Blog

vegas collage

Hi and welcome to my blog page, a space that I’m devoting to answering the different questions that people email me, as well as anything else that comes to mind.

September 29, 2009 

Hello, hello 

I can't believe that it's been so long since the last time I blogged on my site, I just got caught up with so much activity in the past few months, eventually realizing that it's been just too long!  Here's the deal, yes, I still cook ,and yes, I do plan on another exciting season of Kid Chef. This time I will concentrate on breakfast  foods, but there will be a little delay in executing this because I have been cast in a production of The King and I, by Signature Productions here in Las Vegas and rehearsals have been going on since mid August already.  I get to play one of the king's wives and the six day per week rehearsal schedule coupled with the amount of homework which I receive on a daily basis from school, is practically taking over every single minute of my time, in fact there is just not enough time really.  

Our show opens on October 21 and runs all the way to November 21 so if you're in town or already in town for that matter, you have to come and see it, it's going to be GREAT!  You can log onto http://signatureproductions.net/  and check out photos of our rehearsals--you'll get to see how much work it takes to put on a show. 

I will be back behind my kitchen counter sharing with you tasty things to eat so hold tight and please keep looking at my site because there is already lots of stuff for you to see and I might post some surprises along the way. I always go on to to check my mail so please continue writing to me your comments or questions and I promise to answer you back.   

Also, I promised my mom that I would plug her new site so if any of you have a mother (or father) who likes to complain about aging and the odd wrinkle that's appeared on the face, tell them about my mom's new blog that can be found at:  www.diaryofawrinkle.com where she has created a format for anyone who would like to discuss these issues.  All I can say is that my mom's wrinkles have depleting our fridge of stuff that I like to eat, like papaya which instead of eating she mashes and spreads on her face, same with cucumbers and avocados---wrinkles are costing me my food!!! 

Okay, gotta go, Spanish homework is calling my name...

June 28, 2009

Summer break!

Finally it's here, the long awaited summer break. There's always so much that happens just before school's out and for me it was a chance to take part in the Raindanceathon---an event to help raise money for the JFSA food pantry which feeds the needy. They also give to other organizations whose prime interests are feeding those in need. I raised $240. It was held in the Rain nightclub at the Palms hotel here in Vegas, and only high school students who raised at least $25 could enter. It was partying for a cause!

I was asked to perform at Temple Beit Ner on Jerusalem Day and the highlight for me was when I got to sing together with a gospel group that came to perform in honor of that special day---they actually asked me to come and sing with them sometime in the future.
Also, just before I left for the East Coast I popped over to L.A for a Kmart audition---I didn't make it though. While waiting for a call back I spent the day in L.A. and enjoyed every minute of it----I went to the Rose Cafe for a lunch with my mother and I feasted on a quiche and salad for my main course and even though I was full I had to taste their apple tartin--what flavor, what taste... It was fun to walk down Abbot Kinney and Main Street and also along the beach.

I soon left for Buffalo, New York where I'll be spending the remainder of the summer---so far it's been fun even though it has been raining almost everyday---that's a welcome change for me (and good for the skin).

I hope that you have enjoyed this season of Kid Chef and after I take some time off this summer, I will be returning with season three!

Remember that cooking is fun, easy, tasty and you can do it too!

 

May 18, 2009 

Anthony Bourdain look-alike 

Last week my dad and I went to Agave, a Mexican restaurant in Summerlin, Las Vegas and we noticed that there was a little bit of  unusual commotion around us.  Sure enough the waiter approached us and asked my dad whether he was Anthony Bourdain.  It's true, my dad is a dead ringer for Anthony and he is, at times, confused for the guy; this time it was the manager of the restaurant who was duped, so he sent the waiter to investigate. I actually watch Anthony's show "No Reservations," and enjoy it very much!

Don't forget to watch my new carrot webisode that features my baby brother Jack and the funny bloopers from our shoot!

May 11, 2009 

Yummy eggs 

Yesterday for Mother's Day I made my mother breakfast of course, but as everyone knows, a hard boiled egg just won't cut it for my mother.  So I prepared eggs on toast, but I sprinkled the eggs with some oregano and that alone simply turned it into something scrumptious!  Next season I think that I will concentrate a bit on tasty breakfast foods for sure. I can smell summer break.....

 

May 5, 2009 

The truth about radish 

I'm starting to feel summer vacation around the corner! I had a lot of work this weekend, I did the editing for another school media project and this time it was for a movie trailer that we filmed at school.  My group and I did a spoof of the movie Ghost Busters but instead we were the Trash Busters, I hope the teacher likes what we've done. I went to see The Music Man musical and it was fantastic!  My friend Almog  played Amaryllis and she did a wonderful job.  I wanted to audition for this play but had laryngitis the same week of the audition, for the first time in my life. On the food front, my mom made a very tasty radish salad and I learned that radishes are a super food. They have a bundle of vitamins and minerals that are good for us, like vitamin C  and potassium and magnesium, things that help lower the risk of kidney stones etc.. I know that most of the time people treat radishes as garnish and don't appreciate the taste that much.  The radishes that I ate though were marinated in olive oil, vinegar and lemon and they were exquisite. Also, I ate some popcorn that was prepared in olive oil. Delicious!  

