Two Weeks Late

No, not what you might be thinking- Although now that our babies have turned two, there is the inevitable craving for another baby.

Two weeks ago we celebrated the babies second birthday. Two, the girls are two! Yeesh, not sure how that happened...





We had some good friends and grandma over to celebrate. The menu was my planning. I really wanted to try and make sushi. Nothing complicated, just some simple California rolls. A little shrimp and cocktail sauce, guacamole and chips, Pad Thai, rice, and chicken strips for the kids. Note the lack of vegetables. My kids don't eat them so I rarely think of them anymore. Sad. And salad just didn't seem right. I think we threw some sliced apples on the table and called it a meal.

So, the California Rolls. I looked all over the blogosphere and found some links through here. I was surprised at how easy they looked. I had always assumed they were complicated and time consuming. Not true at all.

I bought some fresh king Crab from Costco- buttery and lovely. Here it is all shelled and awaiting rolling. Looks kinda gross, mmmm, but was definitely scrumptious.



Picked up some cucumber, ripe Haas avocados, Nori (seaweed sheets) and a couple of rolling mats. I only managed to remember to get a shot of the avocados... Guess I'm no Pioneer Woman. Not that I'm pretending to be- holy cow that takes a lot of work... Cow, get it? Pioneer woman...ya know... guess you had to be here...




The rice is a staple around here so no need to buy more.



On second thought, I think we were running out so Raquel and Greg kindly brought some more over.
We rinsed the rice, plenty and cooked it as normal. But apparently sushi rice is prepared with a mixture of vinegar and sugar. So we did that step to. I put a couple of cups of the cooked rice in a pan, added the mixture of rice vinegar and sugar and mixed while Raquel fanned- apparently another critical step.



I'm pretty sure Raquel was fanning with a Martha Stewart magazine, not sure Martha would approve.

Next, I spread the rice onto the Nori sheet



and then added the strip of cucumber, hunk of crab and sliced avocado and rolled away.



Behold the final product.



Not to shabby. They were good, but next time I think I would omit the addition of the the rice vinegar and sugar. While the rolls didn't taste too moist the Nori did. Those seaweed sheets are for rolling not so much for tasting... We'll certainly try them again.

Raquel made the Pad Thai, and brought the pickled ginger (for the California rolls) and helped prepare the rest of the meal, including shelling all that crab and cutting up all the ingredients.
Exactly, what did I do???

I know I opened beers...hmmm...


Dessert, of course- what's a birthday without dessert. I doctored up some Trader Joe's vanilla cake by making it with whipping cream and added some cinnamon and fresh nutmeg. Yum. No frosting, but ice cream finished off the cake nicely. No complaints from the kidlets. A few presents were opened and our evening was complete. Happy birthday Girlies!

edited to add: Not to be misleading here, oh my wouldn't that be fabulous if my kids ate the menu we prepared. In all reality, they ate the chicken strips, tortilla chips, rice, and the apples. A few sampled the other items, but mine did not eat them. I wish. Raquel and Greg's five ate shrimp, pad Thai, and avocado in addition to the chicken etc. Smarter kids, obviously!

Next up, Jack. His big day is tomorrow.

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