May Flies and Mud Pies

With the month of May upon us, I felt the need to mix things up and get funky.  Mother's Day is in may, but spring is finally sprung, bugs are emerging and mud is getting mixed up during the downpours of the season.

Oven Baked "Fried" Pickles

Since we were aiming for weird and different, I chose this Oven Baked "Fried" Pickles recipe.  Fried pickles are my restaurant addiction, but many of my students had never tried them.  This was teen approved and easy-peasy!

Peanut Butter Muddy Buddy Cookies

We hit the garden with cucumbers, so we continued looking for mud.  Here you see Peanut Butter Muddy Buddy Cookies before they were baked.  Simple to execute, easy to eat.

Yikes!....  Snakes!

Under mud, or somewhere in the garden, you're likely to discover some snakes.  We made these Spicy, Sesame Snake Breadsticks just a bit less spicy (or not at all!) compared to what was called for in the recipe.  I like to stress to students their creative license is often welcome to edit the spices of a recipe.  Cut spice to your preference or omit ingredients which revolt against your palate.  

Crunchy, not slimy

These little snakes were so adorable!  Students liked them, too.  "Simple and satisfying, crunchy, but not slimy like a snake in the grass."

M i s s i s s i p p i

Mississippi Mud Pie was a great effort of a recipe, but totally worthless regarding the portion size versus the quantity of students in the class.  This was certainly my oversight, so something to pay closer attention to.  I noticed the pan was not full when these marshmallows were added and I thought the group missed a ton of ingredients.  It was a keen-eyed regular who discovered this recipe had a yield of 2 giant, decadent bars!  We were all shocked.  Who offers a recipe so decadent for only 2 servings!?!  We just could not fathom the time wasted.  These teens like to eat!  And we all agree that a recipe should have enough servings to feed your party or have left-overs.

Herb Marinated Cheese

Moms and loved ones alike in each students life got a jar of special olive oil from this class.  Herb Marinated Cheese.  Each jar had bits of feta and goat cheeses, which were infused in olive oil with fresh and dried herbs.  Such a sweet gift for anyone who is lactose tolerant ;)

  

The weirdest part of this class was the encore.  Considering we worked with mud pies, I wanted to challenge students to eat bugs, but not necessarily may flies.  We've read that protein from bugs can be more sustainable than livestock farming, but I wanted to know who would be willing to try.

NOT May Flies

I could not find edible flies, or perhaps I didn't want to find edible flies.  I felt most comfortable to eat a grasshopper.  So, these packages had 3 boxes of flavored grasshoppers distributed for a random student to receive.  The rest of these envelopes had icy pops as a cool treat to end the class.  The 3 (un)lucky students to get these grasshoppers were shocked/excited/grossed/pleased to get such an unusual treat. [They also got icy pops to be fair.]

Wanna Try?

Since I challenged each recipient to taste these bugs, the challenge was returned.  This box of Sour Cream and Onion Crickettes was the test package.  Our senior student was willing to be the guinea pig test subject and we have video proof.

After seeing these brave students, I HAD to try.  

Well, I lived to tell this tale and I quite enjoyed that little bug.  

(but ask me how I felt about this purchase the day before class)

That's a wrap for Teen Cooking Club this May.  We skip June and celebrate the end of this school year in July.  We'll discover how ice cream is made at our favorite local shop, Dippity Do Dahs.  It's certain to be a really cool, rockin' good time.

Thanks for visiting!

xo,

Erica

Vegan Ventures

Teen Cooking Club ventured into a Vegan menu on Veteran's Day 2017.  For those readers who are unaware, vegan diets eliminate all animal byproducts.  Meat, dairy, and honey are also eliminated from this diet.  "NO CHEESE?!" screamed a few unsuspecting students.

Soup's On!

Once we covered the basics of what not to expect, we rolled up our sleeves and got chopping.  Despite no cheese, the apparent main food source in the minds of these students, the menu was filling and easy to accomplish on a cold Friday afternoon.  Soup is a great entry into a vegan diet.  It's easy to avoid meat, while getting lots of flavor and substance using beans and greens.  Cookie and Kate provided this yummy Spiced Lentil Soup, which included curry powder.  Insert the olfactory scent of the kitchen here.  

