Weekend Foodie Warriors – Take 44!

Hello hello, again, Foodie Friends 🙂 Hope you had a great weekend! For this edition of Foodie Adventures, join us at Irishiai for our Friday Night Sushi date, Italian on Saturday with goodies from New York, and adventures in pickling vegetables with a bonus Sunday BBQ!

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Sometimes, you just get a craving for something. You may see an ad on TV, or you overhear a coworker talking about it in the hallway, or maybe you scroll past something on social media foodie related that catches your eye (happens to me all the time 😂). This week for me it, that something was sushi! 🍣

I had local friends talk up Irishiai Sushi for almost two years and we hadn’t made the trip to try it yet, but I figured this was a great excuse to, happy to support a local business for #thegreatamericantakeout!

Everyone working at the restaurant was wearing masks and the food runners were all wearing gloves. The people in line with me were trying their best with the limited space to stand about 6 feet apart, and we were all wearing masks.

We decided on a few appetizers and a few rolls. On the left (above), we had their awesome zuchini chips – “panko fried zucchini slices, served with spicy Hawaiian sauce”, and the Gyoza, a Japanese style pan fried dumpling, which I beleive was stuffed with pork and veggie mixture.

The sushi rolls (above, right) that we chose were the “Punky Brewster” – a “tuna, hot sauce, and mango roll, panko fried and topped with spicy crab salad, drizzled with unagi sauce” (bottom middle of my picture). The second one, (bottom left of my picture) was the “Sixth Sense” – ” a crawfish salad with avocado roll topped with salmon, jalapeno, and torched seasoned mayo”. We dipped them in a mixture of soy sauce, ginger, and wasabi (bowl in the middle).

Both were absolutely delicious and were really filling for how big they were. Would highly reccomend this place and would go back to try more sushi, great prices and fantastic menu! 😁💜🙌

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I totally love Italian food. Who’s with me? 😁🙌🍝

There’s something about a comforting bowl of pasta on a night in that is sort of romantic and wholesome in a way few other foods are. Ramen or maybe a good bowl of oatmeal could be good contenders as well, but I digress.

We had some kielbasa and andoille sausage in the fridge, which we sauteed in our cast iron skillet until it was nice and warm. Both of these were fully cooked, smoked sausages, so they just needed warming.

We also had some sauce and basil & garlic linguine from a specialty store Jamie and his family visited recently, which we put on the stove to cook with the sausages. This was our meal after a long day of adventuring, so a three to four ingredient meal was the perfect amount of time and effort for us.

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Now many of you don’t know this, but Jamie LOVES pickles. Pickles by themselves, on chicken sandwiches, pickled onions, you name it!

Jamie brought the idea to me to have us try pickling cabbage and onions, as a friend had given Jamie two heads of cabbage and we hadn’t the foggiest as to what to do with it.

To start, we prepped our mason jars of choice (we used the smallest glass variety), and in a bath of boiling water, submerged each glass (with lids and tops in separately) to clean and bring them up to temperature. This process prevents the jars from cracking when adding hot liquids later.

We ended up using a pickling liquid made from white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, kosher salt, whole peppercorns, red pepper flakes, fennel, caraway seeds (the main seasoning in a corned beef and cabbage dish), and a little brown sugar. It’s usually white sugar that’s typically included in a brine, but we didn’t have any on hand at the time, so we had to improvise!

After chopping up the veggies, we stacked them up in the sterilized jars in layers, and poured the hot pickling liquid (very carefully) into the jars with a funnel. Once all the jars were filled and topped with their lids, we placed them back into the boiling water to seal them so they could remain shelf stable for up to a year without refrigeration!

What’s the most fun kind of pickle you’ve had? Would you consider pickling some fruits or veggies? Let us know down below! 🙌🤔

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So how was your weekend Foodie Friends? What’s your favorite “five ingredient or less” dinner idea? Sound out in the comments below to let us know your suggestions of what dishes to make or places we should visit next. As always, feel free to like, comment, & share 🤗