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.