Much to the disappointment of my taste buds, I am an expert on not trying new recipes because they are too difficult. Actually, that’s not fair: I wouldn’t even know that they are too difficult, because I refuse to even try them. So the more appropriate thing to say is that whenever a recipe appears to be even the slightest bit outside of my comfort zone, I move on.
Such is the case with sushi. This is one food item Ryan and I are forced to purchase from restaurants or grocery stores. While we definitely enjoy our nights out, we typically like to make our own food at home, which saves us extra calories and gives us time to bond over culinary successes and failures. But anytime either one of us wants sushi, we must go out. This wouldn’t be a problem, except that we want sushi A LOT. I’d say we could eat it pretty much every day. Of course, we don’t allow ourselves this luxury, or we would be broke. And going broke off of sushi is not in our plan.
So, you can imagine my excitement when my college roomie, Allie, told me she took a class on how to make sushi. Score! As soon as I told Ryan, he suggested we invite Allie and her husband, Dave, over for a date-night/sushi-making-class. The deal was: Allie teaches us how to make sushi, we pay for all food and supplies.
I’m happy to report that this was a huge success. Much to my surprise and delight, sushi is very easy to make. As long as you have the right supplies (rolling matt, sticky rice, etc.), the process is pretty simple. We made eel and crab rolls, with the rice on both the inside and the outside of the seaweed:
Aren’t they beautiful? I’m beaming with pride right now.
We cut each roll into six pieces and set them out for dinner:
You’re probably thinking, “Wow, that’s a lot of sushi for four people!”, and you’re probably right. Our intentions were to have leftovers for later, but we ate it all.
Every.last.piece.
And we loved every second of it.
After a sake toast (or two), we finished the night with pumpkin ice cream trifles. After Allie and Dave went home, Ryan and I reflected on the evening and agreed: this was one of the most fun and unique double dates we’ve ever had. Quality time with great friends, fun, laughter-filled conversations and the opportunity to learn something we will get to enjoy doing together many, many more times. You can’t beat that.
True Whit 