Sushi Date Night

My husband and I went on a sushi kick when we first moved to Portland. We ordered it at lots of different restaurants and during that time I found that my favorite way to eat sushi was with terriyaki and spicy japanese mayo sauces.

I decided to make sushi for our date night and drizzle it with these sauces. How did I learn how to make sushi? Well, my husband gave me a few pointers. His Mom made it while he was growing up. I learned the rest online.

Here is a youtube sushi tutorial I put together.

Crab Pot

We'd heard about crab pot restaurants from family for the last couple of years. Then, we found out that there was one nearby in Vancouver, WA called Joe's Crab Shack.

So, we decided to go there this weekend. We tried their old bay and cajun crab pots.

The food was pretty good and the view of the Columbia river was beautiful.

Overall, we had a fun experience, but the food was a little pricy (as expected.)

Batman Themed Date

My husband really likes the newer batman movies starring Christian Bale. So, I thought he would enjoy this date.

I set up a table with movie inspired food and played the Batman theme song in the background.

Batman Pizza

I got the pizza idea from this blogger and used a homemade pizza recipe from this cookbook. I cut out the image using a card stock template after the pizza had finished baking.

Blue Flower

In the first movie Ra's al Ghul tells Bruce Wayne about a blue flower that grows on the "eastern slopes."  I tried to recreate the flower using blue taffy and black jelly beans.

Toxin

The blue flower is used to make a toxin. I tinted crystal light lemonade with blue food coloring to represent it.

Two Face's Coin

I used a chocolate coin for this.

 Bats

We had some smoked salmon cream cheese and crackers in the house, so I used them to make these bats. My inspiration for the bats came from this blogger.

I would have liked to create signs for the food and there is even a free batman font online, but I didn't have time.

New Years Date

For new years, I surprised my husband with this dinner.

 We had sparkling cider. The "Happy New Year!" sign was our hummus appetizer. Then, I made my husbands favorite meal, salmon pinwheels (recipe below.)

 For dessert, we had chocolate brownies topped with peanut butter cream cheese frosting and a festive Oreo decoration (recipe below.)

The oreo clock idea came from this website.

Salmon Pinwheel recipe

Filling
I used 1/3 cup cream cheese, 3 pickled artichoke hearts, two sun dried tomatoes, green onion, and slash of lemon juice and salt.

Salmon
I bought slices of salmon that had a lemon butter glaze on them already from Winco. I pounded out the salmon to be the same thickness, lined them up, spread the filling over them and rolled them up, using skewers to hold them together. Then, I sliced the salmon log into pieces and baked them at 350 for 15 or so minutes.

Cupcake recipe
I used store bought brownie mix for the base.

Frosting
I started out with equal parts of peanut butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar. Then I added what I thought it need. A little more peanut butter, then more sugar to balance out the sweetness, then more cream cheese if it tasted to peanut buttery. I added a splash of vanilla. The frosting was a bit thick, but it went well with the dense brownie.