Sweet Treats

When veggies are involved, I stress to students to "Try it!  We made it together, so it won't kill you.  If you decide it's not for you, the round file is in the corner."  They laugh at the idea of a trash can being a round file, but they respect my efforts and give the required taste.  Not everyone liked the soup, but those who did came back 2 or 3 times!

A sweet addition to our menu involved no-bake cookie balls.  The Beaming Baker posted this recipe for No Bake Peanut Butter Coconut Bites (Vegan, Gluten Free).  Since they were gluten free and no-bake, this seemed like a simple recipe to tackle.  I swear the holiday off of school and the phase of the moon had a portion of my students in a tizzy!  Just look at the top left corner of these pans---that is not the best work of my budding chefs.  I believe we need to focus a class on meal presentation.  At least these treats disappeared in zero seconds flat.

Chewy Cookie Bars

The last recipe on our menu was a suggestion from a patron.  These Reese's Chewy Chocolate Cookies are tried and true in her vegan home, but we ran into some issues.  Switching the butter with a vegan replacement was not much trouble.  Using "fleggs" in place of chicken eggs offered a great lesson. {A flegg combines ground flax seed and water to create a gelatinous mixture quite different from the average egg from an animal.}  Despite following this recipe step by step, the group of students found the mixture to be tough to blend and very dry.  We added extra oil and water to adjust the issues.  Baking the mixture in a pan to make bars rather than cookies allowed them to be quicker to prepare, since class was quickly coming to a close.

Come and Get It!

Despite our concerns about the cookie bars, they also disappeared within seconds!!!  Families were arriving to pick up their charges, so younger siblings and curious parents tasted the foods we cooked.  Everyone was surprised to eat simple food that tasted so good.  Only one family of the group lives by the vegan diet, but everyone decided it's an easy solution to cook healthful foods that have a low impact on our environment.

Clean up!

Kitchen chores are the least favorite of my students.  I stress that balance is important to life, so with fun comes responsibility.  Sometimes it's a struggle to get these students to clean up, but I love when I catch them in the act without any prompting. <3

Last chance to create with Me!

This wraps up another fun-filled year in the kitchen with teens.  Join us in December to catch a recap of the annual Make & Bake Gifts event.  Filomena Jack will bring her stuffed creatures to teach some sewing skills.  Craft Farm will enlighten students with some kitchen chemistry while making lip balms.  We will also test an old-fashioned corn flake candy wreath recipe, plus add in cinnamon-sugar pretzels.  It is always a great way to get into the holiday spirit.

Thanks for visiting!

xo,

Erica

Eggstatic Entrees

Eggstatic Entrees

The SSC Library Teen Cooking Club made some Eggstatic Entrees for the month of April.  We are lucky to have a wonderful partnership with Wegmans Markets to purchse all of the food needed for this ongoing cooking program.  With Spring in the air, the egg symbolizes the promise of life.  I wanted to breathe life into recipes we've never tried.  

Egg Drop Soup

We had several delicious options to test.  First on the menu was Egg Drop Soup.  I never tried this recipe at home and never eat it in restaurants, so it seemed like a worthwhile adventure.  The girls who tested the recipe learned two things.  The first attempt was too hot and they stirred in two directions, so the egg wasn't very pretty.  The second attempt was cooked at a much lower heat and stirred in one direction.  The appearance was better, but the taste to everyone was "waaaaayyyyy too salty!"  With new chefs, learning to use discretion with ingredients like sugar, salt or spice is important to grasp.  Not everyone likes the amount of salt one chef suggests over another.  I stress to start with less, then add more along the way. 

Pizza Nests

Next on the menu was Spaghetti Squash Pizza Nests.  There was no room to fit eggs in the nests 😊, but plenty of eggs in the recipe.  Squash is not a favorite of these teens, so I wanted to show them a new way to work with this terrific source of fiber.  It's cheap and lasts forever in the pantry.  There were a few muffin spaces left in the pans and I wanted to test out a product that seems to be gaining attention in the culinary world--veggie noodles.  

Veggie Noodles--YUM!

The Veggetti is a "Seen on TV" product and the test I tried proved it to be valuable.  I picked up slender zucchini and had students make veggie noodles with it.  Various veggie noodles are popping up in our markets, but the cost is out of this world!  I stress to my students to watch the price per pound of prepared foods versus raw foods.  A little elbow grease takes your dollar a lot farther than packaged food.

