Monday, August 31, 2009

Jim Lauret, TV Super-Recipe Star!

I'm so proud of my daddy! Today he was featured on Channel 2 News at noon for his Southwestern Sushi Roll recipe. He is contestant #5 in this recipe competition involving Utah's Own ingredients. With $1000.00 awarded to the winner in mid-September, you better believe his sushi roll can compete against the other submissions. His recipe is altogether unique, crowd- pleasing, and scrumptious. The roll is already a winner because even Steve goes back for thirds.

You can help him win by downloading his recipe from 2 news website. The top 2 downloaded recipes will be sent to the state fair, where they'll be judged. Go and download now: http://connect2utah.com/content/recipes/story?cid=48292
The following is an edited copy of his recipe (the original submission had a few errors in it):

Utah’s Own #5: Southwestern Sushi Roll

Components:

4 Cups cilantro lime rice (recipe below)

12 roasted Jalapeno peppers skinned and seeded

1 zucchini

1 avocado

1 turkey breast (Norbest) seasoned with 1tsp each Grandma’s Hickory Smoke Salt, taco seasoning, and chili powder

4 Large Flour Burrito size Tortillas(Don Julio), edges trimmed to make the tortilla 6" square

Tempura batter (recipe below)

Oil for deep frying


Dipping Sauce

6-8 oz plain or key lime yogurt(Meadow Gold)

Cilantro

Juice and zest of 2 limes

½ cup honey(Miller’s Honey)

½ cup olive oil

½ tsp salt


Tempura Batter

12 oz. Apple beer (Apple Beer)

2 cups flour (Lehi Roller Mills)

½ tsp. garlic powder (Grandma’s)

½ tsp. onion powder (Grandma’s)

1 tsp. ginger powder (Grandma’s)


In a bowl mix flour, garlic, onion, and ginger powders, and 12 oz of Apple Beer. Refrigerate until ready to use. You can add ice to the batter to make it cold quickly. If this is done, add a little more flour as the ice melts to keep the batter at the same consistency. The greater the heat contrast between the batter and the oil, the fluffier the tempura coating.


Cilantro Lime Rice

2 Cups sushi rice (can be Calrose, Pearl, or any short-grain variety)

2 cups water

2 tsp. chicken bouillon

Zest and juice of 1-2 limes, depending on size

¼ bunch of cilantro, finely chopped


Wash rice. Add water and cook (cover, bring to boil, reduce heat to low and let cook for 15 minutes covered without checking, remove from heat and let sit another 5 minutes covered). Sprinkle bouillon on top or rice, add cilantro, finely chopped lime zest and lime juice. Mix rice thoroughly.


Dipping Sauce

Roast jalapenos, peel and seed. Slice six into thin strips for sushi and set aside. Place 6 of the jalapenos into a food processor, ¼ bunch of cilantro, the juice and zest of two limes, ½ cup honey, salt and yogurt. Turn on the food processor. After about 15-30 seconds, slowly add the olive oil while still processing.


Sushi Preparation

  1. Season turkey breast and grill until just done and cut into ¼" strips.
  2. Heat oil for deep frying. Slice zucchini in ¼” square spears. Spears should be about 6” long (the width of the tortillas). Dip in tempura batter and fry in oil. Drain on paper towels.
  3. Peel and slice avocado.
  4. Cut tortillas into 6" squares.
  5. Place a tortilla on a sushi mat (Tip: place sushi mat in a gallon sized ziplock back for easier cleanup). Spread ¼ of the rice evenly on 2/3-3/4 of the tortilla leaving the far edge free from any rice (Tip: have a bowl of water available to dip your fingers into, wet hands make spreading the rice easier. You may also use a little water to wet the riceless edge of the tortilla to help it stick to itself after you roll it). In the middle of the rice, place a strip of turkey, a piece of zucchini, avocado slices, and roasted jalapenos strips from edge to edge of the rice on the tortilla. Create a sushi roll by folding the rice edge of the tortilla over the turkey and other ingredients using the turkey as the axis to roll around. Using the mat you can make a firm roll by putting pressure on the entire roll at once. After making the four rolls, dip each roll in the tempura batter and deep fry for 2- 3 minutes. Cut each roll in ¾-wide pieces and serve with the dipping sauce.


When the news came on, I had my camera ready and I tried to snap as many photos as I could of the little teasers preceding the segments of his actual cooking demonstration. In case you missed it on TV, here are the photos. Be sure to scroll to the bottom to find the video of his cooking segments.Look at that smile! Chef Wooley obviously likes dad's recipe the best.
Work it dad! You're a recipe rockstar!

