Peaberry & Galette

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Darn Good Crepes.

I’m going to say it once and only once:  You haven’t lived until you’ve eaten a crepe from Peaberry & Galette.

Located in the Keauhou Shopping Center in Kailua-Kona, Peaberry & Galette is a small “french style crêperie and cafe” that serves savory and dessert crepes, teas, Kona coffee, and a variety of other goodies.

Dessert Crepe Menu

Honestly, these crepes are to die for.  The first time I went there we ordered two crepes, caramelized apple, and chocolate banana.  I started on the caramelized apple and realized I was eating what must equate to God among food.

It is this buttery golden brown confection with a tawny glow and covered in warm autumn tones.  The crepe itself is light and flavorful, the thinnest, sweetest pancake you’ve ever tasted in your life. Folded neatly, it rests beneath a delicious nest of smooth vanilla ice cream and soft, caramelized apples.

The apples are rolled in cinnamon and tucked gently into the vanilla, creating a symphony of sweet and spicy flavors with a fresh juicy kick.  Ribbons of warm caramel and sprinkles of powdered sugar and cinnamon lace the dessert together and it is topped off with a tasteful crown of fluffy whipped cream.

Now tell me that doesn’t sound amazing.  Say it out loud, with a straight face.

I know.  IMPOSSIBLE!

It was so good I even took a picture of it!

Caramelized Apple Crepe from Peaberry & Galette

I have a very close relationship with my food.  I like to describe it the way I would describe a very attractive person.  For you ladies, this is my Robert Downey Jr., my Vouge cover man.  For you gentlemen, this is your Halle Berry, your Victoria’s Secret model.

Clearly:

1 minute 53 seconds later

Believe it or not, I timed it.

The chocolate banana was equally incredible.  Another gorgeous, buttery crepe lay wreathed in freshly sliced bananas.  A beautiful, white scoop of vanilla ice cream rested daintily, yet seductively atop its dusky, golden perfection.  Dark, fragrant chocolate sauce criss-crossed over the masterpiece, creating a labyrinth of alluring, delectable beauty.

I was so taken with this dessert I didn’t even get a picture.  That night was truly a supernova of flavor.

So I suggest that you head on over to Peaberry & Galette on your next stop in Kona.  I promise it is well worth the trip.

Click here to view the menu!

Nutella Vs. Peanut butter

nutella vs PB

I like peanut butter but I LOVE Nutella. I’ve always been a fan of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches; they are good and you can never go wrong with a PB&J. Unless you’re allergic to peanuts, yikes. But see, Nutella is delicious, sure there is some things much like peanut butter that could be harmful to some but it’s just so good that even those who don’t like it actually really do.

Its taste is AMAZING, and there is so many tasty ways to eat it.

Nutella with bread, Nutella crepes, Nutella croissants, Nutella with strawberries, Nutella with bananas and MANY MORE!!!!

I really want to know what everyone’s thoughts are on this subject, even if you feel it’s a stupid one

I think Nutella wins, what do you think?
nutella

ITS A PHONE?!?!?!

I thought I saw a lot of crazy things in my life. I spent a lot of time in Philadelphia and I’ve seen people yell obscene words at cops, and people throw things at buildings. People were out of their minds and I loved it. But this is a new kind of crazy. Ladies and gentlemen, the Ice Cream Sandwich…it’s a freakin’ phone. Doesn’t that look delicious…I mean useful? Simple answer is no. It just looks like some designers decided to make the phone look like what was in their mini freezer in their office. Honestly I can’t even fathom why this was made. I love ice cream sandwiches. I don’t like putting them to my ear and talking to them.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/IceCreamSandwich.jpg/275px-IceCreamSandwich.jpg

Tasty huh? Well, now you can call your family and friends before you eat it so you can brag. Unfortunately, it can only be used/eaten once.

Good Evening OVS Bloggers!

Gosh it’s good to be back in the blog world and the non-alcoholic Thanksgiving after party that is Mr. Alvarez’s Journalism class. Do tell! How is it going so far? I’m sure you are all enjoying it. If I remember correctly Journalism was always like a big birthday party with desks and a big white board. Unfortunately, there was no cake.

