May Daring Cooks' Challenge - Gumbo

As I have mentioned, I anxiously await the announcement each month as to what the Daring Kitchen will challenge us to do next. This month had all of us Daring Cooks on the edges of our seats as we waited for the news. Our hostess promised us that the post was coming, that it was just taking a while to upload. Which had us all even more excited. And when the post finally went up, we knew that it had been worth the wait.

Our May hostess, Denise, of There's a Newf in My Soup!, challenged the Daring Cooks to make Gumbo! She provided us with all the recipes we'd need, from creole spices, homemade stock, and Louisiana white rice, to Drew's Chicken & Smoked Sausage Gumbo and Seafood Gumbo from My New Orleans: The Cookbook, by John Besh.

I have never had gumbo, nor do I know all that much about Creole cuisine, but we love our own version of jambalaya in this house, and I can honestly say that I have wanted to try my hand at more Creole cooking for a while. How perfect! I chose to follow the recipe for chicken and sausage gumbo as presented by Denise, because it looked like a delicious introduction into traditional gumbos.

While there are many different recipes for gumbo, varying from all varieties of meat to vegetarian and everywhere in between, there are a couple of things that are necessary in order to call the dish a "real" gumbo. The two vital components are the roux and the "Holy Trinity" of vegetables.

I'll talk about the vegetables first, since they were the first thing I tackled for this challenge. The "Holy Trinity" of vegetables in Creole cooking are onions, green peppers and celery. Very similar to mirepoix (onions, carrots and celery), but with a decidedly Creole twist. The vegetables are diced, and need to be ready to go once the cooking gets underway, so I knew that I would need time, and that I would have to tackle the chopping first. So I knew I would be making the gumbo on a weekend, when Daddy could wrangle the kiddos for a while, since chopping tons of veggies and keeping a close eye on two kids are two activities not fun to try to accomplish simultaneously. The recipe also called for a chopped tomato and some minced garlic cloves, so lets just say that my knife skills got a bit of practice on this one.

Holy Trinity and other vegetables prepared, it was time to tackle vital component number two.

The roux. A roux is a cooked mixture of flour and some variety of fat (oil, rendered fat, butter...) that is traditionally used as a thickening agent. In gumbo, the roux is more than a thickener, it is part of what gives the gumbo its flavor. I have made rouxs before, using equal parts butter and flour, when making cream sauces or cheese sauces, but the roux for the gumbo was very different. The butter-based rouxs are always white, and cook very quickly. For gumbo, the darker the roux, the deeper the flavor. And to attain a dark roux, well, that takes time. And a lot of whisking. And definitely does not use butter. I used canola oil, and then worked at my roux for about half an hour. Yes, half an hour of constant, vigilant attention and whisking. Which you would think would be annoying, but was actually quite fascinating. The roux slowly cooked from white to caramel to chocolate brown.


My camera, with the lighting in the kitchen, didn't accurately capture the final color of the roux in the pot, but it definitely reached the color of a chocolate bar, which is when I knew it was time to get down to the nitty gritty of the gumbo.

First, the onions were added to the roux. Oh. My. Goodness. The smell as soon as the onions hit the pot was amazing. And the roux continued to darken as the onions cooked. Next into the pot went the chicken pieces, which were seasoned with Creole seasoning. While I am not usually a fan of posting pictures of uncooked meat, I thought this picture gave a much better idea as to just how dark the roux got. I only wish it could accurately depict how wonderful it smelled at this point, too.

Anyway, following the recipe that Denise provided, I then added, each in its turn, the sausage, remaining vegetables, chicken stock and spices (well, bay leaves, really), cooking and stirring each addition as it went in. Then it was time to let the gumbo simmer, and do just a bit more chopping.

