Sellwood-Moreland Sushi Dilemma, Part III

     I don't know what genius decided to have the NBA All-Star game and the Oscars on the same day, but I won't listen to either of them.  Defying tradition for our third Oscars, we won't be having nachos, and we won't be at the All Star game - having cotton candy hawked by man in a neon yellow shirt, or, medium rare steaks delivered by a man in a tie for those who can afford to sit courtside.  No, today we're going to cook something I've been wanting to make for a while, sushi.

 
Everybody is in the living room watching the red carpet coverage of the Oscar's, and in the kitchen we're almost ready for the fun part.  We've scooped out the rice, converted 1.1 liters to cups (4.5), set the rice to boil, made the vinegar dressing, (100 milliliters rice wine vinegar, 60 grams sugar, 20 grams salt), and proceeded to be really glad that there is only one system for measuring time.  Now, we're ready to break out year-old seaweed, and roll it around rice and raw fish.  It's almost as crazy a food as cheese.
     Tonight we're making cucumber rolls, California rolls, salmon sashimi, and unagi.  Dad is making the unagi and sashimi, and he's slicing the ingredients for the cucumber and California rolls.  Together, this should only take fifteen or twenty minutes, so we should be done in time to see all of the awards.

     We got the sushi made in time, and it was great.  By the time they had presented the third or fourth award, all but the last few rolls were gone, and we settled in for the show.  The Cirque Du Soleil piece was amazing, Hugo swept the night, the Bridesmaid people were funny, and a silent film won best picture.  Those guys know this 2012, right?  The sushi, was very good, though like the last couple of times we've made it, the rice was inexplicably a little gummy, and of course we suffered from the Sellwood-Moreland Sushi Dilemma.  Like the sushi restaurant in our neighborhood, the pieces were a little too large. Leaving us with the dilemma of whether to stuff our faces all at once, or to take two bites at which point the roll is falling apart. We think we need to rinse the rice a little more before cooking.  Maybe we'll have it down next time.

Strong Stuff

     I was hanging out with friends all day, so I didn't actually get to see any of the cooking.  When I got home, we dished up the food and watched Bourne Ultimatum.  We had a beet salad, with intense amounts of ginger, a excessively vinegary roasted sweet potato salad, and a spicy dish of mac 'n cheese.  Good stuff.  Strong stuff.

Reubens

     This weekend was the District Swim Meet, we had preliminaries on Friday, and finals on Saturday.  Even though I only swam 600 yards over the past three days, it was tiring, and I can feel it now.  I'd hoped to make sushi for dinner tonight, but that means a trek to get ingredients, and I just didn't have it in me today.  Instead, I sifted through Mom's file of recipes that she has torn out of magazines.  I found a few I liked, and noticed one that we've done in the past, chicken under a brick, on that ripped out sheet, I spotted something I really liked: pressed reuben sandwiches.  We decided to add coleslaw, and a bag of chips we bought at the grocery store while we were picking up everything else.  Should be good, should be easy.
     The Thousand Island Dressing took only a second to make, and then it was on the the assembling the sandwiches and giving them to Dad to cook.  I've got a plate, with the Thousand Island and sriracha, corned beef, swiss cheese, rye bread and sauerkraut.  Dad is at the stove, cooking asparagus and the sandwiches.  The sandwiches are going on two burners, and to press them, Dad has taken saucers, laid them atop the sandwiches and then added weight atop the saucers.  One of the saucers has a tea kettle perched on top of it, the other has cast iron skillet.  Since we can only do the sandwiches two at a time, Dad is using the warming drawer in our oven to keep them warm until it is time to eat.

     Those were some good sandwiches.  They were still warm and buttery, and even though there was only a little splash of sriracha, you could taste it's bite.  The sauerkraut came through too, and the cheese was warm and only slightly melty, just enough to be stringy.  The sandwiches were awesome, we set them off with Kettle chips, and Dad's asparagus.  The recipe for the reubens came from the the May '11 issue of More magazine.  I'm going to say it again, those were some good sandwiches.

Super Bowl Sunday XLVI

     Super Bowl Sunday has rolled around again, and as always it's mostly a chance to watch the ads, (and look out for Madonna wardrobe malfunctions), but Cy and I are settling an old score on this game, one going back to the last Pats-Giants Super Bowl.  Mom and Cy, are rooting for the Giants, as they did all those years ago.  I'm still for the Patriots, and Dad has gone for his lo-cal team, Avocados.  He's afraid they'll get mashed up and devoured.
     Like last year, and the year before, Super Bowl Sunday here in Oregon has been beautiful and sunny.  Today we went for a walk in Washington Park, and came back home, with a quick shopping trip on the way, to watch the big game.  Tonight, Cy's making fish and chips, while the rest of us watch the game (ads).  I don't think I'll be spending much time in the kitchen today.  I hope the food goes well.
     The food came into us with five minutes left in the fourth quarter.  We watched as the Giants drove down field, and their running back sat down into the end zone for the touchdown with a minute left.  We snacked on fries as the Patriot's came back up the field, and the Giant's were called for twelve men on the field, the second such call in the game.  The Patriot's didn't make the last catch, and it really was a twelve men call, the one on the Pats in the first quarter that decided the game.  Without the twelfth man, they would have had a red zone stop and interception.  Instead the Giant's scored.  The food was good, the salad used a mandolin, but there were no injuries.  It was a fennel, carrot salad with a ginger lime yogurt dressing. The fries were good, the fish was a little soggy.  Oh, and did you notice how the polar bears, had scarves that corresponded to the teams colors, and the bears emotions in the ad corresponded to the game? I thought it was a cool trick.  To bad there weren't any epic Jerome Simpson touchdowns.