Veggetti-fied Zucchini

Using this new tool was fun and easy to use.  We substituted these noodle in place of the spaghetti squash to make more Pizza Nests and fill the pan, but they were not as favored as the original recipe.  Baked Spaghetti squash cooked downs faster than the zucchini noodles, which were too long and threw off the texture.  I would try veggie noodles in place of pasta in a different recipe next time.

Uncooked Casserole

An overall favorite recipe was Cheesy Egg Casserole.  The recipe source, Crazy for Crust, claims to cook this for Christmas morning and now I know why.  The ingredients are simple and quick to whip together into a casserole.  I thought cottage cheese would be snubbed as a gross concoction, but the young lady in that team came up to me saying "Do you know how much torture it is to cook with cottage cheese?  I LOVE IT and can't resist eating it from the tub!!!"  Surprise, surprise!  

Beautiful Brown

The recipe browned so beautifully.  Everyone wanted a bite once they saw this hue.

Happy Grater

The last recipe made for a very happy grater (:  Lemon Thumprint Cookies looked so much like sunny-side up eggs that I couldn't resist choosing this tarty dessert.

Raw Cookie Dough

The cookie dough was something like a sugar cookie.  There were really two recipes to complete this task.  Lemon Curd tops the cookies once they are baked and cooled to give that lemony-yellow dollop of goodness.  You can purchase lemon curd, but I stand by my statement that processed food costs so much more than homemade.  A small 8 ounce jar cost nearly $5, but over 16 ounces were made from scratch in less than 5 minutes (for @ $1) and there was more than enough to top several batches of cookies.

Lemony Goodness

The budding chefs enjoyed these recipes and everyone claimed a different one as their favorite.  Egg Drop soup was the loser, because it was too salty.  We'll call that our Flop of the Month.

Spring Break Socializing

Spring Break for the school district kept several students away in fabulous destinations.  Those who enjoyed stay-cations benefited from the delicious treats we made.  I look forward to celebrating our moms in May.

Mmm-Mm-Mother's Day

Check back next month to find the amazing recipes we tackle for the Mothers in our lives.

Thanks for visiting!

  

Irish for Today

Preparing to be Irish for Today

The SSC Library Teen Cooking Club went Irish for Today in preparation for St. Patrick's Day.  Green was mandatory, which included candy AND vegetables.  Balancing savory and sweet dishes was also required.  That balance makes the afternoon go very smooth.

Lucky Charms Treats

The lucky rainbow struck the Lucky Charms Treats team.  Everyone wants to be part of a sweet recipe team, but there are not enough for everyone to join.  Remember that note about balance?  We must have both sweet and savory to keep our brains and bodies in check.  I was tricky with this recipe.  Anyone who chose this recipe, also had to do dishes--the DREADED CHORE!

They're Magically Delicious!

Another team made the main course, Irish Potato Soup.  We tweaked this recipe slightly.  To keep it vegetarian, we used vegetable stock and let individuals decide to use the bacon bit toppings.

I've never eaten a Leek...

As this team gathered their ingredients, there were questions about the leeks.  We've never cooked them in this program, or if we have, it's been a very rare opportunity.  Even adults in the program were excited to see them prepared.

"They truly give the Irish Green for this class!"

Another sweet recipe was nearly requisite for the theme.  I took two shake recipes and "blended" them to one.  The Grasshopper Shamrock Shake was a fantastic hit.  Students who participated in "Made with Love" had high expectations for this beverage, and those hopes were met!

Minty to the Third Degree

Using this Shamrock Shake recipe as a guide, we then used inspiration from this Thin Mint Shake recipe.  Combining the two created the Grasshopper Shamrock Shake.  AND IT WAS DELICIOUS! (Grasshopper cookies are an alternative to Thin Mints.)

CHOCOLATEY Grasshopper Shamrock Shakes

Irish Soda Bread was the last recipe, multiplied by 3 teams.  This was the questionable recipe, in my opinion.  Knowing from experience, it would easily be a flop or favorite.  This was a truly "From Scratch" option.

Dough is gross!

