Long Time No Post

I'm sorry that I have not posted anything in the vast expanse of time between now and my last posting. Some of the Time I was busy and other times I just did not feel like posting anything. So now that I have said that, I will get on with this post.
This post will be my first review of store/restaurant food. I'm sure that many of you have heard of Potbelly™. They specialize in great tasting sandwiches, with fillings served in a toasted french bread-ish sandwich bun. They have a pretty cool website if you want to check it out: http://www.potbelly.com/Food/FoodStory.aspx In addition to their sandwiches, they also have great salads, milkshakes, and pickles. My favorite sandwich of theirs is the Pizza sandwich with pepperoni and mushrooms. However, I will be reviewing my second favorite: The Italian.
The Italian has lettuce, authentic capicola, mortadella, salami, and pepperoni. One way to make it extra delicious is to ask them to add hot peppers. This sandwich is definitely the thing to get if you like subs. Furthermore, potbelly is a quick place to get your food. Also Potbelly has indoor and outdoor eating areas, and sometimes even has live local musicians playing at certain stores.
I used to always find myself wanting another of their sandwiches when I finished eating one. However, they just recently added the option of a bigger sandwich to their menu for just a little bit extra. All of their sandwiches are delicious, and their Italian definitely deserves a tasty ranking. So when you feel lazy and find yourself in need of a quick tasty lunch or dinner, just stop in at Potbelly.

Pasta Primavera: Tolerable

Tonight I made Pasta Primavera. I got the recipe from The Pioneer Woman . Actually my mom got the recipe from pioneer woman. She was making dinner, and I offered to help, and she let me make the entire pasta.
Some of you may be wondering why I gave a recipe from The Pioneer Woman a "tolerable." Well, it wasn't her fault. I am just not an expert cook yet. When I made the sauce, I made it a little bit too liquidy, and over all, I merely did an okay job. So that is why I gave it a tolerable.
Tolerable, however, is not a bad rating. It just means that it is not incredibly delicious. I definitely enjoyed the pasta, but I also definitely think that it could have been better.
On a side note, it seems like a really healthy dinner. It has tons of fresh veggies. Also, with the half-and-half, the heavy whipping cream, and the cheese it has to have at least some protein. To finish it off, the pasta has healthy carbs to give you energy for the next day.

The Cupcake Results

Unfortunately, I didn't win the contest. Melissa got first place, I got second, and Amber got third. However, I won on Taste, Melissa won on creativity, and Amber won on presentation. Melissa got the most overall points though.

Are you ready to hear what the cupcakes were?
I made Waffle Maple Syrup Cupcakes With Maple Syrup Buttercream Frosting. Maybe I lost because they had such a long name. Just kidding.

I made a pancake batter from scratch and put maple syrup in the center of the batter before I stuck them in the oven. They cooked on 350 for about 14-16 minutes. I also made the buttercream frosting from scratch. Since I put the strawberries on at night, they ended up getting red juice on the frosting when the morning came.

Melissa made dark chocolate cupcakes and a light whipped Dulce de Leche frosting
Amber made Chocolate Sundae Cupcakes.
Both of them did an incredible job.

I got an award.

I just got an award from Melissa at Schweet N' Savory
. She gave me the Honest Scrap award. Thanks Mel! Here's a completely random side note: award is one of those weird words to think about. If you look at the spelling when you say it, it seems really strange.

The rules of the award:

• Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design.
• Show the 7 winners names and links on your blog, and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with "Honest Scrap." Well, there's no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.
• List at least 10 honest things about yourself.

7 Honest things about myself:

1. For some reason, I really like to slice strawberries
2. I have electrocuted myself twice
3. I probably don't deserve this award
4. I like foreign languages, even those that people consider to be dead. I have taken Latin for seven years and even took a course in Biblical Greek.
5. I sing when I vacuum
6. I like the color pink. I even have a sweet pink tie.
7. The automatic doors at grocery stores used to close on me.
8. I love energy drinks.
9. I don't like cheesecake.
10. I love to try foreign foods and strange fruits.

