Sushi Night 2012

 This Christmas we made sushi with my family in Montana. I made one semi-successful roll and really loved it! I thought that sushi was exclusively in the seafood category, so I never really tried it, but I learned that you can put chicken and beef in sushi, so we have started trying new things and decided to have a sushi party. We bought a sushi rolling kit at Target and bought out the Asian food aisle at Reasor's. Then it was time to clean.

As most of you know, my children are incredible. They are well behaved, they are brilliant and lately, they've become extremely helpful! I gave them each jobs and they did great! Caden helped load the dishwasher, vacuum the living room carpet and wipe down the tables. Bailey cleaned the front bathroom and swept the floors. While they didn't do a perfect job, they were so cute and both just wanted to help. It was awesome.

 

Finally it was time for the party. We had 2 couples over from church with their kids and then a couple from Jason's work with their little boy, we also had our friend Julia over. It was so fun! Jason did a demo and showed the others how it was done. It was so fun because out of all the people there, Jason and I were the only ones who had ever rolled sushi before. We weren't perfect, by any means, but we gave it a try and they came out fine!

 Along with sushi, we had potstickers and cream cheese wontons. It was so funny because I made a whole plate of potstickers which is a labor intensive process. I thought that people might be scared of them because they weren't super pretty. Well... I got one. Within 20 minutes the plate was empty which is sad for my mouth but happy for my heart!

 Sushi is traditionally wrapped in Nori which is a seaweed wrap. It's beautiful and green and tastes like the ocean. I do not like the taste of the ocean. So, while everyone else used Nori, I adventured into the rice paper arena and made sushi with a spring roll wrap and it was INCREDIBLE! I put carrots, cucumbers, avocados, chicken, and sushi rice in my wrap and rolled it, it was perfect and now as I sit here typing... I want more.

 This is Julia. She is fabulous. She's showing off her beautiful sushi she made using the sushi mold. Only a few people used the mold instead of the bamboo mat, but it turned out great! She was a first time sushi roller and was a professional by the end of the night!

 We ended up with 8 kids in our house that night. Bailey, Caden and Devan Clark, Channing and Elena Anderson, Hunter and Gavin Crain and River Williams. It was so fun to let all the kids play together. They were all so polite and respectful and got along great! I love those kiddos! This is Bailey and Caden with Channing. She's pretty fabulous.

This is my wonderful friend, Stacy, holding dear Devan. They were together most of the night. She works in nursery with me and never gets to hold Devan on Sundays or Wednesdays so she was excited to get some quality baby boy time!

 And this is one of my favorite pictures from the night. This is Hunter Crain. He's taking Karate and he found our fake swords and had a great time being a karate/swords superhero! 

 

It was such a fun night. People stayed late, the food was great, the conversation was hilarious and we built relationships with people who could be lifelong friends. God is using these amazing people to bless me in Broken Arrow.  Maybe this town isn't so bad after all! :)