Anyone who has made dough by hand knows the stages the ingredients take from simple and separate to sticky and gross to nearly total crumble that has no hope, to suddenly perfect and ready to bake.  I have upgraded my kitchen with a KitchenAid Stand Mixer and will NEVER go back!  I lived the rough life that my students are facing and it's important to get your hands dirty as a chef, learn the process, then upgrade as time passes and income allows.

Progress is key

For all who struggled with this recipe, I promised that progress is key to success.  Stopping where the ingredients were still lumpy, sticky and gross would leave the project in a terrible position.  Pushing the ingredients to combine into a beautiful dough would be totally worthwhile.  They completely agreed with me once the food was in their tummies!

Plain on top, Raisins on the bottom, AKA Spotted Dog

These breads cooked to a gorgeous brown within 50 minutes.  We omitted caraway seeds to avoid unusual flavors.  Keeping 2 breads plain and including raisins in one allowed a little bit of variety, but plenty of quantity for a hungry brood.  We must not forget that all Irish Soda Bread needs a cross cut on the top before baking.

Cut the Cross

Eat Out Eat Well tells us the scientific reason for cutting the cross.  "Slashing the dough lets heat penetrate into the thickest part of the bread and allows the bread to stretch and expand as it rises."  If my grandmother taught this class, she would say "Now you cut the cross to keep the devil away!"  I just love those superstitions.  Regardless of myth or science, we Cut the Cross.

I'm S T U F F E D ! ! !

The meal was delicious!  Having a good balance of sweet and savory saved the afternoon from chaos. I asked what everyone's favorite dish was and I got a widely varied response.  Surprisingly, the soup won overall!  Where I feared the veggies and greens would frighten, this crew proved they accepted the challenge and gobbled it down.

The Champion- Irish Potato Soup!

Thanks to Wegmans Food Markets for partnering with the SSC Library on this program series.  We appreciate all the variety of good and new ingredients to try each month!  Extra special thanks goes to the Local Steeleworkers Union Hall for letting us take over their kitchen every second Friday afternoon of each month.

Eggs on the Agenda

Check back in April to see what Egg-citing Edibles we create for Eggstatic Entrées.

Thanks for visiting!

xo,

erica

Freaky Friday

Welcome back to ou first Teen Cooking Club of the Year!  

Class landed upon a Friday the 13th, so it only felt right to make some Freaky Foods.

Freaky or Not...they ate it ALL!!!

Growing up with the fear of Jason Myers chasing me on any given Friday the 13th (yes-- over-active imagination AND horror-flick-follower) has made me a bit superstitious.  It turns out, Friday the 13th is a lucky day and working with this group of budding teens makes me a lucky paralibrarian.

Our menu was dedicated to the Freaky Look, but Delicious Taste.  Knowing that they ate ALL the food proves the delicious quality, these pictures will prove the Freaky Factor.  Let's start with a beverage the color of ooze or worse.

Worms and all...

Goosebumps Punch is a sweet concoction of soda, sherbet, food coloring and gummy worms.  This was, by far, the easiest of the recipes.  The bowl was stored in the fridge while the rest of the menu was prepared.  Between those colors and lumps, along with the slimy worms, this adult COULD NOT consume this without a squirmy face!

Not-Yet-Cooked Meatball Mummies

Meatball Mummies were less freaky, but actually adorable mini treats.  The recipe was also quite simple.  Black olives made much cuter eyes than ketchup.

"Looks like guts and goo."

Beef and Tomato Macaroni Soup was not the prettiest creation if you're in the Freaky Friday mindset.  "It looks like guts and goo," announced a young chef, and I have to agree!  Imagination makes and breaks a creation, but luckily the olfactory sense pushed aside the visual and this pot got DEMOLISHED.  Having a few vegetarians in the group allowed me to introduce Wegmans' Don't Have a Cow Meatless Beef Style Crumbles.  No one knew the difference.

CHEESY!!! Breadsticks

Cheesy Breadstick Bones were a delight to the whole crowd.  The team that made these had to struggle with fresh dough, which is a learning experience. Leaving teens with as much cheese as I purchased (in preparation of a much larger class) was a personal learning experience.  You can check for yourself, but more than double the amount of cheese required for this recipe was used.  Releasing the breadsticks from the pan lifted all of the breadsticks at once.  These were basically Cheese Bones with some Bread filling.

Enough Cheese for 2 Recipes!

