April 8

I can't seem to find whole grain egg roll or wonton wrappers, so I tried making my own and running them through the pasta roller. It was a little fussy and time-consuming, but I like how they turned out. This is a recipe I modified from Edenfoods.com.

Homemade Won Ton Wrappers
Yields 35 to 40 wrappers

Ingredients
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 T ground flax meal (optional)
2 Tablespoons cornstarch or arrowroot, dissolved in 4 T. cold water
1/2 cup cold water
rice flour, for dusting wrappers

Directions
Mix the 2 tablespoons of cold water and cornstarch or arrowroot together to dissolve. Add the remaining water to the dissolved cornstarch. Place the flour in a mixing bowl and slowly mix in the water forming a ball of dough. Knead the dough for 3 to 5 minutes into a stiff dough. (you could also do this in the food processor.) Divide in half. Flour a board and roll out into a thin sheet. (This step was easier for me with a pasta roller. Roll it to about a 6 or 7.) The wrappers may be dusted with either rice flour or arrowroot flour and frozen for later use.

You can cut them in circles, fill them, and make dumplings. Or for these lunchbox-size baked eggrolls, I cut them into pieces about 3 by 3.5 inches. Fill, fold in the sides, roll up, and seal with water or egg whites.

Brush or spray the rolls with olive, sesame, or canola oil, sprinkle with sesame seeds (optional) and bake at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until well browned.

There are so many options for egg roll and wonton fillings. These are filled with baked tofu, ginger, scallion carrot and cabbage. You can also make baked egg rolls with store-bought wonton or egg roll wrappers.

Waking up to snow again

Seedling Update

We are not even pretending this is a guest room any more.

The plan is for all this to be dismantled and the plants safely in the ground by the time we get summer visitors.

Carrots don't like to be transplanted, but some people say it's ok if you do it in the cool early spring and when they're small. This is all a grand experiment.

The mesclun is such a radiant lemony green, the color of spring.

Pea shoots, intricate and beautiful.

Pea couture!

Tatsoi, or spinach/mustard. Growing its second set of "true" leaves, ruffled and just unfurling.

Pumpkin seeds are big and easy for R to handle, and I thought they would give her some hands-on planting experience. I didn't plan ahead for when they all germinated and grew like labrador puppies. It's way too early to put them in the ground; they are sensitive and don't like transplanting after they get their second set of leaves; they are just about to get root-bound. And of course, now she is attached to them and believes she's going to have a harvest of pumpkins. What should I do? Move them to a bigger pot, thin them out, of course. But how many times can you move their sensitive roots?

Getting the first bed ready yesterday. Snow had started to fall lightly.

A professional landscaper lived in this house years ago, but by the time we bought it, it was foreclosed and neglected. This is our first spring here. We are working through the layers of overgrowth to find the hardscape structures and perennials worth saving. Digging out vegetable garden space, and trying not to ruin spring plantings that we can't see yet. Trying to remember the shade patterns of the big trees when they're leafed out. This will be an interesting first garden.