Watch out this week for a new webisode that I'll be filming together with my brother Jack.

 

April 23, 2009

Berry mania, 

I've always been a huge fan of eating berries, so when I was eating breakfast yesterday, a television reporter caught my attention when she began discussing the nutritional value of these fruits.  I love it when something tastes so good, but then it also happens to have a great health benefit.  The story with berries is that they are high in fiber, vitamins and minerals, and may prevent cancer and heart diseases. Some believe that they slow down the aging process because they are a wonderful source of antioxidants. When I came home from school today, I noticed that my mom bought a huge amount of berries, I mean they took up one shelf space in the fridge. I think she's hoping that the berries will act retroactively...I love my mom! 

 

April 18, 2009

Raw food diet

My neighbor Lisa has been eating a raw food diet for the past few months and she says that she has never felt this good in years.  She wants me to do a webisode about raw food diets, but haven't I done so with my salad weisode?  In any event, I did some reading of my own about the raw food diet and I have also made up my own mind about it.   

Some people think that cooking foods destroys all of the nutritional value that we otherwise digest if the fruits or veggies are raw.  My conclusion is that a healthy balance between raw and cooked food is good enough for me. Other people suggest that sometimes cooked veggies have a better nutritional value for us and that the enzymes that get destroyed in the cooking process aren't necessary for us in particular and it's not true that all the nutrients disappear completely once cooked.  There's a lot more to this and I hope that I'm not offending anyone with what I wrote, it's just my opinion and people can do their own research and decide for themselves.  

In the meantime I think it's time that I go down to the kitchen and get a cookie, a baked one that is!

 

April 14, 2009

Just 8 more years of school... 

I've been back at school for three days and it already feels like forever, like we never had a spring break, like I was never away for a week having fun, fun, and more fun.  I don't know why I complain because I actually LOVE my school and I'm doing all sorts of interesting things in my media class; like the cola commercial which I recently did...still though, it's the work, there is so much of it and school out here in Nevada begins at 7:00 A.M, it ends at 1:20 but from the moment I get home it's homework for hours. In order to make me feel better, my mom said to me just this morning, "relax Maya you only have, let's see, about eight more years of school, if you take into account college etc..." 

Today we got a special treat at school, those of us who got all "A" in our report cards got a type of slushy prepared by the culinary department kids.  They were delicious!  Northwest Tech has an awesome culinary department for anyone interested in learning how to cook, in the event that my webisodes aren't enough...

April 13, 2009

Nothing like a vacation! 

Just returned home from my spring break!  I spent the first few days in Florida and then the rest of the time in L.A.  I visited with family and friends and had a GREAT time!  I visited a childhood friend of mine who lives in Long Beach, and it was interesting to catch up; we've both grown a bit since the days when we used to dress up as the Spice Girls and sang their songs.

Some of my food experiences included gourmet burgers that were ordered from a local restaurant called Bistro, and a veggie burger lunch at Carney's on Sunset Blvd.  The whole eating in a train thing - might sound touristy but truthfully not at Carney's, an Amtrak passenger car from the 1920’s transformed in to a burger joint. Additionally, enough locals eat there to give it a sort of LA ambience.  My little brother Jack couldn't get over the fact that he was eating in a train; it was cute.

For the cake lovers out there, Sweet Lady Jane's on Melrose has amazing baked goods. I also tried out Salades de Provence, a quaint little French eatery on La Cienega that serves light organic food.  My vegetable soup and salad definitely hit the spot.  

For more details about my food experiences, check out my Tasty Stuff page. 

Now back to homework, blah.

March 13,  2009

Everyone in my family knows that when they come to visit, it means amazing food awaits them!  My grandpa called from the airport to ask what's cookin', as did my aunt and my uncle (even though he wasn't coming)!  My aunt ended up taking full control of the tortilla soup that I helped my mom prepare; she would never want to admit to this, but she literally had the whole pot to herself...She thinks that if she eats slowly no one will notice lol.  Tomorrow at my school, Northwest Career and Technical Academy, there are auditions for the annual talent show, and I'm going to be auditioning with the song, "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley.  If it turns out well I'll post it on the site.  And by the way, in order to relax my throat (it's a little sore) I've been sucking on "Bee M.D. Throat Drops" which seem to be soothing my throat a little, hopefully it'll be much better by tomorrow.
I forgot to mention that I was interviewed for Career World a weekly publication a few weeks back and it was published in Feb, here’s a link if you want to take a peek. My interview in Career World

 I was surfing the internet today and answering some of my Kidchef e-mail and to my surprise I found some of my webisodes posted on a web site in New Zealand. Wow, I hope they enjoy my recipes down under, after seeing them on Yummy 4 U.

