Teacup of Fun -#4 Sushi Making Class

I've always wanted to take a food making class. I pictured myself sauteing chicken, dicing vegetables, or melting chocolate. Since I'm a part of a "couple" I thought it would be a fun activity for the two of us to share. I did not get to make my Italian or Mexican dream meal, instead we opted for sushi. To be honest that was the only way I could get him to take a "cooking" class with me. However, it was A LOT of fun.

We arrived at Tatu in downtown Baltimore just a few minutes before the class began. There were long tables set up inside the restaurant for people to sit down in groups. We joined a table of an older couple, a college aged couple, and a group of four friends. On the table there were sushi rollers, rice, and gloves. Luckily the chef had his table set up right next to our table so we could directly see what was going on.

The first roll we made was a crab and avocado roll, and then a cucumber roll. The class was a little slow moving because the chef had to walk around to each table to demonstrate the rolling technique. But it made the class last longer, and gave us a chance to talk with the other couples at the table.

It was really neat seeing how the rolls were made, and the technique involved.  The sticky rice was a little hard to control because it literally stuck to everything. There was special water on the table we would stick our gloves into to help roll the rice onto our seaweed paper. You had to get the rice just right on the roll to ensure when your rolled it the two ends sealed, as well as to not over stuff your roll. I always wondered how the sushi roller mats worked, and it was quite easy to do (however getting your roll perfectly round and getting the two sides to connect was another story).

After we were finished making our two sushi rolls they brought out bowls of edamame, and then two different types of sake. We had a champagne sake which was really good, and then a warm sake. The bartender came around to each table and described each type of sake, and why it was served chilled or warm. Afterwards we could all dig into our personally made sushi rolls.

Sushi success!

Teacup of Kindness - Randomness #9-7

I am getting towards the end of the year and it is becoming a little challenging thinking of random acts of kindness to complete. To help motivate and inspire ideas, I've decided to center the last few months around themes. For October I dedicated it to service. I volunteered for three different activities, and had a great time getting back into service. In high and college I was a member of a volunteer organization, and it felt good to be contributing my time to service projects again!

#9 -  I volunteered at Manna Food Bank in Gaithersburg, MD with some coworkers. A colleague put together a service project for us to go to the food bank, and sort food for families. There was probably 15 of us that worked that evening, and we created 195 boxes to send to families. That is 195 families that are receiving food items. We paired off in teams, and it was so much fun working together to complete the task. We put items such as pasta, canned spinach, cereal, carrots, vegetable oil, and then a few "fun items". These items could be cookie mix, potato chips, hot chocolate etc. Afterwards we taped up all of the boxes, and loaded them onto pallets to be put into their trucks.






#8 - My fiance and I went to Cherry Hill Park one morning and helped plant trees with Blue Water Baltimore. The purpose of the organization is to build up the greenery along the park so that it prevents run off into the Patapsco River. The organization does this every weekend or so, and sometimes travels to other parks. When we first arrived at the park we got a quick tutorial on how to plant a tree. I am glad that we worked in pairs because it definitely would have taken me twice as long to do one tree all by myself. We ended the day with planting three trees, and then assisting with watering three of the trees that were planted that day. Hopefully we are able to go back another weekend to assist because it was a great way to spend a Saturday morning. Not only that but I felt like it was a good activity for my fiance and I to spend time together.

#7 - October is national breast cancer awareness month. I knew I wanted to do something that contributed to breast cancer awareness, but was not sure how to get involved. Luckily I came across the Breast Cancer Mt. Airy walk that was still in need of volunteers. I worked the registration table with a group of ladies one Sunday morning. I arrived bright and early at 7:30AM and helped fold T-shirts at the survivor's tent, then helped set up registration and work it until the start of the race, and then last but not least I helped put out the snacks and water for the walkers when they returned. A lot of the volunteers walked in the 5K which I wish I would have thought of. They came early to help set up and volunteer, and then left at the start of the walk to complete the route. That is something to think about next year if I am able to help at the same walk. They had over 900 people walk that day!

Teacup of Fun -#5 Painting Class

For my friend's 30th birthday she asked that we go to a paint nite at Leinenkugel Beer Garden. This was exciting because I have always wanted to take a painting class, but also it was at the beer garden!

There were four us which was awesome because we could have a whole table to ourselves. They had an example of the painting on display for all of us to look at so we could get an idea of what we would be creating. As the class started the teacher introduced herself, and explained the structure of the class. She would demonstrate one part of the painting, and then walk around to watch all of us as we did it. It was a little challenging following along with her as the class was so large, but she was great coming around to do one on one demonstrations.

It was really neat taking a look around at all of the different paintings and how different they were. Everyone had different style trees, different shades of green, etc. They all were the same basic painting, but each was a little bit different.

This was a really fun class to take because not only was it really great to spend time with friends, it was quite challenging. Halfway through the class I somehow forgot how to make the color brown which was a little frustrating. All of my trees were coming out purple or grey. Then I just started mixing red/yellow/blue until I finally got a dark brown. It was quite the learning experience of mixing colors, and painting free hand. I wish my painting had turned out more like the example, but that is the whole point of the class, to make something that is unique to you.

Teacup of Kindess - Randomoness #12-10

Fall is one of my most favorite times of the year. The days are getting shorter, leaves are turning color, and 'sweater weather' is almost here (my label for crisp weather). Except for today, it was almost 80 degrees, but we're almost there to the season change.

Since it is the turn of the season I thought what better way to celebrate Fall then to pay it forward this month. 

#12- The lucky penny! I always get really excited when I find a penny heads side up in my travels. I suppose other people may have the same reaction, as it means you have good luck for the rest of the day. Wherever I went this month I left a penny or two heads side up on the sidewalk or parking lot. I figured the next person to pass by, sit down, or park will enjoy finding a little piece of luck and brighten the rest of their day. 

#11 - Last week I was in Frederick to see the re-release of Wizard of Oz on the big screen. I knew starting this challenge I wanted to pay for someone behind me in line (at a fast food chain, Starbucks, etc). I have always been intimated about doing it as I didn't want the person to follow me out ( I like being anonymous), or the person behind the counter to tell me no, or worse they not actually use the money to pay for the person behind me. I finally decided to take a leap, and while I was waiting for my friend to arrive I went to Starbucks for a coffee. I asked to pay for the order behind me, but the cashier returned to the window to hand me almost all of my change back. He said that they had a pretty hefty order and maybe I wanted to rethink my purchase. I asked how much they had purchased which turned out to be close to $18.00. I didn't even think twice before I handed him back my money, and to just tell them Happy Friday. You shouldn't get to pick who you surprise with a random act, and I hope they paid for the person behind them too. 

#10 - When the boyfriend and I were at Wegman's earlier this month to do some shopping I wanted to surprise the next shopper to use our cart. I didn't want to buy a gift card for the person behind me in line, but rather put our shopping cart back and leave a gift card in there for the next person. I put the gift card in an envelope and wrote 'Dear stranger, have a great shopping trip."