Friday, February 25, 2011

Sushi Groupon

For the longest time, Chris and I have talked about how cool it would be to learn how to make sushi. Of course, we talk about a lot of things that we would like to do and we never do them. I had seen that there was a place in Carmel that had a sushi class, but it was $75 a person. I like sushi, but not that much! Lucky for us, Groupon ran a special last year $35 a person. So I bought the Groupon and looked for a class. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a sushi class anywhere. I called and they told me that they had stopped doing sushi classes out of lack of interest. I was devasted. But I kept an eye on their calender. Finally, they started doing the classes again! I immediately signed us up for the February class and told Chris it was our Valentine's Day celebration. ;-)

So last night was the class. Once we got there, I started feeling really nervous. The chef talked to us about technique and how you had to have the perfect amount of this and the perfect amound of that. I knew it was going to be a disaster. But as we got going, I got more confident. We chopped up the fish and the vegetables. The hardest part is laying the rice. You don't want it to be too thick of a layer but you don't want it to be to thin. I hate it when people make statements like that. :-( Here's a picture of Chris making some sushi. He has put rice on one side of the nori and then flipped it over so that it will be a roll with the rice on the outside.



We made Philadelphia rolls, California rolls, and spicy tuna rolls. The spicy tuna was delicious! I made that one with the rice on the outside. It actually looked really good until I started cutting it up. You're supposed to have a clean slightly wet knife, but my one complaint was that there were not a lot of sinks. It was hard to clean off your hands and your utensils. So I think my knife was dirty and probably not wet enough. Below are our first two sushi rolls. Mine is the one on the bottom. Haha, I swear it tasted delicious. It just looks bad. Chris' came out beautiful. He did a very nice job and his were delicious as well.

I have to say that even if you paid the $75 for the class, it was worth it. They gave us so much food. After rolling sushi, he had us make these spring rolls. It was very fresh tasting. Its got carrots, sprouts, shrimp, rice noodles, and mint leaves. Isn't it pretty?


All in all, the class was a success. We got to sit down afterwards and eat our sushi and chat with the chef. I think that the more we make sushi, the better our rolls will look. Who's coming over first to try our sushi?

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Visiting Dana

Last weekend, kind of the spur of the moment, I decided to drive down to visit Dana and Howard. The drive was pretty easy. I got there Friday night where we proceeded to play Spice Jenga which has quickly become my favorite game. How the two of them came up with this game and became so efficient at it is beyond me.

We got up on Saturday morning and they drove me down to see where Dana works and show me around Paducah. I have to say that it is bigger than I thought it was. The downtown area is very quaint and they have a great waterfront area right on the Ohio River. We attempted to play Bingo so that Dana and I could each cross that off our lists. Unfortunately, it must have been false advertising. No bingo was going on. :-(

Next they drove me past some crazy lady's house that is made of trash and then they took me to their bar. Funny how many similiarities it shared with Glory Days. Even closes at midnight! But Dana and I got in $12 worth of Megatouch which is more than I've spent in the last two years on that machine. After a while, we drove home and continued playing Spice Jenga until 3am. I will say that Dana showed me her dance moves, but I will not post what she looked like. I promised. :-)

The next day I left about noon to make the drive back. I loved going to visit. Their house is super cute and I'm so happy for them and all they have accomplished in KY. I did take some pictures there, but nothing really worth posting. So instead, I'm posting my new favorite picture of me and Dana. Enjoy!