Sorry it has been a few days since I have written.  I had a colonoscopy. Let's just talk for a moment about certain tests everyone should be doing.  In this day and age there are so many tests available to people to find certain diseases early enough to treat and survive. Sure the tests may not be comfortable, but please, for your family and friends, don't put them off.  Just do them.  It's better to do them now than hear your doctor say later "if only we caught it sooner."

Ok...off my soapbox I go.....

Tonight I made sushi.  I don't usually make it with raw fish at home.  I bought crab sticks, avocado, and green onions. I always have sushi rice, nori (seaweed sheets), soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and masago (orange fish eggs) at home.  You can find all of these at oriental grocery stores. Or everything, but the masago, can usually be found a the grocery store these days.

I have a rice maker also.  I just saw one at Bed Bath and Beyond for $20.  It is fine for this use.  I like it because it is only 5 cups large and a nonstick bowl.

When making the sushi rice, you need an equal amount of rice to water.  Cook it for as long as your cooker says to cook the rice.  Once it is done, the rice needs to cool off.  This time of the year, I just put it outside for about 10 minutes.  Put some rice wine vinegar in the rice and stir it around.

Put the nori on the rolling mat, spread a thin layer on rice on the bottom 1/2 of the sheet.  Put your ingredients on the rice.  Roll it tightly using the mat.

Everyone in my family likes different combos.  My husband likes green onion (a lot) with little rice, a lot of protein (crab stick), masago and some avocado.  That's the beauty of making your own sushi.  You can customize your rolls.  You can minimize the amount of rice and increase the amount of protein - to make it healthier.  And not to mention how crazy cheap it is to make it yourself.  It is fun to have people over and put out all kinds of ingredients and let everyone choose and roll their own sushi.  When we were in Madison we showed our friends there how to make it.  They were shocked how easy and yummy it was.  You can put anything in it....carrots, chicken, cucumber, tofu, even raw fish if you know a very reputable place to buy it.

My husband's roll (this is 2 rolls). See the huge amount of crab and green onion?  So good!!

I made a special dessert.  I don't usually have anything for dessert - trying to keep things as healthy as possible around here.  But....today at the grocery store I saw peppermint and caramel flavored whipped creams and thought it would be delicious to have a coffee bar.  I have different flavors of sugar free caramel and kaluha syrups as well as sugar free chocolate sauce always at home.  I also always have fat free half and half cream at home.  I put everything out with the whipped cream and let everyone make their own combos with a fresh pot of decaf I made.  YUM!!! What a treat this was.....