Necessary Napkins

The other day, when our family friends, Jim and Jamie, came over, they brought us a gift of 6 hand picked, cotton napkins. You may wonder, what is so special about a gift of cotton napkins? Well I'll tell you. These incredibly colorful napkins came from a store in San Luis Obispo, called Picking Daisies which specializes in selling napkins. The store is small, but they have a large selection of napkins. In fact, there over 50 different designs to choose from. Some are plain and some are mind-blowing! They have everything from stripes to paisleys. Some are seasonal and some are everyday, all are 100% cotton (which my mother tells me is a real good thing because they don't have to be ironed). My personal favorite is a very colorful one which has paisleys of all sizes. This store is owned by three sisters, Ann, Kay, and Dede, who sew these napkins. It is very sweet and their merchandise makes you feel at home. They also sell some place mats and cards. I know most of you reading this don't live in San Luis Obispo but go ahead and check out their website called www.pickingdaisiesinslo.com These make a great gift and they are reasonably priced. On top of everything, these napkins are green because you can use them over and over again which is better than using paper napkins which you have to throw away! I love these and I think you will too.

Joanne Weir, Someone I Admire

I am very fortunate to say that I am developing a relationship with an

amazing chef, Joanne Weir, who is not only a best-selling author, but has

had her own cooking show on PBS. Based in San Francisco, Joanne has

followers from everywhere, and I am one of them. For a school project, I

chose Joanne as someone who I admire and am inspired by. Here is my school

report...

Joanne Weir has a very compelling story to tell. She has led a very interesting life because she is a famous chef. She was inspired as a chef in many different ways. First off, she is a fourth generation chef. Her mom always loved to cook. She planned the menus at a private school. Her grandpa owned a beautiful big dairy farm called the Bryant Farm in the Berkshires. Her great grandma was the bread winner for the family since her husband had died at sea in a sailing accident. She had to feed the family so she went to work at restaurant at the turn of the century called Pilgrim’s Pantry.

Joanne’s fondest memory in the kitchen was when she was baking oatmeal raisin cookies with her mother. Instead of adding a teaspoon of baking soda, she put in a cup. Wow! As you can imagine, those cookies did not turn out as they were supposed to.

Over the years, Joanne has had cooking shows and has authored many cookbooks. She teaches a lot of cooking classes and has food tours. May I mention, she also has a fantastic blog -http://joanneweir.blogspot.com/.

In Joanne’s free time she likes to do a lot of things. She likes to hang out and cook for friends. She also likes to work on her blog, take photos, and watch movies. Along with that, she enjoys spending time in San Francisco. Most of all, she loves to travel! She has visited so many places it is hard to keep track of them all.

Now, Joanne Weir is a newlywed to Joe Ehrlich. They went on their honeymoon to Greece and it was beautiful. She lives in San Francisco with no pets.

If Joanne could have anything she wanted for dinner, it would be pretty tough to choose, but if she had to, she could do it. As an appetizer, she would have a delectable ravioli with ricotta, tomato, and basil as the filling. For the main course she would have spit roasted lamb with salsa verde. The side dishes would be potatoes with olive oil and rosemary along with string beans. For dessert there would be almond cake with roasted peaches inside and swiss buttercream.That’s the same cake she had when she got married!

Brownie Mania!

I love some good brownies every once in a while. So, when my Uncle Andrew called and asked me for a delicious brownie recipe, I thought of one of my mom's simple, yummy recipe's with chocolate chunks and pecans. Yesterday, my mom and I made them in the middle of the day and boy was there a lot of whisking. My arm was happy when we had finished. Have you ever felt like that? This recipe makes a chocolatey, dense square of wonder. I think my mom found it a long time ago on the back of a Nestle chocolate chip bag. It has since evolved and we now use, my favorite, Trader Joe's dark chocolate and fresh pecans. It is a straightfoward recipe that you can make all by hand. The only thing you may need is an adult's help with melting the butter.

Ingredients

3/4 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/3 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons water

12 ounces dark chocolate (broken into pieces), divided in half

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1/2 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

First, mix the flour and baking soda together. Set that aside. Next, in a pot, combine the butter, sugar, and water. Mix that until all of the chunks of butter are melted and it just starts to boil. Turn the stove off and add half of the chocolate (6 ounces) to the mixture. Stir until all of the chocolate pieces have melted. Then, add the vanilla. That should turn into a thick chocolate mixture. Pour this mixture into a bowl and whisk the eggs in, one at a time, beating well after each egg. Then mix the dry ingredients in slowly; stir in remaining chocolate and nuts. Mix well! Pour that into a 9-inch buttered baking pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Be especially careful not to overbake as brownies will become dried out. Enjoy!!!!!

