Super (Veggie) Bowl

       Last night we all witnessed the Baltimore Ravens pull out a win against the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl Forty-Seven! I was at a friend's house, cooking spring rolls with (or against, I'll never know) our new friend Ruby. She is traveling all the way from Beijing, and will be continuing to New York, Boston, and Washington DC. She made amazing bok choy, tofu soup, and chicken wings (which I did not have the pleasure of having, you know, veggie), while I was making delicious spring rolls (recipe In The Kitchen). Anyway, the whole thing was a great success and everyone left with satisfied stomachs (except for those 49ers).

194 miles

        San Francisco to Calistoga. 194 miles. 6 runners. 36 hours. What does this mean? The Ragnar Relay! "What's the the ragnar relay?" you might ask. The Ragnar Relay Series does fifteen different races, all the way from the west coast to the east coast.
         I was lucky enough to attend this race. I was running in it (you have to be at least 16 to run and I'm 13), but I was in the support team!
        My dad got together some of his running friends and talked them into running this thing. Now there are two types of teams you can have. There are a 12 man teams or a 6 man teams. My dad decided to do the six man ultra team. So he signed everyone up and they decided to call themselves the Boomer Ragnars. Because of them are baby boomers.
        So, after a couple of months into the training, just when everything seems fine. One of our runners got diagnosed with cancer (he had tumors in his neck). Talk about an obstacle. He's been recovering for five to six months, now. He decided that he wanted to run the relay anyway. So he wanted to run first two legs and run under the golden gate bridge!
         It was the most intense 36 hours of my life! I had a total of five hours of sleep, and that was the most. Most people only got 20 minutes! When we finally finished everyone wanted to go to their hotels and sleep.
         We did have an excellent meal that night. We ordered these peppers that were grilled in sesame oil. They were SO GOOD! They're called padrones.We asked if the kitchen had them every night after that. Our waitress told us these peppers are very rare. They only grow for two months a year. So we enjoyed every bite!

Spring Rolls!

During my second week in Costa Rica my mom and I stayed at a place called Finca Exotica and I had the opportunity to make spring rolls for the volunteers (there were only three of us, plus the director and her husband). Almost all of the ingredients were grown in the gardens. Except for the wrappers of course. We used fresh chiles, garlic, and soy sauce for a paste. Then mixed cucumbers, carrots, and onions into a pan until the onions turn lightly brown. Then we cooked minced garlic and lemongrass. Finally we brought it all together. First the steamed wrappers, then the chili paste, next the cooked mixture, then the cooked garlic, and then fresh katuk. Finally we rolled it up and fried it in a hot pan. When they were done they were nice and crisp. Just the way I like them!

The Osa!!

I have returned to the country from a two week trip to Costa Rica!!! Now, the reason I say trip and not vacation is because my mother and I went there to volunteer to help the sea turtles. I had the opportunity to go on patrols throughout the two weeks. On the morning patrols we would patrol the beach and look for turtle tracks and see if there's a nest. If we did see tracks then we would measure the width and dig for the nest. The way we dig for the nests is interesting. We take a stick and poke what we think is the nest, and if the stick falls in then it probably a nest. Sometimes the turtles make multiple nests to camouflage the real one. On the night patrols we would walk down the beach and look for the turtles and their tracks. If we do see a turtle than we have to measure her, count the scutes on her shell to identify her species, and check for any disease or infections. On the morning we left it was estimated that one thousand eggs were poached by locals. Most of the locals are accustomed to eating turtle eggs. A lot of  people think that one out of every seven hatchlings survive. It's actually one out of every thousand! Yeah. They're way off. On the other hand the food there was amazing! Some locals made us fresh ceviche out of snook, which was caught that morning. It was the best ceviche I have ever had.

Kitchen Stadium

Hello everybody. For the past week I have been at a cooking camp at Cooks Warehouse. It was a lot of fun. On Thursday there was a competition between the three teams, and my team won! I was very surprised. We had a bruschetta with red bell peppers, yellow tomatoes, jalapeños, basil, and a balsamic reduction as our appetizer. For the main course, which I made, we had a pineapple, mustard glazed salmon. I grilled the salmon and pineapple on the grill, and made a sauce which had pineapple, pineapple juice, white wine, dijon mustard, and some other stuff. I brought it to a boil on the stove, then a simmer, and finally I took an emergen blender and blended it to a smooth state. We served it on coconut rice, which is rice boiled in coconut milk instead of water. So it was coconut rice, grilled salmon, pineapple-mustard sauce, and grilled pineapple on top. The judges said it was the perfect bite. All the judges gave the salmon a 20/20! For dessert we had a strawberry clafoutis. Now I have the title Iron Chef!