Tuesday, May 15, 2007

You can pick your friend's nose but not while making egg rolls



Mother’s Day was a quiet affair. The general consensus is the lines for eateries are too long and the prices too high to spend Mother’s Day at a restaurant. Plus, I really should do my part and shield society from the craziness that is our family.

Since we are on a tight budget, Muthafunga and I spent the day at Mom’s relaxing, playing Wii and making egg rolls. More on the egg rolls in a minute.

Muthafunga and I debated on the which Wii game to give mom. Since it was Mom’s day, Cookin’ Mama seemed like a good choice.

Muthafunga: Are you sure about Cookin’ Mama. It doesn’t look good.
pg: It looked like something mom would like. It doesn't have to be good. Ok, what about Elebits.
Muthafunga: She only has two levels left. What about Wario?
pg: Now that looked stupid.
Muthafunga: Check IGN.

So after checking reviews, we opted for Wario, which I must admit is a stupid game but a fun game to watch. Even Lrudlrick had fun playing it.

There really isn’t a premise just silly games but I guess that’s what made us think Mom would enjoy it.


pg/Muthafunga/Lrudlrick: Come on Mom, play it.
Mom: I like to play by myself in private and take my time with it. Wish there was a game where they showed you how to make steamed buns.
pg: Did you hear that, Mutha?
Muthafunga: Yes.

Honestly, can we win once? Eh. I think when she starts playing Wario, she’ll have a blast. Guess Muthafunga and I know what to get Mom next.


So why did we roll egg rolls? Well, it started out with my mom telling me that Muthafunga commented it had been a while since he had some of her homemade egg rolls. Mom’s egg rolls are simple, a whole lot of marinated pork, bamboo shoots, mushrooms and celery. That’s mom’s recipe and to this day, the smell and taste take me back to being 9 years old. I was an integral part of the old egg roll factory. Mom would roll the egg rolls and I’d line them up on the baking sheet. It was one place my mom liked my obsessive compulsive tendencies. My brother would steal the pork filling while Grandma would fry the suckers up and we’d feast like pigs.

What better way to spend Mom’s day than to relive this childhood memory. Turns out though Muthafunga didn’t say that at all. In fact his words were, “It’s been a while since I’ve had your fried chicken, Mom.”

Back to the egg rolls. The only wrappers our stepdad could find were spring roll wrappers. Now, spring roll wrappers are not suited for the meat stuffed goodies my mom makes but we worked with what we had.

With two pounds of pork, we made 30 egg rolls. Thankfully we only made 30 because spring roll wrappers don’t keep. Back in the 80’s, there used to be these super thick egg roll wrappers that allowed us to roll and freeze egg rolls for future frying. Those bad boys retained all the juiciness of the marinade without puncturing through. Plus because of the heavy skin, the oil didn’t seep in to make a soggy mess no matter how low you left the burner.

Lrudlrick is not a fan of the bamboo shoot so he opted out of the feast but politely took one bite. My mom tries so hard to feed him the next thing you know he was assaulted with beef jerky and oranges. Mr. Finicky was happy to receive a ham and cheese hero sandwich later that evening.

All in all, I had a good time with Mom and Muthafunga. Muthafunga should expect more egg rolls as Mom is on a mission to school.

If anyone finds thick egg roll wrappers, please let me know where. I miss being able to pull a few pre-rolled egg rolls out and making them as an evening snack.