CHILI!!!!!!!!

Hey its Crazy Cooking Joe here and while we may have made some tasty dishes in cooking class this year I must say this one takes the cake. This week we made a chili dish with a cornbread side. And while the cornbread was good the dish I’m going to talk about is the Chili.

And I must say it was good; it had that perfect little kick to it that you want with a chili. Which is why I highly recommend this chili recipe; fun fact traditional chili doesn’t have beans (Sheldon, Big Bang Theory). Again i must say that I really enjoyed this dish, because I really enjoyed this dish.

And I feel that its not just me who enjoyed this dish I believe it was the entire class; well those of use who were there. Sadly some people where sick and missed out on the delicious dish. but, you lucky people that read this don;t have to, because you will make this chili and realize how delicious it is.

Its interesting, because I don;t really eat chili that much; my family doesn’t really make many, strike that any spicy foods.  And chili is a member of that list; I hope that explains why I write how much I enjoy this dish.

On a side note before I provide you, the reader with the recipe I must say that in my personal opinion I would have added more spice; that is because I really enjoy spicy dishes. So with no further delay . . .

Spicy Chili

-What you need: a Dutch oven, bowls, a cutting board, a knife, ingredients, and some sort of stirring device for the chili.Also plan on this taking approximately  40-50 minutes depending on how long it takes you to gather your ingredients.

1-1/2 pounds ground beef

1-1/2 pounds bulk Italian sausage

3 cans (14-1/2 ounces each) stewed tomatoes

2 cans (16 ounces each) kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup chopped onion

1 large green pepper, chopped

1 can (6ounces) tomato paste

2 heaping tablespoons jalapenos, finely chopped

2 tablespoons chili powder

2 tablespoons white vinager

1 table spoon dried oregano

2 garlic cloves, minced

1-1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1-1/2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon paprika

Directions:

In a Dutch oven, cook beef and sausage over medium heat until no longer pink, drain. Add the remaning ingredients; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Garnish individual servings of chili with cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream.

NOTE: When cutting or handling peppers; disposable gloves are recommended. Avoid touching your eyes and face.

Picture time

The Ingredients

Once everything is mixed together

Don’t forget to enjoy

Don’t Touch My Macaroni!

Hey, everybody! Alfredo here for my last blog post.

I have recently admitted to myself that I am selfish. I don’t mean the typical “you can’t borrow my stuff” selfish, I just mean with food. I like to call it my chronic Get-Your-Fork-Away-From-My-Plate syndrome. There are countless examples of my food selfishness, but one stands out more than the others.

From my fifth birthday to my eleventh, I chose the Macaroni Grill restaurant to celebrate with my friends and family. The employees would always sing “Happy Birthday” and I would get a complementary piece of chocolate cake. And this was a large piece of cake. In the spring of 2000, my grandpa came to the restaurant with us. I blushed as the employees sang to me, but all of my discretion vanished as the cake was set in front of me. I was only five years old, so most of the memories I have of that night are vague. However, one thing I remember quite clearly is the image of four forks coming in for the kill (a.k.a. a bite of cake). I quickly closed my arms around my plate, feeling shocked that everyone just assumed they could have some. And then they started laughing. My parents and my grandpa were laughing at me. Now, of course, I see why they were; it was probably hilarious to see a five-year-old girl get so possessive over her food. But at the time, I was furious. I ended up giving everyone a teensy tiny bite, but the rest was mine.

This was just the first of the many times that my food possessiveness took over me. I don’t know why, but it just drives me crazy if someone tries to take a bite of my food. Every time my grandpa eats out with us and someone asks (tentatively) for a bite of whatever I’m having, this story comes back to haunt me.

“Oh, don’t ask Annie for her food,” he’ll say with a laugh, “She’ll poke you with her fork!” I laugh along with him, acting as though I would never actually do this, but all the while the person who asked will rarely get the bite they wanted.

This past week, I chose to make the Baked Macaroni and Cheese dish for my final cooking project. As you can probably imagine, I got extra protective of food that was not only delicious, but that I also made myself.

When I saw that Macaroni and Cheese was an option, I couldn’t resist. I rushed right to the store and bought (well, my mom bought) all of the ingredients.

