asian take out on the lawn

my dear friend bethany is getting married. to a tall (6’8″!!!), dark and handsome boy named luke. and last weekend, a few of us got together to shower her with encouragement, love, gifts, food, and just a nice afternoon enjoying the outside with some friends.

wanting to shy away from the usual girly or fluffy side of showers (don’t get me wrong, i love that too), we threw around some ideas. picnic on the lawn! asian take out! we mushed the two together and had a great little soiree with sushi, spring rolls, thai peanut chicken salad and even homemade fortune cookies with serious and silly questions about bethany and luke, for her to answer for us all. i don’t think we got her cheeks to actually blush, but there were definitely a few answers of “well…that part’s just a little fuzzy…!”

it was a perfect afternoon with lanterns hanging in the trees, oriental fabrics and pillows strewn across the grass, and koi fish happily swimming alongside us in the nearby pond.

the menu was light and simple, being in the odd hours between lunch and dinner, but everyone was well fed. i thought i’d share the easy how to for the spring rolls…there were just too good. crunchy, fresh and with a simple soy dipping sauce, you felt like you could inhale 3 or 4 or more, without feeling bad! and even my mom, cook extraordinaire, didn’t realize how easy they were to make.

salad spring rolls
miss laura degraw initially made these on an impromptu ‘asian’ night with us and wil’s school friends.
12–14 rolls

2 to 3 large carrots, peeled and sliced julienne
bunch of cilantro
1 large cucumber, thinly sliced
1/2 head of cabbage, thinly sliced
bean sprouts (no more than a 12oz bag)
3-4 green onions, mostly just the green part sliced lengthwise, yielding long strips the length of the roll
*bell pepper, sliced julienne (this is not original, but as i type i thought it might be a good addition, including some interesting color to the mix)
spring roll wrappers (in most grocers, just in the international section)

with a bowl or pie dish of water nearby, dunk the stiff wrapper into the water, letting it fully coat both sides, but don’t let it sit. it will absorb and soften quickly by the time you’re rolling in the ingredients.

lay the wet wrapper on a work surface, and fill the center with a handful of each ingredient… about a third of a cup. keep the fillings linear- thus the julianne- rather than one big mound in the middle. because the wrapper is semi-clear, i laid a few leaves of cilantro down first, than 3 round slices of cucumber on top… and then the chopped stuff all on top of that. kind of gave a pretty pressed flower look to the outside/top once rolled.

roll the edge nearest you over the fillings, turn the sides in, and then roll to close. the paper should stick to itself, but if it’s heavily filled, you’ll need to keep pressure on it while you roll and at any seams until it’s wrapped. try and keep it tight, although the paper will shrink a little. either serve immediately (your preference to cut in half), or store in an airtight container lined with wet paper towels in the fridge, to keep the wrapper from drying out. we made them the night before and they were still crunchy and fresh the next afternoon!

and this is our go-to dipping sauce. enjoy!