Ben and I celebrated the last weekend of the summer yesterday by attending the super tasty Taste Iowa festival in Conrad, IA!

This annual event in Conrad, about a hour and 15 minutes northeast of Des Moines, celebrates local food and fun with live bands,

fresh produce, 

and lots of food – including a BBQ competition I was there to guest judge.

The best part was that the event was organized by one of my best friend’s boyfriend’s Mom, (you follow? ) so she and her man came down from Chicago to hang out with Ben and me for the afternoon!

After catching up, I reported for official BBQ Competition judging duty. My fellow judges, a local Radio DJ and magazine editor, and I all made sure to bring our appetites.

There were 6 teams competing in beef, pork and poultry categories. We were to eat a sample of each entry, then score it based on appearance, taste and tenderness – with bonus points if the meat was locally sourced (which they all were!)

One by one the food runners brought out containers piled high with seemingly endless amounts of finger lickin’ good BBQ for us to devour. 

 

I nearly asked somebody to pinch me!

We chowed our way through smoky brisket, lip-smackin’ ribs and tender BBQ chicken, ’til we could chow no more.

I was in hog Heaven.  

After the competition wrapped up, we all piled into Conrad’s town bar to continue catching up over a few cold ones.

My friend Lindsey and I went to college together and I adore spending time with her. We are travel buddies and she always shows me the best time when I visit her in Chicago.

We chattered away for a few hours, then reluctantly parted ways – both of us back to our respective sides of the Mississippi!

Today has been filled with random odds and ends, highlighted by homemade California Rolls for dinner!

My older brother and I have had our own competition looming between the two of us for months – an eating competition. He thinks he can down more than me (HA!) so we’ve been trying to agree on what food we should compete with.

Neither of us want to eat something super disgusting like cheeseburgers or chicken nuggets, so inspired by last week’s wraps, I shouted out CALIFORNIA ROLLS when we were discussing it at dinner Friday night!

 

The competition date is still TBD, but all that talk gave me a craving that last week’s wraps just hadn’t satisfied, so I took some time to whip up a few actual California Rolls today. It wasn’t nearly as messy or hard as I remembered!

First I laid out all the soft and hardware.

Software:

Nori, aka sheets of roasted seaweed.

You can find nori in some grocery stores, all Asian food stores, and someone mentioned that Trader Joe’s might have it too.

 

Sushi rice. Sushi rice is short grain rice that has been cooked then seasoned with rice vinegar, sugar and a dash of salt (details here.) You can find it in any grocery store.

Imitation crab, cucumber,

and avocado.

Hardware:

Sushi mat. You can get these at Williams-Sonoma/any specialty kitchen store, or any Asian Grocery store. You don’t need a mat to make homemade sushi, it just makes it a little bit easier. 

Glass of water. I use the water to wet my hands to make it easier to spread the sushi rice on the nori. I also use it to seal the end of the roll. You’ll see!

Software: check. Hardware: check. We’re ready to roll!

Step 1: Lay a sheet of plastic wrap over the sushi mat, then lay down a sheet of nori. Wet your hands with water and press down 1 cup cooked sushi rice, leaving a 1" section clear at the top.

Step 2: Place 2 slices each avocado, cucumber and crab on the bottom third portion of the rice.

Step 3: Using the sushi mat, make one full roll, pulling back firmly on the mat to tighten the filling inside.

See?

Step 4: Continue rolling, pulling back firmly on the mat to compress the filling, until you come to the end of the nori.

Step 5: Wet the clear section of nori at the top, then make the final roll and press down to seal.  

Whee!

1 cup un-cooked rice makes 3 cups cooked rice – which yields 3 large rolls. 

Step 6: After you have all three rolls made, cut them into 1/2" slices using a sharp knife.

If you’re having trouble cutting, it may help to dip the knife in warm water in between slices.

 

Step 6: Rejoice over the fact that you’ll never have to pay $6 per California Roll at a restaurant ever again!

These are sooo refreshing!

I could seriously pop piece after piece forever.

Actually, my brother and I decided to shout out at the same time how many pieces of California Roll we thought we could eat in one sitting. Him: 30. Me: 68. BAHAHAHA! This one’s in the bag.

 

And so wraps up another weekend, and crazy month. I seeeeriously cannot believe that next week is LABOR DAY! Where DID the summer go??

~~~~~

Do you like sushi? What’s your favorite kind?