Makin' Maki Sushi Round Up!

I am a big sushi lover... I'm talking BIG! I could eat sushi every.single.day if it weren't for how my body has a love/hate relationship with carbs. However, today I indulged in sushi and had friends come over to learn how to make maki rolls. For my sushi event, I prepped all the ingredients for our maki rolls. Some ingredients I offered included:

carrots, yellow pickled radish, cucumber, red & green bell pepper, mushrooms...

orange fish roe, egg omelet, broiled eel (unagi), avocado, crab sticks, cream cheese...

sashimi platter of white & red tuna, salmon, mackerel, yellow tail, & whitefish... After we made a couple rolls, we had ourselves a full Japanese meal where I served iced honey green tea, edamame, miso soup and Adzuki (sweet red bean) ice cream for dessert...

To join in the fun, my fellow bloggers have submitted their Japanese/Sushi recipes! As I do with each blogging event I host, a lucky blogger receives a giveaway related to the food theme. This event's winner is Kristin of Tiny Kitchen Cooking! Kristin will be receiving a bamboo mat and fancy chopsticks for her entry. Congratulations Kristin and thanks to all that participated in the blogging event! Read on to check out the recipes submitted by my fellow bloggers...

Kristin of Tiny Kitchen Cooking
from Massachusetts
California Rolls
Kristin joins us to share her spring rolls and california rolls for her first every blogging event! Kristin recently learned how to make maki sushi from a friend, Masako. Check out Kristin's blog for the recipes Masako shared!
Lalaine of The CookMobile
from Norwalk, CA
Sculpin Fish in Miso Broth
Lalaine joins us to share a beautiful dish of Sculpin Fish. Not familiar with this kind of fish? Check out Lalaine's blog for more info and the recipe of this tasty dish!

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Friends & Fun

Today was another lazy day where we lounged around soaking up sun on the balcony, watched movies and surfed the web (or work... which I'll confess I did while on vacation). I spent part of the day with business calls and setting up meetings for the coming days. Besides, I had to save up my energy for our night out!

We headed up to The Villages and Leesburg to meet up with some special girlfriends and their husbands. At The Villages, we had a great Japanese steakhouse dinner at VKI Japanese Steakhouse. It was a lot of fun seeing friends, catching up on things and of course, enjoying the fun show the "grillmaster" put on for us.

The hubby, my sister in law and I all ordered the bento box. Mine included teriyaki chicken over udon noodles, gyoza, shumai, shrimp tempura, rice and fresh fruit:

Here are some more pictures from the dinner:

It was a great night with friends over good food... what more could I want?!

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