My entire cooking career, I have been on the lookout for these thinner spring roll wrappers. There is a bit of confusion with nomenclature on google, and in the grocery store, I could only ever find thick egg roll wrappers, wonton wrappers, or summer roll wrappers. Finally one day I asked an employee at an Asian market and he lead me to the freezer section! This is where I had gone wrong my whole life! The other wrappers are in the aisles or the refrigerator, but the nice thin spring roll wrappers are in the freezer. This was a whole new world to me and I instantly came up with some fun spring roll ideas, starting with this chicken tikka variety.

When I was young, my Grandfather used to get really upset when he saw that we had a spiral ham at any holiday. I didn't really understand as a kid. I didn't like ham that much anyways, was there really a difference? Yes, child me, there is a big difference. I probably didn't like ham because I had never had good ham like this one from Jones Dairy Farm before! And, yea, yea, we all know this is a sponsored post and they send me ham, but in all honesty, it is so good! Here is an example. The first time they sent me this ham, I kind of brushed it off and cooked it casually for a few people thinking it was no big deal.  Well guess what, everyone freaked out about how good it was, even the people who supposedly don't like ham!  The SECOND time I got the ham it was like Christmas morning when I opened the package, and there was much fanfare leading up to cooking it!

This was one of those times where you open your fridge and try and put together a meal with lots of ingredients leftover from other recipes. I had tons of different herbs, half a cabbage, some sharp cheese, olives, and pizza dough. Normally when I make a clean-out-the-fridge meal, I don't take pictures, but this 'zone came out fantastic, and much different than any calzone I have ever had, so I decided you guys might be interested. It was almost more of an intensely flavored empanada filling in a pizza crust.

Besides dip, crostini is my favorite party finger food. I realized I hadn't made some in a while, and the perfect opportunity came up last week when some friends were hanging out at my place for an hour before we all went out for the night. I wasn't originally planning to go Thai with this, and just do marinated steak with a cauliflower mash, but as I was coming up with a marinade idea, I realized I had a jar of red curry paste and a can of coconut milk kicking around. The flavors immediately came together in my head and I went for it. Everyone loved them!

I was in the mood for some Korean style kimchi pancakes, but wanted to make them with fresh veggies instead of the normal fermented cabbage. I went to the store and just grabbed a couple vegetables I felt like eating and went for it. I tossed the veggies in some vinegar and chile paste to let them marinate a little before adding the flour to make the pancake batter. I loved these pancakes. The crunch of the almost raw cauliflower combined with the crispy browned edges made for a real textural treat, and the deep savory flavors in the gochujang caused a craving for the next bite every time.

It's opening day in my neighborhood and I couldn't be more excited! This is the time of the year when Fenway comes alive! I made these arepa dogs on monday for the season opener in Baltimore, and it felt great to have a few during the game. I didn't even make the connection at first, but this hot dog is a perfect dish for baseball season considering the large amount of South American players in the MLB. Arepas are huge in Venezuela, and we have several Venezuelan players on the Red Sox, like starting pitcher Felix Dubront, reliever Edward Mujich, and infielder Jonathan Herrera. These arepa dogs are a fun twist on corn dogs that are easy to make at home and are clean to eat with your hands.

I've been dying to get together with my blogger friend Bianca to cook some Filipino food for years, and the stars finally aligned to make this happen a few weeks ago. She recently quit her job so she could finish up her degree and we realized that we both have Wednesday afternoons completely free. Check out her blog today for more on this same recipe, and again later this week for some other stuff that we cooked that day. Hopefully we can do this again a few more times before her semester is over so I can taste more of this delicious cuisine I have never been exposed to before!