eat it up

From Fashionista to Farmer

2011-06-27T14:51:00.001-07:00

My mom's friend Micheline Brown had a glamorous life in New York. She was a stylist in movies like Sex and the City and TV shows like The Good Wife. Now she's decided to become a farmer.

She is going to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to be an intern at an organization called Growing Power. I did a video interview with her (below) before she left Brooklyn.

Growing Power is a national nonprofit organization that teaches people to grow, process, market and distribute food. At Growing Power’s urban farm they raise livestock like goats, chickens, ducks, turkeys, fish and worms and also plants for food. The founder, Will Allen, won a genius award (like my dance teacher Elizabeth Streb!) for his good work.

While she's at Growing Power, Micheline will get to grow and harvest vegetables for neighborhoods that don't have enough healthy food. After her internship, she plans to start her own farm. I hope the farm she starts is in Brooklyn.

Here is a video interview I did with "Farmer Brown." Click here
Here is the Growing Power website: Click here

"Pete's-za" at Pete's Napolitan Cuisine

2011-04-03T12:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday night I went to Pete's Napolitan Cuisine with my mom, my step mom, and my sister. It just opened on Fifth Avenue between First and Second streets in Brooklyn. It specializes in pizza, which is a good idea. There are other little restaurants on the block, but not pizza. You can never have too much pizza.

The decor was very cool but also fancy. It had paintings and pictures painted on the walls of Italy. They had a brick oven to cook the pizza in. It smelled like they just made 300 pizzas, and they were jumping out of the oven.

For an appetizer we got a beet salad and caprese salad, which is tomato with mozzarella and fresh basil and a mix of sweet and salty balsamic vinegar. The beet salad was so delicious with a small bit of cheese.

For the main course I had margarita pizza, which is kind of plain with just cheese, basil and tomato. I got it because it reminded me of the caprese salad, but with bread. It was delicious, not plain at all, but very flavorful. My sister got a prosciutto pizza with arugula and she shared it with my mom. It was also really good.

They also serve desserts, but we didn't have any. I did see bread baked in the wood oven with powdered sugar that looked good. If I would rate Pete's, I would give it 4 stars. I had a very awesome time.

Pete's Napolitan Cuisine

289 Fifth Avenue

718-625-8444

Human Treats

2011-02-19T11:46:00.000-08:00

Last week my mom's girlfriend's mom made dog treats for our new dog Pepper. She made them with organic oats, peanut butter, and other secret ingredients. She made them with love. they looked and smelled so good that we wanted to eat them. So we sent her a very nice letter saying thanks for the treats and can you make human treats? I also put in a picture of all of us with her.

The next week we received a box with a letter in it from my mom's girlfriend's mom saying " Dear Nic, enjoy the 'people treats' and please convey to your mom that it is good to advocate for what you want." We opened the box up and there were cookies shaped in bones and just round ones. They were oats and chocolate chips. The ones shaped in the bones were more chewy than the round ones. I really like my cookies soft and chewy. They were such a good mix of grainy and sweet. I love all the things she makes.

Thank you Mrs. Gianas for all of the amazing treats!!!! WE LOVED THEM!!!!!!!!

here is the recipe:

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups butter

4 cups flour

2 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups sugar

5 cups blended oatmeal**

24 oz. chocolate chips

2 cups brown sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 8 oz. bar milk chocolate grated ( i buy it bulk at the health store)

4 eggs

2 tsp. baking powder

3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)

2 tsp. vanilla

** measure oatmeal and blend in a blender to a fine powder

Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips, milk chocolate bar and nuts. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. (on till nicely brown) Makes 112 cookies

Have fun!! This is a huge recipe and I reduce it to half. The cookies can be made quite large if you prefer for fun raisers etc.

I also buy chocolate, chocolate chips and oatmeal at the health store. I use only King Arthur brand flour. (you can use any kind of all-purpose flour)

A Sweet Sweet Birthday

2011-02-16T15:13:00.000-08:00

my god mom's cake

Over the weekend I celebrated my God mom, Jackie's birthday. Her partner and I made a cake to help celebrate. I did a question and answer with her because she bakes so well. This is what she said:

Q: How do you have time to make the cakes when you have a full time job?

A: My kids help, and I do it on the weekends.
Q: What is the emotion when you bake?

A: Sometimes I am happy when it goes well, but when it turns out not as I expected I get mad.
Q: What types of cakes you usually make?

A: I like to make yellow cake, and I make a very good cheese cake.
Q: Do use a cook book?

A: I do when I make the yellow cake because I haven't remembered it. I don't for a cheese cake. But it depends on the recipe.

The cake we made was so pretty. Her son, Jackson, also helped. After the cake, we made made a butter frosting and added green food coloring to it. It turned out to be a lime green. We put the Aquarius symbol on it, because my god mom was born in February. When we had Sunday dinner we ate it and it was so good!!!!!!!!

The following weekend, she also made a cake for Jackson's birthday, and it was phenomenal. He's really into The Lion King.

Jackson's cake

Chinatown Brooklyn Style

2011-01-27T10:34:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I went to the Chinatown in Brooklyn. It is different from the one in Manhattan because it has more unique fish, fruit, and vegetables and is a little less expensive. We went to get crabs for gumbo and we also saw a lot of cool foods.

Brooklyn Chinatown has been around since the late 1980s. It runs on 8th Avenue from 42nd to 68th Street. You can get there on the N/R and D subway trains. The neighborhood is very crowded with many, many stores all along the block.

Some of the coolest, and strangest foods I saw: eels, crabs, carp, roots of some kind of plant, exotic mushrooms, seaweed, frogs, turtles with no shells, mackerel, trout, and many more but if I tell you this blog post will be eight pages long.

