Sushi

We had an Asian themed family dinner this month with my side of the family. I've been wanting to try my hand at making sushi, and this was the perfect opportunity! So I did.

I first had sushi as a missionary for my church. In my very first area, I had two companions: a sister from Nevada (Sis. B) and a sister from Japan (Sis. N). Sis. N was a Salt Lake City temple square missionary: for most of her mission, she was here in Utah taking visitors on tours of the Church buildings in Salt Lake City. But for a few months, she got to go down and proselytize in Texas. I loved Sis. N! She is genuinely one of the nicest people I have ever met, and after seeing how hard she tried to learn our language and our culture, I enjoyed taking an interest in learning about hers.

I used Food Network chef Alton Brown's recipe for sushi rice and followed his instructions on how to make a California roll even though I put different ingredients inside the roll: cream cheese, avocado, and orange bell pepper.

I wasn't feeling adventurous enough to use any kind of raw fish. I had considered using canned tuna or cooked shrimp, but ultimately decided not to.

When it comes to sushi, I generally prefer the California roll (rice outside, toasted seaweed/nori inside) because the nori has a very strong flavor. When the nori is on the outside, it is the first flavor to hit the taste buds, and I find it a bit overwhelming. But on the inside, with the California roll, the nori flavor is muted and mixes in better with the other sushi ingredients--I think.

For rolling the sushi, I did not have nor could I find a bamboo rolling mat. I did, however, have a ribbed place mat. So I covered it in plastic wrap and used that to roll the sushi. It worked out really well. Getting the right amount of rice and rolling the sushi up tight seems to be a skill that requires some practice, but for my first-ever attempt, I think my sushi rolls turned out pretty good.

I ended up with seven rolls. Which turned out to be about twice as much as I needed. We had about 20 people at the dinner. Not everyone was adventurous enough to try the sushi; some were held back by one ingredient or another (Who doesn't like cream cheese? My sister, that's who. Weird). But I did get several compliments from some of those who did try it.

I'm pleased with the result. Of course, I do recognize that my sushi is not really authentic . . . at all. I wasn't going for authenticity. But it was fun to make and eat.

As far as I know, Charlie was the only kid there who tried the sushi--and that's because I made him try it. He cried. Oh well. It's character building, right? But for a more American-kid-friendly sushi I would do things differently: omit the nori, cook regular rice with some sugar added in the hope that it would be sticky enough, omit the rice vinegar, and fill the roll with some kind of cooked teriyaki or orange chicken. I'd try to keep it simple.

Sushi is a food that can be done however you want. It has tons of creative potential!

Granola

The first time I heard of granola was from Man of the House, a movie I watched pretty often as a kid (and ps: the Biebs has nothing on JTT). Any who, in the movie, the future step dad makes a big fancy breakfast which the son refuses to eat and the mom makes his excuses by telling her fiancé that they usually only eat yogurt and granola.

Twenty plus years later, thanks to my cousins' blog, I learned what granola actually is.

A couple years after that, thanks to Sam's Club's taste testing, I actually tried some--and it was DElicious! So . . . instead of buying the 2 lb. bag for around $8, I decided to try my hand at making some of my own.

I used Jaime's recipe for Farm Girl Granola as my guide, but omitted a few of her ingredients: coconut, almond butter, and dried fruit. Coconut because I don't like it. Almond butter because I didn't have any and it was optional anyway. Dried fruit because I wanted my granola to be versatile; I can still add dried fruit to it when I'm in the mood.

For the nuts, I used equal parts chopped almonds and pecans--just because that's what I had. Also, my honey/molasses combination was equal parts of each. And I added 1 cup of wheat germ and a very light (because of my goal of versatility) sprinkling of cinnamon to the last 8-10 minutes of baking.

It turned out  . . . (drum roll please) . . . FANtastic!

My first taste was after it had cooled a bit but was still warm. YUM!

Then I spread some peanut butter into celery stalks and rolled it in granola. YUM!

Then I poured milk over some and ate it like cold cereal. YUM!

Then I made a parfait with strawberry yogurt, fresh raspberries, and granola. YUM!

