Showing posts with label young chef. Show all posts
Showing posts with label young chef. Show all posts

Friday, February 19, 2016

Fanciful Feast


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. 
Food and Friends at the Fest
Our recipes in the library started with No-Bake Valentine Granola Bites.  We tweaked the recipe to match our theme.  Yummy!

No-Bake Granola goodness
Sweetheart Buddies were also on plate at another table for creation...
Sweetheart Treats
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.
March 14, 2016 at 3:14pm.

See you again soon...
Happy eating!











Friday, January 9, 2015

Souper Bowls

Teen Cooking Club is back with a new year of recipes and treats.  January is such a terribly dark and cold month that soup had to be on the menu.  The Super Bowl is usually scheduled for January, so we made a play on words....

The crowd was split into two teams, Green Team and Red Team, by random drawing, although I believe siblings broke the rules to stay together.  I let each group decide upon a leader to oversee their recipes and make sure everything was being prepared as directed.

The Green Team took to the field with a recipe for Bisquick Biscuit Bowls.  I altered the recipe ahead of time to remove excess spices, but I would try Paula Deen's Chili in a Biscuit Bowl at home!  The recipe yielded 6 biscuit bowls, so I persuaded The Green Team to use their skills to multiply the recipe.  They tried, but fumbled with the sticky dough!!  Their soup was a Baked Potato Soup.  A vegetarian in the group voiced their concerns about meat in any of the recipes, so we kept this one meat free.  
The field looks open, but competition was brutal!

The Red Team faced their challenge with an Easy Bread Bowls recipe.  Although this team had to work with defrosted bread dough, it seemed less sticky and easier to mold onto the pans.  The Red Team soup recipe was appropriate to their team name,
Classic Tomato Soup.  This recipe is easily altered.  We substituted whole peeled plum tomatoes for tomato puree.  This removed the need for a blender, which could have been problematic within our time frame.  If vegetable stock was used, this would be another terrific vegetarian option, but we used chicken stock according to the recipe.

The teams played good games.  Here is a recap of the moves:

 The Green Team had so many more moves to complete their soup vs. 
The Red Team, but their hard work helped them win the best recipe choice.
Hands were flying for that potato soup! 

Left panel shows The Green Team
Middle panel shows The Red Team
Right panel shows results of both teams, Green on Top, Red on Bottom

I recommend making bread bowls for soup nights at home.  They are quick to make and provide a restaurant feel for a simple meal. 

While these concoctions sizzled and simmered, we had a half time show with Frosty Snowman Pretzels.  I found it difficult to source ROUND PRETZELS anywhere in the Southern Tier.  I substituted regular pretzel twists to actually make this adorable treat.

This recaps another SOUPER Teen Cooking Club with SSC Library.
Check back next month when L.O.V.E. is in the air.

Everybody now:  "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...