I will pass this award to these seven blogs:
Dunkin Cooking the Semi-Homemade Way
Elle's New England Kitchen
The Raven's Looking Glass
Cooking Courtney
My Italian Grandmother
GabesBabyMomma
Alice and the Mock Turtle

Guess what? My sisters and I are having a bake-off. However it is completely unfair. We are competing to see who can make the best cupcakes from scratch. First of all I am a guy, and second of all I have never made cupcakes before. My sisters are obviously girls, and they have made cupcakes before. Yet instead of complaining about the great advantage they have over me in this contest, I will tell you the rules.

Unfortunately,only the people at our school will be able to try our cupcakes. However, we will be posting our recipes and might even post a poll for online viewers to judge whose cupcakes are the best.

Cupcake Showdown

When: Monday Morning, March 9th @ 8:30 in the High School Conference Room

Who: High school Students and Teachers

What: It’s a Cupcake Showdown between Amber, Melissa and Adam Thoburn. Each will be making their own cupcakes from scratch for you to taste and judge the best. Judging Criteria are Taste, Creativity and Appearance. You will not be told who made which cupcakes. That will be revealed at lunch time along with the showdown winner.

Mom's Calzones, "Tasty"

Hey everybody. I haven't made any food recently or seen any cool foods at places outside my house. I was going to try not to make posts about my mom's or my sisters' food. Who knows, I might have to say that one of their dishes was only tolerable, or maybe even terrible (Just kidding, pretty much everything they make is really tasty). However, seeing as I haven't made a post in a couple of days, and since my mom made some really awesome food the other night, I thought that it couldn't hurt to make a post about her dinner at least this once.
So here goes. Last night, my mom made calzones. You know, those pizza in a pocket things. She made three different types. One had steak and yellow cheese, one had sausage and white cheese, and the other had some mixture of meats ,and broccoli ,and cheese. I only tried the sausage and the steak ones.
After eating both of them, I had to decide: were they tasty, tolerable, or terrible? Just like the majority of the food my mother makes, these hot smokin calzones were tasty.

Buffalo Ckicken Mac n' Cheese: Tasty

I was talking with my sister Melissa (Schweet and Savory), maybe a month ago, about food. She is a good cook and always has really cool food ideas. Since I like to turn everything into a competition, I tried to come up with a sweet food idea that she hadn't thought about. So, in the process, I came up with, Buffalo Chicken Mac n' Cheese.
A lot of people might think that that sounds like a wierd mixture, but it is actually pretty good. Even my sister liked it. Here's how to make it

Ingredients
16oz. penne rigate (any macaroni pasta will do)
3 "young chicken" thighs
1 cup mozzarella cheese (shredded)
1 cup cheddar cheese (shredded)
1/4 cup buffalo sauce

1. place the chicken thighs in a cooking pot of water, and cook on high heat for about 40 minutes

2. while the chicken is cooking place the pasta in a cooking pot of water and cook it for 25 minutes, or until it is soft

3. when the pasta is done, add both cups of cheese. The pasta should still be hot enough to melt the cheese. If not, you may need to cook it on low heat to mix the cheese in.

4. Pre-heat the oven to 350
5. When the chicken is done, pull it apart, and put it in a glass oven dish and add the buffalo sauce. If you like spicy food, you might want to add a little more sauce than the ingredients suggest.

6. Put the chicken in the oven and bake it at 350 for 8-10 minutes.
7. When the chicken is done baking, mix it in with the macaroni and cheese and enjoy.

Terrible, Tolerable, or Tasty

I decided to do something with this blog, that I think is new. I am not only going to make my own food and post it, but I am also going to post examples of other food, and tell whether they were terrible, tolerable or tasty, and why. This food may come from restaurants or even lunches other kids have at school.
I'm not very organized, but I will try to continually add new, and interesting posts. Also, it would be great if people left comments on the posts.