I love discovering new types of food and eating them, so I was excited to go into a bakery and try Chinese buns. I had a hot dog bun, two pork buns, and a sweet bun that had coconut on it. I really liked the hot dog bun. It was like a pig in a blanket, but the bread was really soft and fluffy.

I recommend going there. Take a trip in honor of the Chinese New Year, which happens in early February this year. Or you can go just for fun.

Sweets for the Sweet 16

2011-01-22T15:04:00.000-08:00

Last weekend my cousin Tashawn's turned 16. In honor of her "sweet 16" we had a sweet treat: cupcakes.

We got them from a new store called the Cupcake King on 7th Avenue in Park Slope. The store is very cute and colorful. We bought five very large red velvet cupcakes, two chocolate ones with white swirls and three chocolate mint with peppermint patties on top.

I liked the red velvet best, because it was so creamy and sort of melted in my mouth. Cupcake King is a little bit expensive; the large ones cost $3.75, the smaller ones, $2.75. It adds up. But it is worth it.

Valentine's Day is coming and cupcakes are great for a present. If you really like someone you should go here. The info is here: click here: for website

in the shop

Birthday Heaven!

2011-01-12T15:26:00.000-08:00

Sunday it was my mom's birthday, and we celebrated by having dinner with friends and family. My Godmother Jackie came with her partner Juliet and their two kids, Toshi and Jackson. My Auntie Jane came as well.

My sister made a great salmon dinner topped with pea tendrils (pea sprouts) with snap peas on the side. The marinade for the salmon was made up of the soy sauce and ginger. I was assigned to grate the ginger. She let the salmon soak in the marinade for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, she sauteed the snap peas and the pea sprouts. She broiled the salmon for 6 minutes, and then she put the pea sprouts and peas on the cooked salmon. She also roasted fingerling potatoes, nicely seasoned with olive oil, salt and thyme.

I took a bite of the salmon and it was really good. I could have fainted. Actually I was impressed that my sister was able to create a dish from a recipe in Bon Apetit magazine. I was eating a piece of the best thing in the world. I could live off of that dish. I even took it for lunch the next day!

After Juliet made an amazing cake. It had a fish on it with a hook in its mouth, because my mom loves fishing. Juliet is a great baker and she is so fun. I had a bite and went crazy. It was so rich and good. I love her and my sister. My mom felt so special when she was eating and opening presents.

Katie's Kookies!!!

2011-01-08T07:29:00.000-08:00

Throughout the holidays, I got to eat the best cookies I have ever tasted. Every year, my mom's co-worker Katie Garton takes a couple days off work and makes 1,000 cookies from scratch. WOW, that is as many I can make in my life.

She gave us over 50 cookies: Snickerdoodles, Vanilla Trees, Chess Squares, Thumb Prints and many more melt-in-your-mouth cookies. I tried every kind at least once. My very favorite was the Chess Squares, though it is hard to choose. They taste like a piece of heaven.

Though Katie already has a job, she should start a cookie business. I would be her first customer.

More S'Mores!

2010-12-19T07:58:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday I went to a s'mores book party for our friend Erin Bried (that's her in photo). We celebrated the publishing of her book, called "How to Build a Fire: And Other Handy Things Your Grandfather Knew." She also wrote, "How to Sew a Button" about the things grandma will teach you.

In the new book you can learn how to make beef jerky, drive a nail, mow a lawn, change a flat tire, catch a fish and lot of other stuff. She has her own youtube channel to go with the books. To go there and watch her click here.

Erin's book party was at a bar called Camp. They set up little burners to make s'mores. They are like marshmallow, chocolate sandwiches.

Here are the steps to make a s'more.

Get a marshmallow, a stick/skewer etc., a bar of chocolate, and two graham crackers.
Get everything set up: Put the chocolate on the graham cracker and then on the side get another graham cracker ready.
Put marshmallow on stick.
Then roast the marshmallow above fire, but not in it. Slowly turn the stick.
When it browns take out. Don't let it catch on fire, blacken or burn.
Put the toasted marshmallow on the graham cracker and chocolate.
Put the other graham cracker on top like a sandwich.
Eat it all up!!!!
Do it all again and stuff yourself until you have a total sugar high!

Hope you enjoy.

Click here: to get more info on Erin's book.

New Orleans, Southern food capitol of America!

2010-12-08T15:47:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I went to New Orleans!!!! We ate so much and I tried everything. We went because we wanted to see my mom's client's play/ puppet show. The director is Arthur Mintz, and his wife Theresa helped sew the puppets. It was so fun, It was about Fantastic Mr. Fox. We had to climb through tunnels for each scene in the play. I got to see Mr. Fox doing all the stuff he did. I loved it and I recommend it. Here's the trailer -- see for yourself!!!!

HI-YAH! / Fantastic Mister Fox from The Canary Collective on Vimeo.

We ate many different things while we were there. I took a survey to see what was the best.

#1 Is the Gumbo, it was like heaven. It had shrimp, crawfish, and the soup mixture. Here's a picture of a crawfish, which is like a small lobster:

#2 Is the candy. They had the best candy I have ever had in my 11 years of age. I had a candy that was nuts, then white chocolate, last taffy. It was so so so good!! I also had a marshmallow log on a stick, dipped in chocolate.

#3 Was the Beignets. They are pretty much a french zeppelin. We got them at a cafe in the French Quarter called Cafe du Monde. It had so much powdered sugar on it. It was yummy.

#4 Was the Po Boys. They are sandwiches with all these good things like pork or chicken. They are traditional to there.

#5 After seeing "Fantastic Mr. Fox", we went to dinner with Arthur and Theresa at a restaurant called Boucherie. I had a really good yellow tail sashimi. It had tariaki sauce in it. I also had a lemon lime expensive drink. It had mint in it, and Theresa and Arthur's had cucumber. It was one of the best drinks I have had in my life.

That was all the foods I ate in New Orleans. I love New Orleans!!!!

