Friday morning at 8 AM when I got up the Accuweather app on my phone said 24˚ in Wharton. Everything looked crispy or had a coating of ice outside because the front came in with freezing rain. The roof of the bird feeder had a coating of ice, birds tried to perch on it and would slide off. The bird baths are frozen solid. At 11:30 it's still only 28˚ and the bird baths are still frozen solid.
Marc reminded me that the station that records the temperature for Wharton is out at the airport, wide open space. Still below freezing here. It took the dog three tries to finally brave it to take care of business. First time she got about 5' before turning around. Second time she got halfway across the little backyard before turning around and coming back in. Sweater on, sweater off, sweater on, sweater off, sweater on finally, she went through the open gate to the big backyard. I've been out once to spread some birdseed on the ground and put out more pecans for the squirrels. I have no intention of going out again.
I've been getting lots of cardinals and titmice and chickadees. I looked out just now to see that the house finches and goldfinches have arrived giving the cardinals a run for the birdseed.
I've been wanting to make egg rolls again for a while but it's so time consuming and once you buy the bean sprouts you're pretty much committed to doing it within a couple of days. This time I decided to make the filling one day and roll them up and cook them the next. So that's what I did Thursday. Not my night to cook but he had a roast in the oven so I had the kitchen. It was different cooking when I wasn't having to produce dinner. I could take my time to make the filling, not worry about the time, and so I did.
Tonight it is my night to do dinner so I'll make some fried rice and roll up the egg rolls (I wonder why they call them egg rolls when no eggs are involved) and this time I'm going to bake them instead of frying them. We don't do deep frying anyway so they have to be turned and it's messy, can only do a few at a time.
Today, Saturday, it's warmer, in the 40˚s and a blue sky which when you are out of the wind makes it not so bad out there. Lot's of freeze damage on the things that made it OK through the first dip into the 20˚s a couple of weeks ago. The blooms on the woodland lilies all froze but I think it's early enough that we'll still get some new bloom stalks. The easter lilies that were wiped out by the arctic blast last year seem to be OK so far though we have one more night in the 20˚s tonight and the banana trees seem firm but they could still be frozen as we still have big chunks of ice floating in the bird baths.
I did bake all the egg rolls last night, flipping them halfway through the cooking time and they turned out OK but chewy and are definitely better fried. They didn't get nicely browned and crispy like the recipe I looked at said, mainly only where they were touching the pan. I froze what we didn't eat so maybe they'll soften up during reheating.
Tomorrow we should return to our regular winter weather...lows in the 30˚s and highs in the 50˚s and 60˚s.
The egg rolls look so good. I always make my own too because none of the area Asian restaurants have decent food. It's either too greasy, salty, or undercooked. Our dogs and the stray cat we took in have only gone out when they can't hold it any more. So far no accidents in the house. The cat must have been some ones cat before she adopted us because she's so well behaved.
ReplyDeleteYou might want to try getting an indoor/outdoor weather station. We bought ours at Costco. It keeps the outside temperature and indoor temp. It has a barometer and it has a clock. It hangs on the wall and the outdoor temperature relay sits in our car port. We change the batteries twice a year.
Your cat was probably abandoned. That happened once when I lived in the city. A neighbor lost their house and their last day I could hear them calling and calling before they left. Two days later the cat showed up at my house and we took her in. Nice to know that they didn't abandon her purposely. I might have to invest in an indoor/outdoor weather station. We do have a membership at Costco and I need to make a run.
DeleteThose egg rolls look so yummy. Now I'm going to have to do a little online searching to find a recipe. I haven't ever made them, but these sure do look good.
ReplyDeleteHope things stay warmer there as we get ready for spring.
I just use the recipe on the package of wrappers though I did have to look up recipes to see how to bake them. It's warming up today, supposed to hit upper 50s.
DeleteYour egg rolls look delicious. I've been thinking about buying egg rolls or potstickers lately.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised to learn how cold it is where you are. Our extended forecast has nothing over 52 and nothing below 36, with one sunny day a week from now.
Yeah, this cold weather is totally out of character for our winters. At least it's not as bad as the arctic dump last year. Supposed to get up to a more normal 58 today.
DeleteWe have many of the same birds at our feeder right now. Not as cold here but definitely chilly.
