Rice paper rolls

I have been thinking of a cold chicken salad dish for a while now- I finally had the fridge full of the right ingredients, a day off and time to spare (the stars were aligned!) Having all this happen at once seems to be a rare event in our house so when it happens and Grammie is still visiting from Australia Nic and I jump on the idea of 'date night'. I think it has been 18 months since I last saw the silver screen.

 The ground chicken (mince) is sitting in the fridge so I decide to continue with my plan- however I am still working on the 'salad' so I decide to make the chicken mix and wrap it in left over rice paper rolls I have in the cupboard. For an extra bite to the rolls I layer them with iceberg lettuce and then spoon in my chicken mixture- a little garlic, ginger, sweet soy, grated carrot, celery and peppers for added crunch and flavor. When you are adding vegetables to a meat dish you should keep it 'uniform'. There is nothing worse than eating a mouthful of food and getting a great big piece of onion or pepper when the rest of your ingredients are half the size. I base all the raw veggies on the size of the ground meat- therefor grating carrot is the perfect size.

 Max is very excited about the rolls- Alex a little dubious. Max asks for some sweet chili dipping sauce- a perfect accompaniment to this meal (my heart swells with pride) while Alex is poking and prodding the rolls. I can see the enjoyment on Max's face- alas the afternoon tea he and Grammie enjoyed was a little too big and he only ate half his dinner, though told me he'd like them again when he wasn't so full of cake (Grammieeeee!). Alex on the other hand couldn't get passed the texture of the rolls and decided he'd go to bed hungry (he didn't get afternoon tea) which leads me to perhaps serving the chicken with plain rice for the younger taste buds or noodles. Grammie enjoyed the rolls (I mixed hers with cilantro for added flavor).

Looks like I have to wait for the stars to align for me to revisit the 'chicken salad'. However dinner and a movie was well worth the wait- lets not wait another 18 months!