Brain with Blood Clot Cupcakes were the ABSOLUTE MOST FREAKY DISHES POSSIBLE!! We broke the rules and made the cake from a box, but the icing from scratch.

Intestines or Chewed Bubble Gum?

Just seeing these cakes again makes me queasy.  I had a few troubles with this recipe.  For one, I forgot eggs!  I usually forget to bring a cooking element from the Southeast Steuben County Library building, but it's just a few hundred feet from the Union Hall, so no biggie.  Forgetting a cooking ingredient leaves us scrambling for substitutions.  Luckily, we discovered my neglect very quickly, and a mother offered to pick up a dozen.  Disaster averted.  Unfortunately, the grocery store did not have piping tools for icing, so the "brains" really looked like intestines or chewed up bubble gum.  I think this added to the Freaky Friday frenzy and certainly makes me disgusted in a good way!

So good it was gone in minutes!

All the food we made was eaten---quickly!  It's like a mad dash to get everyone to the spot on time, separate into even groups, whip up the recipes, and have enough time to eat and clean up.  When the food vanishes before dishes get prepped for the final stages, I know I compiled a good menu.  With siblings and parents arriving just as we started serving the food, we had plenty to share.  The resounding response to what was the favorite food? "Cheesy Bones" won the prize.

February is Made with Love

That's a wrap for the first Teen Cooking Club of 2017.  A special thanks to Wegmans Food Markets for sponsoring this program.  We had a great time in the kitchen and started the year off right.  Next month, we celebrate Saint Valentine's Day with the theme "Made with Love."  So many yummies for your sweeties.  See you then!

 

BBQ 2016

Barbecues are the best thing about summer cooking.  

Stoking the grill and prepping food, while enjoying the great outdoors brings our appreciation for food and fire another level higher.

Grilled Pinapple

We started our event by moving indoors!  A tremendous thunderstorm rushed through the valley at the precise moment our BBQ began.  With the Local 1000 Union Hall as an inclement weather standby, we had the comfort of cool air and dry hair, while our food cooked on the grill outside in the rain.  

Grilled Pineapple was a fun and easy recipe to start the event.  It cooked quickly and excited the crew.  "Ooh! I've never tried grilling fruit before," said several participants. The recipe is vegan and very yummy, but we skipped the coconut milk and went right for the whipped cream from the can.  Sometimes shortcuts are necessary.

"Baked" Potato Bar

Speaking of shortcuts...

We had a "Baked" Potato Bar, but they were really boiled salt potatoes, following the bag instructions and provided a row of yummy toppings to smother the tubers.

Vegan Satay Skewers

There were a few vegetarians who signed up for this program, so I decided to attempt some unusual BBQ fair for all to try. The recipe I sourced needed translation, but was easy to accomplish.  Vegan Satay Skewers are delicious, especially when you follow the dip recipe precisely. Along with vegetarian needs, I also balance nut allergies, so the peanut butter required for the skewer sauce was replaced with sunflower butter.  

That sauce was an EPIC FAIL!

Blueberry Chia Pudding

Sticking to the vegan fare, I sourced a recipe for Blueberry Chia Pudding.  I mentioned how chia seeds are a super food and the hot food item at the moment.  Seeing a bag of black seeds did not impress my group.  When I teased that chia seeds are the same product used on Chia Pets, the group was less enthused to taste test this recipe.  "So, you're basically giving us grass seed to eat," was the resounding sentiment.  Despite hesitation, the team that made this pudding took it seriously and several students truly enjoyed the unusual texture.  No left overs always proves a recipe's success.

Mexican Street Corn

The last menu item was Mexican Street Corn.  This was a top favorite along with the potatoes. Spicy tang and creamy spread made these cobs major menu competitors.  

Corn cooks quickly and the topping was a simple addition to move this grain from 

corny to crazy cool!

Despite rain, we had fun in our indoor picnic/ barbecue.  We were busy as usual, but left with a little more cooking knowledge than when we started.  That is the goal.

Extra special THANKS goes to Wegmans Food Market in Corning for their generous gift card donation, which helped purchase all of the food used in this program.

Teen Cooking Club will be on hiatus until October.  This seems like forever away, but the cool weather creeps in quickly in Upstate New York, school starts soon and foliage will be falling before you can say Autumn.

Thanks for visiting!

~erica