Knee Deep Blog

Learning to Cook - Eli's Kid Friendly Sushi Dinner

Learning to cook could really be learning to cut - Eli's Kid Friendly Sushi Dinner.  Last week was the very first dinner that Eli has come up with the idea, prepped and gloated over.  It cracks me up that for him sushi has nothing to do with raw fish, but I took care of that for the adults.

Eli and Olivia are still on their learning to cook energy which I rather enjoy.  The night before the dinner we talked about what we would have, made a shopping list, and brought Curran (age 5) to help Eli (age 7) shop.  I "simply" monitored the list and all that entered the cart.

Curran was clear he wanted tapioca for dessert, but I couldn't find it so strawberry mochi balls and lime popsicals did the trick.

Our Kid Friendly Sushi Dinner Menu Included

  Salmon (baked for the kids)

Yellow fin tuna (sashimi for the adults)

Unagi (cooked eel with sauce it is in the bottom left of the picture)

sushi rice (with mirin, rice vinegar and a bit of sugar)

cucumbers

avocado

roe (the bright orange in the center of the picture)

Miso soup (with seaweed, green onions, and tofu or smashed brains according to curran and Eli)

lots of seaweed (both large sheets to be rolled and small 2 X 2 inch which I made "sushi taco rolls" and expertly popped into my mouth.

wasabi and soy

  The best part of this is prep was really simply - Eli did most of the chopping and put the ingredients in small bowls - so all was perfect.  I have to admit that at times Eli's knife weilding ways scared me so I opted for a less sharp knife and delighted that each piece of cucumber had it's own shape and size.

The toughest part for Eli is that Curran who is usually a master of the kitchen only wanted to play with legos - so Eli spent 20 minutes of prepping coming up with ways to entice him into the kitchen.  He finally did it when he said that we had "brains to smash" and Curran came running in.

When Curran entered the kitchen to "smash the brains" (aka cut the tofu into a million little pieces) they used butter knives as two small boys "smashing" with knives was way too much for my comfort level.  So they got to have fun and I got to drink more wine before adding the tofu to the miso soup.

When it comes to creating the actual pieces of sushi and rolls that were consumed - all was perfect.  Nothing was premade - rather all ingredients were put on the table as pictured above.  In our house any way it's rolled or looks is perfect - as long as it's consumed.  As you can see from Eli's "sushi" it's really a big piece of cooked salmon, avocado, rice, and a little roe wrapped in a big piece of seaweed. 

Hope this gives you some ideas for your own kids "cooked" meals.

 

Get Sparked Cafe and Following Your Dream

This morning my girlfriend Lisa Fox sent an email announcing her first CD release right here in Seattle at Tula's Jazz Club on September 22nd - which by the way if you're around I hope you can make it.  It reminds me that we all have a dream that's deep inside and both how powerful it is to witness a friend follow their dream.

Lisa is the first person I met when I moved to Seattle 15 years ago and is the person that introduced me to Tim, my always adoring husband.  We often call her the songbird because she's always singing in choirs, at events, spontaneously, etc - including at our wedding which made me cry like a baby.  More importantly she's continued to follow her dream to have a professional singing career that's both gone smoothly and had bumps at other times.

I believe...

Following your dream takes knowing what you want, believing it, taking actions (both big and small) and asking for help because we can't do it alone. 

I've also been following my dream to connect women in deep, engaging conversation that makes a difference everyday - hence the birth of Get Sparked Cafe.  The next cafe is September 16th and I hope you can make it.  Join the list to get more details and upcoming cafe dates. The Cafe is free because I want to give back to my community.   Come join some amazing women!

Hope to see you at both events!

Here's Lisa live.

Regards, Michele

Boxer or Briefs?

I never thought it would be my just turned seven year old's actions that would have me pondering that question of boxers or briefs, how do boys and men decide?

For the past couple weeks we've been having underwear and sock emergencies in the morning because there is not enough that fit or can be found aka they are still in the laundry.  Apparently his sock and underwear are suddenly too small, stretched, worn out or in the case of socks don't match anything.  It basically seems to happen overnight.  One day you're good and the next week you're not.

I am perfectly ok with Eli wearing a blue and gray sock.  I mean if he doesn't mind, either do I.  But, when it comes to underwear that's another story because it slows us down when he puts on and takes them off two to four times because they aren't "comfy" are too "tight" or "are giving me a wed-gee MOM" which all means he can't and won't get dressed.

