I love your sushi roll, hotter than wasabi

Konnichiwa friends! Sorry we've kept you in suspense waiting for an update, but we're back finally!

Today we did something we've talked a lot about doing but never had the time to do...

52. Roll your own sushi


First we had to get supplies. We already had the rice vinegar, chopsticks and wasabi, but we had to venture to the grocery store to get the rest. Surprisingly enough our local Shop Rite had pickled ginger and nori (the seaweed used to roll it up) but there were nooooo avocados. Well okay, there were avocados but they were pretty green. Then we went to Acme and their avocados were at the opposite of the spectrum and way passed their prime. We also stopped at the new local organic food store in town...which doesn't actually carry any produce. But after our fourth stop at the second Shop Rite we finally got some avocados that looked edible.


Mmmm doesn't that all look so good?

So we boiled up some rice


And made the rice vinegar mixture stuff

(Our oven's pretty old so we had to manually light the burner for the mixture)


Becky peeled and cut up the veggies

Mmm this is making me hungry all over again!

We were feeling pretty ambitious so we decided to make some tempura batter as well!

We fried up some sweet potatoes and avocados




























And then got to rolling!


Becky's first attempt didn't go so well. We added too much rice and it turned out HUGE


But really that's not a bad problem to have.


Then it was my turn


My attempt was only slightly more successful because I had learned from Becky's mistakes. But my rolls weren't very tightly rolled and ended up being a little messy. Delicious...but messy.

Between the two of us we made 7 different rolls.

  Becky's cucumber, imitation crab and avocado tempura

 My avocado and sweet potato tempura

 Becky's sweet potato tempura and imitation crab meat

Plus I made a roll of cucumber, avocado and cream cheese; avocado tempura, cream cheese and cucumber; Becky's california roll; and one more combination I can't think of. Then we put it all together:


I know exactly what you're thinking, "What?! No way you girls did this for the first time and it came out looking this good!" Yes it was our first time and yes, it does look amazing!

Close up glamour shot.

And yes, most importantly, it did taste amazing.

Even my Mom got in on the action. When we asked if she wanted to try a piece she responded with "I thought you'd never ask!"

This day will go down as the sushi massacre

Don't worry, the leftovers didn't go to waste. Jamie was upset that we didn't invite her (because she was babysitting) and we brought the rest for her to finish off. She even told us that if we had better rolling skills, it may have been the best sushi she's ever had. So I'd say this was a success, wouldn't you?

Oh, and as a fair warning to everyone: the wasabi that comes in the tubes that you can buy at the store is VERY SPICY. It may cause your eyes to water, your sinuses to clear and a lot of yelling. You have been warned.

Anyway, since we did so well making sushi we decided that we should try other cultural dishes. If anyone has any recommendations (or would like to join us!) we're always open for suggestions. 

I think that's all of the fun we have for today. So until next time, good luck exploring the infinite abyss.

Love always,

The Go Getters

I'm reading: I love your sushi roll, hotter than wasabi

Polar Bear Plunge 2011!

Welcome back everyone! We hope we didn't keep you in too much suspense trying to guess what our next adventure would be. So without further ado let's get to it!

Yesterday we took a road trip down to Lewes, Delaware for the 2011 Polar Bear Plunge! We each had to raise $50 to support the Special Olympics but ended up giving them almost an extra $50 each because they didn't have our fundraising pages updated and we wanted our free sweatshirts. Plus it's for a good cause, so you can't complain!

 

bam. check that out.

So yesterday around 9 a.m. myself, Becky, Jamie and our friend Eamonn piled into Jamie's car for what would become a very eventful road trip.

 

 

We started out happy and care free. We played the movie game, the rules of which are as follows:

1. One person starts the game by naming any actor/actress or movie

2. If the first person named an actor/actress, the next person has to name a movie that actor was in.

If the first person named a movie, the next person has to name an actor/actress that was in said movie.

3. The third person continues the cycle going around the circle naming an actor, then a movie, then an actor, then a movie. Think of it as the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon game. 

4. If you do not know an actor that was in the aforementioned movie or cannot think of a movie that said actor was in, you can challenge the person before you to see if they can come up with anything. If they beat your challenge, you get an M, but if they can't come up with anything either, then they get an M. Each incorrect response warrants another letter, similar to the basketball game HORSE, until all but one person ends up with MOVIES.

It's a really fun game...I hope you play it next time you go on a road trip!

So the beginning of the trip was all fun and games...until we realized we were lost. Now I'm not one to point fingers...but Jamie probably should have had the GPS actually directing us somewhere, and Becky, as co-pilot, should have been paying attention to where we were going considering she's been to the Delaware beaches the most. Again, I'm not one to place the blame on anyone...but we did end up closer to D.C. than to Rehoboth Beach and went about 2 hours out of our way.