Yes, more chopping. And this one was even more interesting. One more vegetable traditionally used in gumbo, and, interestingly enough, also used as a thickener, is okra. I have never had okra before, but have always wanted to try it. I was a little nervous, as people generally either love okra or hate it. I have never heard a middle ground on it. And those that hate it, well, they make it sound a little scary. The word I saw most commonly was "slimy." And slicing the okra, I kinda knew what they meant - it definitely had a sticky/slimy aspect to it as I sliced it up, but I loved the star shapes it made, so didn't worry too much.

After the gumbo had simmered for about 45 minutes, I added the okra and Worcestershire sauce, then allowed the whole thing to simmer once again until it was dinner time.

When Daddy brought the kids back into the house, both he and little miss immediately remarked about how good the house smelled, and they rushed to wash up for dinner.

And I have to say, it absolutely did not disappoint. I had actually worried as to whether or not little miss would like the gumbo, so had separately cooked some chicken so that she would have some dinner if she didn't like it. I needn't have gone to the trouble. She ate it up, telling me how delicious it was with each bite. And Daddy and I each went back for seconds. It was that good. I still can't say that I could tell you what okra tastes like, having only had it as part of this recipe, but I can tell you that it was not slimy at all, and it still looked really cool, with its star shapes still in tact.

The recipe made a huge pot full of the delicious gumbo, so we put some in the freezer to have at a later date, and then proceeded to devour the leftovers over the next several days.

Denise, thank you so much for this awesome challenge. I can't wait to try many different versions of gumbo, all thanks to this first experience. You really set a high standard for hosting, and I really appreciate your enthusiasm and encouragement throughout this month!

To check out some of the other mouth watering gumbos cooked up this month, check them out here.

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Cinco de Mayo Fiesta

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

To be completely honest, I really don't know all that much about Cinco de Mayo. I mean, I know it is about Mexican heritage, and commemorates a Mexican victory against the French, but honestly, my Mexican history is not really that strong. What I do know about Cinco de Mayo, though, is that it is a great excuse to eat Mexican food. Not that I really need an excuse, but hey.

Last year for Cinco de Mayo, I tried my hand at tres leches cake. Yum, that was super tasty. This year, I wanted to try something different. Just because. And I wanted to celebrate with an entire meal, not just with dessert.

So for dinner tonight, I made enchiladas. Not that there is anything overly special about enchiladas, but I honestly almost never make them, usually opting for fajitas or tacos - something more "I'll make the components, everyone can build them themselves" style. And, in full celebration style, I decided to try my hand at making my own enchilada sauce. I used this recipe from one of my favorite food bloggers. Seriously, I have made so many things from her site and she has never ever let me down. The only change I made was that I omitted the green chilies. Then the blender did all of the work for me. Once all of the ingredients were blended together, then simmered for a while, it was time to tackle dessert.

I found several recipes for Mexican chocolate cake and knew that that was what I wanted to try this year. I settled on this recipe, since it looked pretty simple and had received good reviews overall. It was definitely interesting, watching this cake come together. For starters, when all of the dry ingredients were mixed together, the sugar was mixed in with them. Yes, sugar is dry, but in most recipes, it is treated as a wet ingredient. Secondly, in most cake recipes, there is usually about twice as much flour as sugar. This one had equal parts flour and sugar. Thirdly, it uses both butter and oil, rather than just one type of fat. Very interesting. But what makes it "Mexican," as far as I understand, is the combination of chocolate and cinnamon. Which is a super yummy combination. So, despite all of the little oddities of the recipe, I persevered.

The cake actually took longer to bake than I had expected - one commenter had indicated that, if baking the cake in two round pans (which is what I wanted to do), to cut the baking time to 22 minutes. Mine took closer to 28 minutes to bake completely, and, even at that, did not turn out of the pans all that cleanly, but they smelled wonderful and looked moist and delicious, so I wasn't too worried.

I made the pour-over frosting detailed in one of the comments, a simple combination of butter, milk, cocoa and confectioners sugar, which is heated together, mixed up, then poured on top of the cake. I added a few shakes of cinnamon to the frosting, too, to mirror the flavor of the cake. I have to say... once I poured on the frosting, it was very hard to wait for dinner.

