Pizza Egg Rolls, Grilled Vegetable Pizza, Green-Eyed Lady

     I need to know how you buy a honey dew melon.  I thought you were supposed to sniff it, and it was supposed to smell like the flavor of the melon.  I sniffed all of the melons that Cub had, and none of them smelled like what I felt the melon should taste like.  I also have heard that you are supposed to knock on the melon, and it should sound hollow.  That theory is what I ended up going with, because none of them smelled like anything I wanted to eat.  Maybe none of them WERE something I wanted to eat.  I tried the melon after a couple of days, and it definitely didn't taste like I wanted it to (think water chestnuts with extra water).

     I cut the thing up any way.  I didn't know what else to do with it.  I cannot just throw it away and start over.  I guess I was hoping that it would magically ripen or that the small sample that Jeff and I had was the "wrong" part of the melon, and the right parts were quite delicious.

     I decided to make more sour.  Jeff really sucked up the remainder of the last batch I made, so even if we didn't need it for the drink because we decided to scrap the drink for the reason of the unripe melon, Jeff would make good use of it with whiskey.  I squeezed four lemons and four limes and added the simple syrup.  If I keep this up every week, my forearms are going to be really buff!

     I wanted to make the pesto in advance, so I wouldn't be scrambling for herbs when my guests came the following day.  I went out to the green house to gather my basil.  Alas, it was still the same stumpy plants it had been all summer, even though I have replanted it several times.  I snipped what I could, but I didn't have enough to fulfill the requirements of the recipe.  I looked around me.  I snipped some oregano.  Still not enough volume.  I took some chives, some garlic chives, and a smidgen of tarragon.  That ought to cover the amount of herbs that I needed.

     I came back inside, rinsed the herbs, and threw them into the Vitamix.  Next ingredient was: pine nuts.  I was sure that I didn't need to buy these.  Actually, I forgot to read the recipe for the pesto before I constructed my shopping list, so I didn't buy any.  I looked around the fridge, because I always seem to have pine nuts for some reason or another.  Nothing.  I did have hazelnuts, though.  That ought to work.  I threw those in.  Next:  Garlic.  I ALWAYS have garlic.  I usually have a jar, another jar on reserve, and a bulb or two just in case.  I looked around.  I had an almost empty jar of pre-chopped garlic in the refrigerator.  I looked in my emergency stash cupboard.   It was completed devoid of any garlic.  I made do.  I poured in the rest of the jar that was in the refrigerator and sprinkled a little of my dried garlic granules into the mix.  I also added in some chunks of Parmesan (don't need to pre-grate with the Vitamix).  I whirred everything up and then added the olive oil.  I kept whirring until everything seemed sufficiently combined.  It was a lovely bright green color.

     Next on my list of things to prepare was the vegetables.  It called for paddy pan squash.  I didn't have that, and I refused to buy any type of squash during the summer, when I am usually overrun by zucchini and summer squash.  Unfortunately, though, three of my four summer squash plants were killed in some freak drought incident (meaning, we never watered them, and they shriveled up and died).  I was able to rescue ONE zucchini, however.  That was my substitute for the paddy pan.  I sliced it thickly for grilling. 
     For the mushrooms, the recipe didn't indicate what kind I should use, and, since they are my favorite and (in my opinion, the most flavorful), I chose portabella.  I removed the hard stems and left them whole for grilling.
     It didn't call for it, but I also sliced up thick chinks of cucumber for grilling.  Jeff and I have been grilling them all summer and really enjoy it that way.  It has been our zucchini substitute.  On first taste it is very similar to grilled zucchini, but once you bite in, it has a nice squirt to it - a juiciness that crosses the vegetable line and makes it more fruity.
     The recipe also called for grilled cherry tomatoes, but we didn't grow any this year, and I couldn't foresee buying ANY type of tomatoes, when I have an entire field full of other kinds of tomatoes.  So, I sliced some large tomatoes thickly, thinking that if they were thick, I could sear them at a high heat, flip them, and sear the other side without turning them into mush.
     I brought all of my pre-sliced veggies out to the preheated grill and threw them on.  Unfortunately, after a couple of minutes, my tomatoes still disintegrated.  I was able to salvage some goo, but they weren't the seared solid planks that I was hoping for.  Everything else turned out pretty much as I had expected.  I set them aside to cool.
     While I was grilling the vegetables, I looked into my kitchen through the window and saw my husband on the home phone.  Later in the evening, I asked who had called, and he told me that it was Pam, putting in her pizza reservation (which I thought she had already done via voicemail earlier in the day).  He also said that Judy and Jeb were also coming with dessert.  Awesome!  Judy, our self-chosen "adopted" sister hasn't been to Pizza Night for quite some time. I was looking forward to it.

