I AM THE CHEF!

I'm on spring break and my grandparents are here taking care of me while my parents work. Mom assigned me Wednesday night for cooking to help out - and since I love to cook - and last night I made Spaghetti Amatriciana from The Silver Spoon for Children: Favorite Italian Recipes cookbook.

I also made a tomato salad with a recipe I created myself; here's the recipe:

• first you need tomatoes - cherry tomatoes are perfect
• cut the tomatoes in half and put them in a bowl
• add olive oil, chopped cilantro, and a pinch of salt
• toss ingredients and present your tomatoes nicely
• Voila!
  

Shoe . . . box . . . Tour . . .

This is my shoe:

This is a shoe box:

This is the Shoebox Tour 2011:

On Friday night the Shoebox Tour 2011, an international juggling tour, came to my school, the Waldorf School of Pittsburgh, for a show (Thursday night the Shoebox Tour was at AiP, where my daddy works). Jay Gilligan and Wes Peden were the jugglers for this year's tour. Jay was born in Ohio and Wes was born in New York and they both now live in Sweden. This was my 4th year to see the Shoebox Tour perform in Pittsburgh - the second year at my school - each year it is a different group of jugglers and each year they are AWESOME! Here's why: My favorite parts are always the funny parts! One was when Jay pulled off Wes' shoe, and then Wes stuck his other shoe out for Jay to take, but Jay was still too busy juggling, and so Wes hopped over to Jay and put his foot on Jay's leg and pulled his shoe off while Jay was still juggling (without dropping any of the balls he was juggling)! And then . . . Wes did three back flips on the wooden stage! Whew!

They started the show with Jay juggling three pink sand balls that had balloons attached to them. It was crazy because the sand balls were heavier and the balloons kept dragging behind. After some juggling, Wes came over with a long thin pin and started popping the balloons as Jay juggled the sand balls, without ever poking Jay - how do they do that? Seriously, how did he do that without poking Jay? Mom says, "It's all about good timing." You wont believe how good their timing really is unless you see their show. There are parts where they are all twisted up together and are both juggling, another part where one holds the other's hands and makes his hands juggle. The show is funny and amazing and is kind of like the 4th of July with so many "Ooohs and Ahhhs", clapping and cheering. We were all kind of tired and worn out at the end because it is hard work to keep up with what they're doing, trying to figure it all out.

I'd personally like to thank Jay and Wes for doing their FABULOUS show at my school again this year, raising money for the school, and also introducing more people in Pittsburgh to Shoebox's AWESOME juggling (which is really so different than any other juggling I've ever seen)! THANK YOU JAY AND WES!

If you live on the east coast, they're coming your way, check their calendar at sbta11.blogspot.com for tour dates the next two weeks from Virginia to Maine.

Some of my favorite breads . . .

First, apologies for missing my post last week. I went on a little trip - a PA-staycation - with my parents last weekend to Lake Erie. Before coming back I got to go onto the re-creation of the U.S.S. Brig Niagara, the warship that won the Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812. It was interesting and . . . cold, because there was a blizzard while we were there. We got our own private tour of the ship after looking through the museum because we were the only ones in the museum . . . because there was a blizzard. I'll be glad to go on it again this summer when it sails - if my parents let me. This picture (by Lance Woodworth) is a little different from our tour because when we were there, the sails were not up, the skies were not blue, the water was frozen, and the ship was tied to the dock, but it was still AWESOME.

But today's topic is really my favorite breads because it has been a kind of bread-y weekend . . . (at least it wasn't a pork-y weekend, as my mom says).

Almost every Saturday, my dad and I (and sometimes my mom) go to the farmer's market by Home Depot in East Liberty. The market is awesome, we buy all of our meat there (except for fish), many of our vegetables, fresh eggs, apples, apple cider, Amish goat cheese, olive oil, and my parents get coffee. And there is also a baker lady who's name is Rebecca (I used to call her "the baker lady" before I knew her name). She always has a nice selection of pies and breads and pizzas. My daddy was talking tonight about how her table at the market reminds him of bakery windows in Europe. She sometimes has brownies and also usually has some turnover-like pies that are filled with sweet potatoes, or regular potatoes, with chives or the ones with carmelized onion only - these are my favorite of her turnover pies! I also like her ricotta tarts but get tired of them if I have them too often - and I have had them too often sometimes (blame my parents).

I also LOVE her zucchini bread! Daddy now buys two of her bigger loaves so I can have it for breakfast and also in my lunch each week - her big loaves are not as big as the loaves of bread in the store and they last just the right amount of time. I think that I remember her saying that her zucchini bread recipe is her grandmother's recipe. I'm not really a fan of zucchini AT ALL, especially if it is overcooked and mushy, and I don't know what Rebecca does with the bread, but it just doesn't taste like zucchini - which is a good thing! (Mom likes her ginger molasses bread.)

Next up, my friend Lily's dad makes THE BEST wheat bread. I had a play date with Lily on Saturday while my parent's worked. We went to the Natural History Museum, had a snack, and went back to Lily's house to play. Her dad had been painting the bathroom while we were gone and also baking bread - I think he bakes it every week for their bread for the whole family. I like it much better than my Whole Foods bread and I like that his bread doesn't taste like store-bought bread. It is soft, it has a good crust without being crunchy, and it tastes like BREAD - it doesn't taste sweet or full of preservatives. (Mom just asked me how I know what preservatives taste like, and I told her it was because at my old school my teacher would give me Kool-Aid.)

And then, Mommy's famous COFFEE CAKE! She made a BIG batch this morning because she wanted to take some to school with her both today and tomorrow and still leave enough for us for a few days. It is okay cold but is the BEST when it is warm and out of the oven - when it is soft, not crusty. Mom's coffee cake is sweet enough - without dripping in frosting - with a perfect cinnamon sugar crumb top. Next time I promise to take a picture!

That's all for now, see you next weekend where I'll be reporting from New Jersey!