The presence of Saint Valentine graced the Teen Cooking Club this February. Using the spirit of the season, our food theme was Made with Love. The power of the full moon (and perhaps higher quantities of sugar) added a bit of loony to the mix.
Made with Love
First on the menu was Cherry Cream Cheese Hand Pies. These little bitties were easy to make and disappeared quickly. To provide variety, we used blueberry and cherry filling.
Heart Shaped Treats
Fresh from the Oven
I seem to gravitate towards Hungry Happenings food blog. Their Chocolate Cherry Bombs recipe seemed like a perfect match for this lovely occasion. These cake balls were more time consuming than originally thought. In hindsight, pre-baking a cake would have saved time and kept that team of teens busy the entire program. A warmer cake batter caused troubles for the rest of the process.
Bombed Chocolate Cherry Bombs
Valentine's Bark was another fun and easy recipe that the teens loved! Melting chocolate and pouring it onto the pan was barely messy (ha!) and decorating the concoction with tons of pink candies and sprinkles made the young chefs giggle with joy.
Valentine's Bark
For a savory plate, we created Pineapple Fried Rice. Cooking anything with vegetables can be iffy with teens and tweens. Luckily we had culinary masters on this recipe. Onion chopping was a breeze.
No cryin' over onions!
Having vegetarians in the class gave us the creative license to omit meat from this recipe. It was not needed. Even with specks of yellow and lots of dots of green, this plate vanished!
Pineapple Fried Rice
To wash down all the goodness, we made a juice punch with Lemon flavored Seltzer water mixed with equal parts cherry juice. Our chefs took the time to perfect the serving counter for a perfect photo opp.
Cooking to our Heart's Delight
There was hustle and bustle along with learning curves and lessons for me to take into account. With this in mind, we will work with less recipes next month and work more closely together to maintain food safety rules and keep everyone on par with the tasks at hand. This club is fun to lead, but some days provide clarity to the needs of the group more than others. I look forward to slowing our roll in March and taking things a little slower.
Irish for Today
Even with struggles like messes that no one claims and even fewer wish to clean, this program is my favorite of the month. We make a mess, work together (mostly) and have a fun time making the magic. So many of these students return each month to get a taste of their own efforts and that form of community makes my heart burst with pride.
Be sure to visit in March to see what the leprechauns have up their sleeves.
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