Homemade Sushi

Again my sister in law braved the strange foods and helped me get over my fears of sushi making too.
We gathered the supplies: nori (seaweed) wrappers, sushi rice, sushi vinegar and spices, and several sushi fillings.

I will admit that the firsf three rolls I made I refused to take a pictures of. They were that bad.
Which brings us to common mistakes #1: overfilling nori with rice and other fillings. Results include not enough to wrap and seal roll and/or ingredients busting out the ends.

After getting a good tight roll, I discoverd common mistake #2: Learning a gentle hand and cutting with a sharp knife. This is what ruins most of my rolls. I squeezed the rolls too hard or the knife would mash instead of cut.

I tried making a rice on the outside roll. They were extremely difficult for me because it was harder to slice into the nori after the knife got sticky from the rice.

By the end of the evening I had eaten a lot of mistakes and had some yummy lumpy rolls to eat.
Recently, I tried making sushi for a lunch my house. Kit can be odd about non-steak-&-taters meals so I was worried at first. He loved it!

These are traditional sushi rolls with raw fish. I had to consider my budget when making this lunch. The fillings for my sushi were canned flakey crab and cream cheese. I took canned tiny shrimp and marinated them in lime juice, garlic, ginger, salt and pepper. The result was a spicy shrimp roll. The ginger was perfecto.

Which leads me to my final sushi making tip and the best advice we heard from the dozens of youtube videos we watched. Give yourself a break. The best way to make good sushi is keep trying. It proves itself too, my second attempt at making sushi for Kit and me was a huge sucess. I had to eater fewer dud rolls than the first time.
Can’t wait to try different ingredients and give it another whirl.

Have you ever tried sushi making at home?
Have any tried and true tips you want to share?

Food Fotos

I have been trying to think of a lovely theme or nice way to tie my photos together for a blog. However, they would all be super short and simply saying: Hey, this is that one thing that I ate for dinner. And that sort of nonsense is for Instagram [which I also have].

So here are several food pictures of things I have been eating recently. If you’re interested in a recipe for it please let me know.

I know this picture is a little fuzzy, my apologies. I was starved and wanted to eat immediately. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get a good picture of it unless I snapped one right away.
We had fish with Catalina seafood rub, spiced rice from scratch, and Brussels sprouts coated in butter and nutritional yeast. This meal was orgasmic!

I followed this recipe as a basis for my plans, with some changes:

Soaking up the liquids–but not quite done

Tomato Rice Recipe Ingredients

• Oil to saute
• Onion – 1 large diced
• Ginger Paste & Garlic minced – Eyeballed (1.5 tsp and 2 TBSP)
• Chilli powder – eyeballed it
• Dried red pepper flakes – eyeballed it
• Curry powder – eyeballed maybe 1 TBSP
• Bay leaves – 2 leaves
• Salt to taste
• Tomatoes – 1 can diced
• Can of black beans – rinsed and drained
• Rice – 2 cups uncooked jasmine
• 3 cups of water or chicken broth
• NONE of the other ingredients listed on the website.

Saute onions with spices and a dab of oil. Add tomatoes, beans, rice and water. Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer for 20 minutes or until liquid is gone and rice is tender.

Don’t forget to make hill billy paella with your leftover rice. We cooked up chorizo and shrimp to put into it this time and served it on a bed of fresh greens. So much yummy!

I made entirely too many rolls for Thanksgiving, but it was good to share them for more family anyway. I made roughly sixty rolls and they made it to two family functions. The left-left overs are in my freezer now. I hope to pull them out for a good hearty soup night this winter.

Just take a gander at those luscious rolls! Next time want to brush them with egg or milk to give them a right nice sheen. Although, as pictured above they are perfectly appealing. Have I ever shared my fun bun recipe? I feel another blog coming….

Day 303: Slow Cooker Ribs {Recipe Revealed!!}

I was worried this recipe wouldn’t work out quite right, but thankfully, it was divine.
This was my inspiration for the ribs and I followed at least the first part of the directions.

Ingredients for the dry rub for 2-3 lbs of ribs (if you’re as liberal as me with it):
•3 TBSP of paprika or close enough
•2 TBSP brown sugar
•1/4 tsp cayenne pepper or close enough
•Eyeball the salt and pepper

And don’t forget the rest…
•Mostly full 40 oz bottle of sweet baby ray’s BBQ sauce
•Oil to grease crock pot
•2-3 lbs of ribs or six as the original recipe calls for, we made a smaller batch–ours was about 4 servings.

Directions
Mix dry rub together by hand and rub it onto ribs. Spray your crock pot with oil or non-stick spray. Layer ribs in pot.
Pour BBQ sauce on top. Original recipe calls for only 3 cups but we wanted to use of all of our sauce.
Cook on low for 7 hours.

I really struggle with leaving food alone in a crockpot. This is worth it, so go busy yourself elsewhere.

The original recipe says to do a bunch of fancy stuff after your salivary have already been working.overtime for 7 hours. We skipped it and it was delicious. Our ribs were mostly thawed when we put them in, and after 7 hours they literally fell off the bone. They would not have held up to more vigorous cooking.

The dry rub takes barely ten minutes and it was so worth it. I love BBQ, but sometimes the sweet is just too sweet. Using the spices and the sauce gave a nice even flavor. For spice junkies, you will want to add a lot.

E is for Eating

Dessert first!

Eating is something I have always loved to do and still love to do. I enjoy most foods: veggies, fruits, grains, meats, sweets, etc :)
This may not be what most people call fun, but I really enjoy it.

I like baking and cooking food and I really love eating it! I’m a grazer while I cook, so often times I’m full by the time everyone else is ready to eat.

I still believe the best way to eat a mango or watermelon is to sit on the back porch in the sunny afternoon with juice dripping down to my elbows and being so sticky and gross that I have to wash my arms in the watering hose outside.
Not every food has to be enjoyed via elbow ingestion, but some of the best experiences are where you can really dive into the food.

don't forget the turkey

Much like cooking and baking I really love to eat with other people. I will go to the extent of skipping an actual meal (only snacking) if I can’t find anyone to eat lunch with me.

I cannot express to you the joy of my taste buds when I first ate Indian food. Curry and lassi melting on my tongue. I ate very slowly, taking sips of icy water to clean my pallet between bites and reintroduce the spicy flavor to my mouth with each forkful.

Eating: You have to do it so often during your life time why not enjoy it? Add a bit of garlic or red pepper and really enjoy the food you’re eating.