On the last night of Hudson Valley Restaurant Week, my family decided to try one more restaurant before it ended. We went to one of our favorite restaurants in town called Cafe of Love. The owner's name is Leslie Lampert. She happens to also be the owner of our favorite local soup place called Ladle of Love. Now it's time for me to talk about the food. For the appetizer, I had a potato-crusted crab cake. The crab was perfect and the potato crust was crunchy so it went well with the crab. After I had my crab cake. I tried the soup my mom ordered. It was a Moroccan tomato bisque. Everyone was trying to guess what was in it. I guessed cumin and I was right! Next for the entree, I had the oven-fried chicken. It came with a kale-radicchio-brussels sprout slaw and curry sweet potato fries. The chicken was crunchy but they baked it in an oven. It was crisp even though it wasn't fried which is amazing. The sweet potato fries had curry which made them taste interesting. We also ordered a side of truffled chick peas and a side of brussels sprouts. The chick peas were SO GOOD! They were crunchy and I could taste the truffle oil on them. The brussels sprouts were sauteed which made them taste great. My parents said the meatballs there are amazing but we didn't want to order too much food. Last, for dessert I had the signature almond crossaint bread pudding. It had just the right amount of sugar that it needed. I could taste the nutty almonds. I would recommend going there, Restaurant Week or not, because they have amazing food and dining. Maybe you can fall in love with someone because it's called Cafe of Love!

Last week, my family went out for a normal dinner. Or was it? It was Hudson Valley Restaurant Week! Restaurant Week is when restaurants have lower prices for an appetizer, entree, and dessert. We went to Crabtree Kittle House in Chappaqua. The restaurant was in an old white house that looked like a church. It is probably one of the fanciest places in Westchester. When we walked in, we found our seats at a table near the window. When I looked at the Restaurant Week menu, I knew what I wanted to order. But before the food came, the waiter brought out an amuse bouche. That is a little dish that you get for free. It's only meant to be one bite like on The Taste. It was actually in a spoon just like on the show. It was a potato foam with bacon. I didn't really like it because the bacon didn't really go well with the foamy potatoes. For the appetizer, I ordered Corn and Peeky Toe Crab Chowder with truffled crab salad. It was creamy and I could really taste the crab. For the entree, I had grilled skirt steak with braised spinach and roasted hudson valley peanut potatoes. They were called peanut potatoes because they were almost the size of peanuts. The steak was juicy and tender and had a thin crust on the outside which made it crunchy. I like crunchy. The spinach didn't taste like regular spinach. It tasted creamy. For dessert, I had a wiggly, jiggly chocolate-banana panna cotta. I like panna cotta and this one was really chocolatey. I like chocolate but not too much chocolate. The banana in it made me feel relaxed. There was also a pastry on the plate that was almost like a churro. I had a really good experience here. I would go back for Restaurant Week.

You might not know this about me, but I want to be a pastry chef when I grow up. That’s why I try to bake a lot. I am Jewish, so that means I celebrate Jewish holidays. The holiday that’s coming up is Purim. We bake because there is a bad guy in the Purim story called Hamen and we eat hamantaschens because Hamen’s hat was shaped like a triangle. We eat them to get the bad thoughts away. 

So right before Purim, my grandmother and I made hamantaschens. First, my grandma rolled out her handmade dough. Second, we cut the dough into circles. Then we put jelly in the middle of the circle. We picked a lot of different jelly flavors. First, we used Knotts Berry Farm Boysenberry preserves. Next, we added apricot preserves. Then we added prune jelly and lastly we picked chocolate chips. The final step, we baked them overnight. 


Last of all, we ate them. MMMM! They were delicious. Even if you are not Jewish, you can try this and celebrate Purim, which is on March 15th and 16th.