What! No cake?

But, who needs cake when you have a teacher like Mr. A? Yeah okay, so he doesn’t have sprinkles and fire cracker candles on his head and he doesn’t walk into the classroom covered in vanilla frosting…he doesn’t right? Anyway, if he were to be covered in frosting it would be chocolate flavored, not vanilla, because everybody knows that a brown guy can’t hide beneath his frosty vanilla coating.

What's Up Vanilla Face?

Okay, okay. I’m done ragging on the teacher. (Evan Cooper, you’re next!) But take what I’m about to say to heart; I don’t know any of the new teachers at OVS, but what I do know is that Mr. A, regardless of how great they are, will always be number one in my eyes. He is absolutely one of the greatest teachers and one of the greatest people (persons?) I have ever had the pleasure to learn from. I’m not even really sure if that was proper grammar. But, thankfully he wasn’t my English teacher so you’re off the hook for any mistakes I make Mr. Alvarez. You all should know that I’m proud to have been his student and so should you. Hope you guys have an amazing year. Enjoy it and take advantage of what they teach you. And absolutely absolutely absolutely ABSOLUTELY do not take it for granted because it’s going to be the best high school experience of your lives. Be well. Have fun. Don’t be late to class.

Maddie

Cattle-ranching Trip

Not very many people can claim that they’ve been on a real cow roundup, but I can!

Last Sunday, a group of three seniors, including myself, OVS art teacher Ms. Smith, and lower’s Australian riding instructor, Andy, loaded two horses and made the six hour trip up to Independence, California to stay at the Smith Ranch.

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Without knowing what a cattle roundup is to the fullest extent, I imagined massive herds of cattle running in each and every direction as the riders each struggle to keep them in a group and headed towards the pens.

Without knowing what ‘putting cattle through a shoot’ is, I imagined the branding to be a horrid sight, and the castration to be something that my weak stomach wouldn’t be able to handle, and the tagging to be intolerable.

I was completely wrong in every sense.

The first day of herding cattle was as easy as one could possibly imagine. The cattle didn’t even bother to defy the natural order of things and simply moved as soon as a horse came near them.

I was also lucky enough to ride one of the most incredible horses that I’ve ever encountered. Elizabeth and I were given to rented horses from a pack station down the road whose names we weren’t told. I was given a lovely strawberry roan quarter horse who was not only calm and collected but willing to go whenever asked to grab a stray calf. We named him Barry for his color and the large “B” branded on his left flank. We were also given an older gentleman of a horse who never ceased to have his tongue hanging out of his mouth and his head regally held above all of the others. Not to mention he was easily over twenty and was covered in random patches of abnormally long hair. He was named Thor, which was followed by more jokes that I could ever keep track of.

Throughout the whole time our faces were stuffed with the most amazing food, and minus the brief stomach flu that we all experienced, it was definitely one of the best weeks of my life. If any riders are considering going next year, they definitely should. It’s absolutely wonderful!

shh…promise not to tell!

Woah. Two years.

Sounds like a long time.It is a long time. But I don’t know why, it doesn’t feel like a long time. Time doesn’t exist or really matter when I am with him.

Two years ago, on the 29th of this month, a much younger, braces-clad me was asked out by my current boyfriend. We both have grown so much since that day and learned so much about each other. Tomorrow, 24 hours from today, we will be hitting our 2 year milestone.

This is a big deal; neither one of us have been in a relationship this long and with the impending graduation coming closer each day, I want to make sure that tomorrow will be a special day, a memorable day that he can look back on after he walks the cobblestone stage.

I plan on making him a scavenger hunt. A series of six clues that lead him to me. I will tell him that I can’t see him because I am busy studying for the upcoming AP’s and that I am so sorry that I can’t see him on our anniversary. Then, his friends will make sure he doesn’t eat dinner or leave the vicinity of his room. He will find his first clue which will come with a rice krispies treat that I made in the shape of a letter. After finding all the clues, the rice krispies will reveal my location and he will meet me there to find a dinner made from scratch!

