valentine's day plus a fail

Here's the deal. I had a post idea and took pictures. When it came down to it, the lighting is just ridiculous. I get horrible light in the evening (or always) since the only window in my kitchen is north-facing and we use the low-energy compact florescent lights. As I was trying to edit some life into my food shots, I got grainy yuckiness that no one wants to look at. So, next time I make the following, it will be either morning or afternoon and taken in the right place in my house accordingly.

Oh- the post was detaling the lettuce wraps I have been making like crazy, trying to perfect my own recipe. I think I've got it finally so will be sharing that soon!

For now, I will post Geof and my Valentine's Day dinner...our first effort at sushi! There was a sushi set gifted to us that was gathering dust and we were finally ready to try it out. We bought hamachi (yellowtail), maguro (ahi tuna), seaweed salad, fresh crabmeat and a few raw oysters. Add to that two different lagers: Kirin and Longboard and a couple sakes and we're set!

Before (click to make bigger):





And after:


I don't even know why we bothered with nigiri...we would have been better off sticking with just sashimi! The first roll was the California roll...it was also the hugest and ugliest. Everything else was perfect. I would totally do sushi again, but with some friends next time to offset the amount of fish and rice we had.