Thankful for Thanksgiving

2010-11-29T16:41:00.000-08:00

my plate

my sister, my aunt's friend (Lois), my aunt, and my step mom

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving!!!!!! I went to my Aunt Lise's house with my grandma, my sister, my stepmom, Heepa, and my mom. We always go there, and it is really fun. My aunt invited some her friends and Heepa had some people stop by, too.

Earlier in the day, Auntie Lise, Heepa and Kali ran the Turkey Trot. It is a race around Prospect Park. My mom and I always bike around the park to cheer them on. This

time we went two times.

So I was very hungry for dinner. Each family member makes a dish: My sister and I made cranberry sauce, my grandma made rolls and collard greens, my aunt made Brussels sprouts and pie, Linda made the turkey and Heepa made the dressing.

I ate 5 servings of stuffing, 3 servings of turkey, 4 rolls, 2 servings of Brussels, and 2 servings of greens. I ate like a pig. I combined turkey with stuffing then turkey with cranberry sauce.

We also had dessert. Aunt Lise made both apple and pumpkin pies. They were both really really really good. I had some whipped cream with mine and ice cream. It was amazing!!!!

I CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT YEAR

the pumpkin pie

Butter, Sugar and Lots of Love

2010-11-11T15:21:00.000-08:00

Tonight my grandma and sister made butter cookies. They used a recipe from my great great Aunt Lumpsy. (She got that nickname because she was sweet as a sugar lump.) She was a maid in Chicago in the 1940s, and used to cook for the rich families. She had a lot of recipes with special ingredients. Her secret in butter cookies was hard boiled egg yolks.

My grandma learned to bake the cookies from Aunt Lumpsy when she was a little girl. Then my mom remembered when my grandma baked them when she came home from school. Today, my grandma taught my sister and how how to make them, so we'd learn to make cookies from scratch.

Butter Cookie Recipe

They're called butter cookies because they have 2 sticks of butter--clogged arteries!

Blend:

2 sticks soft butter

1 cup of sugar

Add:

1 egg

2 hard boiled egg yolks put through a sieve

Add:

2 and 1/2 cups of flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

Mix well and chill in wax paper for at least an hour.

Make balls with a pinch in the middle; sprinkl with sparkles.

Bake at 325 on lightly greased cookie sheet for 15 to 20 minutes.

When they are ready take them out and start munching. They were so Good. I now know what my mom means.

No Tricks All Treat

2010-11-03T15:01:00.000-07:00

On Halloween I was Michael Jackson for the second time. Three years ago I was also Michael, but as little boy. This year I was him again, in the Beat It stage. I wore reflector sunglasses, a black tux jacket, a white shirt under, penny loafers, white socks, black jeans, and a black hat. I felt like a star.

I got a lot of candy for being a celebrity. I went trick or treating with three of my friends around Park Slope. I got half of my bag full. Yum. My top ten favorite kinds of candy are....

10.Nestle Crunch

9. Butter Fingers
8 .Almond Joy
7 .Three Musketeers
6. Jolly Ranchers
5. Laffy Taffy
4. Snickers
3. M and M's
2. Twix

1. Candy Corn

I like Candy Corn the best because it is pure sugar. I also like Twix because it is like a mix

of carmel, cookie and chocolate. It is so creamy in my mouth. I love candy so much. I wish Halloween were every day!!!!!!!!

Sweet, Sticky, and Fun

2010-10-18T15:58:00.000-07:00

I know they look a little messy but they tasted great!!!!

Last weekend I went apple picking upstate with my family and my aunts ands cousins. We went to Apple Hill Farm, an apple picking place. We all got a huge bag of every kind of apple like Fuji, Red Delicious, Jonagold, Granny Smith and more.

I decided to make carmel apples, and my sister Kali made apple crumble. I bought a mix to use; the brand is: Concord Foods. Here's how to make them:

1. Put the carmel mix stuff in a small pot with milk.

2. Then add sugar and stir constantly.

3. Turn down the fire and keep stirring.

4. When it gets thickish, let it cool for 10 minutes.

5. Shove the stick into the apples then dip.

6. Put them on wax paper on a cookie sheet in the fridge to cool.

7. Eat them!

We had a dinner party and the kids ate the apples, while the grown-ups had my sister's crumble. I ate one and a half carmel apples. Mine were so good I could live off that.

First-Class Cooking Class!

2010-10-04T16:37:00.000-07:00

Each week I go to an all-vegetarian after school class at Brooklyn Prospect Charter, where I go. It's run by a company called Butter Beans. We make cool things like pizza and three-bean salads. Last week we made pizza with chopped tomato and cheese. We also put a little basil to make it good. We got our own dough already made. It was a mix of whole wheat flour and white flour. This is the order we did it in:

We learned about tomatoes.
We cut the tops off of the tomatoes and put them in hot water for 2 minutes to peel off the skin easier.
After, we put them in cold water to cool them.
Then we peeled them and chopped them small.
We chopped up lots of mozzarella cheese and put it aside.
We kneaded the dough for a few minutes; we pushed it with our palm to flatten it. We placed it on a cookie sheet.
We added the tomatoes and cheese sprinkled cheese on!
Finally it was time to put the pizzas in the oven.
And then........

***

9. We ate it all up. It was so good I could explode of happiness. I really like home-made pizza and I also like cheese.

The class was really fun and I think we are making pudding this week.

When in Roma...

2010-09-26T05:52:00.000-07:00

My mom and sister at the Roman Coliseum!!!!!

My sister, Kali, in front of Da Vittorio, one of the best pizza shops in Rome!!!

yes

Yesterday for dinner I went out to CAMPO de FIORI. The restaurant is a new Italian pizza place in Park Slope. We wanted to try it out because my mom and sister went to Rome this summer and they wanted to compare real Italian pizza with the American kind. The restaurant was decorated with imported artwork from Rome and great lamps on the ceilings. The walls were all red.