All the ingredients (and equipment) mise-en-place.

First thing’s first, I set out all of the ingredients mise-en-place. All the spices were so pretty in the prep bowls! Secondly, I set the oven to 375 degrees. After this,I began melting the butter in order to make breadcrumbs. The bread smelled so fresh, and, with the butter, the scent was amazing!

Setting the oven.

While even more butter was melting, I heated the milk. Earlier that day, I had found out that milk can burn, so I was watching that saucepan like a hawk. Meanwhile, my other eye was watching bubbles form in the butter. I have to admit, I was dreading this point in the recipe. I mean, anything with a silent ‘x’ just sounds hard to make, right? Luckily, though, making a roux was easier than it was to spell it!

The heating milk.

The roux.

After pouring the heated (but not burnt!) milk into the roux and whisking for what seemed like forever while at the same time managing a boiling pot full of pasta, I finally realized that multitasking is NOT my thing. Everything quieted down, though, after it was all mixed together with the spices, cheese, and breadcrumbs on top.

Whisking the milk and the roux.

Adding in the cheese (and everything else).

I was extremely pleased with the finished product, and I believe my family was, too! It was delicious with a bok choy salad and a Rustic Rosemary Fig Tart for dessert.

Before...

...and After!

At the end of the meal, I had to face my fears as I watched my dad put some macaroni into a Tupperware for his lunch at work the next day. I protested at first, but then I realized that my dad had enjoyed my meal so much that he wanted to eat it again. That was an even better feeling than having it all to myself.

The finished Macaroni and Cheese. Yum yum yum!

Interested in the recipe? Here it is:

Ingredients:

6 slices good-quality white bread, crusts removed, torn into 1/4- to 1/2-inch pieces

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for dish

5 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup all purpose flour (I used wheat and I couldn’t tell the difference)

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

4 1/2 cups (about 18 ounces) grated sharp white cheddar (10 oz ended up being about 4 1/2 cups)

2 cups (about 8 ounces) grated Gruyere (can substitute Swiss) of 1 1/4 cups (about 5 ounces) grated pecorino Romano (I used about 5 oz of Gruyere and it was 2 cups)

1 pound elbow macaroni

Directions:

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 3-quart casserole dish; set aside. Place bread pieces in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan (I used a skillet because I didn’t have enough saucepans) over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter. Poor butter into bowl with bread and toss. Set the breadcrumbs aside. In a  medium saucepan set over medium heat, heat milk. Melt remaining 6 tablespoons butter in a high-sided skillet (I used a large saucepan) over medium heat. When butter bubbles, add flour. Cook, stirring, 1 minute (this is the roux!).

2. Slowly pour hot milk into flour-butter mixture (roux) while whisking. Continue cooking, whisking constantly, until the mixture bubbles and becomes thick (this took a while for me; about 15 minutes).

3. Remove the pan from heat. Stir in salt, nutmeg, black pepper, cayenne pepper, 3 cups cheddar, 1 1/2 cups Gruyere or 1 cup pecorino Romano. Set cheese sauce aside.

4. Fill a large saucepan with water. Bring to a boil. Add macaroni; cook 2 to 3 minutes fewer than the manufacturer’s directions, until the outside of pasta is cooked and inside is underdone. (Different brands of macaroni cook at different rates; be sure to read the instructions). Transfer the macaroni to a colander, rinse under cold running water and drain well. Stir macaroni into the reserved cheese sauce.

5. Pour the mixture into the prepared casserole dish. Sprinkle remaining 1 1/2 cups cheddar and 1/2 cup Gruyere or 1/4 cup pecorino Romano; scatter breadcrumbs over the top. Bake until browned on top, about 3o minutes. Transfer dish to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes; serve.

A Brief History of Macaroni and Cheese

Hi, this is Piña Colada, back for one last blog post!

In my family, my mom has always made the meals, while Dad does the dishes. However, for as long as I can remember, mac cheese has been Dad’s specialty. This mac cheese doesn’t come from a box for a quick meal, and in fact, I didn’t even know you could get boxed macaroni until I was in elementary school. Dad’s mac cheese was made totally from scratch and I couldn’t give you the secret family recipe even if I wanted to, because there is no measurement involved.