After some sibling rivalry and a lot of yelling, Becky put the address into the GPS and we attempted to get back on track.

 

Unfortunately, in our eagerness to arrive at the beach in time for the plunge at 1 o'clock, Jamie didn't see the cop waiting on the side of the road (even though I said "Jamie, there's a cop up there") and we ended up getting pulled over.

 

The funny part is, the cop blew his transmission trying to pull us over! And we explained to him that we were late to a charity vent, and it was Eamonn's birthday! But the cop would have none of it, even though he seemed like a jolly fellow, he still gave us 2 tickets for basically the same thing. One for going 17 miles over the speed limit, and a second for excessive speeding. Call me crazy but I think those are the same thing, we didn't need 2 tickets. He was just trying to pay for his blown transmission.

To make a long story short, we didn't make it to the plunge on time. It started at 1, and as you can see, we were still in the car at that point.

 

Then Becky's bladder nearly exploded and she had to literally run into Taco Bell before she peed her sweatpants.

This is her pre-plunge outfit of sweatpants, a bandana and rain boots.

Fear not though my friends, we did eventually make it to the beach! And we stripped down to our bathing suits and customized polar bear plunge shirts and asked a nice man to take pictures for us!

 

He even took pictures of us running in and out of the water. He went above and beyond his duties as an innocent bystander.

Oh, I can finally say it:
51. Do the Polar Bear Plunge!

 

 Without any time to think about what we were actually about to do, we linked hands and headed toward the ocean. As you can see, Jamie was the smart one who let go when Eamonn started running too fast.

 

He held onto Becky and I until the last minute when a wave was coming and pulled both of us down into the water. I lost my balance and fell head first into the FREEZING cold water. I don't really remember anything except that I was cold and the only thing I cared about was getting back out of the water.

 

We survived the Polar Bear Plunge! Nobody's heart stopped, nobody got pneumonia or frost bite and it was actually a lot of fun!

Survivors!

 

The Go Getters!

Eamonn and Becky ended up dragging Jamie back into the water again for another dip because she only went in up to her knees! What a baby, I think they got her in all the way up to her butt.

Once we were all out we immediately put on sweatshirts, robes and towels, whatever we had handy to get warm again. The weather was actually pretty pleasant and warm for February, but the water was less forgiving.

 

This is the face of hypothermia setting in.

After a quick and complicated costume change, we were pretty much back to a regular body temperature. But having missed the registration, we decided to try to find someone in charge who could take our money and give us our sweatshirts.

 

They were really nice and we caught them just as they were packing up. We told them about the cop pulling us over and jumping in by ourselves and wanting to make sure that they got all of our money. I think they appreciated our spirit.

After all the hooplah we tried to take Eamonn to Hooters, after all it was his birthday. And I could have crossed it off the list too because I've never been there! But alas, to our dismay, it was closed. :(

 
Eamonn took it pretty hard.

But we ended up going to Grotto's pizza instead...and they were good sports about doing something super cheezy for Eamonn's birthday. They surprised him with a song and a balloon when he walked out of the bathroom! It was definitely better than anything you could get from Hooters, right?

Well Eamonn looks pretty happy about it.

 

Then it was a long drive back home to Jersey for the Super Bowl party at Jamie's house. And we vowed that next year we wouldn't get lost and we would actually make it to the BIG PLUNGE. But we'll see, I think our way was more fun anyway.

So until next time, good luck exploring the infinite abyss.

Love Always,

The Go Getters

 

I'm reading: Polar Bear Plunge 2011!

On the Streets of Philadelphia

Hello all! If you're anywhere on the East Coast I hope you're staying warm! Becky and I were unfortunately plagued with sickness and snow for the past week so we've been out of commission in all respects - not going to work and spending all day in bed...but we did eventually heal and the streets cleared and we were able to do things worth updating about! So let's jump right into it.

46. Take a brewery tour
I actually think I went on a brewery tour when I was really young. I don't remember where I was or what kind of beer it was, but it seems familiar. But anyway, Becky, our friend Lindsay and myself went to the Flying Fish brewery in Cherry Hill, NJ yesterday.

 

It was a pretty spontaneous decision. We were talking about going to the Dogfish Head brewery in Delaware with one of Jamie's professors and she told us that the Flying Fish brewery was even closer! So we looked it up and it turns out the tour is free AND they have free samples! So of course we were there. They gave us a tour of the surprisingly small brewery and then we had our free samples. Their exit 13 Chocolate Stout is pretty delicious. If you haven't heard of Flying Fish, that's probably because they only ship about 100 miles away from the brewery in Cherry Hill. But they told us that they just signed up with a company that will be able to distribute their beer further distances so keep an eye out!

Another really cool thing that the brewery is doing is making a different beer for each exit of the New Jersey Turnpike. They only have about 4 so far, but we're looking forward to the exit 2 beer! 

