As we get ready to head across the pond again, I’m trying to use up everything in my fridge and freezer – at least as much as possible. I made another chicken, ham and leek pie (very, very good), pork chops with roasted green beans (excellent), and tonight’s goat cheese salad with butternut squash spring rolls. Ok, I could have gone with just the salad, but I’ve been dying to try these and the poor squash was still sitting in my fridge so it had to be used. … Or at least that is my story and I’m sticking to it.

The salad was your basic veggie basket stuff – arugula, tomatoes and cucumbers with pecan crusted herbed goat cheese. Super easy (mix herbs from the garden with goat cheese, make into patties, coat in egg and cover with pecans. Freeze then cook at 400 for about ten minutes. The dressing was garlic, shallot, ground mustard, salt, pepper, white balsamic vinegar and olive oil mixed together. Bob said he was impressed with how I “went all out” with the salad. Should I tell him it took longer to find the stuff in the fridge than to make the thing? Nah.

But as I was making him a salad for dinner, I decided to go with the spring rolls too. Once again, I really wanted them and I was trying to find a way to use up everything in the fridge. So … I roasted some raw pumpkin seeds I found on Amazon. (Seriously, you can find anything there.) Olive oil, salt and a 300 degree oven did the trick. I then raised the temp of the oven to 400 (took out the seeds first) and roasted the squash for about 20-25 minutes – again just olive oil and salt. Meanwhile I made some rice noodles and broke out the rice paper (Amazon again … You really do have to almost love the site). I didn’t have the cilantro the recipe called for but I substituted basil from the garden for this. So – layer the rice noodles on the soaked rice paper, add the squash, seeds and basil and roll.

They came out kind of pretty. And they taste really, really good. I did make a dipping sauce to go with them – soy sauce, mirin, white balsamic vinegar, sesame oil and a little sugar. The sauce was fantastic although a slight departure from the recipe in my vegan cookbook where this came from. (I didn’t have Asian chili oil or rice vinegar so I improvised – it worked).

I have another vegetarian experiment tomorrow to use up the chick peas in the fridge then the Greek chicken salad and one more round of chicken, ham and leek pie (frozen, but from the same batch as this last one). Here’s to hoping it all comes out ok with limited disasters.