Sweet knife skills! I like the Santoku.
(Warning: may cause enhanced cravings and excessive saliva production. View at your own risk.) Also, please excuse any background noises and comments from the peanut gallery. I was video taping it live, while trying to keep the kids quiet enough to hear the TV and fending off the wicked remote that has tendencies to randomly flip channels. Sit back and enjoy the segments.
As a side note, the news station also posts the video (better quality) and unedited recipe; go to: http://connect2utah.com/content/recipes/story?cid=48292

Segment 1 (first 1/2):

Segment 1 (second 1/2):

Segment 2:
Because the last video is larger than the maximum MB allowed for a blogger video, you'll have to watch the 2nd half on the 2 news website, follow the link then click where it says "click here to watch part 2." Go now: http://connect2utah.com/content/recipes/story?cid=48292

Monday, August 17, 2009

Our house grew!

Before we left for our 3 week excursion to Utah Valley, that was near the end of July, here's what our constuction looked like (front view):


I went over to meet the electrician this morning, and I brought my camera along to snap a few photos. Here's the house now:

Lily and Amara have fun whenever we visit the construction site. Yesterday at church, Lily told me about the picture she drew, "Look mom! I drew our new house and the big land." I'm happy with the progress of our home and it's fun to be a part of the process.


Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Little Laughs

In the car the other day Lily told us, "Amara is magic because sometimes she touches toys and they disappear!" I concur.

Amara's favorite word is NO! She loves to use that word to assert her control.
Steve: "Do you want a piece of cake?"
Amara: "NO! ...Okay, yeah."

Thursday, July 9, 2009

DINOSAURS!

The days leading up to the 4th of July, our famly traveled to the land of Dinosaurs for a Christensen family campout (Steve's family). That's Vernal, Utah, for those wondering. We had a lot of fun visiting, picnicking, swimming, hiking, and camping. I didn't think to take pictures as much as I should have, but I did remember to bring our camera on our hike at Dinosaur National Monument. So, here's some photos from the hike.

Cool rock formation above.

Lily and her cousins played with some toy dinosaurs while the park ranger gave us interesting information about the fossils and formations that we were hiking amongst. Below is a picture I took of a dino bone embedded in the mountainside. I think the ranger said that it was an arm bone of a very large teenage dinosaur.

It's fun being around cousins.






How young is too young?


Well, my mom didn't allow me to start wearing makeup until 9th grade. I was mostly okay with that. Then, when the time came that I could wear makeup, my mom had a MaryKay lady come over and teach me how to wear makeup. Well, Lily and I needed something to do one day, but we couldn't leave the house because Amara was napping, so we did virtual makeovers on the MaryKay website. I let her pick all her makeup and her hair. Here's her stunning before and after. Unfortunately, I can't find my before and after photos.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Curse the Mosquitos!


Really, what are mosquitos good for? Anything? Poor Lily got her legs eaten alive by an army of monster mosquitos when we went to look at our land the other night. Curse those bloodsucking annoyances and the misery they spread! It seems this year has been particularly fertile for the breeding of mosquitos. Maybe it's because of the wet season we've had or something, but I've noticed that mosquitos are strong and plentiful this year. Stock up on your repellants early- they're out to attack! And, it's a good idea to purchase some good anti-itch sprays and creams while you're at it. My little Lily was scratching her bites so hard in church that they started to bleed and she started to cry. Once again, curse those mosquitos!

Recitations and Joyful Tunes...

A couple weeks ago, Stephen and I started reciting an Article of Faith each night before the girls went to bed. It's amazing to me how quickly our children learn. Lily can now recite the first and second Articles of Faith. Amara is even picking up on it a bit. Her version is "We believe... Eternal Father... and Holy Ghost! Here's a video of Lily reciting what she knows.


Amara has become quite the singer. Our nursery at church takes the children into the primary room for a 10 minute singing time in between the senior and junior primaries. Today, when we went to church, she ran straight into the primary room instead of the nursery. I told her that we had to go to nursery first, and she said, "No! Me want ta sing!" So, I picked her up and carried her towards the nursery and tried to explain to her that they would go to sing pretty soon, but she had to go play with toys first. She cried and cried. She just wanted to sing. Here is her version of "I love to see the temple."

See-a temp-o,
Goin' someday,
Fee-holy pow-it,
Liss-n ad obey-ey,
Fo a temp-o hows a god,
A pace lud an boo-tee,
Pen my-sewf,
My-ay-yun,
Dis is sayk-kid duty-ee!