So, in addition to the enchiladas, to round out our fiesta, I also made rice and beans (I know, more Puerto Rican than Mexican, but hey...) and homemade guacamole, served with tortilla chips. The enchiladas were delicious, and the meal was a lot of fun. Little miss kept wishing us a happy Cinco de Mayo and asking us "is this a fiesta??" And, of course, loading up chips with guacamole.

As for the cake? It was very, very sweet. The flavor combination of the chocolate and the cinnamon was really delicious, and little miss and my sister in law, who joined us for the fiesta, loved it. I was pleasantly surprised with the light yet moist texture of the cake itself, but I have to say - a little piece is plenty for a cake this sweet. I am not complaining - it was definitely delicious. Just very sweet.

Here's hoping that all of you had a fun and delicious Cinco de Mayo, too!

Mexican Chocolate Cake

(from Allrecipes)

2 cups flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups white sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup margarine, softened (I used butter)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup water

1/2 cup sour milk

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a 12" x 18" cake pan (or two 8" round cake pans).

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda and cinnamon. Add the margarine (butter), vegetable oil, water, sour milk, eggs and vanilla. Mix until smooth. Spread evenly in pan(s).

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes. Allow to cool.

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Playdate Fare - Peanut Butter and Jelly Swirl Blondies

One of the online food blogging communities that I joined sends me a daily update in my e-mail. I still haven't figured out all of the different rules for all of the different food blogging communities, but each day, this one sends me an e-mail with pictures of some of the top photos of some of "the best" foods from the thousands of member blogs. I am not sure if there is a bot that trolls for them, a person who goes through them, a place for members to submit their photos... As I said, I haven't figured out all of the rules. I will one day. Just not today.

Anyway, one of the photos from yesterday's e-mail immediately caught my eye. I clicked through to read the recipe, and immediately added them to the list of things wanted to try. Blondies are sometimes referred to as brownies without the chocolate, but I think of them as more like cookie-bars. And these particular blondies were swirled with peanut butter and jelly - looked like something that might be a fun snack for kids. As luck would have it, also in my inbox was an invitation to a friend's play-group get together at a local park. Talk about good timing!

This morning, with little man strapped to me in the moby wrap (that thing comes in SO handy!), little miss and I got down to work. The recipe is actually super easy, and is a lot of fun to put together. While I beat together the wet ingredients in the mixer, little miss set to whisking the dry ingredients. The two were then combined to make a pretty thick, cookie-like dough. As I said - blondies=cookie bar. I spread the batter into my brownie pan, and then came time for the fun part.

With clean hands, little miss and I dropped teaspoons full of peanut butter and jelly onto the surface of the batter. Little miss helped me create a three-by-three pattern, alternating peanut butter and jelly to ensure a good distribution of both spreads throughout our snack. Then I used a dull knife to swirl the peanut butter and jelly through the batter. Since the batter was so thick and the jelly so... well, jelled, it was a little tough to make really neat swirls, but with a little patience, we were soon ready to pop the pan into the oven.

I know I say this a lot, but these smelled so good as they baked.

Once the timer beeped, we were pretty excited to see how they would look. From the top, you could kind of see some of the jelly swirl, but we had to wait until they cooled to actually cut into them and see how we did.

And, as it turns out, I think we did pretty well! They were a little flatter than I'd expected, but that is probably because my brownie pan is 9" x 9", rather than 8" x 8" as the recipe indicates. But that had nothing to do with the taste, which was really great - the gooey-ness of brownies (or, you know, really gooey cookies) with the yumminess and total kid-friendliness of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!

Now, as it turns out, our play group turned into a playdate, with little miss's friend joining us for some crafting and outside play at our house, but the blondies went over really well, with both girls "sneaking" extra pieces throughout the afternoon. Which I took as a positive review. Little miss told me "Mom, you can make these any day. Actually, you can make them every day!" So I'd say these were a hit, and we will definitely be making them again.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Swirl Blondies

(from Gingerbread Bagels)

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg, at room temperature

2 1/2 tablespoons peanut butter (creamy is what I used, but crunchy could probably work)

2 tablespoons jam (I used strawberry preserves)

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda into a bowl. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the melted butter, brown sugar and vanilla. When well combined, beat in the egg.

