A New Home and Another Year

Hiking Toward Home enters it’s eighth year today!

…and as the blog gets another year older so do I.

In the last post, I blogged about our last RENTED home.

Praise the Lord, He provided us with a home of our own. This is the first time we have ever owned a home.

HomeAtLast

Our new home is nestled in a quiet neighborhood, on a dead end street.

I love it!!

The neighbors we have gotten to know so far are very nice and friendly and, as we found out this week, very helpful when it comes to clearing away snow.

I never thought I would be happy in a bi-level. My OCD never liked the split stairs as you open the front door of a bi-level home. However, this house has so many other wonderful qualities, its bi-level-ness faded into the background.

For one thing, just look at that paved driveway!! In the recent snow we found that it did not take but a few hours to clear it. My husband was very thankful. He was even more thankful that the neighbor across the street came over and cleared most of the drive with her snow blower. What a blessing that was!!

And that double carport! I can see into our future and picnics and parties will be enjoyed and rain will not ruin our parade!!

I fell in love with the YARD!! I really like that the house sits back off the road and the yard is FLAT. There is a small garden across the front of the house which I look forward to clearing and re-planting.

I would like to paint the front door turquoise… someday. Currently the shutters are a nice marine blue but I am not going to go with that on the front door. The sun hits that door almost all day and it gets so hot you can hardly put your hand on the door handle, so it needs to be a light color. Right now it is a dull gray.

We Moved On

Hello.

No, I did not fall off the face of the earth.

I took a year long blogging break. I haven’t blogged since last February.

Intentionally.

A lot has happened in the mean time and I am looking forward to sharing all sorts of news here on the old blog.

The biggest news…  We moved!

Before I jump into the new place, a few things about the old place, a rental that we lived in for five years.

The house itself, its layout and design, I really liked. The house had an open floor plan that I enjoyed.

However, we did not like the fact that it had no back yard. It had a drainage ditch instead.

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It also had a very steep front yard with a very long gravel driveway. No where to play soccer or volleyball or badminton. When it came to snow, the gravel long driveway was a back-breaker to shovel.

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Though I love living in the rural countryside, my husband and I grew up in a planned community, in the land of neighbors close by and streets with curbs and paved driveways. He wanted community and I wanted country.

God gave us both.

 

Hearing God and Guest Posting

 

ShWtnPrflPht

Hello Everyone!

Just a quick note to let you all know I am Guest Posting over at Tiffany’s “In Grace Always” blog today. Tiffany has been running a series of guest posts on the topic of Hearing God. I feel honored that she invited me to join in. Click on over to Tiffany’s to read along and leave some love over there by way of comments.

If you are here from Tiffany’s blog, WELCOME! Let me invite you to hike along with me by subscribing in that little box up at the top of the right hand sidebar. I’d love to have you along for the trek.

Thankful for each of you.

Hugs,

Sharon

Broadening My Horizons, Part 2

So I said in my last post about Sushi that there was another post about sushi coming.

Here it is.

Who knows if there will be more…

On Friday night, I went out with my brother and the sushi was so good I just had. to. have. more.

I said it was a new addiction.

I asked a sweet friend of mine, who I knew posted about sushi on her Instagram account, where she like to go for sushi that was close by where we live. She told me of a local sushi place and raved about how it was her favorite place to have sushi. Many others I have spoken to since going to Johnny’s have spoken highly of Johnny’s and how it is the best sushi in the vicinity of where we live.

Now I have got to say. I have driven by this Johnny’s many times and thought, “Really? Sushi in Ceciltucky?” and I am not the only one who thought that. I found a review on YELP! by a Jamie S. called “Don’t Judge A Book By It’s Cover” and I laughed when I read the review because it said exactly what I thought.

I’ve been driving past Johnny’s since it opened and just now tried it last weekend. Wow, I’m impressed. What took me so long to check this place out? Oh, I know. Because it’s a sushi house in Ceciltucky. For years all signs pointed to “[…]!” But that’s the sushi snob in me talking. Came in here with my lady to finally try this place out and our expectations were surpassed by quite a bit. Now, let’s talk about the 4 stars here. We need to grade on a curve because this sushi joint is located in Perryville, MD so that already makes me a bit iffy. It was not the best sushi I’ve ever had but I was not expecting that. But for Cecil county sushi? I’m a fan.

So I am not the only one that had doubts about a sushi joint in Ceciltucky.

After church on Sunday, my husband took the younger kids to go watch the Superbowl with his mom, leaving my parents and my oldest daughter and I on our own.

So, off to Johnny’s Sushi House we went!

Oh. My. Goodness.

It was so delicious!!

Again, I started with Shrimp and Vegetable Tempura. It was very good.

Johnnys_shrimp_veg_tempura

It had different vegetables than Joss had offered.

Both places though served Sweet Potato Tempura and it was my favorite in both restaurants.

My daughter and I chose two rolls apiece and decided we would share them piece for piece. That was a great way to order because we ordered what we chose but were able to try the other’s choices of rolls.

My daughter ordered a Paradise Roll and a Sweet Sixteen Roll.

The Paradise Roll consisted of a center of smoked salmon, cream cheese, and cucumber rolled and then topped with cooked shrimp and avocado. One thing we both liked about the Paradise Roll is that you could taste the smokey flavor of the salmon but it didn’t overwhelm the other flavors in the roll.

The Sweet Sixteen Roll consisted of a center of cooked shrimp, cucumber, cream cheese, and mango. The outside of the roll consisted of crabmeat, crunch, and sauce.

Paradise_Sweet16_Rolls

I ordered the Coconut Shrimp Roll, figured I would again “stay safe” and order cooked food as opposed to raw.

