What food lasts forever in your pantry and can fill an army of friends on the cheap? SQUASH!!! That's right, squash is part of the cucurbita family and boast many health benefits for low cost, long shelf-life produce.
Squash Your Hunger
January is a cold month amidst the dark hours of winter. To brighten our spirits and palettes, we cooked with gourd-geous organge hues to squash our hunger. The first recipe involved curry, apples, onions and pumpkin. We made Autumn Squash Soup, which was a great decision for a frigid afternoon. The bomb cyclone was headed our way, so we needed to warm up quickly.
Soup Prep
Preparation was a snap with a responsive team. Ingredients were sauteeing before I had relayed all the steps in the process. The kitchen filled with savory scents, calling to our bellies.
Bubble and Boil
Once the soup was complete, it needed to be blended to a smooth consistency. I brought my trusty immersion blender to class just for this step. Students were fascinated by the speed and precision of the immersion blender. "We need more recipes using that tool!"
Blended Squash Soup
I learned some fun facts preparing for this class.Cucumbers are part of the squash family. Look at the species name- cucurbita. Cucumbers fit in the name! An adult student who likes to participate so she learns new life skills took ownership of a Creamy Cucumber Salad.
Whipped up in Minutes
This salad was mighty popular and a great way to cool off tongues after eating a hot soup. Dill and cucumber are cool ingredients versus a hot curry or spicy onion.
A Cheesy Butternut Squash Pasta plate was tackled by a third team. This seemed to be the most unusual of our recipes. The girls made a cheesy sauce with blended squash and tons of cheese. This sauce was mixed to cooked pasta and voila! Cheesy goodness that disappeared in moments.
So good, it was Gone!
Now that the savory plates are covered, we can step into Sweetsville.
Muffin Mania
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Muffins were the first stop in Sweetsville. This is not an actual town, but the place we all like to be when making meals. Desserts are often coveted, despite knowing we need savory foods, too. The library is undergoing construction, so some important tools are trapped from usage. It turned out that the hand mixer is one of the hostages. Therefore, team mates took turns flexing their muscles and working the cream cheese to a fluffy consistency.
Mmmm...muffins
This was a winner recipe! I took this photo before the pan emptied with few crumbs remaining. Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies were the last recipe to tackle in our plan. I wanted to test the theory that gluten free (GF) all purpose flour acts equivalently to regular all purpose (AP) flour.
Cookie Experiment
In theory, GF flour should equate to AP flour. The recipe mixed up just fine, but we noticed a major difference in cooking. These cookies were only supposed to take 12-15 minutes to bake, but the GF flour seemed to cause a delay. This recipe took upwards of 20-25 minutes per batch to firm up.
Yummy in my Tummy!
Regardless of the extra bake time, students still called these cookies, "Yummy in my tummy!" My favorite joke for this recipe was a teen consistently calling them Goatmeal Cookies. I finally understood his reference to the Gluten-free part. This student often expresses his opinion that Gluten Free recipes result in cardboard quality products. "Only goats eat cardboard." I found that hungry teens and tweens devour Goatmeal Cookies, too.
Time to Eat!
Many thanks to Wegmans Food Markets for sponsoring this teen cooking club. The community of Corning, New York is supportive of these learning lessons and we are grateful. The Local Steelworkers Union Hall provides our giant kitchen, the students provide the fun.
Let's Go Shopping
This wraps up another delicious cooking club event. Join us in February as we go shopping at Wegmans Food Market. We will meet and shop just like a large family preparing to stock up their pantry for the month. Their chefs will also engage us with a cooking demonstration! That will be fun to see how the professionals get the task complete.
SSC Library's Teen Cooking Club returned in July for the Summer BBQ. When you think BBQ, warm weather, outdoor games, and good times with friends may come to mind. We had most of that...minus the weather! For a second year, our summer barbecue was destined for indoor fun.
Fire Success, not so much with weather
We struggled with the weather forecast, which has a fickle personality in general. I got the fire stoked on the grill and the coals were just ready for our first sandwiches when the skies opened up and FORCED US INSIDE! Some folks were given unexpected showers while playing bag-toss.
Note those WET BRICKS!
Grilled Cheese with(out!!) Bacon was the first and ONLY recipe we had a chance to actually grill. To accommodate for quantity, an electric skillet was used indoors. That appliance saved our BBQ!!!
