Here it goes....

I have been trying to think of a relatively easy was to organize my fashion and food ideas & creations into one convenient place, when I realized that a blog offers that exactly! This is mainly serving as a creative outlet for myself and a way to save some of my past creations. I am guessing some of my crafting efforts may show up here as well... If you happen to stumble upon my page, I hope you get something out of my endeavors!! 

Last night, like most, I decided I wanted to save some money but still have a delicious and elegant dinner, so my mom was kind enough to accompany me to Ranch 99 in Concord where fish and produce are beautiful and very reasonably priced. The plan I had in mind was tuna tartare with avocado and cucumbers and won tons to eat it with for me and salmon sashimi for Greg. The ingredients needed for this dinner included:

• Sushi grade tuna
• Sushi grade salmon
• avocados
• green onions
• jalapeno
• won ton wrappers
• cucumber
• lime
• soy sauce
• wasabi
• sesame seeds
• olive oil

To keep on theme and make it a celebration, we picked up a bottle of my favorite Junmai Ginjo sake and a large can of Sapporo for sake bombs! 

I guess the mean part about dinners I make for us is that I don't let Greg touch his food until I feel like my "masterpiece" is complete : )

A close-up of the finished products, complete with wasabi designs! 

First I like to do the things that should sit longer or need to cook. So I started my prepping the sushi rice because we like to have some carbs in our life. I like to take the recommendation on the bag and rinse the rice until it runs clear and then soak the rice in water for about 30 minutes. Then I did the won tons, I set the oven to 450 degrees and sprayed a cookie sheet before laying out several won ton wrappers. Then I sprayed the tops of those with the cooking spray and flipped them over. I like to give the wontons some shape so I mess with them a little to create a variety before I pop them in the oven. I do not pay attention to how long it actually takes so I have to check on them after a few minutes to see how fast they seem to be browning. In the mean-time I grab what I need for my tartare! When the wontons are golden brown, I flip them and then give them a few more minutes in the oven. Make sure you pull them out when they are your ideal golden- brownness and let them cool. When it is time to cook the rice, just follow package instructions and let it fully cool before you shape it.

The tuna tartare recipe I started using a few years ago for my family event planning business, Dazzle, is by Ina Garten but I have made a lot of changes from that and I think last nights was my best ever....I started with a little less than 1/4 cup olive oil (total guess) and then slightly less than that of soy sauce, you have to be cautious not to make it too salty! I then added a couple squeezes of prepared wasabi from the tube and pepper because I like it to be kind of spicy. Then I squeeze the juice of a small lime into the mixing bowl.  Next I added chopped green onion and almost an entire seeded and minced jalapeno. I then very thinly sliced the cucumber and minced that as well and sesame seeds. Time to add the fresh, cold tuna that I cut into maybe 1/4 in. cubes, reserving two thin slices for Greg to enjoy as sashimi. The small diced avocado shouldn't go in until pretty close to serving time but with the lime juice in there the avocado wont brown too quickly so I put that in there too! Mix it all around and let it meld, covered in the fridge until its time to eat.

For the sashimi, I simply slice the fresh, cold salmon into thin slices and arranged it on my cool sushi plates from Cost Plus. I cut little slices out of a cucumber and then cut it regularly to create cucumber flowers and sprinkled the sashimi with sesame seeds. 

When it was time to serve I added a clean-hand-formed rice ball and the wasabi dish with a heart for G and his was ready to go. For me, I put my dish on first to figure out how much space I had to work with and then added a large rice ball in the middle. On either side, I put the tartare that I had packed gently into a small tupperware and dumped it over!! A little cucumber slice on top of the rice and...DONE!