fun with cookie cutters

As my friends know, I’ve been attempting to cook more and more recently. Previously, I could make a mean bowl of cereal, mac & cheese, and pancakes. Damn fine perfect pancakes, thankyouverymuch. Now I’m branching out into other things that I really like but are either much easier to make than I thought, cost far too much in my area, or simply cannot be found. Tried my hand at onigiri in early Feb, which were delicious, but not again until today. I even went for my first ever sushi roll attempt:

I cheated and didn’t wait until the rice was cool enough, so my avocado basically melted. Still tastes good! I should have also trusted my instincts and put less rice on the nori than instructed since I like smaller rolls. This also left less than usual rice for onigiri because I only made two cups. In my quest for a local sushi mat, I was also looking for small cookie cutters. I own a lot of larger, full-size ones (shut up, I like shaped pancakes and eggs and bread). In a random dollar store trip, I found some. After I cleaned the ever living heck out of them and then decided to wrap them in saran wrap before I put the rice in anyway, it was testing time.

I love the Xs.

The Hippo and Random Guy came out pretty broken. They really are tiny shapes and it’s hard to apply even pressure to get them out of the molds in one piece. They also had to deal with nori scraps. All tastes the same; it’s all good.

The hearts came out perfect. <3. Because I was so short on rice, I didn't make any of the more traditional shapes this time. I like making the larger triangle ones because they are fun to hold and eat as a quick snack.

You can see how the cutters made a large difference in heart quality. For the record, I do eat things other than rice, uh… like pasta, but I’ve got more confidence to actually cook meat now instead of just buying the more expensive pre-cooked stuff. Fear of accidentally killing myself due to utter lack of skill prevented that in the past. Vegetables rock but it’s trickier than I thought to cook for one with fresh ingredients. I can’t eat whole peppers fast enough, for example (and no one person can eat a whole leek, never mind when you have no other option but to get them in bunches of three), but I’m getting better at storing stuff or trying to make larger batches to reheat later. My love of broccoli was considered weird as a kid. My Grandmother hates it and never made any dishes that included it for me, just on principle. I continue to be amused by this :)

If you guys have any favourite dishes you think I should try, I’d love to hear it! I like just about anything that’s edible, and I have a shiny new slow cooker that I got as a gift that I’ve yet to have a go with, so let’s hear what you guys like to eat!