Displaced BBQ'ers Seek Refuge from the Storm
Luckily we had refreshments and games to keep the fun going inside. A patriotic punch using the principles of science took center stage and maintained a high energy of excitement. The layers of this Patriotic Punch work because of the sugar density. The highest sugar content drink is poured into the pitcher first, followed by a drink with less sugar. The top layer has little to no sugar. This variety used cherry juice, light Gatorade, and seltzer water. This was a WINNER!
Layered Punch for the Win
Another winner at any barbecue is the S'more. Since we lacked a real fire, some kids claimed we could use the microwave. The fire-lover in me died a bit. I can't cook with a microwave, actually detest that device! Our Union Hall has a wonderful 400 burner (ok, I'm exaggerating) gas stove top. What do you do when your fire has been washed out? Turn on the burners to roast those marshmallows!!!
Direct Supervision REQUIRED
Cooking sugar over an open flame as pictured is not ideal for most home settings, but providing a barbecue feel on a rainy afternoon proved this technique effective.
Deluxe S'mores
Using Keebler Deluxe Grahams, which are covered in chocolate made this snack a cinch. After roasting the marshmallow, use two cookies to peel the goo off of your roasting stick. Repeat as necessary until you've achieved sugar overload.
Wegmans O's Cookie-wich
Wegmans O's cookies give the same result with less of a chocolaty mess. We pulled apart the cookie sandwich and applied the roasted marshmallow goo. No one admitted which snack was their favorite, they just wanted S'more!
Musical-Must-Have
To finish off our festivities, we pulled out the old boom box and played Musical Chairs. It's refreshing to watch a mixture of ages play this timeless game.
This wraps another Teen Cooking Club. Special thanks to Wegmans Food Markets for providing the food funding for this program. Join us in August for Cake Boss, a cooking competition. The summer reading theme is Build a Better World, so I ask who can Build a Better Cake?
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.
We "traveled the world" in the kitchen with guest instructor, Nithya Krishnan for Teen Cooking Club this November. Despite having a day off of school, students arrived with an eagerness to learn and play with their food. We dubbed the class World Cuisine, but there was certainly more of an Asian/ Indian flair to the flavors.
The start of Mango Coconut Cake
Mango Coconut Cake was the major interest to this group. Desserts and sweets always entice these teens. Luckily this treat is not the type to rot your teeth. This crew put this recipe together quickly, BUT there was a very important ingredient missing---the BAKING POWDER! Luckily this error was discovered before the food went to the oven. We had enough time to scrape the tins and return the mixture to the mixing bowl, add the missing ingredient and move on with success. Phew...disaster averted!!
Mango Coconut Cakes..with baking powder!
To top the cakes, a Cardamom Cream was created..so tasty...I'm drooling over the memory..
I would eat ALL THE CARDAMOM CREAM!
Another recipe the group tackled was bigger than I've ever been willing to try--Potstickers! The dough was made from scratch, the filling had LOTS OF VEGETABLES and there was flour flying in many directions, but the final product was beautiful and scrumptious!
Chicken Tikka Bites were another group favorite. Simple ingredients and quick cooking times make this a terrific recipe for a week night dinner. A mint yogurt sauce was made for dipping the tenders, which truly complimented the flavors of the chicken.
Mint Yogurt Sauce for Dipping
Chicken Tikka Bites are better than chicken nuggets
Beyond these recipes, there was Basmati Rice steamed in a rice cooker, which paired with Vegetable Ishtew. Nithya was kind enough to share her recipes and those of fellow food bloggers. The find more delicious recipes, read Nithya's food blog. She is a terrific teacher and seasoned cuisinista!
The food line always gains unexpected visitors, siblings and parents just need a taste.
This wraps up another year of Teen Cooking Club. We have one more event to bake treats for the holiday season called Make and Bake Gifts. Sign up to join the fun!
The Southeast Steuben County LibraryTeen Cooking Club sessions returned in October after a two month hiatus. Down time did nothing to the program participation, in fact, the quantity of students surged! Luckily, we have the spacious USW 1000 Union Hall to cook up a storm and contain the 30 teens buzzing with excitement to create the concoctions I collected.