FUN FACT: Did you know that roman pizza is more fluffy because the crust has 30% flour and 70% water. That's what Yaribeth, Campo de Fiori's co-owner, told us. Also, Roman is square, not round. It is also served "alla pala" on a square piece of wood.

I had the Matriciana. It was cheese, bacon and tomato sauce. It was so good I could eat it for the rest of my life. It was a little spicy but in a good way. My mom and sister split a Buratta. It is like a salad on bread. It was also really good. All the ingredients were very fresh. My mom and sister said that this was the second best pizza. The kind they had in Rome was better by a little bit.

The chef and co-owner is from Rome, specifically an area called Campo de Fiori. So he named the restaurant after his home. I'd like to go and see where he grew up.

After we went dinner to Uncle Luigi's and got Italian ices to complete our European experience. They were so good. Over all it was a ***** five star dinner.

Here is the info about Campo de Fiori: 187 5th avenue Park Slope-Brooklyn 11217 telephone: 1-347-763-0933

email: info@pizzcampodefiori.com

yes

Cool-inary School

2010-08-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

Emily

This past week I have been going to Creative Cooks Culinary Center in Brooklyn. It's a cooking camp for kids like me to learn to cook and try new recipes. There are two counselors, Emily and Michelle. There are about 12 kids, from 5 years old to

11 (me). The teachers are really nice and great cooks.

Over the week, we made lots of different foods. Each week the camp chooses a different theme; ours was summer foods. We tried a new recipe each day. On Monday, we made fried chicken. We dunked it in buttermilk, rolled it in cornbread then fried it in a restaurant fryer. We also made potato salad to go with it. It had celery, onions, mayo, salt, pepper, and a little paprika. It was so good I came back for seconds.

The next day we made chicken again, but orange chicken packets. It is a piece of chicken with a slice of orange and garlic, butter, fresh mushrooms, and beans. It is a camping meal. I really liked it; it had the right amount of seasonings.

Thursday we made pasta salad and deviled eggs. For the deviled eggs we took all the shell off the egg, pulled out the yolk and mixed it with mayo, salt and pepper. Then squeezed the mixture back into the white of the egg. It was the best deviled egg I have had in my life.

I love cooking, so I had a great time at this camp. I wanted to learn and improve, and I did. I can't wait for next year. You can get more information about the camp: click here

A "Shellicious" Meal

2010-07-31T14:59:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went to Blue Ribbon on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope near our house with my mom Linda and my mom Jana. I felt like having oysters on the half shell, so we chose that restaurant. When we got there we had to wait a little bit because everyone likes it.

We ordered two kinds of oysters, one from the East Coast, the other from the West Coast. We got three of each kind, since they were $3.50, which is kind of expensive. The first was malpeque that came from Prince Edward Island in Canada. They were sweeter and creamier than the Blue Point oysters. Those were bigger and rougher and came fro

m the Long Island Sound. Most of my friends don't like raw oysters but I do, and these were good.

Oysters wasn't enough to food, so I ordered from the kids menu. Not all restaurants have a kids menu but they did and this one was special. It has a choice of a meat a starch and a vegetable, they had a dessert with it. I had steak, mashed potatoes, and broccoli. For dessert I ordered a banana split. All that cost about $12, a really good deal.

To see Blue Ribbon's website, click here

A Pork Surprise

2010-07-07T15:42:00.000-07:00

Today I went to CHAR No. 4 with my mom and I. We went to it because I came back from my tutor and we were very hungry. My mom said it was a great restaurant. The restaurant was famous for their bourbon. I thought the décor matched the room. It had lamps hanging from the ceiling and a bar. There is another room that has booths.

Well I have to say what we had, so this is what we had:

I had pulled pork sand with baked beans on the side. The pork sandwich was so good!!!!!!!! It was very messy and juicy but it was so good I licked it off my fingers. The baked beans were excellent. They were a tad spicy but in a good way. my mom had lamb pastram

i with two slices of grilled and drizzled with olive oil bread. We had little balls of fried cheese. It was like cheese and crackers but fried.

Here is there website: click here

Fish and Fun-- Asian Fusion in Times Square

2010-06-08T13:47:00.000-07:00

Today I had a half day at school. We decided to go shopping in Times Square at Toys R Us. My mom wanted to find a restaurant that was kid-friendly. We went to Ruby Foo's. It's Asian fusion which is a mix of Chinese, Japanese, and Thai.

Our waiter's name was Will. He was a college student who had just started at the restaurant. He was really nice. We looked around as we waited for our food. The decor was a mix of all, very fancy. It was like a Chinese or Japanese palace with lanterns and gold statues. It wasn't too too crowded. I noticed that a lot of the people there were people on business meetings.

We started with the Florida gulf shrimp dumplings. We chose that because we knew there wasn't going to be a lot of gulf shrimp because of the (OIL SPILL). We ordered sushi. I had a special rainbow roll with yellow tail, salmon, and tuna. Crunchy Florida Avocado Crab and Shrimp roll. They have a great dessert menu. I had the giant chocolat

e chip cookie. It was warm and came in a bag. My mom doesn't like chocolate, but she even had a bite.

That was the best sushi restaurant I have ever been to. The food was so good. Will told us that the ginger was fresh. The best sushi restaurants use fresh ginger, not pink and pickled from a jar. In every bite I could taste the fish, rice, and avocado. I love Ruby Foo's!!!!!!

Here is the website: CLICK HERE

Everything Pickle

2010-05-27T17:18:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went to Dr. Pickle. It's a pickle stand that we go to on Sundays at the Green Market on Fifth Ave. and Second Street near MS. 51. I begged my mom to go. So we stopped to get pickled mushrooms and a lightly pickled pickle. We went because we needed appetizers for a thing we call Sunday dinner and I LOVE pickles!

