle to create the STEAM!.   It's taken care of by the cover on the top!

 When the bread is taken out.  The top crust is very hard. 

 Let it sit for about 15 minutes.   The steam from inside the bread soften the outer crust to a nice formed crust as the bread cools.

My Croissants - Any way you look at it, c'est si bon!

Croissants have become one of my favorite pastries to make.   After several different testings, butter and flour block turns out the best layers.   Tip:  Be sure to add enough water/liquid to form a supple dough.

Your dough, when mixed with correct amount of liquid would allow you to stretch the rolled out dough twice its length before rolling to form into shape.

 Raisin Filled

Vegetarian Egg Rolls My Way

One evening, my sister brought back a piping hot vegetarian egg rolls from one of our favorite Viet-Namese sandwich/restaurant in downtown San Jose.   It was very tasty & it's vegetarian.    My sister and I decided to test making our own vegetarian egg rolls.   The challenge is "less greasy and healthy egg rolls."     We have eaten enough egg rolls throughout our lives, and we came to the conclusion that they are just simply quite greasy inside and outside.    Even at our favorite Pho noodle house, their Cha Gio is quite greasy sometimes.    You can't really avoid it with anything deep fried.    With all the possible simple ingredients available from the market close by without going to the Asian market, this is one of the best vegetarian egg rolls we've made.

We did not want it to be skinny like lumpia, but not as large as the Shanghai style 'delicious' egg rolls.    Since the egg roll wrap comes as a standard size, then, the control is in the amount of filling we put in.  

Ingredients:
2 small carrots, peeled and shredded with peeler/shredder hand tool - about 1/2 Cup
1/2 head of smallest cabbage, very thinly sliced - about 1-1/2 Cup
4 Shiitake - Hydrated with hot boiling water, thinly sliced
1 roll of rice sticks - Hydrated with hot boiling water & cut with scissor into 4" strands
1 Organic Extra firm dry Tofu - Thai Spiced  (from Organic section), thinly sliced
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly grounded black pepper
a pinch of cayenne pepper or any other spices you would like... how about cumin? or ??
1 package of egg roll wrap

You can buy most of the items here at the Asian market with no problem.  You can find the paper thin egg roll wrapper at the Asian market.     My wrap is one of "those" thick egg roll wrapper.   It kind of gets in the way of "taste" with its 'thick' doughiness.   But it will have to do.     *Key:  cut everything as thin as possible -  1/16"

In a microwavable bowl  or plate (no plastic material, please)  Cover the bowl with microwave proof lid (to capture steam) & Microwave carrots for 2 min.   Remove Set aside
Microwave the cabbage for 2 min. also   Set aside.
In a larger bowl, mix everything together.

Place the wrapper on a clean kitchen counter.   A bowl with some water to seal the wrap.
Place good amount of fillings on the wrap.  Dab your fingers with water and moisten the edges of the wrap.  Start folding.    Place the wrapper's end down.   In the meantime, heat up frying oil - pure vegetable oil in a small 1 Qt pot.  Fill out to 3" of oil.   Prepare the rest of the egg rolls. 
Drop a very tiny piece of  "dry"  food into the oil.    Watch to see if it starts bubbling and dancing.   Then, it's ready.  Deep fry the egg roll until the wrapper is light-medium brown. 

Makes 12

Appearance wise and for crispiness, I would prefer to use the thin rice egg roll wrapper. 
We are happy with the result.     No greasy filling.     Keep in refrigerator to store.    I took it to work the next day as ... well, it was for lunch, but I end up eating it as my breakfast.  
Ah! ha!   Chinese breakfast burrito!!    It was good without heating it.    It was tasty.