Spring Rolls and a Grunt

Tomorrow is our anniversary (number 8) and I wanted to give Chris a break from cooking so I decided to make spring rolls. They were slightly different than usual, especially since I baked them instead of frying. The spring roll mixture this time was onions, napa cabbage, carrots, celery, yellow squash, garlic, TVP chunks, Bragg's, and a little black sesame oil. Once I wrapped them I sprayed them lightly with canola oil and baked at 375° for about 35 minutes. While they were baking Chris made us a salad with red leaf lettuce, tomatoes and carrots and a dressing of a little toasted sesame oil, rice vinegar and soy sauce. I also made two dipping sauces. The first was 1 tsp. chili paste, 1/3 c. rice vinegar, 2 Tbs. sugar, 1 tsp. cornstarch. I just heated that in the microwave, stirring occasionally, until it started to get a little thick. For the second sauce I whisked together 2 Tbs. hoisin sauce, 2 Tbs. apricot jam and 1 Tbs. rice vinegar. The spring rolls were really tasty though a little more dry than when we fry them.

For dessert I tried to make something like a grunt. I heated a package of frozen mixed berries, a diced Granny Smith apple, 1/2 c. orange juice, 1/2 c. sugar, juice of 1 lemon, and 1 Tbs. cornstarch in a saucepan until it started to get thick, then I poured that into a baking dish and added sort of a cobbler dough in large spoonfuls to the fruit mixture then flipped the dough over so it was coated. The dough was adapted from a cobbler topping recipe in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison:

1 c. each whole wheat & all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 stick margarine
1 c. soy milk

Just mix the dry ingredients, cut in the margarine then mix in the soy milk. This concoction was baked in the same oven as the spring rolls for about 10 minutes longer, so 375° for about 45 minutes. We had it with vanilla Tofutti and it was delicious.