We unfortunately don't have any pictures from the tour :/ I don't know why but it just would have seemed strange to whip out my camera and take pictures. Plus, if you've seen one brewery you've seen them all. The best part was the samples and unfortunately we can't really share that via the Internet...so just use your imagination! 

Let's continue. The rest of this post is dedicated to Philadelphia! We have lived 20 minutes from Philly for most of our lives, but haven't come close to doing half of the cool things there are to do there. So this weekend we decided to change that and spent basically all weekend in the city. Friday night we visited Jamie's alma mater and went to the Galleries at the Moore College of Art and Design. Saturday night we went out and partied....nothing new there haha. But today we did some pretty cool things, so check it out!

The first task was getting to Philly today. As you saw in the previous post, my New Year's Resolution was to learn how to drive in Philly because I've been too much of a baby to try so far, but today I finally did! Unfortunately, we don't have any proof. We didn't think to take any pictures, but I swear I did it! So there's something I can cross off the list. And now I'm done for the year! I already did what I wanted to do. Ha, that was easy.
47. Learn how to drive in Philly.

So we made it to Philly in one piece, it was actually pretty uneventful and not nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be. I was being a baby for no reason.

So we met up with my friend Zoe and her boyfriend Erik and got falafel at Mama's Vegetarian. Delicious. If trying falafel isn't on your list, it should be.

Blech, this has been such a long post without pictures so far. Let's change that!

 

So the purpose of our excursion into Philly was to go to the Mutter Museum! It's a museum devoted to medical oddities and the like. They don't allow photography inside the museum so Becky had to be super stealth and sneak some pics with her phone...shhh don't tell on us! We don't mean any harm.

48. Go to the Mutter Museum
 

There were wax and plaster models of different ailments and hundreds of skulls and skeletons!   

 

Bodies are pretty gross to me, especially the insides, so there were some sections I just couldn't look at. Like the baby section, I skipped right over that one.  But here's some baby skeletons.

 

One thing that was really cool was the skeleton of a GIANT! Literally, he was 7 ft. 6 in! And he was standing, well hanging, next to a skeleton with dwarfism.

Even Big&Tall doesn't have his size :/

Other than skeletons and wax figures they also had old medical tools; from autopsy kits from the Civil War to Iron Lung machines! According to the sign, in 2008 there were still 30 people who were living with the help of an Iron Lung, which is the machine you see below. It was used around the 50s to treat people with polio. This looks pretty cramped and horrible if you ask me.

 

They also had an old X-ray machine that was used at shoe stores to see if shoes fit properly. Yea, you would stick your foot into this machine without any kind of protection and expose yourself and the person operating the machine to huge quantities of radiation. Whoops!

Well that's all of the pictures we have from the Mutter Museum. If you're ever in the Philly area it's definitely worth stopping in. There's also a plaster cast of the original "Siamese Twins" Cheng and Eng who were attached at the chest by a thin patch of cartilage and skin. However, they didn't know this until they performed the autopsy. Only a thin piece of liver tissue also connected the two, but today they probably could have been separated no problem. But the two ended up marrying two different women and had at least 10 kids each, if I remember correctly. So I guess they made it work. 

After the Mutter Museum we decided to take a walk since it was lovely outside! We ended up near Love Park, a place I have never been. I know, people who live near Philly are thinking WHAT?! You've never been to Love Park?! But don't worry guys, I finally did it! And we even took the typical Love Park picture!

49. Go to Love Park 

 

Then we asked Zoe and Erik if they wanted their picture too. Maybe they should have said no...

 

It was slippery!

 

Her endearing clumsiness is what we love about her haha.

Then we walked up to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where Zoe's mom Frannie is a studio assistant and also works on her pieces because she's an artist!

Fun fact: PAFA was the first art school in the United States!

50 (woo 50 things!). Take a tour of the studios at PAFA

 

She gave us a tour of the Printmaking Studio where she works and also one of the painting floors.

 

These are her litho stones!

 

We tried to go onto the Sculpture Floor but it was closed :/ But we did get to see this!

 

We also tried to go up to the Observatory at City Hall...but it was closed today. But now we have something new to add to the list! And of course we'll let you know when we cross it off!

Well that's about it for today folks. But we have something awesome in the works for next week. I won't give it away yet but I'll try to give you a hint...it's going to be really, REALLY cool. So go ahead and ponder that.

We also wanted to give you guys a sneak preview of the promo cards we've made for the blog! We just ordered 100 today and we're going to pass them out at the cool thing we're going to next weekend. But you can see it here first!

 

Okay well that's all I've got up my sleeves tonight, folks. So until like time, good luck exploring the infinite abyss.

Love Always,

The Go Getters

I'm reading: On the Streets of Philadelphia