FOOD
The ultimate milk-dunking cookie, this simple decadent treat has been repinned, after repinned on pinterest.com. This recipe from Very Culinary assumes that I am willing to make the chocolate cookie dough from scratch, but without my sister to take over and tell me I am not allowed to guesstimate in baking, I'll just buy the premixed-usually-eaten-raw cookie dough in a tube. Yum!
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A little over a year ago my mother outfitted me with nearly everything I needed to make rolled sushi, or maki. Ever since then I have aspired to take on this meal, but have been quite intimidated. With my husband's encouragement, I finally tackled the task this past weekend. I am not going to offer a step by step guide to making sushi here, because let's face it my experience was not the model of perfection. But I will offer a little insight to hopefully inspire you to give it a try if you have been idle with fear like I was for so long.
First, I would say, get a good sushi cookbook. I used The Sushi Lover's Cookbook by Yumi Umemura & Tom Baker, which provided a glossary of terms, useful background information on the tradition of making sushi, as well as invaluable guidelines for preparing the rice and selecting and preparing the fish. I am not crazy with the actual sushi recipes in this book, but it provided a good foundation to get us started and got us through the rolling and cutting process just fine. We chose our ingredients though based on our past sushi experiences. I put together plates of veggies, including quick boiled asparagus (only boiled for about 3 minutes), cucumber strips, shiitake mushrooms and avocado, as well as a fish plate, which included raw sushi grade ahi tuna, salmon and cooked shrimp.
My husband and I each sat with our rolling mats and made up some simple rolls, the key is to keep the rice damp, which should be outlined in a good sushi cookbook, and roll the ingredients tightly in the nori (sea veggie sheets). We also found that we used a little too much rice in our rolls.
I followed the directions for cutting the rolls carefully, wiping my knife after each slice to remove sticky rice particles and dipping it in water to avoid the knife sticking to the rice in my next cut. I also covered the rolls with plastic wrap as I made my cuts which gave me a non-stick surface for holding the roll firmly in place.
Also, I would say that you probably do not need as much fish as you think you do. In keeping with American tradition, we made entirely too much food. Fortunately the leftover rolls (which was nearly half of what we made), kept well until the next evening. All in all though, I think it was a successful first crack at making our own sushi and gave me a profound respect for the artistic and skilled hand that it requires to make beautiful and well balanced rolled sushi.
First, I would say, get a good sushi cookbook. I used The Sushi Lover's Cookbook by Yumi Umemura & Tom Baker, which provided a glossary of terms, useful background information on the tradition of making sushi, as well as invaluable guidelines for preparing the rice and selecting and preparing the fish. I am not crazy with the actual sushi recipes in this book, but it provided a good foundation to get us started and got us through the rolling and cutting process just fine. We chose our ingredients though based on our past sushi experiences. I put together plates of veggies, including quick boiled asparagus (only boiled for about 3 minutes), cucumber strips, shiitake mushrooms and avocado, as well as a fish plate, which included raw sushi grade ahi tuna, salmon and cooked shrimp. 
My husband and I each sat with our rolling mats and made up some simple rolls, the key is to keep the rice damp, which should be outlined in a good sushi cookbook, and roll the ingredients tightly in the nori (sea veggie sheets). We also found that we used a little too much rice in our rolls. 
Also, I would say that you probably do not need as much fish as you think you do. In keeping with American tradition, we made entirely too much food. Fortunately the leftover rolls (which was nearly half of what we made), kept well until the next evening. All in all though, I think it was a successful first crack at making our own sushi and gave me a profound respect for the artistic and skilled hand that it requires to make beautiful and well balanced rolled sushi.
