Flowery Fresh Spring Rolls, a squatter & rancid sausages

Anyone who has flown from New York back to Australia knows what a journey it is. We really are a long way away from the USA.  Actually we are as just as far from a lot of places.

I arrived home today from an amazing couple of weeks in the States. After over 24 hours of travelling, the last thing I wanted to be greeted by on my return were rancid sausages. Yet there they were in their entire gag worthy glory on my doorstep. Their expiry date were a week earlier, so I hazard a guess they had been sitting there for two weeks. Why PR companies take no notice of me when I say check before sending still astonishes me.

But that wasn’t the best bit of the return home. With rancid sausages in hand I opened the front door to have the unpleasant and unexpected smell of urine hit my nostrils.

Walking into the entrance hall I tip toe around a pile of faeces. It was a very familiar pile of crap, generally I find it out in my back yard, but never in the house. It was possum poo!

There was more crap in the dining room and lounge room, along with puddles of urine. No surprises where the smell was coming from. In fact the little bastard was obviously on a mission to crap in every room in the house several times. There was even a near perfect circle of poop around one of my photography prop boards. Making me wonder if it was into devil worship.

Beside a house full of unwanted poop, the kitchen had plates on the floor, bottles of olive oil tipped over, basically everything that had been on the benches was knocked over or had been hurtled to the floor.

There were dirty footprints all over the white leather lounges. My office had photography props knocked off the shelves and my desk had seen better days. The bath also had grubby footprints in it.

May I add, as I type this we still haven’t located the squatter as yet, stay tuned!

I don’t know about you, but I always have certain food cravings that need to be satisfied after I have been away travelling. When returning home from Europe or the USA it is usually salad and/or Asian food.

Vietnamese style fresh spring rolls were what I had a hankering for this time and a batch were made up ready for an early dinner. The spring rolls you see in the photos are not those, but are some I made for dinner a few weeks ago. They are one of my favourite things to eat when the weather gets warmer.

I came across a large container of edible flowers at the local green grocer and thought wouldn’t they look gorgeous in fresh spring rolls. And, they really do! Perfect for spring.

The beauty of making fresh spring rolls is that you can really put anything you like in them. I am probably pretty boring with my filling of poached chicken breast, mixed lettuce, Thai basil, coriander, mint and green shallot, but that’s how I like them when making them at home. I serve them with my passionfruit and peanut dipping sauce.

Flowery Fresh Spring Rolls

Author: Sara McCleary

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Ingredients

• rice paper sheets
• 2 chicken breasts poached
• edible flowers
• mixed lettuce
• thai basil
• coriander
• mint
• green shallot spring onions/scallions

Instructions

1. Dip a rice paper sheet in some warm water and place on a plate. Quickly dip it, don’t soak it. The sheet will continue to soften as you add your fillings.
2. Place flowers face side down on the rice paper and then top with desired ingredients for the filling. Roll them up, tucking in the ends as you go. Be careful not to over stuff them or roll too tightly or they will split.

Have you ever come home from traveling to be greeted by the unexpected? Or have particular food cravings that need to be satisfied?

Sara xxx

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