Golden Buddha

For our last night in Arizona we tried to go to a famous pizza place called Pizza Bianco, we arrived 30 minutes before they opened and asked the parking attendant how long the wait would be ( no take out) " Three and a half hours!" We said " thanks !" and went to a nice place that served Asian food called Golden Buddha.

First we had pork dumplings that were very nice and were not greasy at all! They were in a sauce that was like plum sauce but with scallions. Then we each had a bowl of soup, mom and I had soup with tofu and spinach. The soup was salty because of the spinach but the tofu made it sweet and soft. My dad had Sharks fin soup ( which he always orders whenever he sees it).

I would NEVER even try that! We all shared Peking Duck and made little tacos like this... first we take a fluffy burrito shell and put duck in it then add veggies, then add sauce and eat. We also had twice-cooked pork, that was really spicy but clean and great. For our next course we had really yummy Yang Chow fried rice ( my favorite) and Flounder. The Flounder was delicious and I liked it for two reasons, it was not fishy at all and it tasted like it had been prepared on the bbq. All in all a great meal ( and we didn't have to wait 3+ hours!).

We then drove to the Scottsdale Plaza, where Santa Claus was granting little chidrens wishes. We passed a Coldstone and since I had never been I tried it. I mixed Oreos with mint ice cream. It was mint-chocolate chip in the extreme! It was very cool to see them being mixed together on a board. I was a good night!

North of California

For winter break my family went to Arizona and Santa Fe. While we were in Arizona our friends who own an art gallery joined us for dinner at NoCa. NoCa stands for North of California and there were many choices on the menu that sounded good.

The chef gave us a special appetizer that was pomegranate seeds with fennel and orange. I personally did not like it because I don't like orange with other things. The Fennel tasted like licorice and it was squishy. The others at the table seemed to really enjoy it. For an appetizer both my mom and Peter ordered a Watermelon Radish Salad! It was very funny to see the radishes on the plate. I didn't try it but my mom rolled her eyes "in a good way" when she did. The rest of us ( me, my dad and Lisa) had Butternut Squash soup that was wonderful and tasted very sweet and creamy. I tasted even better with some Creme Fresh.

For my main course I had pasta that was shaped like flowers with a butter sauce. It was very rich and creamy, I couldn't finish all of the pasta because I felt quite full.

My mother had Veal Scallopini that I really loved because it was sweet and tangy at the same time and the Veal had a very strong taste of mushroom. My dad, Lisa and Peter all had scallops, that sadly, I did not try because I do not like the shape, color or texture of them. Sometimes scallops seem to move in front of me!

I may have been full, but not to full for dessert. We ordered a lemon tart with meringue, that was yummy with a capital Y. The meringue, was hard but when you put it in your mouth it turned soft. Also for dessert, every table automatically gets a big plate full of homemade cotton candy. " You can't brag about fluffy until you try this cotton candy!"

that's all for today!

check out the gallery at www.lisasettegallery.com

Last week my parents took me to a new sushi restaurant called Shu. It was really good and I would like to go there again. I am only going to tell you about the dessert I had. I looked at the dessert menu and saw something that said ‘Banana Spring Rolls’. It sounded more exciting than ice cream. I ordered it and when It came I knew I had made a good choice. Arriving on a plate covered in crisscross chocolate sauce lines, with a perfect scoop of Green Tea ice cream in the center. The ice cream had berries on top and chocolate sauce too. Around the base of the ice cream were four Banana Spring Rolls. A layer of thin crispy pastry was filled with gooey banana on the inside and a layer of powdered sugar on the outside. This of course, was drizzled with chocolate sauce. The Green Tea ice cream was very mellow and not too flavorful, which was sweet and also really cold. The spring rolls themselves were the best “spring rolls” I have ever had. The whole plate was sweet. The banana was a very good banana and not too ripe. The dessert was the best Japanese dessert I have had yet!

Sayonara!

Fudge!

Every year around Christmas time my mom starts to make the perfect blend of sugar, chocolate and holiday spirit. This food is her famous fudge, a delicacy that can soften even the grouchiest neighbors heart! This time I was out of school on holiday, so I helped make the first batch. There is one ingredient that I do not like at all, and that is chocolate. Our families secret recipe makes the chocolate taste very good and that is thanks to all the other ingredients.

There is Carnation Evaporated Milk, butter, vanilla and sugar(lots of it!). Sometimes we even add walnuts to make it taste better. Baking fudge is all about the time on the stove, even a few seconds can make or break a block of fudge. I love to stir the mixture and watch all the gooey chocolate become visible. One of my favorite parts are when we pour it into the baking trays and either me or my dad gets to lick the spoon. My other favorite part is the taste test at the end! The only hard part is we make over 25 boxes of it!

a sweet good-bye to all!

