Can't Decide What To Have For Diner Spring Rolls

Do you ever have one of those days where it's almost impossible to drag yourself out of bed? Not so much because your lazy, but because you can't bear the knowledge that you will be required to make decisions from that point on. It's one of those days that, once you do manage to drag yourself from bed, it takes you twenty minutes to decide what you are going to eat for breakfast, what socks your going to wear, and the all-overwhelming decision, now what?

Don't get me wrong, its not that when I am faced with a day off I have a shortage of things to do, quit the opposite. Its almost as though I have too many things to do, things I want to do, things I have to do, things I should have already done but haven't... Yet somehow when I am blessed with the time to accomplish just a few of these things, I end up frittering away the hours deciding whether or not to go out for a run or go to the gym, to go out to the movies of stay home and clean, or even to buy crunchy or creamy peanut butter.

Nothing is more unbearable, once one has it, than freedom is what James Baldwin once wrote. Well today I had a day of total freedom and it took everything within me not to be consumed by it. Each decision I faced like a pouty little girl who has been forced to take her medicine: coffee or tea? Tea, I guess. Yogurt or oatmeal? fine, oatmeal! Laundry or grocery shopping? Oh I don't know!
By the end of the day I had exhausted my decision making capabilities, and so when it came time to decide how to prepare the ingredients I had purchased, I turned to my pantry for help and it came in the form of...
Spring Roll Skins allow you to dump all of your ingredients in the center, roll them up, and eat them. It is a great way to redesign leftovers, and an even better way to prevent having to work out too many culinary details. You can prepare the rolls ahead of time, store them in your fridge, and simply slice them into bit size pieces and serve with your favorite dipping sauce. Here is how I served mine.
1.I prepared a salad with fennel, cucumber, pickled onions, orange slices and a chili, pomegranate, and rice wine vinaigrette.
2.I fried up some wild boar sausage and sliced some avocado and,3.Heated the spring roll skins one at a time in a bowl of hot water, then filled them up with all the yummy ingredients and wallah

Can't Decide What to Have For Diner Spring Rolls Now if only I could decide what to have for dessert.

The Leftover Salad

The wonderful thing about parties is that there are almost always leftovers. One of my favorite things to do with them is to invent leftover salads made with whatever happens to been in the fridge. Sometimes this works out easily, for instance with my Thanksgiving leftover salad made up of spinach, roasted winter vegetables, and toasted pecans, all tossed in a cranberry sauce and balsamic dressing, and garnished with thick shards of Parmesan; other times the task turns out to be a bit more challenging. For example, one time I ended up with limp mesclun greens dressed in a tahini dressing accompanied by wasabi smeared with tuna. What can I say, these were the ingredients I had to work with. This party, having been a pairing party, was particularly fruitful in the leftover department - cheese, fruit, more cheese etc. - and so composing a delicious salad was not a challenge.

Arugula, Fennel, Haricots Verts, with Grapes, slivered Almonds, Lemon Zest, and Irish Cashel Blue Cheese, tossed in a Rose Water Dressing escorted by two rolls of Roast Beef smeared with Olive and sun dried TomatoTapenade. OHG!