With the mixer on low speed, slowly add in the dry ingredients until mostly combined. Complete the mixing by hand, with a spatula, folding the mixture together until everything is incorporated.

Spread the batter into a lightly greased 8" x 8" pan.

Place 1/2 tablespoons of peanut butter and 1/2 tablespoons of jam on top of the blondies in an alternating 3 x 3 pattern - starting with the first row down, place one drop of peanut butter, then one of jam, then one of peanut butter. For the second row, start with jam, then peanut butter, then jam. For the last row, repeat the first row.

Using a blunt knife, swirl the peanut butter and jam throughout the blondie batter.

Bake for 25 minutes. Allow the pan to cool on a cooling rack before cutting the blondies into pieces.

Then I dare you to not eat the whole thing at once... :)

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April Daring Bakers' Challenge - Maple Mousse in an Edible Container

When the April Daring Cooks Challenge was announced as a dual challenge with the Daring Bakers, I was intrigued. When the cooks challenge was revealed as savory edible containers, I was excited. And when I thought about the idea of sweet edible containers, I was even more excited. While trying to think of ideas for my savory containers and their accompanying fillings, I also began trying to think of sweet containers and appropriate fillings, as well.

And soon enough, came the full announcement.

The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!

Hmm... I had to start re-thinking some of my ideas. Maple mousse sounded delicious, but was definitely a limiting factor for the edible container aspect of the challenge. I had to think of a container that could balance the sweetness of the mousse and that would complement its maple flavor.

I started by making the mousse. The key ingredient, of course, is maple syrup. Evelyne specifically stressed the importance of using pure maple syrup. She is, after all, Canadian, where maple syrup is more than a syrup, it is practically a religion. And, hey, that fake stuff is nothing more than flavored high fructose corn syrup, so I don't at all disagree. I did find it interesting, reading the comments on the forum, to see how regional maple syrup is, globally speaking. There were many who do not have access to real maple syrup, and had never even tasted it. Shows how tucked into my little Northeastern US mind-frame I am!

Anyway, the mousse recipe was different from any other mousse I have tried, more resembling a gelatin-stabilized custard. The first step was to bring the maple syrup to a boil. Meanwhile, I separated four eggs and softened some gelatin in some heavy cream. Once the syrup was boiling, I beat the egg yolks and tempered them with a bit of the hot syrup. The important thing when tempering eggs is to go slowly (when incorporating the heat), yet to keep whisking the eggs (or, in this case, yolks) briskly. The idea is to keep the eggs from turning into an omelet. Once the eggs were fully incorporated with the maple syrup, the whole thing was combined with the softened gelatin.

The last step of the process, once that combination rested for an hour, was to fold in fresh whipped cream. I started out by hand, using a silicone spatula to carefully fold the whipped cream into the thick maple mixture. This actually proved to be much harder than I'd expected. So after a couple of minutes, I transferred the whole thing into my KitchenAid mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, and let it mix on its lowest speed for a couple of minutes. That certainly did the trick, and I soon had a beautiful bowl of maple mousse, all ready to set in the fridge.

As the mousse cooled, it was time to think about the container. The mousse was very sweet, so I wanted to choose container that could balance both the sweetness and richness of the filling. Evelyne had given a couple of suggestions, including making cups out of bacon and out of nuts. I liked the idea of the saltiness of bacon, but wasn't sure how they would go over with the family. I mean, we all love bacon, but for dessert? I know that isn't for everyone. So, combining the recipe for the nut cups and the salt-factor of the bacon cups, I decided to make cups out of pretzels.