Then I added some granola to my cold cereal. YUM!

Then I made cranberry granola muffins. YUM!

Oh, how I've enjoyed having granola around! The cranberry granola muffins were today's experiment; all I did was add craisins and granola to my favorite sweet muffin recipe (Betty Crocker's). They turned out hearty and delicious; they were a big hit.

I'm looking for more fun ways to use my granola, so if you have any ideas, please leave a comment!

Homemade Baby Food Revisited

In May 2011, I posted about making homemade baby food. I did it consistently with Charlie, and I've started it up again with Emmett. My main resource was, and is, Cooking Light First Foods (CLFF). I love it!

As I've started making food for Emmett, I decided to post some things I've learned. I still have not tried making all the foods in CLFF, but I have made quite a few. While most have been very easy, here are three I've had some difficulties with:

Green Peas
CLFF says to steam fresh or thawed peas for 6 min. or until very tender then process until smooth. I had a hard time getting mine smooth--and Charlie did not like the consistency.
I'd suggest steaming them longer, 8-10 min.

Plums
CLFF says to peel the plums. I dislike using potato peelers, so I looked online and discovered that plums can be easily peeled if they are blanched for 30 seconds. So I gave it a try, and 3 out of 14 of my plums had their peels easily rub off--it was fantastic. The others . . . not so much; I ended up using my potato peeler anyway. I think the 3 that worked were the most ripe. However, even though they peeled easy, halving and pitting them was a giant mess after they were blanched.
In the future, I will get the most ripe/over-ripe plums I can find, and halve and pit them prior to blanching. Then proceed with steaming and processing.

Dried Prunes
CLFF says to strain the mixture through a sieve after boiling and processing the dried prunes. This was time consuming! And frustrating!
I discovered that adding more of the cooking liquid to the mixture before straining made it a lot easier--go for thinner rather than thicker. But I also question how important it is to discard the solids. Would it be bad for the baby if I left them in? I don't know.

It's Been 4 Years

Four years ago today . . . I woke up overjoyed. Hopeful. Excited. Filled to the brim with love. I don't remember all the little details, but knowing who we were back then, Chad and I probably held hands the entire two hour drive to Logan.

Leading up to that day, I remember that Chad wasn't looking forward to all the picture taking, but I can't remember him complaining when the day came. Looking through our photos, all our smiles are real. I know I couldn't stop smiling.

Marrying Chad has been, and always will be, the best decision of my life.

We met while serving our missions in Texas and quickly became friends. Well . . . sort of. It was more a friendly rivalry/competition to see who could poke the most holes in the others logic or point out the other's silly quirks or make fun of the unintentionally hilarious things the other said. It was fun. And I was completely oblivious that Chad was falling in love with me in the process--I should have guessed, I am pretty fabulous after all.

Then I came home, and about six weeks later I got a very brief email, "as a matter of man pride," informing me that Chad liked me and would I write him. I laughed out loud. I reread the email. I laughed out loud again. And then I wrote him back.

The rest is history. I fell in love with Chad through our letters, and my biggest concern when he was coming home was whether or not the man from the letters and the physical man were the same. Had I misread? Had I understood his humor and tone of voice right?

Yes. I had. And after I discovered that, Chad and I were nearly inseparable. We spent as much time together as we could. We became best friends. Total confidants. Comforting supports amid trials. Chad became my second half--a half I hadn't realized I'd been missing but who I now miss whenever he's not by my side.

In hindsight, I think our engagement was too long, but I suppose we were married soon enough.

Today--a mortgage and two kids later--our lives are very different. We have days where we're both so bogged down and discouraged by our financial stresses, Chad's work drama, the pressures of running a household, the overwhelming demands of parenthood, and more that we barely speak two words to each other. We just silently go about our day trying to cope.

Those are the bad days. I'm not entirely sure their avoidable, but they're the exception, not the rule.

But mixed in throughout the roller coaster that is our life together, there are so many tender moments. We still hold hands in the car. We still kiss goodbye. We even still occasionally leave love notes.