USW 1000 Union Hall houses the SSCL Teen Cooking Club
To start off the event, I set up tables with recipes on each station. Each recipe was labeled with a number. Attendees drew from a bucket to find out which recipe was their's to accomplish. This method has been valuable in breaking up "besties" and siblings, while meeting new friends with similar interests.
Station 1 created a Butternut Squash Broccoli Quinoa Casserole. I just love the way quinao (pronounced "keen-wah") is read by the students. Only the veteran students know the grain and it seems to be overlooked by many households. I wanted veggies to be used and loved in this main dish. CHEESE makes the difference. The dish was warm, colorful, and filling.
So yummy, we doubled the recipe!
Station 2 was assigned Harvest Pumpkin Soup. Pumkins and soup scream fall to my belly and everyone seemed to agree. The recipe claims you should puree the mixture, but I allowed the team to choose to leave it chunky or smooth. The "chunky" vote won. Lots of kids loved this recipe, which was our appetizer as we waited for all recipes to finish in the ovens.
"This is so warm and makes me feel cozy."
Station 3 were given the favorite recipe that disappeared before it hit the counter, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. Due to the pumpkin, these sweet treats are high in fiber and very moist. They were the dessert before dinner, since the squash in the casserole took longer to soften than expected, but no one seemed disappointed by this fact.
Cookies before cooking...they vanished right out of the oven.
Station 4 was given a double dose of recipes to allow enough tasks for each student. Old Fashioned Apple Crisp speaks to the season of harvest. The Finger Lakes region is abundant with apple orchards and the cost of apples goes way low in autumn. With a large crowd, we doubled the recipe. This was another sweet treat with a knack for vanishing.
Gone too soon...
For the Harry Potter fans, like myself, who anticipate the upcoming film "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," (click here to borrow the book from our library!--books are always better than movies...)I felt it necessary to introduce a beverage from the much-loved book series. Butter Beeris a quick, 5 ingredient recipe that is sure to please, though it would taste much better served at the Three Broomsticks in Hog's Meade.
The bespectacled bud imbibed like he was in Hog's Meade.
So many great recipes and equally fun company. These chefs-in-training worked hard and ate 'til their bellies burst. As families arrived to retrieve their kin, it was irresistible for their noses to guide them to the serving counter. What little food was leftover ended up being tasted by parents and siblings. Everyone wanted recipes, and I promised this recap for the exact purpose of taking the lessons home. Please enjoy!
Go worldwide with us next month with guest chef, Nithya Krishnan. We will be experimenting with new ingredients and recipes foreign to my knowledge--I can't wait!
We celebrated Valentine's Day a little early with Teen Cooking Club. This event was held in the community rooms of the Southeast Steuben County Library. The local Union Hall, our usual digs for Cooking Club was housing a Local Foods Festival hosted by Cornell Cooperative Extension, which proved just how many faces you can pack into a union hall.
Valentine's Day Marshmallows were also tested and tasted:
Put them on a stick and dip!
No recipe was really needed for this idea, just melt chocolate in a crock pot, stick marshmallows on a stick. Dip the mallows in chocolate, drip off the excess, then dip them into festive sprinkles. Let them cool, then enjoy!
Valentine Sweetheart Pretzels
These pretzels were so easy and shared the marshmallow station, because they had the chocolate pot. The recipe can be followed here.
We also made delicious Cupid Floats, which I highly recommend, despite the high amounts of sugar you will likely consume.
Red Vines act as straws for this yummy drink
After all of the recipes were made and most of the cleanup was accomplished...I washed dishes as a Valentine's Day gift to my students, we played a few rounds of Minute to Win It games. These were a FABULOUS HIT!!! There is nothing like the giddiness of sugared-up teens and tweens giggling away the afternoon.
Marshmallow Toss
Conversation hearts were the focus of these games.
You cannot refuse a good use for these.
Highest stack wins!
The winners of these games were surprised to receive a gorgeous 3-D printed treat.
3-D Printed Hearts
There was a flurry of activity and I nearly collapsed at the end of the day, but it was all worth the effort, as usual. The excitement is contagious, but my body cannot handle all of these sweets!
Sweets from the Heart.
Next month we celebrate Pi Day (3/14) with Pies!
If you are free after school on Pi Day, be sure to celebrate with us.
