Sushi

One of our favorite at-home date nights is a movie and homemade sushi.  We haven't done it in months at least.  In fact I can't remember the last time, so we brought it back with style the other day.

Sushi and "The Informant"

I took some photos of the process and it really isn't that hard.  But I do notice we get better and better as we roll.  Time wise, it took us one-hour to prep the ingredients and roll the rolls.

To start cut your ingredients into long thin pieces and take out the sauces you want to flavor the rolls with.  We made these with avocado, bell pepper, carrot, cucumber, tofu, shrimp, smoked salmon, and cream cheese.

 Start with the seaweed rough side up.

Cover with sticky rice and flip over.

 Place ingredients and sauces or spices on edge closest to you.

Get a good grip on ingredients to hold in place and begin rolling.

Roll close edge over until it touches the seaweed on the opposite side of ingredients.

Complete the roll.

Top with avocado, Old Bay, sesame seeds, or other spices.

 Tofu, Cucumber Roll with Spicy Citrus Sauce

Smoked Salmon, Chives, and Cream Cheese, topped with Avocado

I would recommend watching "The Informant."  It has to be your type of movie to enjoy it so check out the reviews first.  

I wish you enough!

Thanksgiving Center Piece

Since I am using a white paper table cloth for Thanksgiving, I decided to spice it up with a cute centerpiece.  I got this idea from LoCoFlo's blog the other day and was excited to try it.

First I bought a mini sugar pumpkin

Cut off the top and removed the seeds

Cut a can to fit height-wise and placed it in the pumpkin

Then added flowers that I unfortunately didn't buy from LoCoFlo and while they are pretty they aren't super nice.  But we'll have a great dinner and they will brighten up the table.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I wish you enough!

Plans for food

This weekend was nice.  We had a great visit with family and spent some beautiful time outside at the farm and Hammerman State Park.

** My plan for food this week includes:
*Warm Quinoa Salad with Sweet Potatoes and Sage

We got some fennel in our CSA bag this week so I made a leek, fennel, potato soup to go along with the quinoa salad.  It was super easy.  I just cut up the leeks, fennel, and 2 potatoes I had on hand, sautéed them in butter and then boiled them in veggie broth until the potatoes were soft.  Then I blended it up with a wand blender and added sage, thyme, salt and pepper.


*Orzo Salad: haven't made it up yet but will post the recipe when I do.  It will include feta for sure...
*Curried Rice dish
*Pad Thai (yes, again!)

**Also plan on knitting a mystery cloth in a monthly knit-a-long.  It had been a long time since I've knitted so I hope this gets me back into it.  Have finished 2.5/4 days so far...

**And I am going to hem 4 pairs of pants.  Well I've measured them and am ready....

I'll keep you posted!  So, it's friday and you can see my additions in purple. I didn't even get half of my list completed but there is still time for more food this week.  Last night I felt lazy so we had leftovers and a veggie saute.

Kale Chips

I am a lover of greens in general so this recipe just makes things better.  If you don't like greens you really should try these.  Kale Chips are super easy to make and so yummy.  Try it, you'll like it!

Wash and dry a bunch of Kale.  Break the leaves off the stems and tear them into palm sized pieces.

 Place in a bowl, drizzle with 1 Tbs. Olive oil, mix well to coat and spread out on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle with salt or any other flavors you like.  As always I use a silpat to speed up cleaning and cut down on sticking.  Bake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes, stirring half way through.

**UPDATE: I used a cooling rack to make these last night instead of a baking sheet and they were done much quicker and better.  If you try it make sure your rack is oven safe.***

Depending on your oven and how juicy your Kale is 20 minutes might be too short.  The kale is done when it is crispy....you know...like a chip.... but better.

I used these to top my Leek Potato Soup last night.

Enjoy.

I wish you enough!

Apple Sauce

I bought a 3lb bag of beautiful organic red delicious apples.  They were red and organic but the delicious part was lost due to the mushy texture.  So, when life hands me mushy apples I make apple sauce!  This apple sauce turned out especially pretty because of the dark red skins.

Chop your apples into quarters and place in large pot with 1/2 c water and cover.

Simmer until apples are tender, then put them through a food mill.  If you don't have a food mill you could peel and de-seed them before cooking.

Also, today I bought new running shoes and printed the 8K training program by Hal Higdon.  I am now sporting some Saucony Kinvara's.

I wish you enough.

Time for Exercise

For a while now I have felt "out of shape" and have made great mental effort to get there.   It's time to make more than mental effort.  As a physical therapist I am reminded daily of the reasons why we, humans, should continue moving.

As human beings we are best when we move, move, move: better health, happier moods, increased energy, better diets, less pain.  

The last long race I ran was the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in DC, several years ago.....
So my next goal is the Celtic Solstice 5 Mile race in December.  Who else is doing this race?  Any tips?

I enjoy training with Hal Higdon's guides so I am following this one for now.

I want to hear stories of how you keep motivated to run outside in the winter!  Please leave comments.

Sweet Potato Pie

***UPDATE 11/06: this pie is good but nothing like the tasty amazing flan like version I made this week.  Stay tuned for the new recipe. ***

This weekend has been gorgeous and we have spent many hours already out on the deck.  Today we are headed to a fall fest to check out the pumpkins and scarecrows.  We have this great place in our neighborhood that does outdoor movies and a bunch of holiday and art "stuff" all year.

Yesterday I looked at my growing pile of sweet potatoes and remembered that a friend from work gave me a recipe for sweet potato pie the other day.  The recipe looks great but I didn't have some of the ingredients so I did a google search and made this recipe instead.

I actually made my own crust this time too and it didn't turn out too shabby.

1 1/4 c. unbleached all purpose flour
1 Tbs sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c butter (or your favorite substitute), cut into 1/4 inch cubes
3 T very cold water

I put the dry ingredients in my food processor with the dough blade and pulsed a few times.  Added the butter and pulsed it until is was like coarse cornmeal, then added the water slowly and ran the processor until the dough came together.  I rolled it out to about 12 inches and placed it in my pie dish.  The pie dough waited in the fridge until I was ready with the filling.

For dinner, Pad Thai then....

We had the pie after coming home from watching the Charm City All-Stars roller derby team put a hurt on the Carolina roller girls.  When we left we were winning by 100 points...