Sushi-Palooza

I’ll wrap up any outstanding answers on my movie meme tomorrow.  I just wanted to take a minute to tell ya’ll about the cooking class E. and I took yesterday.
Well, cooking is perhaps not the right word.  We didn’t actually cook anything.  We prepared things. More specifically, we prepared sushi.  And as many times as I try to sit down to write this post, I can’t possibly convey how much enjoyment we both got out of the class.
For Valentine’s Day I got E. (us, really) a gift card for two to take a hands-on class at The Chopping Block.  Frankly, I can find a recipe for most of the stuff they teach you how to make, so when we found the sushi class I was in whole-hearted agreement.  I mean, I know that sushi is fish, rice, seaweed and garnish, but how to actually MAKE those cute little rolls was a mystery to both of us.
After a visual lesson, we each got our own little station to get to work, complete with tools and such an obscene amount of sushi-grade fish and assorted ingredients I think I am going to weep just thinking about it.  As I told E., the cost of the food alone was probably far less than we paid for the class.  AND WE GOT TO EAT EVERYTHING WE MADE.  Seriously, there was so much to work with that everyone had more rolls than they could fit in their stomach (us included, and E. can fit a helluvah lot in his deceptively flat stomach).  We just kept practicing, and rolling, and before you knew it there were more varieties of salmon roll on my plate than I could have ever dreamed.
Oh, sorry.  Did I fail to mention that it was BYOB and we brought a bottle of champagne for ourselves as well?
On a more practical/serious note, we also got names of places in Chicago to get the best and freshest fish, where you can buy eel, and how to prepare sushi rice.  It turns out you can even make sushi rice from brown rice!  That makes it almost permissible on my diet plan. :p (suffice to say, Saturdays are almost always my “cheat” days when I get to slip off plan a little)  If anyone wants to get me sushi-making tools for my birthday, I won’t fight you.  I’ll even share all my practice and projects.
Between this and the water park next weekend I think E. and I might possibly die from sheer over-indulgence in fun.  And food.  But mostly fun.