Grandma's Snack Mix

Sometimes when I come home from school, I am super hungry. Either I didn't have enough time to eat lunch, or I just ran around a lot in P.E. and worked up an appetite. Either way, I like my snacks. So, this one, that I guess I've been eating since I was a kid, is really easy. And, it tastes good!

Ingredients

1/2 cup walnuts

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chocolate chips*

Mix all of the ingredients in a small bowl. Put equal amounts in a few cups (for indoor snacking) or bags (for outdoor snacking), and, snack away. It's a treat for everyone and you don't ever have to actually cook anything!

*It's especially good when you take a bar of dark chocolate (Trader Joe's has lots of good ones) and break it up into small pieces.

Bizarro Flavors of Ice Cream

Have you ever heard of broccoli ice cream? Well it exists. While it may seem weird and gross, there are other strange flavors that exist as well, that are even less appealing. Let' s start with corn. Corn is a regular vegetable which we often eat but, I don't think that anyone often eats corn ice cream! Crab ice cream is a Japanese concoction which is possibly the worst thing I have ever heard of! Ice cream and crab? Don't go. I think Chocolate ice cream is divine but add garlic and phew, not a good blend! Imagine if they had cactus ice cream! You know what, stop imagining! They actually have cactus ice cream. Now that is ridiculous. Flowers are wonderful in gardens, but not in ice cream. That is why I gasp at the absurdity of tulip ice cream! I find it simply amusing that someone has invented onion ice cream. I love the flavor of onions but its just not what I dream of when I am craving a cold, creamy ice cream cone on a hot summer day. Somehow people have managed to create soy sauce ice cream. That must have a very strong flavor to it! Even though I find these weird, different strokes for different folks! What is the weirdest ice cream flavor you have ever tried?

Healthy Lunch Ideas

I know that when I get packed peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat bread for lunch every day I am not satisfied. I like more exciting lunches like egg salad and watercress on a challah roll or chicken salad in a pita pocket. That is why I am going to give you a couple of lunch ideas.

1. I love italian food and so when this is what I have for lunch I am ecstatic.

4 bocconcini balls (mozzarella balls)

4 cherry tomatoes

1 piece of french bread

sliced cucumber

trail mix

Put the first two ingredients in a container, drizzle some olive oil on and then sprinkle with salt and pepper.

This is one of my favorites because you get to assemble and make your own lunch at school!

2. This is also an easy, but interesting lunch!

Turkey sandwich with lettuce, avocado, black pepper, and tomatoes

1 tangerine

Homemade tortilla chips*

Pecans and chocolate chips

*Preheat 350 degrees. Take 6 tortillas (flour or corn) and brush them lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle a little bit of salt on them too. Put them in the oven for 5 minutes. If they don't look ready give them another 5 minutes.

3. Really simple + really good = Fantastic

1 pita cut into quarters

4 tablespoons of hummus

1 bell pepper cut into slices

Apples and honey

Chocolate chunks with cashews and pretzels

These are some of my favorite recipes for lunch. You can improvise with these too!

Have you ever heard of a Mangosteen?

I am back from my trip and had a great time! The answers to the jumbles in the previous entry are, crumble, ricotta, and muffins. Now, back to my title question - Have you ever heard of a Mangosteen? Recently, while I was watching an episode of Chopped, one of my favorite shows to watch on the Food Network, the Mangosteen appeared as one of the assigned ingredients. In case you don't know, Chopped is a show that selects four contestants who have some sort of culinary talent to compete against each other by creating a meal using different assigned ingredients. One of those ingredients is typically unusual. This episode, it happened to be the Mangosteen. And no, it is not related to the Mango. The Mangosteen is a purple fruit, the size of a small apple, with a white inside. It is both sweet and tart. Instead of peeling Mangosteens, you crack them open, kind of like a coconut. Mangosteens are mainly grown in Southeast Asia (you are most likely to find them here in an Asian market). The only place that the Mangosteen is grown in the US is Hawaii. Believe it or not it is illegal for you to have a Mangosteen tree anywhere else in the US. Apparently, Mangosteen rinds can be used to cure bladder infections if you put them in tea. The rind has also been used as a cream for skin rashes.