I started by crushing mini pretzel twists into crumbs, though I did leave some bigger pieces for added texture. I combined the crumbs with a touch of brown sugar and an egg white (one of the four left over from the yolks used in the mousse). I then added another egg (beaten), as the mixture was nowhere near the right texture to shape into cups. I then lined the wells of a muffin tin with foil and pressed the mixture into them to form the cups and popped the whole thing into a 350 degree oven. After about 20 minutes or so (checking regularly after the first 15 minutes), they were ready.

The hardest part about these pretzel cups was separating them from the foil. I seriously should have sprayed the foil with cooking spray. It became our pre-dessert activity, trying to peel the foil away from the cups. It was pretty funny, actually. We managed to un-foil all but two of the cups, though, and were soon able to fill them with the delicious mousse. The salty pretzel cups were the perfect pairing for the rich, sweet mousse, and the cups were the perfect single-portion size. Everyone enjoyed them, and most of us found ourselves dipping pretzels in the extra mousse after finishing our portions.

But I wasn't done. The mousse recipe made a huge batch, so, even after filling six individual sized pretzel cups, I had more than half of the batch left over, so wanted to come up with another edible container to pair with it.

One idea that I'd had when I knew that we'd be making sweet edible containers this month was a chocolate cup. I have seen them before, and had even seen (online) demonstrations as to how they are made, but had never had the nerve to actually try. Well, half a batch of maple mousse was all the motivation that I needed!

The preparation of chocolate cups is actually quite simple, considering how elegant they look. You really only need two things.

Chocolate:










And balloons:










These were the smallest balloons that I had. Water balloon sized balloons would have been perfect, but these were as close as I had on hand. And, yes, I actually washed off the balloons (very carefully) after blowing them up.

Making the chocolate cups is very straightforward. Simply melt the chocolate (either with or without a tablespoon of shortening - there are differing opinions on that...) and use it to coat the bottom of the balloons. It is important to melt the chocolate carefully so that it is smooth, but to let it cool a bit so that it is not so hot that it pops the balloons. Most people dip the balloons into the chocolate to make a smooth and sleek cup or bowl. I went for a different approach. Using my silicone basting brush, I brushed the chocolate onto the balloons, giving the cups a striped look and texture. Even little miss got in on the fun, and had a great time painting her balloon. We gave each balloon two coats of chocolate and then let them rest in the refrigerator to cool completely.

Once the chocolate was fully set, it was time to remove the balloons. I was actually a little nervous about this step - if you let the air out of the balloon too quickly, the cup could collapse. But handling the cup too much while deflating the balloon causes it to melt, simply due to the heat of your hand. I snipped a little hole near the knot of each balloon then carefully pulled the balloon away from the chocolate. I then put them back into the refrigerator until I was ready to fill them with the maple mousse.

Since these bowls were larger than the pretzel bowls, little miss, daddy and I shared one bowl. The semi-sweet chocolate paired very well with the maple mousse, and the whole dessert (including the little chocolate garnish that I made with some of the extra melted chocolate) just felt fun and fancy to eat.

And, in case you are curious as to what I did with the extra egg whites from making the mousse, I made one more edible container that I'd been wanting to try - a meringue cup. I almost didn't, since meringue is pretty sweet, and I knew that it would not be a good pairing for the mousse, but hey - I had the egg whites and was in the edible container zone, so I went ahead and made them anyway. But I filled them with fresh strawberries instead of the mousse. And used another chocolate garnish for decoration. This one, if you couldn't guess by the fairy, was for little miss.

And this is how you know that little miss notices everything I do regarding food-blogging:










Evelyne, thank you very much for hosting a great challenge and for sharing this delicious maple mousse with us!

To see the other amazingly creative edible containers concocted by the other Daring Bakers, check them out here.

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April Daring Cooks Challenge - Edible Containers

Hang on to your hats, folks, because this month's Daring Cooks' Challenge was an awesome one, and there's a contest that goes along with it this month!

Renata of Testado, Provado & Aprovado! was our Daring Cooks’ April 2011 hostess. Renata challenged us to think “outside the plate” and create our own edible containers! Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 17th to May 16th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!