How to spice up a homemade chicken salad sandwich

Last Saturday we all made a chicken salad sandwich with arugula in it. The chicken salad was really good and very satisfying by itself and the arugula had a kick but was a little bit dry. It was an average, but superb tasting sandwich. If you want to spice it up you can add a splash of hot sauce, some balsamic vinegar or some lemon. ( I would suggest the balsamic vinigar, I love it)

The day before we had the sandwich I had a tennis lesson and we bought a bottle of fruit punch gatorade. After the lesson I put the gatorade in our freezer and it froze. The next day I got it out and it was frozen so I tried every way in my power to get the piece of frozen gatorade out of the bottle. I ended up just taking the bottle outside and smashing it on the ground ten times then putting it in a cup. So for lunch I had a spiced up chicken salad sandwich and a coffe cup of frozen gatorade. The gatorade tasted like a slushy you would get from the zoo (MY favorite place) The sandwich was really magnificent and they should hire us to make them for the First- class cabin on airplanes! Tomorrow is Halloween and I will probably write up a review on some top- notch candy!

That's all today! :) :) :) :)

Yesterday it was my Grandmother's birthday. So we went on a drive out to Ojai Valley. We ate at a restaurant called Azu. It was very cold in there!

We ordered tapas to start. A warmed brie with honey/lemon sauce, candied walnuts and grilled toast. It was really good because brie is my favorite cheese and I love honey and burnt toast. Then we had dates wrapped in bacon and stuffed with sausage. The dates were great, I don't usually eat them but these were wrapped in bacon! The dates were sweet and chewy, the bacon was crunchy and smokey and the sausage in the middle was spicy. Yummy and warm in my tummy. We also had ground lamb kibobs which were probably my least favorite, because they tasted too gamey. After that we had a chili's rellanos, which I have written about before. These were very different, because they had a light creamy tomato sauce with extremely spicy chili's.

My parents had an arugula salad, the only part I tasted was the Feta cheese (which was very good). For my main, I had a Kobe beef bruger. The burger was supposed to be medium rare, but it came very well done. It was still very good, but it was very black. I liked the french fries, which were skinny and mushy. After lunch we went to a homemade ice cream parlor, because it was a hot day. I had two scoops, one was vanilla caramel, which I love because I love both vanilla and caramel. My other scoop was blue oreo, it is the same as original oreo but blue - which makes it more popular. My Grandma had two scoops also, coffee and pistachio. It was a really great day!

Than's all Folks!

Sawtelle Kitchen with friends

Last night my family and I met B and A for dinner at the Sawtelle Kitchen. While the adults chatted I created the face of J, my new art teacher out of buttons. It was a very good and interesting dinner. First I ordered french fries with dried seaweed flakes. They looked like regular fries with little flakes of various seasoning. These fries were unlike any other I have tasted. Since I love seaweed, I loved these fries. They tasted like normal french fries but they had yummy salty flakes of seaweed. Another thing we all shared were the yams with plum-lemon mayo. The yams were really good and they tasted like potato but better. Then we all had steamed mussels. I don't usually eat mussels but these were not too fishy and they tasted great. The mussels were cooked with a miso broth, wet seaweed and white wine.

Our main meals came with soup or salad. Everyone except me had a simple mixed green salad which I heard was very good. I had a bowl of steaming hot miso soup with yummy tofu and seaweed. For a main course my dad had some very creamy pasta called carbonara. His pasta was very good and had mini ham flakes, everyone had some! My mom had some fresh salmon with wasabi cream sauce. I did not try it but she loved it and my dad loved it. B had shrimp curry that I didn't try because I don't eat shrimp and I don't like curry! B's wife A had chicken curry with mixed veggies. She persuaded me to try it and I did. I had a bite with chicken and asparagus, the curry on the chicken overpowered me. I didn't eat the chicken but I ate the asparagus. For my main, I had six-hour cooked lamb shank. The meat fell off the bone, and the meat was very good but quite rich so I took it home. They ran out of ice-cream and sorbet so we walked to a really cute Japanese clothing store, called Happy Six . I bought a bright green sweat shirt with my favorite Japanese character on it. B and A are moving to France soon and this is our second to last dinner with them.

boohoo!

Avior!

Bed and Breakfast

After driving all the way to Mammoth, we finally met B and A at their cabin. We also saw their three dogs, N, D and S. After we settled in we sat down to a nice home cooked meal of steak and potatoes(one of my favorites). The steak was cooked just the way I like it, medium rare. It was really good! We had mini potatoes that tasted like crispy french fries. They were cooked to perfection! B and A also cooked zucchini, the interesting thing was that I only liked the YELLOW zucchini and not the green! B and A also cooked some portabello mushrooms. I learned that vegitarians like these mushrooms because they have the consistancy of steak. They do have the texture of steak which is probably why I liked them so much. Dinner was followed with a salted French caramel ice-cream. It was one of the best ice-creams I had ever tasted! At the end of dinner we played a very wacky game of Snorta!

