par-tay sushi style

Each spring I think to myself that this summer I won't let it pass me by. I'll do all of those things I think about doing in the winter. I'll do yoga outside in my yard. I'll go paddle boating on the canal. I'll have parties at my house. This year I actually did number 3. I did number 1 too, but it was terrible. The mosquitoes feasted on downward facing dog, flies buzzed in my ears when I was attempting inner peace. It was terrible, take it from me, do yoga inside. Back to number 3; I had a sushi party for my camp girls and a few other people. My camp girls are the girls I met when I was, oh, 12 or so at summer camp and we've been friends ever since.

The theme of the party was make your own sushi. I provided sushi fixin's:

1 pound sushi grade tuna

1/2 pound cooked salmon grilled on a cedar plank and shredded

1 chicken breast cooked with ginger and soy sauce cooked and shredded

soy papers instead of sea weed

carrots cut into matchsticks

avocado thinly sliced

cucumber cut into match sticks

spicy sauce (I actually made my own spicy sauce. I couldn't find it pre-made and the woman at the asian market told me how to make it myself. It takes about 1/3 cup asian mayo, 2 tablespoons rice cooking wine, 5 drops sesame seed oil, and 2 teaspoons what looks like dried asian red pepper flake spice mix...the writing on it is Chinese, so I can't tell you the name.)

I wanted to have some sides, so I made a goat cheese and tomato tart. Okay. It totally goes against the theme but who cares? It's a goat cheese and tomato tart! I got the recipe from food network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/tomato-and-goat-cheese-tarts-recipe/index.html

My friend Michelle was also so kind as to pick up a couple orders of crab rangoon from the nearest Chinese strip mall carry out. Why do all of those places have the exact same menu? Does it worry anyone else? I have visions of a Chinese mafia scheme...

Oh! And the beverage of the evening! How could I almost forget to talk about the alcohol?!

The Perfect Mojitos

(to be made in a pint glass)

2 shots of white rum (I use bacardi)

1 cup of club soda

the juice of 1 lime with half of it cut into wedges and tossed in the glass

5-10 mint leaves torn

cane sugar simple syrup to taste (to make a simple syrup simmer 1 part water with 2 parts sugar. I used cane sugar or raw sugar for my mojito syrup)

serve over ice

These are damn good mojitos, damn good.

The sushi was amazing. I thought that maybe sushi restaurants had some ancient asian wisdom magic to make it so delicious. I man, it's so simple. soy paper, sushi rice, veggies, fish, and maybe a sauce. I made myself some spicy tuna rolls and it is as good as anything I've had in any sushi place. Okay, maybe it wasn't as pretty and maybe it kind of fell apart when I dipped it in my soy sauce and I had sushi soy sauce soup, but it was incredibly delicious. The tomato-goat cheese tart was also delicious and very impressive looking as well. It was very very rich and I might use half of the amount of goat cheese and double the tomato. Take note, this may be the first time in my life that I actually reduced the amount of cheese in something.

Dessert was a chocolate ganache cake. I baked it myself. Totally. Seriously. I did. I swear. I also purchased a cake box to put it in and I made a dark chocolate square to sit in the middle of the cake, and I painted the words The Fresh Market in white chocolate. I also printed off a fake price tag to stick on the box. Yep. I slaved over that cake.

Sieze the summer before it's gone and it's cold and nasty and all you want to do is eat pig fat fried in pig fat while watching CSI reruns.