When you do strange things - being absent minded

Yesterday I was in a hurry prior to leaving for a client and wanted to brush my teeth.  As I raised the toothbrush I notice there was a lot of toothpaste and it was clear...kind of weird I thought.  And truth be told it was weird as it was facial cleanser on my toothbrush.

Thankfully my brained noticed it wasn't white and had me hesitate for a moment just long enough to stop the action.

I posted this on my FB, twitter and other social networking sites and had a good laugh at the responses.

The names are left out to protect the innocent - outside of my personal facebook world, but I couldn't help but share a few comments.

• LOL! Maybe there's something in the air! Today I got all packed for my trip, kissed B & the kids goodbye, arrived at work and realized my trip is actually tomorrow afternoon, not today.
• Maybe I can better that: I sprayed deodorant on my hair. I, also, absent-mindedly put the shampoo in the fridge
• Ugh. I brushed my teeth with shaving cream that used to be sold in a tube - after a grimy 12 road trip. Then I ran into the kitchen to eat some food out of the fridge and get the horrid taste out of my mouth. Pulled a peach out of a can (not my house or fridge) and it had been in for a long time and had that evil can taste.
• Yuck- better than Preparation H

So it seems we can all be a bit absent minded and still bring a smile to our face and now I feel like yes, we are all part of that same absent minded club which reminds me I have lots of stories but for now I'll just keep them to myself.

Have a good one.

My First 50% Off at Groupon.com - Great deals and date night idea

Looking for a great date night idea?  My friend Barbara told me about Groupon.com a while back and I even loaded the free app on my iphone, but until today I was simply a Groupon voyeur.

I thought heck why not try it out and see if we like it - it provides both a location for our date night and is a potential cheap eat.  Perhaps it will get us to try different local neighborhood establishments in addition to our favorite The Bengal Tiger restaurant in the Roosevelt neighborhood.  I've noticed that Tim and I are pretty compulsive when it comes to the Bengal Tiger and always order the Mango Lamb chops nice and spicy.  Plus we love being able to chat with the owner Mohammad. Oh I digress.   And it's time for us to branch out some too.

Hello Mint.com good bye Quicken

Tim and I signed up for www.mint.com this weekend to organize our personal finances.  Leaving Quicken which I used for over 10 years was a bit like breaking up.   But part of the problem is that there was so much old data, accounts, categories, etc that it was a bit messy at times.  Plus we only had access from the old laptop our bookkeeper uses in my office so it took energy and effort to access it.   Plus we wanted to be able to access our data from multiple locations so that both of us could take responsibility instead of one person being in charge just piling the receipts in the in basket.

I got teary eyed watching the Dog Whisperer

Wasn't clear I wanted to admit this but this morning I cried watching one of the Celebrity Edition Shows of the Dog Whisperer aka Cesar Millan featuring Downtown Julie Brown and her daughter with Tim, Eli and our new dog Carly.

Tim looked over and laughed, are you crying?  You know it was pretty amazing watching her transformation - and he didn't mean the dog although it definitely shifted with the training.  He meant Julie Brown's daughter Gianna.  And yes, that is why I was crying.

How do you feel? You look great!

This year I joined a mastermind based upon Gay Hendricks book, The Big Leap (a great book by the way).  My friend and creator of this group, Kathy and I met up for lunch a couple of weeks ago and I shared this story which she urged me to write about to the group.  I did and wanted to share on my blog too.

How do you feel? or more commonly - how are you? are both stated again and again without much thought, rather a greeting that is quickly not heard as we move into the meat of the conversation that is wanting to be said.

My observation:

Introducing my Sister to Facebook and Nephew to the IPOD

Today I had the great opportunity to help my sister and nephew get introduced to technology - and it rocked.  The joke with my sister who has a hotmail account is that you can't send her email because it just bounces back because her box is full with junk mail.  She responds a few times a year which then allows a few emails to go through.

For One Day I Was A NFL Professional Photographer

Now had you ever asked me if I have ever dreamed about being or becoming a NFL professional photographer I would have looked at you and said, you mean my husband?  But sometimes opportunities show up that are just too good to turn away and you've got to grasp the opportunity by the horns, hold on and yell loudly - yee haw this could be a dream! Yesterday I had such an opportunity at the Seahawks vs. Jaguars game in Seattle.

The opportunity goes back to an old 20+ year friendship from Western NY, a phone call, and saying yes.