June is National Iced Tea Month and June 10 is National Black Cow Day. In case you were not aware, a Root Beer Float is a Black Cow. And let's not mistake this Black Cow with Drew, the Big Brown Cow Who Goes Moo, Moo, Moo.
This Teen Cooking Club was super packed with 28 of us running wild cooking and cleaning, serving and eating in just 2 hours. We had a slew of recipes to test.
Super Duper Pretzels!
First off was a delicious pretzel concoction called Bavarian Pretzel Grilled Cheese. With meat and cheese between warm, buttery pretzels, these were sure to be a winner! Except...so many picky preferences surfaced. Who didn't want sour kraut, who didn't like mustard, who didn't like turkey (I substitued the pork for turkey in consideration of religious and dietary restrictions). I wish we had just served hot pretzels! The team that made this recipe was very accommodating and made a variety of options for all involved.
One Pan Prep
The next dish was a One Pan Mexican Quinoa. I was branching out to try some new ingredients and flavors...and it was a SUCCESS! The team that made this recipe was salivating over the smells and appearance, even as it was cooking on the stove.
Not quite Smell-O-Vision>>>try this recipe!<<<
Another team hit the dessert portion of our menu with Twix Cookies.
Nom-Nom-Delish!
These sweet treats were a HIT! (go figure) The shortbread dough came together quickly. I cheated on the caramel and purchased a bottle of caramel sauce from the ice cream aisle. This was a quick fix replacement for anyone with a dairy allergy, but the caramel goo, which Twix have, was not there. The cookies absorbed the caramel sauce. Luckily, no one complained.
Just keep swimming!
Finding Dory Treats were also on the menu. This recipe popped up in my search and I absolutely fell in love with the adorable presentation from Hungry Happenings. Unfortunately, I could not find the cereal needed, so I substituted with Lucky Charms. I also could not source blue melting wafers from our grocery store, so I substituted with green and pink wafers. The popcorn took a purplish hue and we called this "Charming Treats." The recipe went so quickly, I asked the team to attempt another batch, which was completely off the cuff with a brighter appearance.
"Charming Treats"
Now for the Iced Teas...
"Flavored teas are so thirst quenching!"
Iced tea has a thirst quenching capability. The team in charge of the teas used this flavored teas listing to inspire their varieties. The issue with this recipe was the time needed for all the flavors to marry, which usually takes 24 hours. Flavor options included apricot ginger tea, pomegranate black tea, apple cider green tea, peach jasmine tea, and honey lemon green tea. I overheard that the apricot ginger tea was the high ranking favorite.
The Black Cow portion of our menu was the tail end of the program.
Root Beer or Cola Float = Black Cow
The irony of my shopping experience was unpacking the groceries to find, "I forgot the root beer!" Serendipity saved the session. There was a case of diet Pepsi leftover from another Union Hall renter and we were allowed to take ownership! Everyone thought this was the ABSOLUTE BEST RECIPE of the afternoon. Sugar, soda, ice cream, chocolate sauce and a cherry to top it all off>>seems like all of the food groups are covered, right?! I am very pleased to tip a hat of gratitude to Wegmans Food Markets who sponsor this fabulous program through their Community Sponsorship efforts. Their financial assistance allows for high quality ingredients to be purchased for large crowds of teens and avails more funding to further teen programming in the SSC Library. Thank you Wegmans!
Stop by in July for a peek at our Teen Cooking Club Annual BBQ.
We will fire up the grill and turn the great outdoors into our kitchen.
No comments:
Post a Comment