Sushi Party

Last night we went to my sister's place up in Roswell for a sushi party. Roswell is a suburb about 650 miles north of Atlanta where she moved when the taxes in Atlanta got too high.

It was fun playing with her off-the-hook-cute kid who is getting ready to turn one, but is already cruising around the house at warp speed on hands and knees, giggling at everything.

To have a sushi party, you will need sushi rice (about 1/2 cup per person is enough for a feast), rice wine vinegar, sugar, salt, nori sheets (the ones that are about 6x8 inches), soy sauce, pickled ginger and wasabi (green horserasish root). You also may want some inari wrappers.

You'll also want some stuff to put inside the sushi. I suggest roasted red pepper, peeled cucumber, slices of Japanese omelette, spinach steamed and squeezed dry, steamed carrot, avocado, grilled tempeh or tofu, etc. For the "flexitarians," as my sister calls them, you may want to have on hand some smoked salmon, cooked crab meat or even sushi tuna if it's available and your friends are brave.

1. Make the sushi rice. Follow the directions for rice I've given here.

2. Cut the veggies and other stuff into long skinny pieces about the size of a fat pencil.

3. Once the rice is cool enough to handle, set up rolling stations for everyone with a cutting board, serated knife, nori rolls, rice, sushi ingredients and a bowl of water for moistening fingers. Turn on some good music and make sure everyone has a glass of wine. My sister served the delicious Vina Borgia.

4. Lay a piece of nori, shiny side down, on your cutting board. With moistened fingers, lay a strip of rice horizontally on the nori about one inch from the bottom. Lay a few ingredients on top of the rice. (Here's what it should look like so far).

5. Now roll the nori tightly around the rice. Some people find a bamboo rolling mat helps, but I've never quite gotten the hang of those so I just roll it up on my own, free-stylin'. It yields okay results.

6. Lightly moisten the open edge of the nori roll with water, seal it shut and let it sit for a moment before slicing it into rolls with a serated knife. Continue to make nori rolls til the wrappers are gone or you're sick of it and then break out the inari wrappers. Toss the remaining rice with whatever you like in your inari and stuff 'em.

7. Arrange everything on a serving platter and serve with the pickled ginger, soy sauce and wasabi. Enjoy!