And even though our kids add a lot of stress, they are also the sources of our greatest blessings. They are constant reminders of what real love is; like when I go to talk to Charlie after angrily sending him to his room for doing something I didn't like, and he stops crying not because I've comforted him, but because he's more concerned about whether or not I am ok.

When I look back at my wedding day, I sometimes find myself nostalgic for the care free bliss I felt that day--a bliss fuelled by our love for each other and buoyed by our lack of worries. But there was so much missing!

And I will take the bad if that's what I need to appreciate the good.

Every once in a while, I feel like I catch a glimpse of what eternity really is. It usually happens when Chad, Charlie, Emmett, and I are together: playing with toys, reading books, wrestling and tickling each other. It happens in those simple, everyday moments when time seems to still and I can not imagine my life without them in it--it becomes unthinkable that there was or will be a time when we are not together.

That's eternity.

I know that Chad, Charlie, Emmett, and I were together before this life. I am grateful that Chad and I lived our lives in such a way that we met, fell in love, and were sealed together. I know we can be together after this life, and I will spend my life working toward that goal because there is nothing more important to me than my family. Being with them forever is worth whatever sacrifices I have to make.

So, tomorrow will I wake up overjoyed? Hopeful? Excited? Filled to the brim with love?

Maybe. But I have no idea, and I'm too exhausted to think about it.

But I will be with my family. And that's all I really need.

Today is the anniversary of the day when eternity with my husband and children became a reality. And that certainly is worth celebrating.

Mother of Two

Emmett is five months old, and I'm finding that it's hard to remember what life was like with only one child. In a lot of ways, going from one kid to two wasn't nearly as big a deal as going from zero kids to one. After all, I was already in mom mode.

When I was pregnant, I would get Charlie up in the morning and have him tell baby brother (my belly) good morning and give him hugs and kisses. I tried to talk about baby brother often throughout the day to try to get Charlie used to the idea.

I guess it worked. The transition was pretty seamless for Charlie, and it was precious when he visited Emmett and me at the hospital and said, "Hello Doctor Emmett Brown!"

Charlie was so enthusiastic about holding Emmett that he even tried (and almost succeeded) to pull Emmett off my mom's lap!

Charlie's been a good big brother from the start. Some days he was really interested in holding Emmett and giving him attention.

Other days he seemed completely unconcerned with Emmett's existence.

(Granted, this picture is Easter morning. Who cares about their baby brother when there are eggs to be found!)

But it sure is fun to watch my two boys play with each other.

Especially as Emmett is getting more and more mobile. They'll both be running around like crazy soon enough!

It also warms my heart when Charlie, unprompted, tells Emmett he loves him, or when Charlie holds Emmett's hand when Emmett is sad. Charlie does genuinely enjoy his baby brother and Emmett seems to like his big brother.

My boys sure are beautiful! I feel very blessed to have the opportunity of being their mom and hope I can live up to the challenge.

Arbor Day 2013

I think this was the first time in nearly 20 years that I did anything to recognize Arbor Day. The only other time I remember was in elementary school, and I only remember that because they sent all the kids home with oak tree saplings. Well, sapling may be too strong a word: oak sticks with stringy roots. So when our friend Jacob made arrangements to get together and plant trees near the Y trail head, I figured why the heck not. It sure didn't hurt that I knew Chad would be the only one in our family who did any real work.

Alongside his friends and family, Chad dug holes, removed rocks and debris, planted trees, and hauled water buckets. Way to represent! Charlie really wanted to help. At least he really wanted to use all the cool equipment the adults were using.

But he's learning that he doesn't always get what he wants. So instead of helping the adults, Charlie got to watch and play with some toy shovels with his friends.

I'm glad Natasha thought to get these to keep the kids occupied. Of course they did a lot more filling in holes than digging, but alas no one fell off the mountain so I consider the day a huge success!

Emmett got away with spending the majority of the day sleeping.

And I spent the majority of the day holding Emmett.

All in all, we had a really good time, and hopefully those trees will do some good up on Y Mount.

Also thanks to Jacob, we had awesome matching shirts to commemorate the day. They have a picture of the Lorax and some Truffula Trees and say Unless. Chad insists that on first glance they say Useless, but we were anything but useless this Arbor Day!

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."