April Fool's Day!

Hey guys!  I really wanted to put a couple of new webisodes up, but those will now have to wait until after Spring Break...I've just been swamped with work.  One of which was a school media project that I just uploaded onto Youtube, it's my very own Coca Cola commercial! Here's the link: Youtube

In other news, we had the Northwest Talent Show today and there were some technical difficulties, so I had to sing acapella!!  Here's the link: Youtube

Have a great Spring Break!  I'm off to Florida on Friday, and then LA :).  I'll make sure to keep you posted on my food experiences!

February 14, 2009 

Happy Valentine's Day!  After three years one month and 6 days I finally got my braces taken off, just in time to dig my teeth into Valentine's Day treats!  I did say that the first thing I would like to eat is a candy apple but I couldn't get my hands on one of those; in any event just eating regular food without the braces is an awesome feeling. I wanted to tell you about a funny story from health class, while our teacher was evaluating our food charts, she came across one kid who wrote that he had "one bag of family size chips," so she inquired as to whether there was a mistake and what he meant to write was that he only had one chip.  The reality was that he meant to write that he had one whole family size bag of chips because he was hungry.  Then we had to write about the amount of times per year that we have fast food and kids wrote between 5-20 times year but the same kid wrote that he goes to Sonic 80 times a year! I hope that my teacher rubs off on him and he changes his ways soon... 

To those of you who recently wrote to me that they love to cook; great!  Knowing how to cook really means that you are acquiring a life skill, you become aware of what you're putting into your body and you also discover that it is so easy to prepare some of your favorite dishes. Hey, some of the most popular people these days are cooks... 

By the way, I think that the "Get Gorgeous Tea" has worked well, that pesky pimple is GONE! 

February 8, 2009

Today I popped into Cost Plus to do some chocolate shopping with my mom (and I love it that my mom adores chocolate, because it means we always have it in the house) when I walked by the tea section.  I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw "Get Gorgeous Tea"!  Of course I picked it up and read that drinking this tea will give you clear skin, and I just so happen to have a pesky pimple that I'm dying to get rid of, so I bought it!  This tea is rich with antioxidants and Hibiscus and Rooibos leaves which are supposed to be great for the complexion.  Well I'm not sure if it will actually work, but it does taste delicious so no harm there.  I'll keep you posted on the pimple status! :p

By the way, make sure to read my Hash House A-Go-Go review on Tasty Stuff!

February 4, 2009

I’ve actually just come back from school and I’ve got tons, and I mean tons, of homework so I’ll be quick today. Someone asked me how I became Kid Chef: it’s not hard if you love food; I mean love it for how it tastes, smells, looks and for its nutritional value believe it or not. There are some of you out there that don’t care about food, and are just happy to shove something down your throat as long as it fills you up, so unless you develop an interest and appreciation for food there’s no way that you’re cooking something good anytime soon. Having said that I do realize that not everybody in this world is fortunate enough to be able to pick and choose and explore with food, because sometimes there is no food for these people, and this is one of the biggest tragedies in this world. There really is no reason for anyone to go hungry with so much food to share!

Getting back to answering the question, the truth is that apart from always loving food, I’ve been helping my mom and grandmother out in the kitchen since I was a toddler. Hard to believe but, you know I always enjoyed pressing my finger on the blender, mixing batter, or going to the herb garden and picking something that my granny needed for her recipe. That’s actually how I fell in love with Persian cucumbers because my granny always grew those in her garden…So it all started when I was much younger and then it slowly progressed to me taking control and preparing a recipe here and there, until I realized that I seriously have a knack for this stuff. It helped that my mom exposed me to different foods and has always gone out of her way to prepare the most fantastic meals, and boy we’ve had the best dinner parties at our home. When all the cooking shows became popular on television it gave me even more motivation and I remember watching certain shows, liking what I saw and then researching the recipe on the computer and trying it out. I guess the turning point was when my mom gave birth to my brother Jack and for a while she was really tired, in fact both my mom and dad were tired from being kept up night after night, so I kinda took over and jokingly told my mom that I felt like a “kid chef”. Soon after that the idea evolved and we decided that there is a place for a fun cooking site for kids on the net and that’s how it all started rolling. :-)

Watch out for my new segment that I’m calling ‘Challenge Me,’ I will be inviting you to challenge me to eat veggies or fruits that you dislike. In these clips I will demonstrate eating these veggies or fruits and describe the taste and texture, etc and maybe tell you of a way that you might enjoy eating them too.

 

 

blog2

Auditioning

blog1

Rainy Buffalo

lunch

Lunch at School

salades de provence

Salades de Provence in Hollywood.

Carneys

Carney’s on Sunset Blvd

jamba

Drinking Jamba Juice after Talent Contest at school

burgers

Eating gourmet burgers with Grace and Justin in Long Beach

cheesecake (2)

Separating eggs for my cheesecake

jackcake

My brother ‘Baby Chef Jack’ helping me with cheesecake