Spring Rolls, Italian Style!

I love spring rolls, but have always been intimidated by them. Maybe it's because it's an Asian thing and that's totally out of my league. I heard horror stories of spring roll skins ripping and sticking together, but even so I was determined to try them!

I wanted to make these for our annual picnic at Ravinia last August, but chickened out at the last minute for fear I would ruin it all. Spring rolls are light, not fried, usually filled with fresh veggies, chicken or shrimp, always accompanied by a delicious dipping sauce, and best of all, everything is enclosed in a pretty little package, easy to handle, great to transport, perfect for a picnic, as a light appetizer, or even a light lunch.


Well I'm happy to say the whole process was very easy! I actually made Asian spring rolls first, with shrimp, shredded carrots, cabbage, cilantro and a little hoisen sauce in each. We dipped them in a great Asian sauce I got from Trader Joe's.

But since this is an Italian food blog I wanted to do a little twist on the classic and try making them Italian style!

All you do is take your wrappers, place them in warm water til they melt a little and become limp. I then laid each wrapper on a clean dish towel and padded them dry
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I had all my ingredients ready, cooked shrimp, marinated artichokes, (drained), roasted red pepper strips, and raw zucchini, julienned. Next, I placed everything onto a wrapper with a dollop of basil pesto, a drizzle of olive oil, a little salt and pepper, then rolled it all up like a burrito!

For my Italian version I used basil pesto as a dipping sauce, but I want to experiment with other things. Do any of you have any idea's? I would love your input.

Next time you're hesitant about trying something out of your comfort zone, don't be, give it a try, because these were amazing!!

Have a relaxing weekend, and Buon Appetito!!

CHEESECAKE POPS! ( Daring Bakers)

This happened to be a very timely challenge for me, because yesterday my daughter and I hosted a personal shower for my neice. I thought "what a great idea, I'll make these for the shower!" Considering I had a bunch of other things to cook and bake for the shower, this might not have been such a good idea! Doing something new and unfamiliar, then dipping and decorating them, and of course taking pictures! Well you know what I mean!!

Thursday night I baked the cheesecake which by the way, took me 65 min. to bake. My oven is only 2 years old and very accurate, so I set the timer for the 35 to 45 min. that the recipe called for, but it just didn't set. Other than that, I had no problems at all!


Here is the perfectly set and cooled cheesecake!



This months challenge of these DECADENT Cheesecake Pops, was hosted by two ladies, Elle, of Feeding my Enthusiasms and Deborah, at Taste and Tell. Go over to their blogs to check out the whole recipe. I have to admit these little pops were quite a hit at the shower, I got alot of "Ooooh's" and "Ahhhh's" A big thanks to them both!


As far as the melting of the chocolate, I did mine in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds, it turned out nice and glossy and stuck to the frozen cheesecake balls perfectly.



I decided to decorate the lolipop stick with pipe cleaners, they were super easy to bend around, and I liked the color it added. Great for a Girlie shower!!



I got a little carried away with what I decorated them with. Here is what I used:

Mini chocolate chips

Sprinkles

Coconut

Chopped pecans

Crushed Oreo cookies

Plain chocolate

Crushed Skors toffee bar

Crushed Biscotti ( of course I had to get something Italian in there!)




These one bite wonders are perfect for any party, trust me, they're worth it!!




Please check out some of the other Daring Bakers amazing Cheesecake Pops here.

MEATBALL SLIDERS!!!!

I have to admit, after seeing the September issue of Bon Appetite, with the cover being Meatball Sliders, I knew this was something I had to make! Sliders have a different meaning today, we use to think of them as tiny greasy burgers, well a lot has changed!! Now these tiny Gourmet mini sandwiches are popping up all over the place . Some of the Best Restaurants, Bar's and Parties are serving up these little Jewels!!

I take pride in my meatballs! ( don't we all?) only using the Best ingredients, and with some Good Home Made Sauce, I knew I could pull this off!! The hardest thing was trying to find good mini buns. Well after much searching I found them!!

As with Bon Appetite,I toasted the bun as well,which I think is key! Then place a couple of baby Arugula leaves on the bottom, 1 Meatball for each slider, a little dollop of sauce! and finally, a sprinkling of Parmigiano Reggiano completes it!!! Can you imagine a tray of these at your next party?? They will be gone in a heartbeat!!