The second we bought them I ripped the bag open and ate like a pig. He had dill, half sweet and some others that I did not know. We also bought pickled mushrooms that tasted salty and pickley. They were very tart and juicy.

As you can tell, I really really really like Dr. Pickle.

Dr. Pickle also has a website. CLICK HERE!!!!

Pie on a Stick

2010-05-17T16:25:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I went to Steve's Key Lime Pie Shop with my mom Vickie and my friend's family. We rode our bikes to Red Hook and then after had dessert at Steve's on the East River.

The bike ride was like two miles, so we were hungry when we got there. My friend Jonah and I had a key lime pie frozen and dipped in dark chocolate on a stick. It's like a Popsicle that's called a Swingle. It's sour and sweet all at the same time. I had had it before, and really liked it for the second time. Jonah loves sweets like me. By the time he finished, he had chocolate all over his mouth.

His sister Maya had a lime slushy and my sister had a mini key lime pie. They also loved Steve's. The parents took bites of the pies like parents do.

Momma Bread

2010-05-09T11:21:00.000-07:00

Today is Mother's Day and my sister planned to make breakfast for our moms. Surprisingly, her soccer team came early to pick her up, so I took over. I made a spinach salad, Irish soda bread, banana pudding with vanilla wafers, and eggs and bacon. This is what you need to make Irish soda bread:

1 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. baking soda

knife

1 c. raisins or currants, rinsed in hot water and patted dry

baking sheets

2 c. buttermilk

1 tbsp. double-acting baking powder

mixing bowls

wooden skewers

1 tbsp. caraway seed

wire racks

4 c. bread flour

Wooden Skewers

Baking Sheets

Knife

Mixing Bowls

Wire Racks

Knife

Baking sheets

Mixing bowls

1 tbsp. double-acting baking powder

1 c. raisins or currants, rinsed in hot water and patted dry

1 tbsp. caraway seeds

3/4 tsp. baking soda

2 c. buttermilk

4 c. bread flour

1 tsp. salt

here are the steps:

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Step

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a large bowl.

Step

Stir in raisins and caraway seeds.

Step

Add buttermilk and stir mixture until it forms a dough.

Step

Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface. Knead 1 minute.

Step

Divide the dough in half. With floured hands, shape each half into a round loaf.

Step

Place loaves on a lightly greased baking sheet.

Step

Cut an "X" 1/4-inch deep across the top of each loaf with a sharp knife.

Step

Bake the loaves for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. They should be crusty.

Step

Transfer loaves to a wire rack and let cool.

Now back to me. The meal was the best meal I have ever made. I loved all the seasonings in the eggs, and the soda bread was moist inside. My descriptions probably make your mouth water. Well the dish was really good and I am proud of myself.

An Italian Dinner!!!

2010-04-29T16:55:00.000-07:00

Today I made a things in the house easy meal dinner. My grandma comes over every Thursday so we cook. I like cooking and she likes cooking too. We made pasta with pasta sauce, broccoli, and Italian turkey sausage.

I cooked the sausage first. We browned it on all sides were brown with a little bit of olive oil. We then added and sauteed teaspoon of fresh Thyme, a 1/2 of a chopped onion, and 1 large clove of mashed garlic.
Then we added the sauce and cooked it for 10 min. We used three different kinds of sauce that we had in the fridge, onion garlic, marinara, and sockarooni.
Then we made the pasta. We used 8 ounces of pasta covered in water until just right.
We put it in a big pan and then we added that cooked for 10 minutes. Then we added the sausage. We also made broccoli. We then boiled the broccoli with 1/2 cup of water and added salt and pepper and cooked for 5 to 6 min. We also made.
Then we served it. We added ptarmigan cheese to top it off.
There is a lesson. You don't have to buy food if you can make a dinner with the food you have.

So Super Saraghina!!!!

2010-04-17T08:25:00.000-07:00

Not long ago I went to Saraghina. It is in Bed Stuyvesant. I was going to visit my mom's friend Allison on our bikes. She lives in Bed Stuyvesant. My mom, Allison and I went to Saraghina because we wanted something to eat and Allison said it had great pizza. We went in and saw that it was small but it does have a outside area. The inside had lamps on the ceiling and a fire place to cook the food. The walls were wood and there was a sign that had numbers on it. the inside was like a maze weaving in and out. We got seated and I looked at the menu. It had: Marinara, Margarita, Ortolana, Capocollo, Prosciutto & Funghi, and more. I had the Margarita, the crust was so soft and I ate every last bit. My mom and Allison had the market salad that came with an egg and toast. They both loved it. I really want to go back sometime.

Here is the the website: click here

Texas Fish Taste Reel Good

2010-04-02T15:59:00.000-07:00

Today I made an adventurous Peruvian dish called ceviche. The first time I made it was in Maine and with my dad when I was six. Ceviche is made with fish, lemon juice, lime juice, and a lot of other stuff.

But before I made the dish I had to catch the fish. I am staying in Texas with my Aunt Kathy, my Uncle Robert and my cousin Arielle. Robert set up a fishing day for my mom and I on lake Texoma. We went with a really nice guide named Mike. We caught 19 striped bass and the limit of fish is 20, 10 per person. The fish were a little big and hard to reel in but I held up.

Now that we had the fish it was time to make the ceviche. Here is the recipe:

One pound of fresh white fish

One half cup of fresh lemon and lime juice mixed

One half a red onion chopped

One cup of chopped tomato

2 teaspoons of salt

A dash of hot sauce.

Mix it all up in a bowl and put it in the fridge for at least an hour. The lemon and lime juice "cooks" the fish.

It was delicious! Arielle had some friends over and they all tried it and also liked it. A three year old girl, Zoe, loved it too. The dish was a success.

Bake On!

