Denver Date Night

The weekend before my surgery, Grant & I headed out for an extended date night.  Bma watched the babe overnight and we stayed in downtown Denver.  

We wandered around downtown for a few hours: checked out the Capitol Building, the Denver Public Library, Civic Center Park, the Denver Art Museum, and the 16th Street Mall. 

We had dinner at Tokyo Joes, a Colorado and family favorite, and saw a great show at the Buntport Theater.  

Then we settled in at a high-rise hotel and slept long and hard.  (I mean, I slept in until at least 8:30 hah). 

I love living in Denver.  It's full of new adventures, yet still feels so much like Boise, my always and true home.

Sushi Ya!

As long as these Tanners have been Tanners (nearly a whopping two years), we have reserved one night a week for Date Night.  Generally, this consists of going out to eat and some sort of activity.  It is our chance to talk, relax, have fun, even splurge a bit.  This week we thought we'd try something a little different for date night and instead we stayed home and made an awesome dinner!

SUSHI!!!

I spent the day scouring the countryside for the perfect ingredients... (I really just went to two stores).  

Yes... that is chicken in the corner... I was experimenting...  

In the end, I spent a little over twenty bucks which is way cheaper than it would have been at a restaurant.

Grant & I split up and had different tasks.  He took care of the fish while I made the rice.  Sushi rice rice is made from short grain rice like the Botan rice shown above.  You find it in the Asian section of the store instead of by all the other rice.  I threw it in the rice cooker like normal but when it was done I added a mixture of rice vinegar, sugar, and salt.  I cut and folded that into the rice basically until it cooled down & was all sticky... and irresistibly yummy.

Normally we're not afraid of the raw fish that typically comes with sushi.  However, considering the questionable state of grocery store fishes, we decided to err on the side of caution and baked the fish just a bit.  We used some salmon from Costco that we had frozen previously, and some fresh tuna that I bought at Sprouts that day.

So to walk you through the basic steps of making sushi from there:

First you lay out your nori, which is basically seaweed paper, and cover it it in sticky rice, leaving a bit open at the top.

Then you lay out the insides of your roll.  We really have no idea how to do this part... but it worked out fine to do it the way below.

Then you bring the ends of the sushi together and squeeze.

At that point, you can lay it back down and begin to "roll" it.  I have no idea how to describe that part... so I won't even try :)  And as you can see here, I squished the heebie jeebies out of this one and it ended up falling apart.... whoops.  Things got better after that first roll...

Then you slice them up and eat like there's no tomorrow!

Honestly, it was as good as most sushi we've had at restaurants and we had a lot of fun making it as well.  A shout out to Nadine Beaufort back in Boise who not only gave us the tools for sushi making, but left us nifty instructions as well!!

We're excited to make sushi again soon and we've been brainstorming ideas for Tanner Classic Sushi Rolls....  Brilliant ideas like: the Waffle Roll, the Howard Roll (not with Howard inside, just in his honor), and the Swaggly Roll.  Any other good ideas?!

Mixin it up!

Every Friday night is date night for the Tanners. Usually it consists of going out for dinner (the only night a week we ever do) and some sort of activity. There are about 40 restaurants just down the road from our apartment so there are always lots of options. We've been to Swaggly's (Grant's name for Spring Creek BBQ), Red Robin, CPK, Empress of China (a fabulous Chinese place we found), and Olive Garden in addition to multiple hole-in-the-wall family restaurants (these are our favorite).

This Friday we had a hard time deciding where to go-- nothing sounded all that appetizing. So we decided to try something new-- a date night experiment. We took the money we would normally spend at a restaurant and divided it up. First, we each got 6 dollars to spend at any store we wanted. I went to JoAnn Fabrics for some home-y type things. Grant quickly learned that if he didn't limit my time we would have spend all evening in that one store... so I got fifteen minutes. There weren't too many options for home decorating under 6 dollars so I got some Thanksgiving crafts. They were foam and cheesy... but fun.

This is my exciting turkey headband. I know, I know... I look exactly like the Indians from the first Thanksgiving dinner....

Grant went to Academy Sports and knew exactly what he wanted, thus no time limit. He got grip tape for his tennis racquet and we were out of there!

We decided that 5 dollars would go towards a 5 dollar movie at Target. Sometimes we go to movies on date night but we liked the idea that we actually had something to show for our money this time. We got Superman Returns.

Last, we had dinner! Inspired by a Letsinger Family tradition, we went to Walmart (so classy) and each were allowed 3 dollars for dinner and 1 dollar for dessert. We both got some chicken from the deli place ($1), a banana(.11), a yogurt (.50) and string cheese(.25). In addition, Grant got an apple(.50), I got a mini pumpkin pie (.50) and we split a day old loaf of French bread (.90) and a bag of frozen waffle cut fries ($2). We checked out at exactly $7.93. Nice! As I'm writing this, I realize that Grant didn't get a dessert... That would be typical-- Grant choosing to forgo sweets while I eat a tiny dessert (or tons of dessert...) that still manages to fill my daily fat and sugar intake in one bite...

We came home, watched our movie and ate our dinners. It was really fun and sadly, exciting to be forced to spend money. I tend to be really good at saving and not so good at spending...(even when I need to).