     For the egg rolls, I retrieved some mild Italian sausage that Jeff had purchased at a drastically reduced price (in massive quantity, of course).  I simply browned that up and set it aside.  Once it had cooled, I mixed it with some jarred spaghetti sauce, the mozzarella, and some grated Parmesan.  Then, I put everything away, started the dishwasher, and went to bed.
    
     I raced home from work and started in on making my house presentable (enough) for company.  I unloaded the dishwasher, swept and mopped the kitchen, and wiped down the counters.  I was really glad that we were going to have a house full of people. 

    Then, I started up the deep-fryer, which I had filled with peanut oil.  I grabbed the sausage, cheese, sauce mixture from the fridge, along with the egg roll wrappers.  The directions for wrapping up the pizza filling left a little to be desired.  It said to put a heaping tablespoon in the center of the wrapper.  That really didn't seem like enough to me.  Maybe I was using too large of a wrapper or maybe I just am an over-stuffer, I don't know.  So, I added a little more than a heaping tablespoon of filling.  I can't figure out why it didn't make all twenty-four pieces that the recipe promised.  I got 14, and since there was only one wrapper left, and it seemed a shame to save it or throw it away, so I threw some ham and cheese in the last one.  Also, it instructed me to fold the wrapper over the filling in such a way that they ended up being square packets.  I was hoping they would be more egg roll shaped, but I wasn't sure how to go about that.  So I obediently followed the directions.

     Pam and the Liggetts showed up with a meat-lover's pizza from Costco and dug in to help.  I put Pam on crust duty - she rolled out the crust for the grilled pizza.  Once she finished that project, she sat on the sidelines and talked with my Dad, who was hadn't been to a pizza night in quite some time.  He was in town to help Jennifer and Roger remodel their kitchen.

 

     Jennifer attacked the frying duties.  I had heated the oven up to 200º to keep the egg rolls warm until they were all ready.  Half-way through, however, I remembered the meat pizza and figured we should start cooking that.  I turned the oven up to 400º.  Jen and I had discussed this maneuver and came to the conclusion that it would only crisp up the egg rolls more.  When Jennifer opened the oven after a bit to add more egg rolls to the pile, we found that they didn't crisp more.  And, in fact, some of them had started leaking their filling.  We decided to remove them from the oven. 

     We baked up the meat-lover's pizza, but not before we noticed that the label claimed it had five meats, but only contained beef and pork.  Apparently, there was bacon, hamburger, salami, pepperoni, and sausage.  And, we were hoping for venison, elk, moose, bear, and caribou. 
     Meanwhile, we mixed up a batch of the Green-Eyed Lady.  Nothing had changed with the melon.  It was still pretty bland.  I threw it into the Vitamix anyway.  I added the absinthe (Lucid) and the Midori in equal parts, and poured in the sour.  I put in a cup full of ice and let it do its thing.

     About this time, Judy and Jeb showed up.  They brought dessert - Babka (I think that was what she called it) - and a present for me!  Judy had made me a pair of earrings for me.  What an awesome surprise!  These two are always so bright and cheery, it really is a pleasure to be around them.  Maybe it will rub off on me...  Hmm, maybe not.  Jennifer, Pam, and I had already finished the first pitcher of Green-Eyed Lady, so Judy and I headed in to make another batch.  She had tasted Jennifer's drink and didn't hesitate when I asked if she wanted her own.  It was sweet and fruity, with just a hint of the anise on the back end of it.   Judy exclaimed that she was going to have to figure out a way to lick the bottom of the martini glass.  I have to say that the booze and syrup drastically improved that melon.  I think this is what I will always do with a melon that hasn't lived up to its potential!

     I had put the crust on the grill just before this, and the drink-making took longer than I had anticipated.  I scorched half of the top of the crust.  Since the crust puffed up on the direct grilling, I was thinking that I could just rip off the burnt parts and drive on.  That didn't really work very well, though, I was starting to make holes in the crust.  Jennifer suggested that with the pesto and all the yummy grilled vegetables, not to mention the blue cheese crumbles, we wouldn't notice or even be able to tell that there was a little char underneath.  I do believe she was right.  The pizza was delicious!

     This is the second drink in a row that we have made that had whole fruit in it.  It seems like (based on these two instances) these types of drinks are more filling than the ones with no fruit.  Of course, it could be that we liked the fruit drinks so much that we drank much more of them than the other drinks.  Hard to say which reason is correct, but I was full after one egg roll and one slice of pizza.

     Even though we were all full, we were all ready for the dessert.  By unspoken mutual agreement, we (well, OK, just the adult females) started bringing dishes inside and loading the dishwasher.  Leftover pizza and egg rolls were portioned off into Ziplocs.  The last of the pitcher was poured into glasses, and the counters were wiped down.  While the last of the dishes and food was coming inside, the boys started scrambling for the inside.  Apparently, the mosquitoes were on the hunt, and they love humans that have a hint of sausage flavoring to them.  Dessert was going to be enjoyed inside.    And, it was.