Cold, Slush, and Tempura

The title sums up the day :)

For much of the week the temperatures have been 30F or lower. Overnight, the temps rose, but clouds came in and things turned to snow. By the morning though, it was even warmer and the snow quickly began turning to slush as the snow turned to rain. The city plows were out doing their work for the first time this season.

Elise had an easy bicycle ride to work last night on the icy streets with the newly installed studded tires. The ride back wasn’t nearly as fun because bicycles (or really, any wheeled vehicle) and slippery slush don’t get along very well.

While returning from Shelley’s piano lesson, she informed me that she was having a friend over for dinner and could I please prepare something Japanese? And so I quickly put together a menu consisting of tempura, inari sushi, and teriyaki shish-ka-bob chicken.

Immediately afterwards I went to the monthly Ministerial Association meeting. We had some soup and bread, and a dessert of apple pie and ice cream. Following that I went to the grocery stores.

While at the store I thought about purchasing bottled teriyaki sauce. I looked at the prices. I looked at the ingredients. I decided it was cheaper to just combine the ingredients and approximate the sauce. I added some orange juice to give it a different flavor.

After a couple of hours of preparation and cooking, the dinner was done. It all turned out quite well (in my opinion). The chicken turned out quite well, and the tempura was good. The inari sushi, well, the wrappers came from a can.

The day was rather busy – unexpectedly so. There still remains a sermon to prepare for this Sabbath.