Pseudo sushi

I cleaned out the fridge, sort of , and came up with something to eat last night. I've been browsing the Bento and LaptopLunches groups on Flickr and got inspired by the sushi-roll type foods found there. Some people make ham sandwiches and roll them up sushi style to fit their bento boxes. I didn't take it to that extreme, though.

I made sushi rice and then poured some seasoned rice wine vinegar over it.

I cooked 2 small pieces of salmon glazed with terriyaki/brown sugar/jarred garlic/sesame oil for 10 mins or so. I actually started out broiling them, but after a minute pulled the pan out and saw it was on fire (just the drippings, not the fish). I blew the flames out (avoiding the can of Pam on the counter) and flipped the fish over, turned the oven down to 375 and brushed on some more marinade and cooked in the oven for another 5-6 minutes.

I boiled some asparagus for about 5-7 mins, drained, and then tossed with the remainder of the marinade.

We took the above items and made them into hand rolled sushi using 1/2 nori sheets. Dipped in soy sauce with wasabi garnish, it was really very good. I'm not sure how nutritionally complete this was, since it was a very green meal, but it sure tasted good. The salmon was from Aldis - and wasn't too bad. I've had worse from the grocery store before. Flora also enjoyed the fish.

Dinner ramblings

I'm starting this blog to figure out what works and what doesn't in our house for dinners and other meals. I really do probably have about 500 cookbooks, and I maybe use 2 of them - Fanny Farmer's and the Searchlight Cookbook (from 1934). The rest I might peruse, but it's rare to actually cook from them. I find myself using Allrecipies or other websites online with comments in order to try out new things.

It's so hard to make dinner - probably a very common complaint.
In our case it's because B doesn't like my suggestions, and I rarely bother just going ahead and cooking them during the week. I should just do what I suggest and get it over with.

I've suggested several times to make some enchilada dish and he never goes for it. It's basically just jarred enchilada sauce, shredded pre-cooked chicken, corn torillas, refried beans, and queso layerd in a cassarole. Sounds harmless and edible, in my opinion.

The barbq chicken I made in the crockpot last weekend for B's parents was a hit. I got the recipe from Momadvice.com - and I actually used most of the ingredients from Aldis. I think I might add some extra Texas Pete's next time I make this. It made a lot of chicken. I wanted to use the rest for BBQ pizza, but never got around to it.

I buy half my groceries from Aldis, and the other half from Lowes or Bi-Low, usually because I prefer to purchase organic milk and eggs and seafood and ground turkey from them. I've been pretty pleased with Aldi's foods in general. It's a good way to save money and it makes shopping a snap.