Sushi Tower

Mickey sent me a picture of the sushi towers she and Kyle made and I couldn't wait to try this idea.

Of course I then forgot about the idea and never made it.

So when P requested sushi for her birthday dinner last weekend I was super excited when 'sushi towers' were suggested and she agreed. So I finally got to make them and am so happy to have a new favorite dinner party idea! Everyone loved this, and the best part is that you just have to chop some ingredients and everyone makes their own - it's a fun sushi bar sort of thing.

Change the ingredients to whatever you like - Kyle said they like salmon but I went with imitation crab and lobster, and cooked small shrimp.

Note: unfortunately P had to return to NC before getting to eat her birthday dinner, but I already bought all the ingredients so we had a non-birthday dinner without her. Missed you P, but loved your dinner ;)

• chopped cucumbers
• carrot matchsticks
• diced or sliced avocado
• cubed cream cheese
• sesame seeds
• nori (seaweed) snacks, I found them in the Asian aisle at the grocery store (or you could use regular nori cut in smaller pieces)
• imitation crab sticks, chopped
• imitation lobster chunks
• cooked shrimp, peeled and remove the tails
• sushi rice (Mickey and Kyle use regular white rice, I made sticky rice)

To make sushi rice: cook 2 cups of medium grain rice with 2 1/2 cups of water (I use my rice cooker). In a small bowl stir together 2 T. rice vinegar, 2 T. sugar, and 1 t. salt; microwave for 45 seconds and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Once the rice is done stir in the vinegar mixture until the rice is evenly coated.

To make the towers: using a small plastic solo cup (I assume it'd work with other cups but we used leftover short plastic clear party glasses) layer the sushi ingredients to your liking, pressing them firmly into the glass. Once the glass is full turn over and invert onto a plate. Top with sesame seeds, nori snack pieces, and/or drizzle with your choice of sauces. We had varieties to choose from including soy, teriyaki, oyster, yum yum, and sweet Thai chili. Note if you put the sticky rice in the bottom of the cup first, it sticks (hence the name 'sticky rice' hahaha) and you won't get a nice tower - it'll still taste great but you lose the presentation. If you put in a non-sticky (shellfish, nori snacks, etc.) thing first they inverted without a problem. 

I should mention that the first pass thru the line everyone was excited to build and show off their towers, but the second helpers ended up just putting the ingredients straight on their plate - more like 'sushi bowls' then sushi towers hahahah. I had leftovers the next day doing the same thing, tastes exactly the same of course but not as 'impressive' - yum, either way this is a fantastic dish.

I made chicken teriyaki and bought an 'asian chopped salad kit' for side dishes. Not necessary at all (but tasted good). 

Gingersnaps

I posted Cathy's mom's molasses sugar cookies last month (remember Cathy asked me for the recipe and I told her no, it's a secret? 😂) and they are delicious. Everyone loved them. I wanted to make some cookies for Dave's ukulele meeting (they meet outside, sit in ball chairs, and are respectfully distant!) and he said I should make the molasses ones again, but hello - I don't usually repeat so I have new things to post (if I'm going to bake I might as well make new things, right?). So I looked in my 'favorites binder' and found this recipe for "Stubb's Gingersnaps" that I cut out of the LA Times 100 years ago  when we still got an actual newspaper - I have no idea who "Stubb" is, but these cookies are so good they've been in my favorites for a long, long time and I decided to make them for Dave's meeting.

So, here's the thing. While making them I asked Dave if he knew the difference between molasses cookies and gingersnaps? Nope, and neither did I. I didn't compare the two recipes until sitting down to write up this post and I was going to google the difference and let you know (cuz I'm helpful like that) - well guess what? The two recipes are almost exactly the same!! Whaaat??  Two minor differences - the molasses recipe calls for shortening and the gingersnaps use oil, and the gingersnaps call for twice the amount of cloves and ginger. They have the exact same amounts and ingredients other than that - so much for wanting to make something different!

I'll go ahead and post the gingersnap recipe - or you can just look back and check out the molasses hahahhaha!! Good grief.

STUBB'S GINGERSNAPS

• 3/4 cup oil
• 1 cup sugar, plus extra for rolling
• 1/4 cup molasses (click here for an easy measuring tip)
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 t. salt
• 2 t. baking soda
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 1 t. cloves
• 1 t. ginger

Beat oil and sugar in bowl until creamy. Add molasses and egg, and beat well. Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and ginger. Add to sugar mixture and mix well.

Roll into teaspoon-size balls. Roll in sugar to coat, and place 2 inches apart on greased baking sheet. Bake at 375' until cracked and lightly browned, 12 to 15 minutes.

makes 4 dozen. 

