Ginger = Fire

It was an unfortunate morning for food. My plans for flaxseed-banana pancakes were a flop of the frisbee variety. Kinda depressed about our current financial situation and life's general stand-still I decided the best thing to do would be SPEND MONEY! So I got the husband up and going and we set out in search of food from someone else's kitchen. The main road in the area is (of course) called Main Street aka Route 23. If you take it in one direction you pass mostly bad shopping centers and houses, and in the other more bad shopping centers but if you hold out for 20 minutes you reach the haven that is Shady Maple Farm Market.

We stopped by to check out Yoder's (yes, so Amish sounding) restaurant but it was creepishly filled with seniors and probably mediocre coffee at best. We moved along thinking we'd sneak into SM's breakfast buffet but were 20 minutes late. We resigned to pick something up at the counter in the grocery store so we could pick up the groceries we wanted anyway. Luckily we found a woman making homemade pretzels (aw yea) - he got cinnamon sugar, I an almond kind, and with a glass of HOMEMADE lemonade the grand total was $3.25 for breakfast.

The husband is a general good sport when I wander the "needed" (like produce and bread) aisles but when I start searching for pectin, imitation crab meat, and special short grain rice he starts rolling his eyes. Tough sh**.

My goal was SUSHI- did ya guess?

I've peeled and marinated/pickled the GINGER. OUCH! That sucker awakens every cut in your hands and an hour later they are still burning.
http://japanesefood.about.com/od/sushiforbeginner/r/gari.htm
The challenge is, similar to carrots, it's nearly impossible to peel all of the garlic, so I plan to put the stubs in the chopper and use them tomorrow.

I have the short grain rice cooking and am soon to mix in the sugar, sushi vinegar and salt.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/sushi-rice-recipe/index.html

I have fake crab, avocado, cucumber and carrot to attempt a simple California Roll. I figure the best place for fresh fish will be at Central Market but that's far far away and only open 3 days per week.

I wanted to do a cost breakdown because so far this is really adding up.
2 lbs of short grain rice = $4.99
3/4 lb imitation crab meat = $2.45
avocados = .79 each
2 kirby cucumbers = $1.12
1 lb carrots = .69 cents

Plus...the nori (seaweed), sushi mat, sushi rice paddle, rice vinegar, sugar, salt, soy sauce...

Correct - I will not use all of these quantities today but...

IT HAD BETTER BE GOOD!