use real butter

When Kell asked me what I would want for a last meal, sushi was my immediate answer. I love sushi – California style. That is, not in the traditional Japanese sense only because I haven’t been exposed to the traditional except in New Zealand (go figure). The Chinese are notorious for bastardizing sushi by dousing it with Sriracha and then dunking it in wasabi with a dash of soy sauce. *raises hand – guilty*

Jeremy and I had it good for almost a decade. We had a favorite sushi bar Ai, in South Pasadena. Fumito is the head chef there and he not only treated us to the best sushi, but he became our friend – teaching us to distinguish Good from Bad, sushi. When we moved to Colorado we discovered a handful of decent sushi joints in Boulder, but… price and quality just couldn’t compare to So Cal. They just can’t. We’ll dine out for sushi on occasion in town, but we will more likely make our own at home.

I have a favorite roll from Ai, the Not-So-Special Roll. Fumito has a Special Roll on the menu which is spicy tuna and spicy scallop with avocado, masago, and sometimes cucumber or daikon sprouts all crammed into a cut roll wrapped in halibut… or maybe snapper? I can’t recall because the Not-So-Special Roll omitted the outside fish (just because it got to be incredibly filling). That was my brain child and Fumito was happy to oblige. And that is what we create at home when we start to miss Fumito and all of the regulars at the sushi bar – except Hector and Eddie, those two made me laugh so hard I almost snorted my drink out my nose.

After spending the morning prepping our doors for the winter onslaught and then noodling around the hardware store for Things That Don’t Exist, we swung by Whole Foods to pick up some sea critters. We started with scallop carpaccio, something akin to a small plate I enjoyed with Kell and Jerad at Fish Face in Sydney (awesome place to eat if you’re ever there). I am a sucker for ponzu.

With the trails on the upper mountain closed due to snow (sheesh), we could have attempted another steep trail this morning, except I was tired of the frenetic pace of waking early to hike hard and fast only to return to the timeshare to entertain my parents for the rest of the day. This morning I took my parents to Brandywine Falls, a nearby short hike to what turned out to be the best waterfall I’ve seen in the area.

Oooh, I felt so energized when I woke up this morning! In contrast to the weather each morning this entire week, the sun was bright on the hillsides at daybreak. Not that I don’t like my overcast mornings, I really do cherish them since they are the exception rather than the norm here. But it seemed to enhance my already good mood.

In the afternoon I picked Jeremy up after all of his meetings with his students were done. We got ourselves some brand spanking new trail runners at the Road Runner sale. Then we caught a matinée showing of Ratatouille since we assumed all of the kids would be seeing Harry Potter. Oh, Ratatouille is such a delightful film – and beautiful to watch.

We did our grocery shopping after the movie and poor Jeremy was feeling hungry from the moment the film began. But I had a surprise up my sleeve for him. I plan the weekly menu and usually our first meal after grocery shopping is something fresh. Tonight, I made some sashimi rolls. Too bad Joyce (who is Japanese) and Kell (who is Japanese on the inside and Aussie on the outside – an Egg) weren’t there to either instruct or critique. That would have been fun. I requested sake belly and some lovely maguro from the Whole Foods fish counter. Oh, to have access to Sydney’s fish markets now *sigh*.

**Jump for more butter**