2010-03-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday my grandma and I went to a rally at City Hall in Manhattan. Parents and students held a "bake-in" to protest the law that bans the sale of homemade food during school fundraisers. The Department of Education

said that home-made baked goods encourage of obesity in kids.

Something like 100 kids and parents came to the rally. People had set

up tables. One had a sign that said "banned," and it was filled with homemade baked goods. The other table had a sign on it that said "bake sale," and it had chips and pop tarts on it.

Alot of people had signs,

like "Food from our kitchens not from a factory," and "Junk food has no business in our schools." Many of the speakers were angry at Joe Klein and the DOE. They really wanted to bake for their kids' schools. A teenage boy said

, "I know how to bake brownies but I don't know how to bake Doritos

." Everybody cheeered.

I also met a woman who h

a good idea. She was handing out her healthy cake mix. It's called Naturally Nora. It has all natural ingredients in it. It has zero trans fat, no hydrogenated oils and nothing artificial. It's made with wheat flour and even has bits of spinach. I made cupcakes with the mix, and they were good. They tasted better than other cupcakes I've made from mixes--and they're definitely healthier.

This is the website for Naturally Nora: click here

More Mura!

2010-03-16T16:44:00.000-07:00

I love sushi. So I decided to compare some of the Japanese restaurants in Park Slope. Tonight I started with Mura. I went with Lexi, my sister Kali, my mom and I. Lexi works for the New York Times and is interviewing bloggers like me. She found me and wanted to do an interview.

We arrived at Mura and got a nice table in the sun. The service was good but a little slow. They gave us hot towels to wash our hands. There were paintings on the walls of plants.

The menu has lots and lots of choices, but I know what I like. For an appetizer I had a seaweed salad, my mom had a miso soup. The salad tasted so good I ate every bit of it. When the meals came I was happy. I had a dragon roll with a salmon roll and Lexi had a Passion roll and yellow tail sushi. The Passion roll was very unusual. Salmon and avocado were wrapped in mango. Lexi likes mango, so she thought it was good.

My mom and sister both got the Bento box. My mom's had grilled salmon and a crab cake and my sister's had vegetable tempura and shrimp teriyake. They liked that they got lots of food.

It was all great. Everything was delicious. I talked to the chefs before the main dish came. They were nice and seemed very experienced. They make the food at Mura look very beautiful. The chefs explained how to make sushi. I thought it sounded hard, all that rolling and slicing and cutting and putting it in position.

The best part was dessert. We had fried red bean ice cream and mochi. The mochi was mango and green tea. It came sliced in thirds and looked fancy, like fresh fruit.

Overall I give this restaurant a B+.

Mura

369 Fifth Avenue

Brooklyn, NY 11215

(718) 965-1288/1487

For the website, cl i c k h e r e

No Place Like Home!!!!

2010-03-08T14:51:00.000-08:00

There's a new restaurant in Park Slope. It's called Home and serves Vietnamese food.

I went with my grandmother to Home a couple days ago. It was my first time trying Vietnamese food. Home is a Vietnamese sandwich and bubble tea restaurant.

Home is very small. It's just one small room with four tables. The menu has only about 10 choices. I had a classic sandwich. It was one of the best sandwiches I have ever had. My grandmother had the grilled pork sandwich. We also got the summer roll for my sister. This is what is in the summer roll: shrimp, lettuce, rice wrapped in rice paper, and served with peanut sauce.

We also got bubble tea. Bubble tea is tea that has tapioca balls in the bottom of the cup. The flavor was vanilla. When I drank the bubble tea I tasted the chewy tapioca in my mouth. I loved that Vietnamese restaurant.

Home

349 5th Avenue

btw 4th & 5th Sts.

Brooklyn, NY 11215

(718) 369-2984

Arroz Con "Papa"

2010-02-26T07:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my dad and I made a delicious meal called Arroz Con Pollo. It is a Spanish dish that means rice with chicken. My dad is from Peru and I am part Peruvian. He wanted to teach me how to make it because it was one of his favorite dishes from when he was a kid. But I also wanted to lear it.

This is what is in it: chicken, rice, peas, tomato, onion, garlic, cilantro, and chicken stock.

This is how we made it. One. We blended a chicken stock and cilantro to make a paste.

Second. We deep fried the chicken in a skillet. When it was done we put it on a plate to cool off.

Third. We stir fried tomatoes, garlic, and onion in a pot.

Fourth. We added rice, chopped carrots, and the cilantro paste.

Fifth. We let it cook for 25-30 minutes covered with a lid.

Sixth. We put it on a plate with the chicken.

It was one of the best rice dishes I have ever tasted.I felt like the food was doing the tango when I ate it.

Phillippi Restaurant

2010-02-19T09:19:00.000-08:00

Two days ago my mom, my sister, my moms friend, and their parents and I went to Phillippi Creek Oyster Bar and Restaurant. It was decorated with mounted fish and mini aquariums. The fish on the wall were big tarpon.

I had fried shrimp, french fries, and ketchup. My mom had king crab legs with hush puppies, my mom's friend's dad shared steamed shrimp. My shrimp was one of the best shrimp dishes I have ever had. I also had some of my mom's crab. We also had oysters. I got the biggest oyster. They are local in Florida. It was the largest oyster I have ever seen!

We also had dessert. I shared a brownie pie and my mom had a key lime pie. I tasted all the flavors in my mouth at once. I tasted the brownie and the ice cream. A brownie pie is like an ice cream cake. It has ice cream, whipped cream, and brownie all in one.

Phillippi is my favorite fish shack.

Ozzie's for Breakfast

2010-02-13T08:55:00.000-08:00

Today I went to Ozzie's with my dad and my sister. Ozzie's is a coffee shop in Brooklyn. They have scones, croissants, muffins bagels and more. Ozzie's is close by so we walked there. We decided to eat at Snice, but it was to crowded so we went to Ozzie's.

