Cooking in May

Hey, everyone! I'm so sorry I haven't been able to post in a while; I've been busy with auditions for Hairspray, callbacks for Hairspray, and lots of cooking.

I had a great time at Salish, despite the frivolous arguments between the boys in my group. We sailed in the San Juans for five days and four nights. We cooked our own meals and did our own chores, with barely any help from the crew. On the last day, we sailed the boat all by ouselves from Spencer Spit on Lopez Island all the way back to the dock at Anacortes. On the first night of our trip, my group slept on the boat. We were dcked at James Island. My friend Caitlin and I were cooking dinner that night, and towards the end Mallika and Marco pitched in. Plus, the Salish staff kept my recipe and told me that it will now be a meal planning recommendation for future students aboard the boat! Here are some pictures to sum up my experience.



Me steering at the helm!




Marco (left) and Isaac (right) preparing the niskin bottle for a deployment




Caitlin and I cooking dinner




Me (left), Marco (upper left), Isaac (upper right), and "Uncle" Conway (right corner) working on triangulation




Caitlin finding nitrates in the water




TJ striking the sails




Isaac (left), Marco (middle) and Tucker (right) hiking on James Island




James Island sunset

 A week ago, I made a delicious Vegetable Soup. I was aiming on putting parsnips in it, but I accidentally bought a daikon radish at the grocery store instead and didn't realize until I had diced it. Oops! Because of my mistake, I am not able to post the recipe because I think that radishes in soup will make people not want to eat it. Neither will parsnips though... oh well. I'll think about it. I still have a picture though! The best part about this soup was the yummy multi-grain artisan bread cubes that I dunked in it. The bread absorbed some of the broth and was super flavorful. Also, you can add your favorite combination of herbs and cheese, which gives it a different flavor each time you make it with a different combination.

Please join the Test Kitchen! I haven't even sent out the first email because my only test kitchen recipients got automatically transferred there fro the mailing list, and there are only two of them. This is an awesome opportunity for you and for me; you get to cook my recipes before they are released in my cookbook, and I can get feedback that will help me make my recipe better!

The Day Before Salish!

Hey, everybody! Sorry I haven't posted in awhile; I've been very busy with projects galore at school, plus taking care of foster dogs from the Humane Society and preparing for my big trip tomorrow! Tomorrow, the 7th graders at my school are getting on a sailboat. We'll be sailing in the San Juan Islands for four nights and five days. On this trip, we split up into watch groups: water watch (my group) and wind watch. Each watch has to cook food for their group and the staff members supervising them. On the first night, my friends Marco, Caitlin, Mallika and I will be cooking one of my original recipes: Chicken, Rice, and Mushroom Stew. Whenever the four of us cook, we'll take pictures. I will post all the pictures on the blog after I come back so you can get a sense of how my trip was.

I haven't done too much cooking lately because of my busy schedule, but I'm happy to say that when I come back from my trip, I'll be in the kitchen constantly! I'm making a side dish to bring in for lunch at school, redesigning some more recipes, making a video of the last poll's winner (ALMOST No-Bake Mac n' Cheese), and creating dog biscuits for my dog's fourth birthday. Wish me luck on my trip and prepare to see a lot of new things from the blog in the next few weeks.