The First Sushi Advegture

One of the pieces of art available at the
Floating World's Website!

Ok, so I have been meaning to blog about this experience for the past few days since I moved in, but with unpacking and CA training, I've been a tad bit busier than I anticipated. But, without further a due, my first advegture with sushi....

My first meal in Minnesota (YAY!) was the most advegturous meal I've had in quite a while. The Dad and I went to Floating World Cafe on Lake Street in Minneapolis. It was a sushi place first and for most, and I have to admit, I was a bit nervous to try vegetarian sushi. I wasn't really sure what it would entail. Am I going to be eating weird sea plants? I was concerned. As we entered, my eyes immediately flew to the walls, which where covered in unique paintings. On further inspection, I read that the pictures were all created with in the walls of the restaurant, as it served as a sushi restaurant/art studio. Needless to say, it was a peaceful ambiance to begin my first veggie-sushi experience. Once I peeled my eyes from the paintings on the walls, I captured my first look at the menu and my inner veggie-worries was immediately silenced. There were multiple veggie friendly options, such as veggie tempura, shiitake broth, and a few vegetarian sushi options, none of which included weird sea plants that I'd never heard of before. I settled on the vegetable sushi lunch which came with a bowl of the shiitake broth, and the chefs pic of vegetables.

This is a pinyin
(picture from Wikipedia)

The first thing brought to the table was the shiitake broth. I have to admit, its been a while since I've had a eat-in Asian cuisine experience. When I saw the soup spoon, followed by the spoon rest, I got a bit confused. For those of you who are now as confused as I was then, a Chinese soup spoon (or what I believe is called a pinyin) is a flat bottomed spoon that is most commonly made from ceramic or porcelain. One the chunks of meat (or in my case shiitake pieces) are eaten from the soup, the soup rest serves as a place for your spoon while you begin to drink the soup directly from the bowl. I didn't use my spoon for long, after my first spoonful, I went straight to slurping it from the bowl. It was delicious. It was just this simple delicate Chinese flavor that is almost impossible to really describe in enough detail so that you could understand the wonderfulness happening on your palate. I would just suggest that if you see it on the menu, you eat it, you will not regret it. I want some now. I wonder if its sold in cans?.....

Anyways! The next thing to make it's way to the table was the Vegetable Sushi. I really wish I would have a picture, because the sushi chef made my plate beautiful. It was a perfect arrangement of colors and was honestly a plate of art. To be frank, at first bite I was a bit underwhelmed. After the broth and the presentation of the sushi, I was expecting a much more advegturous taste.  It was mainly different vegetables seaweed wrapped onto a roll of sticky rice. I was expecting  more spices and flavors, but it was fairly bland. I tried to add a kick to my meal with some wasabi. This was a tragic mistake. I put a pencil-eraser sized chunk of wasabi paste on my chopsticks, which was much more than suffice. My esophagus was crying in agony, my tongue was a raging flame inside my mouth. On a positive note, my sinus cleared up nicely, I didn't sniffle once in the next few days.
Aside from the wasabi incident, The meal was relatively enjoyable. I deem my first vegetable sushi experience a success, and I wouldn't stray away from going to another sushi place further along in my veggie-filled year, though I plan on staying far, far away from wasabi for a while.

Last Taste of Summer

As I prepare to leave my hometown, Waukesha, and my home state of Wisconsin, I have had a few last minute wonderful summer adventures. They began this past Friday.
To preface the first adventure, I'll have to explain one of my duties as a CA in a residential hall at UMN. I have to make door decs. If you have recently spent any time in a residential hall, you would see the names of the residents decoratively placed upon their room doors. One of my duties is to create the decorative door flourishes for the residents I will be looking after in the next year-a total of 75 people. I also have to make another 19 door decorations for my fellow staff members. If you do the math-or if your math handicapped like me and used a calculator-that is a grand total of 84 door decs. Thinking of a way to display the names of the 84 co-ed residents was fairly challenging. I was searching for ideas on what to do when the lovely Goombah said, "Why don't you just write their names on paint samples?"
 At first I was a bit against this idea, but the more she suggested it, the more I liked the idea. I finally decided the enhanced paint samples would be the perfect door dec for my floor. Wonderful. "But wait," I said to Goombah, "I leave for school in four days. What are we going to do, go to Home Depot and casually grab 84 door decs." And this, my friends, is where the adventure begins.
We began at a Home Depot on one side of town. As we entered we found it difficult to look like we actually belonged there. Lets be honest, what the heck can two college students actually afford at Home Depot? A bunch of free paint samples, maybe a pack of gum. That is just about it. I could tell the Home Depot employees were on to us.
 "Goombah, maybe we should, I don't know, look around a bit?" We started walking casually through the power tools isle. Great idea, right? Of all isles to walk down, this is the one where we look the least bit suspicious.
We slowly meandered back to the paint supplies area, and found ourselves in front of a wall of samples. "If we both grab about ten or eleven, then if we go to four different places we will have enough!" Goombah suggested.
We divided the wall in half, as to not grab the same colors, and began our paint sample snatching. Once we had collected our goal amount, we nodded in approval of our paint sample seizing abilities. As we turned I saw them. Two ten-year-old(ish) girls with their mother. "There on to us." I whispered to Goombah. The Mother laughed as she realized we knew that she knew, and Goombah and I ducked out of the paint area and out the Home Depot doors.
The same routine continued until we got to Menards, our fourth and final paint sample destination. Menards paint samples were not as out in the open as the previous places. As we began grabbing samples I refrained from counting how many I had grabbed, suddenly I had a large handful of paint samples. A whopping 43. I had exceeded the goal amount. "Uhm, in case I make a mistake?" Goombah and I laughed and headed out Menards' doors.
On a less adventurous, but more advegturous note, The Fam and I went out to dinner on Saturday night for The Rents 27th wedding anniversary. (Congrats to The Mom&Dad!) We went down the street from The Dads work, a grand little place called The Packing House. The Dad had looked up the menu in advance and saw that there were two vegetarian options, not a grand selection, but a selection none-the-less. We started with an appetizer. A sampling of fried eggplant, mozzarella sticks, fried onion strings, and bacon wrapped water chestnuts (which I obviously did not eat.) But the fried eggplant was surprisingly the best part of the meal! It was splendid. It was so good that I would honestly recommend going there just to get them. I then got a plate of vegetable alfredo. Although it was delicious, I found myself disappointed because the waitress had stated that asparagus would be part of the dish, but my plate was asparagus-less. And it would've been just that much greater with a few spears of asparagus. What a shame! Overall though, it was a great dinner and a fantastic final Wisconsin restaurant meal!