I had a cranberry scone. My sister had a croissant and my dad had a croissant with ham inside. I bit into the warm scone. I felt like I was dreaming it was so good. I ate every bit of it. I got another that I split with my sister. It was a mixed berry scone. But they tasted the same. I love Ozzie's!

Food at the Flea

2010-02-07T07:25:00.000-08:00

the cooks of the seafood.
the pupusa

Yesterday my mom, my sister and I went to the Brooklyn Flea Market. It was in the Williamsburg Clock Tower in Downtown Brooklyn. The Flea has a floor for shopping, and another floor for food vendors. I was excited to go to the food floor.

When we got there, we saw a pupusa vendor, a sea food vendor and a taco vendor. We ate two cheese pupusas, a sweet Maine shrimp roll, a lobster roll, and a fish taco. We shared everything. My favorite thing was the lobster roll. It tasted like a delicacy. Sweet Maine shrimp are small, and they are only in season for about 8 weeks each year. The rolls came from the Red Hook Lobster Pound.

Pupusas are small, flat cornmeal cakes stuffed with meat, cheese, or veggies and slapped on the grill for a hot, steamy snack. We got them from Solere's pupusas, which is usually in the Red Hook ball fields. It is nice of them to come to the Brooklyn Flea.

We also had dessert: lemon Merengue pie. My mom got two dozen cupcakes for a party she was going to. It was amazing. They came from Kumquat Cupcakery.

Here are all the websites to the great places we visited:

Kumquat Cupcakery http://www.kumquatcupcakery.com/index2.php

Chancho's Fish Tacos - http://www.chonchostacos.com/

Soler's Pupusas - http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2008/10/vendy-award-finalist-nominee-soler-dominican-pupusas-red-hook-ballfields-vendors-brooklyn-nyc.html

Red Hook Lobster Pound (http://redhooklobsterpound.com/)

Szechuan Delightful

2010-01-29T15:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my mom and I got takeout from Szechuan Delight. We decided to order in because my mom did not feel like cooking. Szechuan Delight is a Chinese restaurant. I got vegetarian dumplings and sesame chicken. My mom got chow fun and shrimp fried rice. Chow fun are fat and flat. I loved my sesame chicken. I cant stop eating it. Me and my mom are eating it for a snack. The food came fast and the price is standard. Like fried rice $4.50. They also have free delivery. The restaurant is in Brooklyn near our house. We ordered there before and we like it. The food made me feel like I was in China They also have a website. Click here for the website.

Going Gaga for Good Food!

2010-01-18T14:30:00.000-08:00

This weekend me, my mom, my sister and my mom's friend Cathay went to Atlantic City. We went because my mom got us free tickets to a Lady Gaga concert. It got canceled because she fainted of exhaustion and dehydration. We went to Atlantic city anyway because Cathay got us a free hotel room and we already rented the car. We stayed at the hotel Harrah's.

We decided to go to a buffet in another hotel called the Borgata. We figured out that every hotel has a buffet in it. It is a culture. Cathay likes the Borgata better than Harrah's.

At the Borgata we went to the buffet there. It was like a food heaven. I had eggs benedict,which is an egg on toast and ham on the bottom. I also had grilled salmon and mushrooms. My mom had lox and bagels and a slice of pizza. That was so good we can still taste the food in our mouth. I loved all the food.

We also had dessert. I had a chocolate mousse in a small cup with whipped cream. My sister had macaroons. We took some for the car ride home. my mom had blood orange gelato. there was a whole counter of desserts!

click here to go to the website with the buffet menu.

New Year's Is "Hoppin," John!

2010-01-02T19:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday it was New Years Day. My mom and I made black eyed peas, cabbage, and rice. This is a traditional dish for the new year. Why? Black eyed peas are small and round like coins, and cabbage is green like dollars. So my family eats black eyed peas and cabbage for good luck and hoping that they bring more money throughout the new year.

Sometimes the black eyed peas dish is called Hoppin John. I looked online and found lots of different explanations. One was that when the beans were served, kids would hop around the table. Another was that the dish was sold on the street by a guy who had lost his leg and had to hop.

When we made "hoppin john," we added a lot of seasonings to the pot for a better taste. We also put some turkey in the beans, but we made a vegetarian batch with no turkey for my sister. She is a vegetarian. I would eat it all, because it is so good but I would get a tummy ache. As my grandma says, "I love me some black eyed peas." If you want to find out more about traditional foods click here or click here

The Wild West Restaurant!!!!!!!!!!

2009-12-29T08:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to the Cowgirl Hall of Fame with my

mom's friend Cathay, Katy my mom's girlfriend, my mom and my sister. We went because we came back from shopping and we got hungry. The theme was "wild west". There were mounted animal heads and ram horns everywhere. The chandeliers were made of deer antlers. It is a causal restaurant and good for kids.

The food was great. We got Frito pie as an appetizer. It is a bag of Fritos with Chile poured over it. O.M.G. it was great. I had a "get long lil corn doggie" from the kids menu. It came with a corn dog and french fries and also a piece of corn with orange juice in a jar. My mom's

friend Cathay got a bowl of salad with onion rings. I was so happy we went. the price was moderate.

It also had a candy counter with old fashioned candy. I got gold mine gum. My sister got rock candy. My mom got root beer candy and something called a "Cow Tale", which is a stick of chewy cream with chocolate on the outside. I love the Cowgirl Hall Of Fame!!!!!!!!!

A House Out Of Gingerbread!!

2009-12-26T08:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday on Christmas, I made a gingerbread house with my sister and my grandma. I got a gingerbread making kit for Christmas. We made the icing first, than we put the icing on the roof and decorated it. We added candy canes, gum drops, and sugar drops. I made a window and my grandma made a Christmas tree. I really want to eat it up. I had a lot of FUN!!

