Lumpia recipe for whatever, man.

Happy Holidays! Hope you folks had a Happy Thanksgiving. In hindsight, I probably should've taken pics of some of the food and friends but who has time to play the voyeur when you're playing hostess? We had a small potluck with a bunch of the hubby's coworkers, which was pretty fun, except I wish they sorted out who's bringing what at least a couple days before Thanksgiving. We ended up with more alcohol than food! I drank awamori for the first time, which I'm now pretty sure that it doubles as gasoline. I don't know if maybe I just drank a low quality brand or something, but it's not nearly as smooth as I'd imagined. In the weeks spent playing the waiting game in a hotel room learning from AFN programming how awamori is something that the Okinawans sort of pride themselves over, I imagined awamori to be something smooth like wine or soju. NO. This hits you like a ton of bricks. It pushes you against a nearby wall and makes you say bad words. I DON'T CARE FOR IT.

On a lighter note, my husband cooked the turkey, which is pretty impressive given that he doesn't really cook that often. I was happy to make lumpia (Filipino eggrolls); a recipe which I had sort of developed while living in GA. Since I love the taste of both vegetable and meat varieties of lumpia, I mixed the two into one happy, savory batch. Funny story, I was at the commissary with the hubby when I asked him, "Hey honey, do you want me to make lumpia this week?" Out of nowhere, this woman turns to me and says, "Can I live with you? I love me some lumpia." LOL. Made my day.

Anywhoo, this is my recipe for lumpia. I usually prefer this over buying the pre-made store variety of lumpia mostly because I like the blend of veggies and meat. Plus, it's more fun to make food yourself. Makes for better portion control, I imagine.

1 lb ground meat (pork or beef)
1 chopped carrot
1 chopped onion
2 chopped green onions
8 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp minced ginger
2 cups bean sprouts
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground pepper
1 egg, beaten
oil for frying
lumpia wrappers

First, fry the garlic and onion for maybe a min or two. Toss in the meat, salt and pepper and continue to fry until brown. Drain the meat. Once drained, toss the meat mix in a large bowl with the ginger, green onions, bean sprouts, and soy sauce. Hell, if you like other veggies like corn or cabbage, throw that in there too! Whatever makes your heart smile. Once the mix is done, put a couple spoonfuls of the filling into the lumpia wrappers and close the wrap with a little bit of that egg wash. Some use water to close the wrapper. Fry that puppy up and enjoy with your favorite side sauce! You don't even have to wrap that filling either. You can just put that meat on top of a bed of rice and call it a day. Whatever, man. Whatever.