love is in the details: Adventures in Sushi

Tonight we made sushi! We all love going to sushi restaurants, but with how expensive it can get to go out anywhere to eat, sometimes we have to make it ourselves when a craving hits. Oftentimes, I just have a craving to make something new and exciting! Tonight, both cravings were satisfied!

We started out by prepping our ingredients to make California Rolls and Philadelphia rolls. Both are easy enough and don't require expensive, sushi-grade, raw fish for me to fiddle with. I always get nervous at the idea of handling raw fish to serve to my family when I am not educated on how to do so properly.

Here we have avocado, Krab (imitation crab legs), green onions, smoked salmon, english cucumbers, cream cheese and carrots.

We have an official sushi mat that we use to make these rolls on. They cost next to nothing at the Chinese Cultural Center or any other high end grocer. Here you see it with a sheet of nori on it, or seaweed paper.

Aria was most excited to help me with this meal, but that's no surprise- she's good in the kitchen. Here she's patting down the rice onto the nori with wet hands to keep it from sticking.

Then she set her elements for a Cali Roll on the edge of the rice- cucumber, carrots, crab, and avocado.

I am not sure if a traditional California Roll has carrot, but we thought we'd add some for crunch and color.

Rolling it up is made easier with the use of the mat. Just join the ingredients together, then continue to roll up the sushi until it's all one cylindrical piece.

Coley made a Philly Roll.

A Philadelphia Roll consists of cucumber, cream cheese, and smoked salmon. We added green onion- just because.

Daddy made a "monster" roll. That's his name for adding a little bit of everything to his roll.

I made a couple rolls- one of each- but reversed the rice and seaweed, and sprinkled the outside of the rice with toasted sesame seeds. This is how they make many of the rolls at Kona so I thought I would give it a try.