GF: Chirashi Sushi Salad
Celebration/Survival Dinner. 🙂
Not a celebration of anything monumental in MY life, just survival of the first week of school and 7 nights of 4 hours of sleep. Dang, going back to school is *hard*!
This simple salad was the best way to celebrate Friday night. Really. Although I know a few of you are cringing at the raw fish, you can always make this salad with steamed salmon and precooked shrimp instead of the raw coho and halibut that you see here.
The romaine leaves are complimented with seaweed strips (mmmm!), sprinkled with red chile flakes and drizzled with rice brain oil and some serious vinegar. (All that spice is thanks to my Korean sushi chef/restaurant.) And some chirashi salads come with a hidden little pile of sushi rice in the center. My salad did not have any rice and I much prefer it that way. Besides, if I’m eating a salad – I am not looking for the carb fillers. I just want the crunch of veg, thank you very much! 🙂
And while I was celebrating the first week of school, a much more noteable and beautiful celebration of life is happening in my family this weekend. My mom and dad are celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary. They are recreating the car trip they took for their honeymoon around Lake Michigan. (Fun, huh?!)
They set off this morning from Minnesota and will stop in to see my in-laws in Chicago tomorrow as well as very dear family/friends of ours (Alice and her mother, who I have written about before) who also live in Chicago. I imagine my in-laws will be treating my parents to some incredible Chinese dim sum on Sunday morning and Alice & Edith will be filling them up with fabulous smoked meats and barbeque that night. (Mom – I hope you packed your stretchy pants! LOL)
Mom and Dad – I know you will see this. I just wanted to let you (and the world know) that you are both our heroes, role models, friends, and guides through life. I don’t know where I would be without you in every sense: life, work, heart, faith, self, and dreams. Thank you for welcoming my Love with open arms those many years ago, for planting seeds of hope for every day, for providing courage and support for our moments of struggle and for always being models of love and humor. You are the best parents anyone could ask for. And I (and the rest of the Ks) are so very fortunate to have you for ours.
Happy 50th Anniversary, Mom and Dad!
Have a SAFE, WONDERFUL and LOVE-FILLED Anniversary!
May the next 50 years be even better than the first –
All of our love –
Kate, Her Love and Max (and the yet-to-be-here incoming Baby Chan)