Sushi and QR Code Quilt

This morning, I read quite a few blog posts about food, and decided, for a change, to join in on the subject!  This link-up by Debbie and A Quilters Table, a post by Susan at History Quilter, and this wonderful cooking class post by Beth at Notes really got me motivated.  I wouldn't call myself a "foodie" really, but I do cook most of our food from scratch with whole foods, that are as natural as I can get them.  With all of the wonderful food blogs out there, I have been too shy to post about food, but with the Spring and Summer sewing lag right around the corner, maybe it's time for a change...

Debbie asked us to share what our top "foodie moments" are.  After posting the above sushi picture on my Facebook page last Friday, I'd have to put my first taste of Sushi as a top moment.  It was such a revelation, that when we moved from Medford, Oregon, (where I had my first taste), to tiny Lewiston, Michigan in 2006, I began to have Sushi withdrawal symptoms that could only be alleviated by learning how to make it myself.  I have never tried sushi with raw fish, but in a pinch, even Lewiston (population 990) had Starkist smoked fish in a pouch.  The internet, or bigger city stores supply my sushi rice, Nori, wasabi, and pickled ginger.  YUM!

I'm not a world traveler, but I have lived in many parts of the USA, including Southern Louisiana.  If you've ever been down there, you know that the food is some of the best in the country.  I've also learned how to cook many things I crave after moving out of a city to the variety of small towns that I've lived in most of my adult life.  Here's my "top 10" list.

1. First taste of Sushi (and yes, both my boys LOVE it too).

2. Turtle Soup (I know, I'm sorry, but it's SO good) at a nice New Orleans restaurant.

3. My first home-cooked meal as a Freshman in college, after eating nothing but dorm food for months.  It was just steak, fresh pasta and frozen peas, but it's seared in my memory.

4. My first kid-free date night with my husband after becoming a mom, at a fancy (cloth napkins, glass water glasses, no high chair or booster to be found) very delicious Italian restaurant in Ashland, OR.

5. Eating authentic Greek food in Chicago for the first time after meeting my husbands' family, who are of Greek-ancestry.  Our traditional Christmas meal is lamb dolmades with avgolemono (egg and lemon) sauce.

6. Many evenings hanging out, enjoying snowballs at Plum Street Snowball Stand in New Orleans with my family.

7. Seeing my kids enjoy beignets for the first time at Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans.

8. Eating burritos at La Burrita Mexican Restaurant in Medford Oregon.  I have yet to find burritos just as good :-).

9. Cooking (and eating) fried okra with my mom.  Any meal with fried okra is memorable to me LOL!  Along with this goes making (and eating) my aunt Janice's home made dinner rolls (which won first place at a Texas State fair) with my mom's family.  Don't ask for the recipe ;-).

10. Crawfish boils in Southern Louisiana.  I crave this so much this time of year, and it's one of those things that's hard to replicate, although we did once have many pounds of live crawfish Fed-exed to Northern Michigan... another memorable meal, as I had to instruct all but a few people on how to cook and eat them! I can't take full credit for it though, as we had a Forest Service employee from Southern Mississippi there who was the ring leader and mastermind.  I got to bring home all of the left-overs, and made etoufee. The large office lunch meal I sent to work the next day was devoured by 9am LOL!

Looking at my list, it's apparent that most of my food moments were spent with family and friends.  That's what really makes a meal special for me!

Changing gears, if you're still with me, I also just finished my Vintage QR Code quilt!  I love it, but decided it might be a good "first quilt" to try to sell on Etsy.  I just listed in in my store.  It'll be interesting to see what happens!  I decided that I'm not as crazy about working with vintage sheets as I thought I'd be, but one thing I love is that even after washing it in hot water, it puckered up very little.  I've never been a huge fan of the puckered up look after washing a cotton quilt.  I may try to sell some of these sheets in my stash soon on Etsy or eBay soon.

It's also "Fabric Tuesday" at Quilt Story, so I'll be posting there as well!