Sushi Night :)

Husband and I finally did something we have been dying to try for a while now...


...we had our own SUSHI NIGHT! :)


It began in a foreign land called the Asian Market. We walked in and were immediately overwhelmed by the smell of spices, seafood, tea, and God-knows-what. After at least an hour of searching, we finally came upon what we decided to call "The Sushi Aisle." Here we found nori, soy sauce, wasabi, ginger, and various other goodies. We also took great pains going through every rice aisle until we eventually came upon a bag that simply said "Sushi Rice" on it. We grabbed crabstick from a freezer case knowing that we had cucumber and avocado at home. After locating chopsticks, a flat wooden spoon for rice, and a sushi roller; we set out for home and our adventurous Sushi Night.

I washed the sushi rice until no more starch came out of it and then placed it in a pot with 1 1/4 cup of water to every cup of uncooked rice. I put the rice on high, stirring occasionally until it began to boil. Then I simply lowered the temperature to a low simmer and covered the pot for about 8 minutes. Once all the water had been absorbed, I removed the rice (using my wooden spoon) and placed it in a plastic bowl. Immediately, I added seasoned rice vinegar (about 1/3 cup to 2 cups [uncooked] rice). I folded the vinegar in gently and then allowed the rice to cool in the A/C for a few minutes.

Once the rice was cool, we looked up this video to get the general idea of how to build a basic California roll.


...okay, so here it comes...


I got a little excited to start and I ended up putting WAY TOO MUCH rice on my first roll.
...and THIS happened.

Fortunately, husband learned from my mistake and his first one turned out much better.

Eventually, we began to experiment and we both did well making our rolls with the nori on the outside of the roll.

It ended up being a really fun and delicious night!


If you want to try Sushi Night at home, here's what you'll need:
-a sushi roller
-chopsticks
-small bowls for soy sauce mixtures
-a flat wooden spoon
-a large plastic bowl
-a large pot
-SHARP knives
-sushi rice
-seasoned rice vinegar
-soy sauce
-wasabi
-ginger
-crabstick
-avocado
-cucumber
-nori sheets (seaweed sheets)
-an adventurous spirit ;)

Enjoy and have fun!

Our Italian Date Night Valentine's Day

I wanted to post about our awesome Valentine's Day this year!
Although it is now way past Valentine's Day, this is a great date night for any time of year. :)

Here are the recipes we used:
Pizza Sauce
Really Simple Pizza Dough


Hubby's favorite pizza is Canadian Bacon and Pineapple, so that's why we picked those toppings, but you can experiment with any you might like. For the cheese, I just get the pre-shredded Pizza Cheese bag. I suggest building your pizza like this: Roll out the dough over some Corn Meal on a baking sheet, add the desired amount of sauce and spread it around, put down half the cheese, then your toppings, and then top with the rest of your cheese.



When you're done assembling your pizza, put it in for 10-12 minutes on your oven's highest temperature.

We served our pizza with Rachel Ray's Italian Sangria and washed it down with chocolate-covered strawberry and pineapple.
I also suggest throwing together an "Italian Date Night Playlist." Ours included Billy Joel's "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" and Dean Martin's "That's Amore."






Have a fun, romantic date night!! :)

Our New Place

Deval Patrick article

Deval Patrick Visits Perkins

Christmas 2012

Continuing the tradition, we've made a beautifully planned YouTube Masterpiece to dedicate to all the friends and family we missed this Christmas. Enjoy!

Pikachu and Ash!

Happy Halloween!

Oreo's Playtime

I thought this was too cute not to share!

--Not to mention that I was totally thrilled when I found something he would actually chase! (It's toe stuffing from my new boots, haha!)

ENJOY!