When we woke up the next morning we made breakfast. I cooked turkey bacon for the first time! I loved flipping the bacon and inhaling the greasy scent. After I was finished making it, we all ate it and it tasted amazing. We had it with scrambled eggs, toast and jam.

That's all for know!

snort!!!!

Birthday Pasta Soup

In a few days we are celebrating a Birthday in the Carpenter household. Tomorrow BW is having a B-Day. She likes pasta and she likes soup so my parents decided to make their special tortellini soup. I helped to make the tortellini's. First I took a piece of Gyoza wrap and I covered the outside edges with water. Then I took the meat mixture my mom had made the night before and plopped it in the middle. I fold the whole thing in half lengthwise and then I take the right corner and tuck it under the left corner and stand it up then fold the top over like a flower. On a tray with flour, I placed about twenty tortellinis. ( we made five trays in all)

After we let them air dry, we put them in the freezer. Then off to the school picnic. That night before the special dinner my dad made chicken broth and cooked the frozen pasta in it. BW loved them, they were perfect! When I took my first bite of tortellini I tasted dough nice fluffy and silky sweet on my tongue. Then I got to the meat, a whole different taste. Sort of ruff but soft and yummy. The broth was my favorite, it did not hurt my teeth. The day before my braces were tightened, ick! My second helping of broth tasted amazing, the tortellini's were soft and easy on my teeth.

questo e' tutto

That's all, bye

Spicy Sausage

Last week at my house P came over to grill sausages with my dad. My grandparents ate marinated lamb chops. We had four different types of sausage: Polish, Kielbasa, Chicken Pepper and Portuguese. We had grilled artichokes, which I usually like but these were burnt and had no taste, although the adults didn't agree. I usually like them boiled. The Polish sausage was spicy and sweet, I wrapped it in bread to cut the spice. The Kielbasa was really delicious, it was my favorite because it was really sweet and mild, I had one and a half pieces! The chicken pepper was.... well don't get me started on that one, it was horrible! The Portuguese tasted a lot like the Polish. We had salads on a bed of butter lettuce tucked in with ranch and trimmed with tomato's. We had corn that was sweet and baby carrots that were a treat! All in all it was pretty good BBQ night.

That's all Y'all

Night out in Mammoth

When I go to Mammoth it is a tradition to eat at Tamarack, a lodge and restaurant. This time SOMEONE called and canceled our reservation, so we had to wait in the lobby playing chess and listening to the opera Carmen over and over again. When we went in the restaurant we were happy to eat.

For an appetizer I had a cheese plate, all of the cheeses were soft and creamy there were five different ones and I recommend you eat from left to right. That way the cheeses get stronger as you move to the right, my favorites were a goat cheese and a Brie. - My dad had a Burrata tomato salad. That was " PRETTY DARN GOOD, but then again isn't everything good in Mammoth?!" B had a spinach with stilton (which is a blue cheese and a bit stinky) salad. Which was "Amazing". My mom had Escargot, which I DO NOT eat because my friend has a pet snail. But I do like to dip my bread in the sizzling olive oil, parsley and garlic that the snails cook in.

For a main course I had a Petit Fillet Mignon, medium rare. It came with scalloped potato and Bok Choy, it was very good and I have it every time I go there. Both my dad and B had Elk medallions, with my scalloped potato's. B's wife A had a vegatable wellington, which is a pastry shell filled with cooked veggies. It was my first experience with any wellington but I did not like it.

For dessert I had a Fresh Maine Blueberry Tart, with blueberries that were ripe and perfect. It tasted best with whipped cream and ice-cream! Dad says it is " a good place, but they need to change their menu". One more thing, I don't want to hear the opera Carmen for at least a month or two!!!

That's this weeks point of food!

ITADAKIMASU

Last night I went to the sushi restaurant, Ajisai. First I had a raw spinach salad, the spinach was really good. The only thing I don’t eat but I have tried in that salad are the Enoki mushrooms, I don’t like them because the mushrooms are long and stringy. The whole thing is drizzled with a light, mild ponzu sauce. Then I had Halibut sushi, the reason I like it is because it has a lemon citrus sauce and a little bit of sea salt. Next Albacore sushi, it has a ponzu sauce and the tuna is pink. Then my favorite, spicy tuna shrimp tempura hand roll. The roll has one piece of shrimp tempura, a little bit of rice and spicy tuna. The roll is wrapped in seaweed ( another favorite).

To finish off my meal I had pork gyoza, which I really like because it has a special secret sauce. Guess I'm just a 'saucy' kid. A fresh orange finishes the meal.

Afterwards we all went to Yogurt Stop, a pump it yourself place. I had Vanilla yogurt, caramel sauce and gummy worms. My dad always has his vanilla with Butterfinger and Reeses pieces, he says “ fruit is for cereal. Meanwhile Tio Pigpen disagrees he loads up on fruit.

That's all for today!