Note: recipe says to roll into teaspoon-size balls - I use my small cookie scoop to make normal size cookies, or divide the small scoop in half for mini cookies; for the scoop size I bake about 10 minutes, for the 1/2 scoop size I bake about 6 minutes and watch carefully, they get over browned easily. This photo shows the full size on the right, small on the left. 

check out an easy tip for measuring sticky ingredients here

Tip-sy Tuesday: Measuring Sticky Ingredients

Quick little tip in case you don't know it - spray the inside of your measuring cup with non-stick spray before measuring out a sticky ingredient like molasses (above), corn syrup, honey, etc. and it will slide right out. No waste and cleanup is easy.

You'll want to use this tip when making Cathy's moms molasses sugar cookies, or the gingersnaps I'm posting tomorrow!

Painted Letters (and an engagement cake!)

Kyle and Mickey got engaged last weekend! She didn't know it was happening but everyone else did so we threw a surprise engagement party for them - as far as I could tell no one slipped up and tipped her off (I can't tell you how hard that was for me - we had 3 birthday parties, an all-day memorial event, and the engagement party all in a few days. Every time I tried to talk about the events I had to pause and think if what I was about to say was to the right person LOL, it was confusing. My mouth works faster than my brain so I was worried I'd say something wrong!).

I made a simple layer cake for the dessert table, mostly so I had something to stand this cute cake topper in! It says 'future mr & mrs' in gold glitter, so I decorated the cake with white buttercream frosting and heaped on a sprinkle mix I found online that is crazy chock full of different shapes in gold/silver/teal/white.

Question - the sprinkle mix is full of those hard little ball decorations like the silver dragees at Christmas and are super hard. They are meant to be consumed, right? I never know what to do with them because they are potentially tooth-breaking! 

For the dessert table (and as a engagement gift) we had a photo blown up on 16x20" canvas (shutterfly) and I found these tall wood letters that I painted and glittered. Looked great all together on the table!

This was so simple and easy to do - hardest part was deciding when to stop adding glitter :) I painted the letters using 'peacock teal' craft paint applied with a foam brush. It dried super fast so I was able to apply 3 coats in a matter of minutes. I only did the top of the letter leaving the sides and back natural. 

still a work in progress - I rubbed some of the thick gold glitter off before
adding silver glitter, and I also applied a little glitter along the opposite edge
(that was a Macey suggestion and it worked!) 

After the paint was dry I lightly brushed on elmers glue where I wanted the glitter to go, went light at first and kept applying until it looked right. Initially I only did gold chunky glitter but after sending a picture to Macey for her opinion I added some silver chunky glitter in with the gold, and I also made the glitter cover more of the letter. The store didn't have an & sign and I didn't know how I was going to come up with one, but then I found a tiny cross/plus sign in the bottom of the letter bin and thought it looked great with the big letters. Decided I liked it in it's natural brown stain so left it alone. 

The party was a blast - they were so happy and we loved celebrating this exciting time with them! 

Around the Campfire 🔥 (week 33)

Dear Campers ~

Here's a quick recap of what happened at camp last week in case you missed anything:

Posts ~
8/9: 🔥 week 32
8/10: hello doormat
8/11: tip-sy tuesday: brownie liners
8/12: mini cream pies
8/13: notebook paper frame
8/14: mason jar 'lunchables'
8/15: mini succulent shadowbox

What's Cooking' ~

• sushi tower, chicken teriyaki (will post both recipes soon), roasted broccoli
• marinated thin chicken breast, potato salad, roasted asparagus
• bbq ribs, chopped kale salad
• take-out tacos
• chicken sausages, penne with roasted cherry tomatoes (from my garden), caesar salad

Miscellaneous stuff keeping me busy ~

• read 'The Silent Patient" by Alex Michaelides. I borrowed it from Mickey before she read it, when she asked if I liked it I answered 'it's fine'. She's like 'well that's not a rave review, should I bother reading it?'. Ummm, I guess if you're bored and have nothing else to read I'd say yes read it, but if you're looking for the psychological thriller it says it's supposed to be then I'd say no, don't bother. It wasn't much of a thriller - it does have a twist or two but not until too close to the end to make it suspenseful. ⭐️⭐️
• read "Before I let You Go" by Kelly Rimmer. Got good reviews but I just didn't love it. It's a sad depressing story about 2 sisters (one a doctor, the other a heroin addict), a boring boyfriend, a mother who joined a religious cult, and a baby. I bet that summary really makes you want to read it hahahahaha? ⭐️⭐️

Hope you enjoyed the week of re-runs and didn't mind me taking a much needed break to get caught up on life! Come back next week for fresh posts - recipes, projects, and whatever else I can think of to make (or what my friends/family make!).

