Sushi at Home

I made sushi.

It was my first time.

It turned out pretty deliciously.

Anything you put in sushi pretty much tastes good, so I think the rice is the key to real success. Unfortunately I can't rememeber which recipe I used.. I just googled one. But having freshly/properly prepared sticky rice that has never been refrigerated makes a big difference.

There's nowhere around here to get sushi grade salmon (my favorite) so I used smoked salmon.. very delicious none the less. I also used cucumber, tamago (sweet egg omelet), avocado, cream cheese, shrimp, crab meat, and sesame seeds. I ate all this in about 2 days.

Red Velvet Cake with Berries

... and cream cheese frosting of course.

I learned some interesting things about Red Velvet during the preparatory research for the making of this cake. I had never made one or even tasted one before and I wanted to know what all the hype was about. When I started to read through recipes I was unimpressed with the list of ingredients. None of them seemed like they would provide any spectacular flavours or unusual elements that couldn't be found in a standard chocolate or vanilla cake (except buttermilk.. that makes things taste pretty good sometimes). So I did a little more investigating.

What I learned is that back in the day, the reddish colour was the result of a reaction between cocoa powder and an acidic ingredient like vinegar or buttermilk. Nowadays we usually use a more processed form of cocoa powder and the reaction isn't enough to produce the same red it used to... hence the red food colouring in many recipes. Apparently many people used to use beets to boost the colour as well.

All in all I was expecting more. I feel like the red food colouring is cheating... and may also be a mind trick that makes people think they're eating something more remarkable than it really is.

Or perhaps my cake just didn't cut it and I still don't know what I'm missing!

Silly Seagull

This silly seagull was at my workplace this summer - she decided to make her nest in a parking lot, next to the entrance of the office building. I don't think she realized what she was getting into at the time.. there were people going in and out of the office constantly and I'm sure she felt threatened. Some of the guys were nice enough to make this wooden shelter for her. Unfortunately I don't think any of her eggs hatched :'(

My Specialty is Roofing

hahaha

Knitted Slouchy Hat

This is a bi-colored slouchy hat.

It's made of an alpaca wool blend.

I didn't really follow a specific pattern, just an eHow article on how to knit slouchy hats. I attempted to determine my gauge and calculate how many stitches I should need. Apparently I miscalculated because it ended up wayy too big. I thought of trying to felt it to make it smaller but that probably wouldn't have worked since it's not pure wool. I eventually sewed a seam down one side (what a shame) to make it fit.

Once complete I knitted this little flap into the brim. I didn't like how thick the tab was so I removed it and made a new smaller tab which you see in the first picture.