The best part about this challenge was that it allowed for total creativity on the part of us member cooks. And let me tell you, there was such creativity displayed that I was completely blown away.

Renata provided several examples to get our thoughts rolling, but did not limit the cooks at all by her suggestions, and allowed complete creative license for this challenge.

I actually read this challenge on the Daring Kitchen site bright and early in the morning on the day it was posted, and was so inspired by one of the examples that Renata posted that I made it for breakfast - toast cups! They are so easy to do, and completely fun.

I cut two slice of honey whole wheat bread and then used a flower cookie cutter to cut out, well, a flower shape from each slice:










Each flower was then carefully placed into the well of a cupcake pan, with the middle serving as the bottom and the petals forming the sides of the cup, like so:










A few minutes in the oven (during which little miss and I nibbled on the outsides of the bread that were not used for the container), and the bread was deliciously toasted and held its shape beautifully! To make it a complete breakfast, we filled our cups with scrambled eggs:










I have to tell you, this was quick, fun, and made for a really cute breakfast. I was off to a roaring start with this challenge, and couldn't wait to try another edible container.

I actually had several ideas that I was anxious to try out, but the month was completely crazy busy (two sick kids, husband traveling for work, birthdays and birthday parties...). While I am disappointed that I wasn't able to try all of the ideas that I had, I was able to try my hand at one more, and it was something that I'd wanted to try for a long time - bread bowls. More specifically, bread bowls to hold chili.

It might not sound all that daring, but it was something that I'd never done before, and that I had wanted to try for years. Before my mommy days, back when I worked in a real office, one of my favorite days in the cafeteria (and, in fact, one of the few days that I didn't bring a packed lunch from home) was chili in a bread bowl day. Somehow, chili tastes better out of a bread bowl - better than with bread on the side. No idea why. So I thought that this edible container challenge was the perfect opportunity to give it a shot.

I made it a little harder on myself by trying to find a cornbread bread bowl recipe, as the combination of chili and cornbread is just such a classic. The only problem is that cornbread, on its own, is just to porous and does not have enough strength or structure to make a good bread bowl. So I wound up using a recipe that is pretty much a regular bread bowl recipe, but that substitutes in some cornmeal for some of the flour to give it more of a cornbread taste and feel.

An interesting recommendation that I had seen while researching bread bowls was to score the shaped and risen bread right before baking in order to make it easier to cut off the lid later. I was nervous that cutting into the dough would cause it to deflate too much, so I only tried it with two of my four bread bowls, on the off change it didn't work.

While the bread deflated a bit upon being scored, it really didn't cause any damage to the structure, and what came out of the oven were some strong-crusted, very well sized breads just waiting to be hollowed and filled with some home-made chili

I started with one of the breads that I'd scored, and the line did give a good guideline for cutting a lid, but, to be honest, it was not any harder to cut the ones without the scoring, so I will skip that step next time.

The filled bread bowls made for a super fun dinner that night:










The bowls actually held quite a bit of chili, once they were all hollowed out:










Even little miss got in on the fun. She had insisted all day that she did not want a bread bowl, only some bread. So I started off by giving her the lid and some of the bread that had been pulled from my bowl in order to hollow it out. Halfway through dinner, check out what she was doing:










Yup - chili really does taste better out of a bread bowl!

As I said, I am only disappointed that I didn't have a chance to try all of the ideas that I had during the actual challenge month, because I think that some of them might have been creative enough to be contenders for the contest mentioned above, but hey - I will absolutely give them a go anyway, just for the fun of it, when time permits.

Renata, I cannot thank you enough for this challenge. I love that you challenged our creativity and allowed us the freedom to really follow wherever our inspiration led. The amazing creations crafted by the Daring Cooks community this month is a true testament to what a wonderful challenge this was, and I cannot imagine that anyone could have been a better host(ess) for it.

I strongly urge you to check out the amazing edible containers created by the Daring Cooks this month - you will be truly impressed, amazed and wowed by what this incredible group of cooks came up with. Check them out here.