Sincerely ~

Jill

rested camp counselor 

Mini Succulent Shadowbox (rerun)

originally posted 9/1/16:

I love how this little shadow box turned out and it was another simple, quick, fun project - my favorite kind!

Supplies:

• small paper maché rectangle box 2" x 3.25", without the lid
• small matted frame 3.5"x 4.5"overall with 2"x 3" opening, remove the glass and back
• small artificial succulent
• craft paint and brush
• hot glue, clear craft glue

Paint the inside of the paper maché box, I did 2 coats, let dry. Hot glue the small succulent to a bottom corner of the box. Using clear craft glue, attach the mat to the front edges of the box creating the shadowbox effect, then glue the mat to the frame. Easy!

I just squeezed some paint into the box
and brushed it around using a small foam
paintbrush - a little lazy, yes :)

Got the idea for this project here

Mason Jar Lunchable (rerun)

originally posted 8/9/16:

My niece Macey just sent me this video by Little Things that she saw on Facebook and I have to say - it's genius! Click here to watch the video and see the idea in action - the premise is to use a mason jar with a lid and screw ring, and a clean empty single serving applesauce cup to keep your foods separate until ready to eat.  I haven't tried it myself yet but I totally will be doing this - the first idea on the video of keeping the cereal and milk apart seems like it might be hard to eat out of a mason jar but the other ideas are awesome: hummus and veggies, crackers with ham and cheese, yogurt with berries and granola, salad and dressing...love this! Thanks for sharing Macey :)

I googled this idea online and there are lots of people doing it - why haven't I seen this before haha? I found the above picture from another site (smart school house) so you get an idea what it looks like.

The applesauce cup keeps the foods separated - if it's a dry ingredient going in the cup (like in the above example - meat and cheese are in the mason jar, and crackers are in the applesauce cup) you can put the cup upside down on the lid of the mason jar then screw the ring over top and it holds the applesauce cup in place; if a liquid is going in the cup put the cup inside and then put the lid and screw ring on (for example, salad in the mason jar and dressing in the cup rests on top of the salad).

Notebook Paper Frame (rerun)

originally posted 8/25/16:

I love back to school time of year - I think that's one of those either love it or hate it things. Dave hates it, this many years later he is still traumatized about going to school hahaha, but it makes me excited! I was shopping with Brooke the other day looking at school supplies (see here for her jazzing up her composition notebooks) and I couldn't resist getting myself notebooks, folders and new markers! Pitiful I know...but I love this stuff. So when I saw this idea I immediately knew I'd be making it.

I saw this frame idea on the Michaels website, I didn't follow their instructions exactly but that's what an inspiration idea is for! See an idea, change it if you want to, and make it your own...

This is super simple - paint a plain wood frame white; after it dries make lines using a blue fine point sharpie every 3/8" inch horizontally on the frame. Then make 2 vertical red lines on the left side - looks like notebook paper! So cute, what a great teacher gift (or a gift for someone like me who is slightly obsessed with notebook paper)!

I wasn't patient enough to paint one side and
let it dry before painting the flip side!

To make the picture to put in the frame, I played around with some free circle flower templates I found online (click here for the site I used) and added the 'make my day camp' text.

Mini Banana Cream Pies (rerun)

originally posted 8/10/16:

To make mini cream pies:

I baked the pie crust blind (that means without filling in them). Roll out premade pie dough (I like Pillsbury) and cut with a small 2" circle cutter, gently press into a mini cupcake tin (I've done this part before, click here for the mini fruit pie post). When you bake crust empty without filling, the dough will want to puff up so you need to weigh it down - they sell pie weights for this exact reason but I do not have any, an easy substitute is to weigh it down with dried beans. But I didn't have any of those either so I went online to see if I could find other substitute ideas - there were a few suggestions (rice and popcorn are the 2 I remember seeing, but doesn't baking popcorn seem like a mess waiting to happen?) and I went with trying dry rice. It worked really good, you just have to make sure to get all of the rice out after the crust has been baked - pretty sure baked in rice isn't going to taste good! I just used the edge of a small spoon handle to lightly scrap the rice out. Not the perfect scenario but it worked and the dough didn't puff up.

For the filling I just made banana pudding using 1 1/2 cups of milk, let it set up and then added chopped bananas and using my small cookie scoop filled the pie crust with the pudding. Top with either a little piece of banana or cool whip.

Easy and delicious :)

This will obviously work with other flavors instead of banana - make whatever pudding you want!

Tip-sy Tuesday: brownie liners

originally posted 8/10/16 in a long post giving 3 desserts for our birthday dessert smorgasbord, I like this tip from Brooke so am sharing again:

Brooke made brownies and they turned out so good - I think the secret was she put them in cupcake liners to bake, love that idea, and they got rave reviews!