The Coconut Shrimp Roll was very tasty. The inside was Shrimp Tempura, cucumber, cream cheese, wrapped in Soybean paper with flakes and sauce. Although I don’t see any “flakes” on the outside of the roll, whether it was inside the wrap or not there at all, it was still delectable.

The Hawaiian Roll was crab meat, avocado, cucumber and mango rolled up and covered with cooked shrimp, and drizzled with strawberry and mango sauces. This was another scrumptious dish.

Coconut_shrimp_Hawaiian_rolls

I have no idea what my parents ordered. They ordered some sort of combination that included a chef’s choice so even though they ordered the same thing, they both had something a bit different from the other but it all looked good and they were quite happy with it.

Mom’s combo platter:

Moms_Sushi_Sashimi_combo

Dad’s combo platter:

Dads_sushi_sashimi_combo

I enjoyed everything my daughter and I ordered. I don’t think I can pick a favorite because it was all good and there is nothing I would not order again. We were all quite satisfied with our meals and I would recommend Johnny’s Sushi House and plan on going there again very soon.

My dear sweet wonderful husband has yet to have sushi with me.

He won’t commit to saying he will go with me for sushi. He’s funny. Every time I bring it up he changes the subject. I am working on him though.

I am determined. I will wear him down.

Or at least drag him along and make him watch me eat it!!

The good thing is that each of these places do offer food that is cooked and Johnny’s does have other menu items more along the lines of a chinese restaurant included on their extensive menu.

(Disclaimer: Johnny’s has no idea I have written this post. I have not been compensated. These are my honest opinions.)

(**Clarification: Self-proclaimed Rednecks, who live here, call our county- Cecil County, “Ceciltucky.” It is a reference that, though we are somewhat northern (though south of the Mason – Dixon line), our county is very “southern”.**)

Broadening My Horizons (or rather the horizons of my taste buds)

I have never been a sushi fan.

It is raw fish.

Otherwise known to me as BAIT that you catch other fish with.

I could never get past the RAW part of “raw fish”.

It sounds nuts, but…

I have been craving sushi.

I said it’s nuts.

But I have.

I had a small taste of some tasty sushi on Christmas Eve that I just had to try it again!!

It was so yummy! I know it had shrimp tempura in the center with avocado and rice and cucumber maybe? I don’t remember exactly but I do remember the shrimp and the avocado and a brown sauce, which I found out later is called “eel sauce,” drizzled over it.

Since I was craving sushi, my big brother took me out for some amazing sushi at Joss Cafe & Sushi Bar, in Annapolis, Maryland.

Joss_chopstick

 

Me_and_my_bro

(Please excuse the weird color of the photo; it was dark and we were sitting in front of a glass window that had neon signs hanging in it.)

He has been eating sushi for years so he was an old pro at ordering.

Joss_ordering_dinner

We decided I would pick a few things I felt were “safe” and then he would order some stuff he liked that he thought I should try.

For appetizers I ordered “safe” items (read:mostly cooked), shrimp and vegetable tempura,

Joss_Shrimp_Tempura

and beef negimaki, which is thin sliced beef wrapped around scallions and grilled with teriyaki sauce.

 

Joss_Beef_negimaki

I ordered a shrimp tempura roll, which was delicious, and Escolar nigiri.

The Escolar nigiri was at the suggestion of my mother. She told me that there was a fish I would like that was pure white and melted like butter in your mouth. Talking to the waiter of her suggestion he figured that Escolar is what she was referring to. Not sure if it was but it certainly fit the description she gave and DOES IT EVER MELT IN YOUR MOUTH!  So tasty!

Joss_ShrimpTempura_Escolar_Chesapeake

We had Chesapeake Rolls which were rolls stuffed with tempura shrimp, crab meat, cucumber and avocado. Those were very good but a bit big and cumbersome to dip and eat.

My brother ordered the Sushi & Sashimi Combination with a Dynamite Roll (which consisted of  salmon, yellowtail, flounder, crabmeat, mixed with creamy spicy sauce with cucumbers and scallions.)

Sashimi_Nigiri_DynamiteRoll

The Flounder Sashimi was good but not my favorite. It was the one I chose not to have more than one piece of. When we both put it in our mouths and tried to describe the flavor to each other, my first thought was, “it tastes like dirt” but then my brother chimed in with, “but really good dirt”. We decided “earthy” was a more proper term for it.

The Tuna Sashimi was my favorite. If you have ever had good raw beef, that is what it tasted like.

My second favorite was the Escolar Sashimi. It truly tasted like butter and melted in your mouth.

The Yellow Tail Sashimi was sort of nondescript and the Salmon Sashimi tasted like … well… salmon.

None of the fish tasted fishy.

Which was a good thing.

There are a few things that I learned while eating out with my big brother.

  1. I eat way to fast on a normal basis.
  2. Sushi, sashimi, etc., need to be eaten slowly to enjoy the mix of flavors in your mouth.
  3. Sushi is rolled.
  4. Sashimi is a chunk of raw fish.
  5. Nigiri is a chunk of raw fish over a wad of rice.
  6. Bait isn’t bad; it can be quite tasty.
  7. I have a new food addiction.

Have you ever had sushi?

If you have, where is your most favorite place to get sushi?

What is the best sushi you have ever eaten?

Do you have a favorite roll or ingredient?

Tell us about it in the comments! (You never know when me or another reader will be in your neck of the woods and in search of a good sushi restaurant.)

I highly recommend Joss Cafe & Sushi Bar on Main Street in old town Annapolis, Maryland.

This is my first post on eating sushi.

Yes, there is another one coming…

(I have not been compensated for this post. Joss Cafe & Sushi Bar has no idea who I am or that I wrote about my experience in their restaurant.)

::

Hiking Toward Home