It’s not much, just a few pieces of paper and time spent putting a few ingredients together. But they say that the best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. If he likes it, then that’ll be the best thing!

Read The Label!

Having the privilege of watching Television over my Spring Break, I came across a commercial promoting Wendy’s “delicious, new ‘Natural Cut Fries with Sea Salt’.”

Although I never eat at Wendy’s, I was curious as to whether this “all natural” claim could actually be true.

It just couldn’t be possible to produce fast food in such an all natural process and still sell the product for $1.

Although Wendy’s did find a way to leave the potato skins on the fries in order to gain a crisper texture, they neglected to make it the supposed “all natural” way in which it is advertised.

Wendy’s CMO Ken Calwell stated that this natural process is simply not plausible in order to meet the demands of fast food.

“People are saying they want high integrity ingredients, things their grandmother would have used, that don’t look like they came out of a chemistry lab,” said Calwell in an interview with BNET. “But they’re also saying I’ve got a family to feed and can only afford to spend about $4 on my lunch, and I’ve only got about a minute or two to eat it.”

So rather than spending the money and resources to bake fries “in-house” at the individual drive-thru, Wendy simply decided to “settle for the natural-cut” process completed in a large factory. In addition, at these factories the fries are doused with sodium acid pyrophosphate and dextrose, a corn sugar, in order to preserve the fries texture. Then they proceed to be fried in the silicone-based chemical dimethyepolysiloxane.

However, I know that even though these chemicals are existent, people will still eat these fries.

And heck, I know I will stumble upon at least some fast food restaurants fries in the next year.

However I do believe that people should truly read the label before consuming things believed to be “all natural.”

Even those harmless little commercials that make you crave Wendy’s delicious fries can be deceiving.

FAT TALK

“Ew. I am so fat.”
“OMG. Stop it. You are so skinny.”

A rally of nonsense complaints between females, this is called FAT TALK.

Teenage girls, especially, behave such for the following reasons:
To draw an attention,
To express their discomforting body shape,
To make their “friends” uncomfortable,
etc

Every girl experiences Fat Talk.

However in the midst of this prom season, the complaints get worse, much worse. I frequently catch girls in their prom dresses or in front of mirrors spill their words casually, “I am fat.” Gosh. Yes, you are fat, if and only if you fall for the media that purports extreme thinness and gross starvation.

If obesity is the concern, try to be healthy—exercise, eat balanced meal, do not binge eat, and sleep well. But, do not starve.

Hunger is a disease. It leads to starvation, then to death.

And, this Fat Talk is also a disease. Once a girl speaks of her “fatness,” her listener goes on to another to complain, and the cycle runs on and on until the girls runs out of their self-esteem.

So, next time when a friend say, “OMG. I am so fat,” be ready to shush her.

We’ve Heard Enough About Rebecca Black!

Good lord! Most of us know who she is. The girl who made a hit song that blasted through the charts and made iTunes enough money to take over the world and give out free iPads to everyone in Africa. She became famous within the time it takes for your heart to beat twice. But, what she really did was she turned the best day of the week into a NIGHTMARE!

I promised myself that I would refrain from posting my feelings on the internet so I will try to keep my comments at a calm and reasonable level.

Since the thirteen year old “superstar” hit the web her fame has grown to a completely unnecessary and undeserved spot at the top. Seriously man, if girls like this can hit number 2 on MTV‘s charts with a song like that then I want nothing to do with the music business and every real artist that has ever made music should just quit now.

*Now, just a side note: I just want to point out that it doesn’t really surprise me that much that she reached number two because MTV sold out a long time ago so… Going on.

You were so cool MTV. What happened?

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Caffeine Overdose

At least once in our lives, we have been warned, “Caffeine is bad for you.”

It playfully jeopardizes our body system. However, teenagers and young adults continue to increase in their caffeine consumption though chocolate, coffee, and tea.

But, I want to particularly discuss about energy drinks.

Young people want to remain awake for sleepover, parties, and workloads. These reasons sound understandable, especially from my perspective–I concentrate on my work the best at night when the calm and silent atmosphere embraces me. However, the consequences of these energy drinks are much more horrendous than what we could imagine.

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