Going Away!

Hi! Tomorrow I am going to Jackson Hole,Wyoming with my family for a week. We are going horseback riding, swimming, and doing lots of other fun activities! We are going to eat great food too (of course)! If I don't write a blog for those couple of days it means that I am really busy having fun! To keep you busy I have posted 3 food related word jumbles for you to work on!



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Cashew Q&A

Did you ever wonder why you never see cashews sold in their shell? Well, recently, while I was reading one of my favorite trivia books, Amazing... But False!, by David Diefendorf, I learned why. Interestingly, cashews are the seeds that grow on the tip of the cashew apple which grows on trees in places like Brazil and India. The cashew seed is grown with a coating on the outside called cardol, which is an irritating and pungent oil. Because of this, humans can not remove the coating, so it has to be done by machines. After that, to be certain that there is no more cardol left, the cashews are roasted. If you would like to know more about cashews, check out this cool website, http://www.thenutfactory.com/kitchen/facts/facts-cashews.html.

Bananarama Bread Recipe

Here is a recipe for a sweet and decadent treat that includes bananas. Can you guess what it is? Yep. It's banana bread. I love this recipe because beginner chefs can make it mostly all by themselves. The only thing that requires help from a grown up is melting some butter and putting the bread in the oven (taking it out too). This recipe doesn't take a lot of time either. Actually, most recipes for "bread" use yeast but banana bread uses a different leavening agent. A leavening agent is a gas that causes dough to rise. Banana bread uses baking soda as its leavening agent. As a result, it is a quick bread and is baked as soon as the batter is mixed. By the way, national Banana Bread Day is February 23.


Bananarama Bread

3 bananas (ripe ones are the best)
1/4 cup or 4 tablespoons of melted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup chocolate chips ( don't overdo or it'll taste too sweet)
1/2 cup walnut pieces (optional)


In addition to the ingredients listed above, here's what you will need to begin...

Measuring cups; 1 cup, 1/2 cup, 1/4 cup, 1 teaspoon

Mixing bowls; 1 large bowl, 2 medium sized bowls, 1 small bowl

1 masher

1 loaf pan


Let's make it easy, directions:

1. Have an adult preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Butter a loaf pan.

2. Take one of your medium sized bowls and mash the bananas in it until the bananas are mushy.

3. Put your dry ingredients (flour and baking soda) into another one of the medium sized bowls and mix together.

4. In the small bowl, beat the egg with a fork.

5. In your large bowl, stir the melted butter, the sugar and the egg together.

6. Pour the mashed bananas, and the dry ingredients into the butter, sugar and egg mixture. Incorporate it all together. Be careful not to overmix.

7. Add the chocolate chips and walnuts.

8. Finally, pour your mixture into the buttered loaf pan. If the bowl is too heavy for you to lift then use a measuring cup to scoop the batter out and into the loaf pan.

9. Bake for 55-60 minutes. Stick a toothpick into the center of the bread and if it comes out clean (no batter sticking to it), then your banana bread is ready!

Voila! You have successfully made banana bread.

My Beloved Daisy

In my last entry I mentioned my dog and how she would eat the pastry shell if given the chance. My dog's name is Daisy and she is a Labradoodle! She is the biggest food lover I know! We can call her the family vacuum cleaner because she will eat anything that falls on the floor. Some of her favorite things to eat include chicken, turkey dogs, parmesean cheese, Reggiano of course, and eggs, any style. I HEART DAISY!!!

Julia Child's Apple Tart

Remember how I told you that my mom and I were stepping up to the challenge of making one Julia Child Recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking? I am happy to report that we did it! We were going to a friend's house for a barbeque and we asked if we could bring the dessert. The hostess said yes and we set out to make the Apple Tart on page 635 - Tarte Aux Pommes.


We started with the pastry shell and that was pretty difficult! We found it tricky to roll out the chilled dough. When we removed the dough from the refrigerator, it was cold and hard, so it was somewhat difficult to roll out. It warmed up, and it began to roll out nicely. But, then, it started to get soft and sticky (yes, we sprinkled it with flour) and it stuck to the counter, making it extremely tricky to pick up, in one piece. ( this is when I started thinking about how I prefer to make fruit cobblers). Eventually, we finished rolling the dough, and somehow we managed to wrangle it into the tart pan (I don't know how we did it, but it was a miracle! Thankfully, it didn't fall onto the floor and end up in our dog's belly). We had our moments with it, and it had its moments with us, but, in the end we thought that our shell looked pretty nice and decent.


Our next step was to peel and cut the apples for the tart. After that, we made an apricot applesauce, by cooking the apples in a pot with other ingredients, including apricot preserves, sugar and some orange zest. It didn't take a long time and I found this to be the easiest part - we didn't have to mess with it to get it into the pan, like we did with the pastry shell.

Eventually, it came time for us to incorporate everything together. First we layered the applesauce on top of the partially baked tart shell. Then, we took the apple slices and carefully placed them, so that they overlapped in the form of three rings. We put it in the oven and we waited.


While that was baking we decided that if we didn't like the way it came out we would have to make another simple dessert since we were responsible for bringing dessert to our friends' house and we wanted it to taste good. We found a recipe for chocolate biscotti on David Liebovitz's blog and made that. But, that's another story!


Finally, it was time for the tart to come out! We took it out and OMG it looked beautiful!!!!!! Overall, I thought that it was a little too bland.

Julie and Julia

Last week, I saw the movie Julie and Julia with my mom, brother, and our good friend Charlotte. It is about well known chef, Julia Child and a woman named Julie Powell, who worshiped Julia. Julie challenged herself to make all 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering The Art Of French Cooking, within one year, and write a blog about her experiences. I don't know if you have ever actually seen a copy of the book - I have because my mom has one and let me tell you this is no easy task! It was a great movie overall. It was very entertaining and the characters were compelling. There were comical moments in the movie mixed with lots of cooking and scenes filled with mouth-watering food! What could be better? I was so inspired by the movie that I have challenged myself to make one recipe from Mastering The Art Of French Cooking and fortunately, my mom has agreed to help me! I decided on an Apple Tart or Tarte Aux Pommes as it is called in the book. Once we've made it I will tell you how it turns out!

p.s. If you decide to see this movie with your parents, here are 3 interesting facts about Julia that you might want to know before you go!

1. She was a famous chef, cookbook author and had her own television cooking shows.
2. She was always moving from place to place. Among the places she lived were California (where she was born), New York City, Washington D.C., Sri Lanka, China, France and Massachusetts.
3. Her cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, was first published in 1961 with 734 pages. It was a best-seller.

Super Silly Summer Smoothie Recipe!

I am a girl that loves fruit. I also love smoothies! So, when you put them together you get a fruit smoothie. My favorite thing to do is think up combinations for different fruit smoothies. One of my favorites is a banana and peach smoothie! I like my smoothies thick and creamy so it helps if you use frozen fruit. If you don’t like them thick then add more liquid because that creates a thinner base. Something fun that I like to do is to come home from camp and my mom and I will make a smoothie. Before my brother’s baseball games he sometimes will have a smoothie with protein powder in it.
Here is a recipe for a thick and creamy banana-peach smoothie!

Super Silly Summer Smoothie

Ingredients

½ cup yogurt (1 container)
3/4 cup of orange juice
1 banana
½ cup frozen peaches
2 ice cubes

Directions

Put everything in the blender and blend it all together. Give it a good 30 seconds and then pour into two glasses. Plop a straw into each glass and drink up!