Kohlrabi...What?

I just realized today that I should have celebrated my 3 months of veggiedom last five days ago! How  exciting. It has gone by so crazy fast. I feel like I blinked and it was over! I will be heading back to Minneapolis next week Tuesday! I am currently in the midst of packing, and getting everything ready to go. Including myself. Two days ago I got my hair cut, nothing anyone would notice, just a nice trim. I love the way it feels to have just cut healthy hair! Today, as in about twenty minutes ago, I dyed my hair medium golden blonde. I am still awaiting my hair to dry to see the results, but it wasn't too crazy of a change, so I am sure it will look good. I love being blonde. I love to show up the stereotype and be a blonde girl with a good head on my shoulders. Dumb Blonde? Not this girl!
With more veggie news, Today I attempted to create a healthy mid day snack. I cut kohlrabi, (its called the German Turnip. Its a type of cabbage. It tastes kind of like the stem part broccoli, but has a crunch similar to cucumbers. The Grandparents grow them in their garden. The Grandma usually cooks them up in soups.) I cut it like a potato chip and sprinkled seasoning salt on top of make-shift, healthy chips. It sounded really delicious, but I took a bite and couldn't take another. I added WAY to much seasoning salt, it tasted disgusting. Ops! I decided to eat cool ranch Doritos and Tazo Green Tea instead, less healthy, more yummy. Oh well!

Technology Fail

Ever since I got my first cell phone, way back in 2007, I have been a victim to sudden phone damaging tragedies. I've seen my phone suicide jump from my pocket into the toilet. I've seen my phone free fall from my palm, bouncing off the concrete. Every phone I have ever used has been terminated from its position as my phone because of such events. This summer, my newest phone was a victim to the humidity, and experienced water damage. My back up phone then kamikaze-d into the pavement. I have been using various phones throughout the summer attempting to fill the void my newest phone left open. The Dad ordered a new(ish) phone for me online. Although it is a bit old-school, it has a keyboard. Which is a plus. Although this seems to have nothing at all to do with my veggie-ways, it does! Sort-of. 

Let me explain. I have been taking pictures of most everything I eat in case I decided to blog about it. Yesterday, I made Chick'n Fried Rice. I took various photos, But because of the recent phone switch, I failed to e-mail the pictures to myself. 

So I will try to paint the picture of the fried rice, so you can imagine how scrumptious it looked. It started with vegetable oil and onions in a frying pan. A perfect simmering sound filled the air, along with the pleasant aroma of a meal starting to take form. I then added frozen peas and corn, its frosted edges sizzling on the frying pan. Next were the fresh veggies, chopped mushrooms and broccoli. I stirred the colorful blend of veggie-goodness as I added an egg. Its yellow fluff added a perfect flavor and texture. As well as the ever important protein. I then started to fry the Chick'n. As it turned a golden brown, I piled the rice in with the veggies. mixing it with soy sauce, watching it brown slightly. I chopped the Chick'n and my veggie meal was complete. A perfect mix of all colors. A great veggielicious meal. 

