Fancy!

Friday, I got an exciting new post from Perry's Plate. They made some sushi at their house! I thought, "Wow that's amazing!" I love sushi and always have to go to a fancy restaurant to get it. So, I read though the instructions every carefully and looked at all the pictures. Then I visited For the Love of Food and watched all of the videos about making perfect sushi rice. Then I went down stairs and made a shopping list and told Matt we needed to go to the store!

Sunday morning we made a cup of sushi rice and rolled a few crab and salmon rolls with avacado, green onion, and cucumber. We quickly realized that one cucumber can fill more than one cup of rice worth of rolls, so we made LOTS more rice and rolled 10 sushi rolls!

I was pretty hungry by this point (even though I had two helpings of german pancakes just 2 hours before), So we tried a few with pickled ginger and wasabi (they were on the shopping list). Then we packaged the rest up. Some we took to Matt's roommate and his wife who served us dinner Sunday night. Some we took to our neighbors who both served Asian missions. (Mary, I wore my Tai shoes to deliver and they both noticed them and were really excited to hear they were from Taiwan.)

And we are slowly eating the rest. Sushi = very fancy! Sushi = very yum!

The Soup is Hot!

I'm no good at coming up with my own recipes. Most of the time I don't even know what spices to use. That's what I use cook books for . . . to look up what exactly it is that makes that piece of meat or potato dish taste so good. So when I stumble across a good recipe I either hoard it (like my amazing coleslaw that I know none of you would really like anyway) or I have to share it with the world.

Here is a chowder that my relief society served at our Birthday Celebration. Which brings me to another fun bit of news. They emailed the recipe to me because my new calling is to put together the Relief Society bulletin every week. I love it. And you will LOVE this soup.

Corn and Potato Chowder with Ham

1/4 cup butter

2 1/4 cup water

4 cups raw potatoes

3 sliced green onions

2/3 cup chopped celery

6 T. flour

6 T. butter

2 1/2 cup milk or half and half

1 tsp. dill weed

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 cups grated cheese

1 can corn drained

2 cups diced ham

Place 1/4 cup butter, water, potatoes, celery, and green onions in large pot. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Do not drain. Melt 6 tablespoons butter in saucepan. Stir in flour till smooth. Remove from heat. Gradually stir in milk or half and half and return to heat, stirring until thickened and smooth. Add seasonings, then cheese, stir until smooth. Add drained corn to vegetables and water. Add cream sauce to veggies. Heat thoroughly, but do not boil, the bottom can scorch easily. Add ham, Serve.

coloring eggs is for kids!

Yesterday, Matt and I had some friends over to BBQ on our new grill and decorate Easter Eggs. I love Easter, and I especially love eating very colorful hard boiled eggs on Easter Morning. So, we invited some people over and had burgers and played games and colored eggs. Matt was emphatic that coloring eggs was something that only kids do, so it was the perfect opportunity for me to invite over my friend Emily and her three boys. We had so much fun. This year I just made dye from food coloring, boiled water, and vinegar. The burgers were great, the eggs were every colorful, and a good time was had by all.

Egg dye recipe:

1/2 cup boiling water
1 tsp vinegar
as much color as you want to put in. (at least 10 drops of your of your main color if you're mixing)

So sorry State!

Remember the last time I talked about me and Basketball? Well, I'm happy to announce that I've made some improvement.

I now know what the key is and that you might not be able to stand there for more than 3 seconds. I know that 3 point shots are cool, but inside shots win a game. I know it's not okay to hit someones arm while their shooting the ball. Bad, very bad!

I also know how to run a score board and time clock, how to hit the buzzer for a substitution, and that the UNC Tar-heals are officially the best college team in the nation for two years running.

All thank to my wonderful husband and his hobbies.

Made to Order?

This has been a week of food adventures. I've felt so rejected so many times by food establishments!

Wednesday night we went out to eat. I asked to go to Chili's hoping to have their chicken fried steak, which I think is wonderful. Unfortunately they were all out of that particular dish, so we had something else. I was so disappointed that I actually asked the waiter if he could ask the cooks to pound some hamburger together and fry them in batter. I finally came to my senses and got something else.

Thursday night was kind of funny too.

I love snow cones, and a few years ago I noticed that the fast food place Sonic has slushes in any flavor you can dream up that taste just like snow cones to me. I came home from work really wanting a slush with lime and coconut in it.

So Matt and I set off to Sonic which is just a few blocks from our home. When we got there I ordered a lime-coconut slush and a salad with honey mustard dressing. The "car hop" told us that they were out of coconut and honey mustard dressing. I looked at Matt and asked if we could try the Sonic on the other side of town. I really only wanted a lime-coconut slush.

So we said good bye to the car hop and drove a few blocks to the other Sonic. In the drive thru we asked for the same thing. They also were out of coconut and they had over stocked thousand island dressing so that's all they had. I gave up and ordered something without coconut or honey mustard dressing. But when we drove up to the window and Matt reached for his wallet we realized that we had left the house in such a hurry that we'd left it behind. We were so embarrassed. So we slunk back home and made peanut butter and jelly. No coconut for me.

I'll try next week and see if I can get a chicken fried steak and a line-coconut slush in this town.

Sale: 4 for $1

So I bought 4 dollars worth, and they sat in the fridge for a week while Matt wondered what his wife was up to. A week later I got out my nifty food processor that cuts veggies paper thin in seconds and I filled two bowls with saltwater, cucumbers, and onions.

"Soak for 3 hours," the recipe said. So, a week and a half later, I boiled some sugar, vinegar, and spices and made some pickles. I always forget how fast and easy this recipe is. I'm always so excited when I see new jars of bread and butter pickles on my kitchen counter. Yum!