Oh, is it snowing?

So, from what I gather, some of you are still dealing with winter. Some of you enjoy this. Some of you, frankly, are nuts.

I live in Southern Cali, and the most snow I'm seeing right now is around the corner, where the local sno-cone shack already opened for the season. I wore a tank top while we ate sushi on a restaurant's patio yesterday. I was told I "got some color" this afternoon. I. am. happy.

I'm also purposefully pretending like it's going to stay this nice and won't turn into the melting wasteland of hell in about a week. I like to say we have four seasons here: Cold, March, Hot, and October. So I'm enjoying every last second of this season while I can.

Cause this also means warm weather food. We broke out the Vietnamese rice paper tonight to make some aptly named summer wraps. I love these because you can use basically any ingredients you want—seasoned and cooked chicken, pork, shrimp, tofu...this time we did ground turkey and as usual, it worked.

Plus they just seem so light and healthy. Until you eat five of them. Whatever. They're mostly green stuff.

Really, they're just Asian burritos, as far as I'm concerned. Grab some meat, some veggies, some hot sauce, wrap it up tight and dip in some more sauce. Have some beer to wash it all down. Yep, that'll do.

Here's what we used. Feel free to experiment and use whatever you want. I like lots of options because then each of my rolls is a little different.

Vietnamese Summer Rolls
Rice paper (bánh tráng—get at Asian markets or Whole Foods, I also like Three Ladies brand if they have it)
Lettuce
Cilantro
Basil
Mint
Carrot, peeled and slivered
Cucumber, peeled and slivered
Ground turkey (recipe below)
Hoisin sauce
Sriracha
Peanut Sauce (recipe below)
Fish sauce dipping sauce (recipe below)
Deep plate or shallow bowl full of warm water

Peanut sauce:
3 parts thai sweet chili sauce
1 part hoisin
1 part reduced fat smooth peanut butter
Splash rice vinegar and water, to thin
Start there and adjust to taste

Fish sauce dipping sauce:
1 garlic clove, minced
3 tbsp brown sugar
5 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp rice vinegar
Juice from half a lime
1 tbsp Sriracha
Start there and adjust to taste

For the turkey:
Spray a saute pan with cooking oil and brown the turkey for a few minutes, then break up, add minced garlic cloves and green chiles, and continue cooking another 4-5 minutes until it's just about cooked through. Add about 1/4 cup of the fish sauce dipping sauce, and saute until cooked through, another minute or so.

For the rolls:
Take a rice paper wrapper and dip into the water, spinning it around in your hand so the entire paper gets wet. Go around the whole paper twice, then lay onto your plate. arrange desired ingredients down the center of the paper. By this time, the paper should be soft and pliable, but sticky, so gently fold the "short" ends over the filling, then fold one big side over the filling, tucking and rolling over to make a burrito type thing. Get it as tight as you can.

Basil and Hoisin vs. Mint and Peanut Sauce

This probably makes little sense. Just try it. You'll get better every time. I actually do one long end and THEN the short ends, then roll, but hubby insists that's the "wrong" way. I think he's just mad cause mine look better than his do.