Happy Holidays! Hard to believe Christmas Eve is already here. It seems to have snuck up rather quickly wouldn't you say? We wish you all an Udderly Fantastic Holiday season and all the best in 2009!

The Worlds Best Spring Rolls

approx 12-16 Dried Shitake Mushrooms (Rooster Brand)
one 250gr package of Longkou Vermicelli Noodles (Rooster Brand)

Place the noodles and mushrooms in a large bowl and cover with cold water and let soak until soft. (i usually do this before bed and let them sit over nite)

In the morning, in a large large pot put

4 tsp Chili garlic Sauce (Rooster Brand)
4 tsp minced garlic
3 tbsp oil

Heat the above until aromatic.

Add:

2 lbs of ground pork or pork sausage meat
6tbsp fish sauce
3 tsp white sugar

cook until meat is no longer pink.

Drain the mushrooms and noodles. Set aside

I do the rest of this in a food processor. OOODLES easier!Into the processor

3 peeled carrots

Turn on processor until shredded. Add:

8 oz bean sprouts
4-6 green onions
1 bunch of cilantro

Chop until fine

I then take out half or so of this mixture, add to meat. Then to the processor add the part of the noodles, chop until fine. Remove part of this mix, add to the meat and repeat with remaining noodles. I then empty the processor, chop the mushrooms and add them to the meat mix.

Then give the meat mix a good stir and let simmer over low to combine flavors. Remove from heat

OK, here's the tedious part
You will need approx 2-3 packages of Frozen Spring Roll pasty. I use Doll brand. there are 24 in a package that each measure 8.5" square. Let package come to room temperature. Only open one at a time as they will dry out too quickly and they are a bitch to pull apart on a good day. Separate the wrappers and stack on a plate. Cover with paper towels to keep them moist.

U then take a spring roll wrapper and on a table, yes i sit to do this, turn the wrapper so a corner is pointing at you. Fill with approx 1/4 cup of filling and roll like you would a cabbage roll etc. Seal the end of the wrapper with a paste made from water and flour. CONTINUE PROCESS FOR ABOUT 18 hours or until u are either sick of rolling or u run outta supplies! I usually place mine on a cookie sheet and freeze them that way, then when they are frozen i bag them up.

To eat, heat cooking oil to about 350 degrees. Cook spring roll until wrapper is alight brown. I find it easier to cook these from frozen rather than thawed


Dipping Sauce Recipe:
2 cup water
1/2 cup rice vinegar or juice of squeezed lime
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup fish sauce
1 garlic clove minced
1 teaspoon dried crushed chilies

In a sauce pan heat the water and vinegar to dissolve the sugar. Once sugar is dissolved, add garlic, chilies and fish sauce. Once cooled, this sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for a long time.

Lemon Bars....oh, my!

FOR THE CRUST
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces, plus more for pan
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoons salt

FOR THE TOPPING
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons plus 3/4 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees with a rack in the center of oven. Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking pan.
To make crust: In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, confectioners' sugar, cornstarch, and salt; process to combine. Add butter to processor and process until mixture is pale yellow and resembles a coarse meal, about 10 seconds. If you don't have a food processor, whisk together flour, confectioners' sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a large bowl. Add butter and work into flour mixture using a pastry blender or your fingers.
Pour crust mixture into prepared baking dish, pressing down with your fingers to create a 1/4-inch-thick layer along the bottom and 1/2-inch up the sides, pressing firmly at the edges to seal. Transfer pan to freezer and freeze for 30 minutes. Transfer to oven and bake, rotating pan once during baking, until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the topping: In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, and flour; stir in lemon juice, milk, and salt until well combined.
Remove baking pan from oven. Stir topping and pour into warm crust. Return pan to oven and continue baking until topping is just set but not browned, about 20 minutes.
Transfer baking pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into 20 squares. Serve immediately or wrap each bar tightly with plastic wrap and keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Sunrise Over Saskatchewan

Beautiful calm (yet cold) morning. Picture taken looking East (Id hope) with our windmill in foreground. How pretty....:)

What's New at Bovine Bubbles?

Just added :

Three new fresh scents for the New Year. Apricot Ginger Chutney, Lime Peppercorn & Dreamsicle.

Fresh off the soap curing rack: Happy Hippy, Karma Kazi and Thai to the East

More new scents to be arriving soon!

This is the newest addtion to our family. Peanut the wonder dog..aka: Miss. Peediddly. We adopted her a few weeks ago from a shelter NE of here. Her and her sister were found in the bush by some hunters when they were barely old enough to be weened. Im sure they were simply dumped there and left to die.

Peanut is adapating to her new life with Cody, aka Mr. Mc Moody and the cats are giving her a run for her money. Thing # 1 (Gato) really doesn't care for her at all while Thing #2 is tolerating the new beast. All things puppy have been interesting for all of us to say the least. Im glad that she will be spending her first Christmas with us tho!

How Sweet it is....

Summer and all its glory. Its berry season around the back 40 and with that comes jams and jellies. We are feverishly working on preserving our bounties. Strawberry Vanilla, Saskatoon Berry and Rhuberry jams are being added to our inventories. The raspberries are slowly taking on a reddish hue and will be added to the list as they are ready.