The main reason it cost so much the first time was because we got ripped off when buying the crab meat from the sketchy sushi guy at Shaw’s; he sold us 5 sticks of crab meat for $2 each. We had no idea how much crab meat we needed so we ended up throwing out 4 of the 5 sticks! We took a big hit on that one. The rice wine vinegar only came in a big $6 bottle, then we needed the nori, wasabi, avocado, a lemon (well, we thought we needed it, should have read the recipe better…), and of course the sushi rice and bamboo roller.

Since we had most of the essentials this time around, and decided we didn’t want to use avocado, the bill was bearable. We also found a deal on packaged crab meat sticks for only $3 plus it came with a free pack of lobster meat, which we plan to use for something tasty. I am writing this post several days later, and since we made these California rolls, we have also made crab rangoons, or won tons, so the crab meat hasn’t gone to waste!

We knew how the process worked this time so it didn’t take the long tedious three hours like our first attempt. Actually, it only took 45 minutes! Not bad at all, even if they turned out a little sloppy

Looking at this recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/california-roll-recipe/index.html there weren’t a lot of ingredients so we thought it was going to be really cheap.. it was just a matter of finding all these things in a generic grocery store. So we go to the grocery store and get avocado and cucumber and wander over to the seafood section.

We were looking at the crab in total confusion and decided to ask the “Sushi Guy” if he had any crab for sushi and from what we gathered there was none. There was only the special crab he gets shipped in specifically for the sushi he makes in-house. After we fiercely refused to give him $2 in cash for a stick of crab, (Yes, a stick) he thought about it and asked how much sushi we wanted to make and we said about eight rolls because we wanted a lot. He said we would need 2 sticks per roll which would be $36 dollars. Um… yikes! I don’t think so. We said “We’ll just take 5″ and paid $11 dollars for crab. Ok – that was a not in the budget, but let’s move on.

Rice was next. Sushi Guy was nice enough to let us know that we were only to use short grain rice and we did find it after scouring the shelf for about 10 minutes. Sushi Guy also said there was no nori in the store. Luckily, he was wrong and we got two packs for our uber sushi time! Then we got the sesame seeds, rice wine vinegar, wasabi and soy sauce. Total: $42.00. NOT a cheap meal.

We also got a roller for the sushi for $5 at City Market.

Preparation. We were having so much fun and doing a great job. Meanwhile there was cake being served in the lounge (where we were) and then a couple of people wanted to make brownies around us and it was exhausting. Back to the food. We made the rice and toasted the sesame seeds. The rice came out really sticky. I know its called sticky rice, but this was almost like glue! We could barely get it off our fingers when we were putting it on the nori. Assembling was pretty straight forward but tedious. Nori, rice, cucumber, avocado, crab, roll. It was sort of difficult to get the rolls tight and tidy, but eventually we got the hang of it. We didn’t even come close to using all of our ingredients! We only use 1 stick of crab, and had tons of nori left over. We made 4-6 rolls. Had oodles of sushi and barely wanted any because we were so tired. It took hours! It was delicious while it lasted but there was so much sushi that we had to throw away about 10 pieces because the rice got hard and it was gross. We also tossed all the leftover crab because it was stinking up the fridge and there was no chance we wanted to do this again before its short fridge life was over!

Overall, though completely yummy, it was a bit of a fiasco. It’ll probably be a lot easier if we ever do it again since we now have some of the requirements but we probably won’t any time soon. From now on, City Market cali rolls for me!

Surfing the web for chicken gyros was kind of tough because there weren’t many recipes, but we found this: http://www.recipezaar.com/Chicken-Gyros-for-2-141367 . It’s simple. I liked that. The great thing about this recipe is that most of these things are probably already in your kitchen. They weren’t in ours, obviously, because we just have the bare essentials. So, off we go shopping. I don’t think we used any substitutes. Everything was in the recipe.

So, first off, we marinated the chicken. The marinated and cooked chicken was gross on its own. Heavy lemon flavor. Andy made the cucumber yogurt sauce. That was quick and easy. It turned out a little runny even after trying to drain the water out of the cucumbers (I’d recommend taking the seeds out). That was gross alone as well. That was all we had to do. Cook the chicken, make the sauce, and cut up the lettuce and tomato. Simple! And it only took us half an hour. We made half pitas instead of whole and just stuffed them, it was easier to make that way.

To me, the taste was phenomenal. We added some red onion slices and the lettuce and tomato which made it taste like it was grown in a garden! The lemon taste and the yogurt taste just balanced the whole meal. As long as I got a bite of onion, lettuce, chicken and the sauce it was perfect! They were also very filling. We made a double batch (no side dish) and had a very hard time finishing them. Overall, amazing fresh taste, easy and quick. My favorite thus far (not Andy’s though)!

The bare necessities for Philly Cheese Steaks are sauteed onions, peppers, and mushrooms piled high on a hogie with provolone and thin strips of steak.

We did just that. One Spanish onion, one red bell pepper, one green bell pepper, one jalapeno, and two varieties of common mushrooms which happened to be on sale (shiitake were too expensive). I also added a nice touch that turned out to be amazing; while Dani was cooking the meat, I brushed the hogies with olive oil, sprinkled on some salt and fresh cracked black pepper and put them on a baking sheet (open, face down). Those went into the oven at 500 degrees and by the time the meat was fully cooked, they were nice and golden brown and came out packing a ton of flavor.

Our best dish yet.

Read on for a link to the recipe and pictures of our finished entrée.

It was like we were on Iron Chef! We completely failed at trying to put everything in at the right time. The sauce was done in just 15 minutes and we were in the kitchen for over an hour. It was pretty hectic but what a rush! The salt was flying, the onions made us cry, we were burning ourselves with oil… we didn’t have a cookie sheet so we had to fry the meatballs (which we made with beef – bleh turkey!) But in the end, it was worth all the craziness. The sauce was like a salsa spaghetti sauce, the meatballs were tasty and I actually enjoyed the whole wheat pasta! We also made a loaf of garlic bread. It was exhausting… but worth the good dinner.

Here’s the recipe we used: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/turkey-meatballs-with-quick-and-spicy-tomato-sauce-and-whole-wheat-spaghetti-recipe/index.html