Holiday Treats

2009-12-23T04:58:00.000-08:00

Last week I made cookie dough with my grandma. We used the recipe from the side of the chocolate chip bag. She has been making those since my mom was a kid. We put it in the fridge for a week. Yesterday I took out the dough and made cookies. Oooooh they look good. I made them for my wonderful teacher Ms. Corcoran and for my great tutor Suzanne. They are special. Today I got up at 5:30 A.M. to make cupcakes for my class. My sister was already up making cupcakes for her class. I hope everyone has a happy holiday!!!!!!!!!

Dogmatic Is Hot

2009-12-22T13:43:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday I went to a restaurant called Dogmatic. My mom Jana and I had been shopping at Toys R Us in Manhattan, and we got hungry so we tried it. It is a casual restaurant that specializes in sausages. I had a sausage in a baguette (not a bun) with cheese in it. My mom had the same but with a different type of cheese. I could taste all the flavors in my mouth. It was like they were dancing in my mouth. I loved it. The price was 10$ and under. plus we go a homemade lemonade and a free acorn squash soup. There is a place in Brooklyn called Willies Dogs that does hot dogs. I like Dogmatic better.

Dogmatic

26 E 17 St.

New York, NY 10003

(212) 414-0600
eatdogmatic.com

Add Photos

Baking Day

2009-12-08T07:45:00.000-08:00

Today me and my mom Linda made brownies for my mom's journalism class at City College. We wanted to give her students a treat. It was their last class. We sorta cheated. We used Pillsbury mix. We put egg, oil, and water in a big bowl and added it to another bowl with brownie mix. We mixed for 1 minute. The extra I ate. We baked the brownies in the oven on 350 for 20 minutes. And now they smell so good. The students will be happy!!!!!!!! : -) When they were done, they needed to cool. So we put them outside. The squirrels saw them too. But my sister ran out and saved the brownies. That was a close call!

Thanksgiving Extras

2009-11-30T05:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my mom and I made turkey stew with Indian spices from the leftover Thanksgiving dinner. We followed a recipe from the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/25/dining/25mini.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=indian%20turkey%20recipe&st=cse We put turkey, spinach, tomatoes, onions, cumin and garlic and mixed it together in a huge pot to cook. While it was cooking, we made rice to go underneath. I loved it. It tasted like a whole world in my mouth spinning around. For dessert we bought apple crumb cake. It was store-bought, but it was still delicious with dulce de leche ice cream. This is definitely a holiday that keeps on giving and giving!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Turducken Day

2009-11-27T08:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. We had it at my Auntie Lise's house. She lives near Prospect Park. My dad and my aunt's friend Lois came. My grandma plus my two moms and my sister Kali also came. Each grownup pitched in to cook some part of the meal. We ate turkey, turducken, rolls, brussel sprouts sweet potato's and dressing. Are you wondering what turducken is? If so it is a turkey stuffed with chicken and inside the chicken is duck. For dessert we had pumpkin pie and apple pie topped off with whipped cream. I HAD A FUN TIME AT THANKSGIVING!!!!!!

Ginza Hibachi is On Fire!

2009-11-09T14:05:00.001-08:00

I went to Ginza Hibachi last week. It is a Japanese restaurant. It's around the corner from my house but I had never tried it. I went because my friend told me how good it was. He said they make an onion volcano. He said they also had sushi. I went with my mom's friend, Beth. She is visiting from out of town. I had the shrimp tempura udon with a salmon and tiger roll. It was fabulous. It was a reasonable price. Like, my dish was $12.50. Beth had the tiger roll. She shared the udon with me. She loved the tiger roll. It was a good time but we never saw the onion volcano.

I give Ginza Hibachi an A.

Ginza

Hibachi & Japanese Fusion Cuisine

296 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 11215

1917-238-9816 or 1718-369-1025/1021

http://GINZACUISINE.COM GINZA .COM

Pumpkin Forever!

2009-11-05T08:22:00.000-08:00

On Halloween, I carved my pumpkin. Yesterday I roasted pumpkin seeds. I made them with garlic powder, Cinnamon, and spicy sauce. I put oil on them so the seasonings would stick. I cooked them for about 10 minutes until they cripsed. I liked the garlic the best. I had fun making a yummy snack.

A Day of Good Food

2009-11-03T16:18:00.000-08:00

Today I went to Miracle Grill with my grandma for lunch. I had a day off school, because it was election day. The service was good . The waiters came fast and they gave a lot of choices. I had a burger and fries. They have a kids menu too. The room had Halloween decorations and masks, and it also has a bar. It is near my house. The food was great . My grandma wanted her meal more spicy. The menu was moderately priced. For example my burger cost $8.54. I gave it a B+.

Miracle Grill

222 7th Avenue

Brooklyn, NY 11215

718-369-4541

http://www.miraclegrillbrooklyn.com/

Delicious Breakfast!

2009-10-25T09:52:00.000-07:00

This morning I made breakfast for my family. My sister Kali wanted sunny side up eggs but my mom wanted an omlet with cheese. So I made both. My step mom wanted her eggs hard boiled. I also cooked bacon and toast. It hit the spot because it was a cold day.

Farm Fresh: Rose Water Restaurant

2009-10-24T12:27:00.000-07:00

On this blog, I'm going to do restaurant reviews. Here's my first one:

Last year, my fourth grade class studied food. John came to our class and did activities with us for four weeks. At the end, we visited his restaurant, Rose Water. It's not far from our school in Park Slope in Brooklyn.

Rose Water is a good restaurant. I ate chicken and pumpkin soup as a main course. For dessert I had homemade chocolate and mint. Every piece of food was grown or raised on a farm. The restaurant wasn't that big, but it was very clean. I loved it! I give Rose Water an A-.

Rose Water Restaurant
787 Union Street, Park Slope Brooklyn
718-783-3800
http://www.rosewaterrestaurant.com/