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Sushi

Wait, does that say sushi?

Yup.

Another thing that daddy wanted to try.

Another thing that daddy wanted to try that I was really, really nervous about.

We don't even eat sushi, much less make it.

But daddy thought it looked like fun. And he is usually right about these things.

So we took out a book from the library - Sushi for Dummies. Because, seriously, we knew nothing about sushi.

Now, remember - we are not seafood eaters in this house, and we are especially not interested in raw fish. But I have had (and enjoyed!) vegetable sushi in the past, and daddy was super intrigued to give it a try.

So after reviewing the book and picking up a few supplies, we were ready to give it a shot.

The first thing we needed to do was prepare our ingredients. As I mentioned, no fish, raw or otherwise, for us, so I set to cutting vegetables into as close an approximation of matchsticks as I could manage. Some carrots, some cucumber, some celery, a couple of green onions sliced up for garnish, and of course some avocado. Which little miss was happy to help me scoop out of its rind.

Vegetables cut and prepared, it was time to make the rice. Only to find that, for the first time ever, we were out of rice in our house. How in the world does that happen?? And how did we not check before starting?? Okay, a quick trip to the supermarket later, it was then time to make the rice. For real. The book recommends using medium or short grain rice, but what we use for absolutely everything else is long grain. The book said that long grain rice would still work, so we decided to stick with that. While the rice was cooking on the stove top, I mixed up the dressing that transforms ordinary rice into sushi rice. It is a simple mixture of rice vinegar, sugar and salt.

Preparing the sushi rice is a fun and amusing process, one which little miss was greatly looking forward to. As was daddy, too, actually. The rice, once cooked, is turned out into a bowl, then the dressing is poured onto it, over the back of the rice-mixing paddle, and then the dressing is mixed into the rice all while someone fans the rice to dissipate the heat and cool the rice to a working temperature. Little miss fanned while I poured and mixed, and then we each took a little taste. And were shocked to find that it actually tasted like sushi rice. Wow. Those Dummies books sure know what they are talking about!

At this point, all of the fillings were ready, so it was time to start rolling our sushi! We'd purchased nori, the seaweed wrappers, as well as a sushi rolling mat (which came with the rice mixing paddle, mentioned above) when we saw them on sale at one of the local supermarkets a few weeks ago. As luck would have it, that same food store has a prepared foods section that includes a sushi station. So we also watched the guys there for a while. You know, to study. So, following the instructions from the book and trying to imitate what we had seen, we began preparing our rolls. The nori was lined up at the bottom of the rolling mat then covered with rice, leaving the top half inch bare. We then lined up our fillings in the middle and began to roll. Daddy handled the first one. For some reason, the rolling process had me really nervous. But daddy's came out beautifully. I mean, he sliced it, put it on the platter, and it looked, well, like real sushi!

It went so smoothly that little miss couldn't wait to take her turn.

So she filled her nori with rice and vegetables:











And she rolled it up:











And let me tell you, she did an awesome job. So awesome that daddy and I each only rolled one roll ourselves. She did the other four. And she had a blast doing it. So while she rolled, daddy sliced the rolls and I, well, I did the dishes. But that's okay. We soon had a tray full of fresh and delicious looking sushi all ready for our dinner. With a little bowl of soy sauce for dipping, we were ready to eat.

And eat we did. For a family who "doesn't eat sushi," we certainly ate our fill! Little miss wasn't a big fan of the nori, so she wound up unwrapping hers, but she more than made up for it with the amount she ate. And she totally chowed down on those edamame on the side. And, in case you are curious what that light colored roll is in that picture, we made one totally random roll using chicken salad as the filling. Yeah, when daddy suggested it, I thought he was nuts, but it turned out to be really, really delicious.

We didn't have much leftover, but what little there was, I devoured the next day for lunch.

So now I am totally looking forward to making this again, and to trying all kinds of wacky fillings for them!!

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