Spring Rolls, Take Two

So, I'm assuming you remember our last experience with home-made spring rolls.
Well, this time, it turned out WAY better! (I don't recall whether I mentioned it, but Adam discovered that he'd bought the wrong wrappers last time.  He bought rice paper wrappers that weren't even meant to be cooked at all!)

Here are tonight's spring rolls, with the right wrappers. Crunchy on the outside, yummy on the inside. Perfection!

He used the same filling of cabbage, mushrooms, meat, as last time.

But see how different they look, in these wrappers?  Adam said he could tell when wrapping these, that they wouldn't pop open.

One plate of spicy, one plate of NOT spicy, for yours truly :)

Crispy. Lovely flavors inside. SO inexpensive -- all these special items from the Asian market are so cheap, and the regular ingredients are simple and cheap also. And so delicious!

The spring rolls sold at our local Thai restaurant are about 1/2 the size of these, and cost about 75¢ apiece.  So, one of Adam's rolls would cost about $1.50. Tonight's bounty, at the restaurant, would have cost us about $30, not including the rice and drinks. Actual cost to us for tonight's meal? Adam says about $6.

And this brings up an interesting fact -- recently Adam read that in our struggling economy, one industry is doing very well.  Care to guess?  High end grocery stores.  The Whole Foods and Trader Joe's of the world.  Why? Because people who used to go out to eat at restaurants, can't afford to now. So they compensate by buying high end eats at the grocery, and trying those restaurant dishes at home.  And you know what?  With all the help you get on cooking blogs, cooking websites and cooking TV shows, restaurant-style fare is not only doable at home;  it's better. Adam's spring rolls taste just as fabulous, but they're a more fun family event, in our own kitchen. We get more of them, and get to watch and nibble along the way.  We can change up the recipe or side dishes along the way.  And it costs a fraction of the restaurant cha-ching.

We stopped going out for breakfast because we finally admitted that we could always make breakfasts at home that were yummier, hotter, cheaper, and we didn't have to eat them with plastic cutlery and plates. I'm beginning to think we may be leaving restaurants behind altogether.