I Dream Of Sushi

The first time I ate sushi was 15 years ago when my husband took me to the now-defunct Hotel Nikko Christmas party in Chicago. My husband worked there as a waiter before he started law school. This was one of the best company Christmas parties I’ve attended. The hotel turned over its immense ball room to its employees—giving us lots of room to do the electric slide. Tables groaned with appetizers, including what looked like a mountain of sushi. I nervously popped a Sake roll in my mouth … and fell in love.
After all these years, it never occurred to me to make sushi myself. The sheets of seaweed, or nori, look so brittle, I thought they would crumble when I attempted rolling rice and fish into them. But my cravings finally got the best of me, so I gave sushi-making a go last weekend. I cooked and seasoned the sushi rice and spread it out evenly on the nori. The delicate smell of the seaweed dampened by the rice made my mouth water. I added some crab meat, cucumber and avocado to the middle of the sheet, held my breath, and began to roll it into a cylinder with the help of the bamboo mat. It turns out nori is sturdier than it looks because when I removed the mat, I was pleased to see it had stuck together to make a plump California roll.
And now, Jenny, the winner of my sushi set giveaway, can have her own sushi-making adventures! Please email me your address so I can send the set to you.

Receiving--And Giving--My Favorite Things

Last Saturday I received an unexpected treat. A scarf, hand knit in mohair by the lovely Hokgardner, arrived in the mail. I won the scarf in a giveaway she did a month ago. It snowed eight inches in Denver this weekend, so I got to try it out right away. The scarf is my new favorite thing—it felt like a layer of down as I trudged through snow to get Ethan to school this morning.
Now I’ve got a giveaway for you, consisting of another of my favorite things—sushi. I constantly crave sushi, probably because my kids would never step foot in a sushi restaurant. Plus, I’m hesitant to buy sushi at grocery store since these packages do not list whether the Sake is made from wild Alaskan salmon (good) or farmed salmon (bad).
I’m starting to think maybe I should satisfy my sushi cravings by making it myself—that way I can feel good that the fish I’m eating, such as wild Alaskan salmon or Albacore tuna found off U.S. Canadian shores, isn’t overfished or high in mercury or PCBs.

If you, too, are so inclined, enter my giveaway for a sushi deluxe set, courtesy of CSN Stores. From counter stools to luggage, this online retailer of home and office goods has more than 200 different online stores to meet your shopping needs.
The sushi set consists of:

• one bamboo sushi rolling mat;
• one bamboo sushi rice paddle;
• one three-step sushi maker;
• two dipping sauce dishes;
• and two chopstick rests.

To enter, leave a comment on this post stating your favorite sushi restaurant—mine is Kotobuki in Chicago—by Saturday, November 21, midnight mountain standard time. The contest is open to U.S. residents only. I will announce the winner on my blog Monday, November 23. Good luck!

Lip Balm Winner

Congratulations to Kathleen of Welcome To The Circus! You're the proud owner of a new lip balm.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest.

Bloggy Giveaway: Lip Balm

Sarah Palin, take note: on average, a woman whom regularly wears lip stick will consume two pounds of the stuff over her lifetime, often ingesting ingredients that are harmful to herself and the environment.
So I'm switching to an all-natural lip balm I made myself. Unlike some commercial brands of lip stick, which contain petrochemicals and parabens, an endocrine disrupter, this lip balm is made of almond oil, beeswax and vitamin E oil. It gets it sheer red tint from alkanet root instead of harmful lead acetates or coal-tar dyes.
Wanna try some? Leave a comment on this post by Friday, September 19, and you'll be entered in a drawing to win a tin of lip balm.

And The Winner Is ....

Congratulations, Anna, from A Virgen A Day! You're the proud owner of an all-natural facial scrub. Please email me your address at bowenemail(at)comcast.net, and I'll send it on its way.

Bloggy Giveaway: Facial Cleanser

I wasn't thinking about my health or the health of the environment when I bought md skincare's "All-In-One Facial Cleanser With Toner." I wanted a cleanser that gently, but thoroughly, removed oil and make-up to keep my skin from breaking out. The bottle's label states it has "medical-grade ingredients." Sounds effective, and it is--my face feels smooth and soft after using it. I was a satisfied customer.

But then I came across Environmental Working Group's awesome web site, Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database. It rates skin care products based on the toxicity of its ingredients. Out of a scale of one to 10, with 10 being very toxic, "All-In-One Facial Cleanser With Toner" got a moderately hazard rating of three. According to the web site, some of its ingredients have been linked with cancer, endocrine disruption and organ system toxicity.

OK, why is Dr. Dennis Gross, dermatologist and creator of the "md skincare" line, adding possible cancer-causing ingredients to something I put on my face? Suddenly my innocuous white plastic bottle of facial cleanser took on a more sinister look, and I started to lose faith in dermatology.

I decided a hand-made, all-natural facial cleanser may be what I need. I found a recipe by the esteemed Greta Breedlove of shampoo fame that looked promising. It consists of oats, oat bran, poppy seeds, almonds, dried herbs and cosmetic clay--hey, take out the clay and you could make muffins out of it.

I tried it out yesterday. I mixed a teaspoon of it with water and rubbed it all over my face. The process was a little messy, but when I rinsed it off, my face felt great--smooth and soft. Plus, I got a little rush knowing that I wasn't washing toxic chemicals down the drain.

So if you don't trust your facial cleanser any more, leave a comment on this post by Friday, August 29, and you'll be entered to win your own batch facial cleanser made by me!