ReplyDeleteYou are right- baked egg rolls are not the same as fried but we like them fine and that is how I will continue to make them. They did well in the air fryer, too.
If I ever get around to making them again I'll probably just bake them again anyway. I might have to investigate an air fryer. I wonder if my daughter has one. She might.
DeleteThe egg rolls look yummy. I am too lazy to do all of that work so I make "sausage egg roll in a bowl" sometimes (a salad that has the taste of an egg roll).
ReplyDeleteHope it warms up for you. We are used to the cold and I know spring won't be here until April so I don't get my hopes up yet.
That's why I divided the work up over two days. We'll be back to normal winter temps today, upper 50s.
DeleteYou ARE in the deep-freeze. Your question about egg rolls is a good one -- and what makes an egg roll different from a spring roll? I'm sure it's easy to look all this up, and maybe I will when I'm motivated.
ReplyDeleteWell, egg rolls are cooked and spring rolls are raw (except for the boiled shrimp) but Sabine says the egg roll wrapped dough has an egg in it while spring roll wrappers don't.
DeleteWe should thaw out today.
Amazing to think you'll have such heat later in the year! Stay warm.
ReplyDeleteI hacked the ice off our bird bath recently after a night of frost and the birds came to take a real bath. Talk about sturdy.
We call these rolls spring rolls, as long as the wrappers are made with rice flour and egg rolls when there's an egg in the dough that's used for the wrapping.
And then I remembered that I did put an egg in the meat mixture. I do like spring rolls too.
DeleteWe don't usually get this kind of cold during winter and the rare times we do, it's only for one night for just a couple of hours. I hope last year and this year aren't a signal of what our winters will be like now. I don't like this intense cold but I can deal with it. My plants in the ground can't.
I'll confess I rather enjoyed the brief cold snap, but of course we didn't get ice or snow with it. My most memorable winter was about Jan of '90; I was living aboard at Waterford Marina, and a real kicker of an ice storm rolled through. A friend didn't turn her boat to put the companionway to the south, and she got iced in. That was pre-cell phone days, so it took a while for her to attract someone's attention. Then there was the ice storm in Victoria in about '85. I was living in a second floor apartment, stepped to the top of the stairs, and went all the way down on my butt. This year's event was better -- although I read that Austin's under a boil water notice now, thanks to some kind of failure at their water treatment plant. Even when the grid holds nicely, there can be complexities.
ReplyDeleteI would have minded less if the woodland lilies hadn't already started to bloom. They got wiped out last year too but at least the easter lilies survived this time. I lived in Chicago for nearly a year, most of it winter time. I've never been so cold in my life. This Texas gal did not have the proper clothing. And I fell on my ass too many times. The coldest I was out in was -4˚ with wind. Going to see some friends and the walk from the car to their apartment was the longest 5 minutes of my life. I didn't think I would survive.
DeleteI was thinking that the dough needed to be fried. I have not made them in some time and just bought some wraps from the asian store the other day and they are in the freezer. I need to get beansprouts...but maybe from the can?
ReplyDeleteI used the canned bean sprouts the first time I made egg rolls, used fresh this time. I think using the fresh I ended up with more volume of filling. But I looked it up and you can bake them as opposed to frying.
DeleteI make Won Tons all of the time. Filling is a mixture of ground beef (very lean), pork sausage (or ground pork), fresh bean sprouts, grated carrot (usually just one to the whole batch), 2 eggs (or 1 depending on the amount of meat used), garlic salt, light soy sauce, Asian 5 Spice, salt, pepper. I make and fry them all on the same day. So worth the effort because I don't have to cook the day following -- we just microwave/heat the won tons for meals. I fill the wrappers with about 1 tsp. of the filling and seal the edges. Yummy...
ReplyDeleteHaven't tried to make wontons. Maybe next time.
DeleteMy sister used to make egg rolls a two day project, over a weekend. She'd make the filling and the next day she and the girls stuffed the egg rolls. She "fried" them in the wok. Minimum olive oil, very hot, a quick sizzle on each side and then on the tray in the oven to remain warm. Really, really good.
ReplyDeleteIt's just VERY WEIRD when you're colder than we are. Those egg rolls look yummy! Wonder if I can convince Mike to make any for me :)
ReplyDelete