Spring Rolls

soak the rice wraps individually in warm water

spread on a clean towel & fill with rice noodles & whatever else you like (we did tofu, carrots, cucumber, mint & basil)

get an assembly line of friends to fill & wrap (note home made peanut sauce for dipping)

Voila--spring rolls! Dip, eat, repeat.

I've heard these called spring and summer rolls...but whatever they're called, they're easy & AMAZING! Our friends Annie & Steve showed up with many of the fixins and showed us how to do it. We got a little assembly line going, disproving the "too many cooks spoils the broth" theory and demonstrating that group cooking is lots of fun! We made 2 big batches of these babies. Not the best photos but we were too busy to be artsy.

What the heck is Caponata?

We had a gigantic eggplant from the farmer's market. We had some figs. What to do? After googling 'eggplant fig' we found this recipe and decided to try it. We followed it pretty precisely 'cept used red wine vinegar instead of white, and added a little banana pepper from our garden. Toasted some ciabatta and presto! Soooo sweet and savory and yummy. Seems like perfect party food and a good alternative to bruschetta.