Wisco-Veggie-Fair

Yesterday was the opening day of the Wisconsin State Fair, and I was there! It had been years since I took the adventure to the State Fair. When I was younger The Fam lived in West Allis and The Mom used to drag me along in a red wagon the few blocks down to the State Fair Grounds. I traveled to the fair again this year with The Mom but not only to attend the fair, but also to help Hunger Task Force collect non-perishable food items for reduced admission to the fair. Although we received a lot of donated items for the local food pantries, the head-haunchos said it was a significantly smaller amount than previous years. Unfortunately, because of the teen riots from 2011, it seemed people were fearful to come to the fair, and those under 18 were not allowed to enter without an adult after 5. It is such a shame that a few hooligans had to ruin it for so many people! Still, it was great to give a helping hand and donate our time to a good cause!

After we volunteered, we wandered into the fair searching for a vegetarian friendly dinner. We were on a mission for a non-deep friend veggie meal. It was near impossible. We got side tracked a bit, and got some roasted mixed nuts. Which are always delicious and somewhat nutritious, they have some protein in them! We then found the A Wok Around the Park stand which had a eclectic mix of Asian choices. I had the Spicy Veggie Singapore Noodles, and The Mom had Tikiayki Bourbon Chicken. My meal had a bit of a curry flavor, and a few peppers mixed in with Indian style noodles. Both The Mom found our meals a little underwhelming, but it still quietened our rumbling stomachs. We ventured through the fair a bit more, and got ice cream cones from Cedar Crest. I devoured Elephant Tracks, and The Mom got some rendition of a coffee/toffee ice cream. Overall it was a great day at the State Fair, but I wouldn't recommend going there looking for a somewhat healthy vegetarian meal.

To Grandmother's House We Go

This past Sunday The Fam. and I took a trip over the highway and through the woods to The Grandparents house. Where I was delighted to find a Grandma made lunch for The Fam and I that included vegetarian options for me! YIPEE! While my carnivorous family devoured steak (I'm pretty sure The Mom's fairly rare stake still had a pulse) I enjoyed a veggie burger with vegetable soup. The veggie burger was a good protein source, but the soup was fantastic. The Grandparents have a large garden where they grow kohlrabi, corn, potatoes, carrots, basil, green beans, cabbage, and many other wonderfully fresh vegetables as well as raspberries. The soup was filled with these superbly fresh veggies and prepared with the German spaetzle noodles on the side. I want to find a way to can soup so that I can have some of this saved up wonderfully fresh and delicious soup when I get home-sick away at college. I had The Grandma pack up some of the soup and spaetzle and had  a small cup of soup for lunch today. YUM!
Another great thing about Grandma's in general, is how good they are at making desserts! The Grandma had prepared zucchini bread with cream cheese frosting and a cool-whip-wafer-berry tart. What is a cool-whip-wafer-berry-tart? Only the most simply delicious of The Grandma's wonderful desserts. She crumbles vanilla wafers (The ones that come in packaged with chocolate and strawberry and are slightly orange colored) on the bottom of a pan and flattens them so that they become the crust. She then adds a thick layer of fresh raspberries, a thick layer of coolwhip, and another thinner layer of raspberries and a crumbling of vanilla wafers lay gently a-top. She also added a sprinkling of blueberries on the top to make a simple and light summer dessert. Yay for Grandmas!

Go USA! Cupcakes

Inspired by cheering on my favorite team in the 2012 London Olympics, (Team USA, duh.) I decided to make red, white and blue cupcakes for my friends as a tailgating dessert. Because nothing is better than a delicious cupcake before you take the mile hike up to your nosebleed cheap seats! Are those ants playing down there? I don't know but I am sure glad I ate a few cupcakes and veggieburgers before I got up here, it would be a long hike to the concession stand!

GO USA! Cupcakes

The Goods:

1 box white cupcakes

10-15 Strawberries (diced)

1 & 1/2 cup blueberries

The Super-Easy-Yummy&Delicous-Vanilla Frosting:

1 package vanilla pudding

1 container cool whip (thawed)

1 cup cold milk

TO DO:

1. Make cake mix according to box.You can do it. I believe in you. Don't forget to preheat the oven to 350!

2. Add the berries. I didn't really count out how much I put in. Just eyeball it until it looks like you have a good mix of berries to make it really red, white and blue.

3. Bake according to box. My oven took 22 minutes, which was odd because it usually takes a shorter amount of time, but I am thinking the extra moisture of the berries extended the time a bit.

4. While your cupcakes are cooling, start preparing the frosting

5. How do you make the frosting? I'll tell you! You beat the cold milk with the package of pudding for 2 minutes, then fold in the cool whip. 

7. Leave the frosting in your fridge for an hour. Go watch the Olympics while you wait. This is a completely necessary step. Do not skip it.

8. Spread the frosting all up on them cupcakes. Because its a lighter frosting, I added a bit more than I usually do. 

9. If you'd like you can use the extra blueberries and strawberries as a garnish. I made adorable little flowers on a few of my cupcakes. It was a cute touch, if I do say so myself.

10. FEAST. They are very moist cupcakes, and because of the cool-whip frosting and berries, they are very light. So its totally fine if you eat 10 of them in one sitting. The berries make them good for you, right?