As a kid, I wouldn’t even eat box macaroni when it was served at other houses. To me, it was unfathomable why anyone would eat that disgusting version of the dish when there was Dad’s kind. I loved it and asked for it every year for my birthday dinner. Over time, I realized that not everyone’s Dad had a secret mac cheese recipe, and so gradually I came to accept box macaroni, however, Dad’s will always be the best.

When it came time to pick a recipe for my final cooking project, I choose the baked macaroni because I love pasta. However, I quickly realized that I was going to serve this baked macaroni to Dad, the master of mac cheese. Gulp.

 

My counter overflowing with my mise-en-place.

As I planned my mise-en-place and looked over the ingredients list, I realized that we had no Pecorino or Gruyere cheese, so I decided to substitute in a Mexican blend cheese, and switch the type of pasta to avoid a last minute shopping run. My dad and sister were gone for the day at a volleyball tournament, and Mom retreated to the back to play cello and be on-call to take pictures, leaving me alone in the kitchen.

Preheating the oven to 375.

It was about 5:30 when I finally started getting out my utensils and ingredients, which took over the whole counter. Grating the cheese, ripping the bread, and measuring everything out was incredibly time consuming, and so it was at least 6:00 by the time I finally got around to actually cooking anything.

Heating the milk with a smile!

The first step was buttering the bread crumbs, which required me to brave our sometimes persnickety gas stove. It cooperated, though, and I was given a confidence boost when I melted the butter without incident. Next came the hardest steps: I had to make a roux, a skill I only understood in theory. I added in the flour, and it clumped nicely, but I had a minor freak-out moment when I realized I had already cooked the roux for a minute and didn’t have the required picture. I turned the heat off, sprinted to the back, got Mom to take the picture, and then realized I had to keep cooking the roux with the milk. Oh, well.

Me stirring my roux.

I added the milk, and attempted to whisk continuously, but I kept getting distracted by the water I was boiling for pasta.

The steam coming from my boiling pasta water.

I was supposed to be watching for bubbles and a thickening of the sauce. I kept stirring and stirring, but nothing seemed to be happening.

Epic continuous whisking.

I had almost given up, decided it was as thick as it was going to get, and moved on when I noticed that if I stopped stirring for just a bit, the mixture would bubble and I also began to skim a thicker layer off the bottom of the skillet. Thus reassured, I continued whisking, and sure enough, the mixture did seem to thicken, just very slowly…

Stirring the spices into my sauce--such pretty colors!

The pasta finished up just after the sauce and was underdone to perfection. Carefully avoiding steam burns, I drained it, and then managed to transfer it into the cheese sauce without a splash.

Lots of steam as I drain the pasta.

I added the extra cheese, and carefully slid my creation into the oven to bake.

Carefully pouring the macaroni into the baking dish.

At about this point, the camera decided to have a ‘memory card error,’ forcing me to frantically review alternative options for picture taking. I at last settled on the video camera stills, concluding that blurry pictures were better than none at all.

Baking in the oven--doesn't it look amazing?!

Of course, the part the recipe leaves out is the clean up. I had hoped to read and relax during the baking step, but instead I was running around trying to rinse the sticky cheese sauce out of things before it set. Not my favorite part of cooking.

So many dishes to wash....

While waiting, I also made a salad dressing with olive oil and balsamic vinegar for my salad. When the timer went off, I removed the baked macaroni from the oven. Since it was now after seven, and I was ready to eat, I decided it was done.

My awesome French salad dressing.

As it turns out, this dish will never beat Dad’s original mac cheese, but is a different type of macaroni and quite good in its own right. I was the only one who got to try the dish that night, but my sister, Dad, and Oreo approved the next night.

 

My dinner all ready to eat--at last!

Here’s the recipe so you can try it for yourself:

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Serves 12 (You can easily divide this recipe in half; use a 1 1/2-quart casserole dish if you do.)

Ingredients:

6 slices good-quality white bread, crusts removed, torn into 1/4- to 1/2-inch pieces (note: I didn’t actually use this much bread, just because I wanted less bread and more pasta)

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for dish

5 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

4 1/2 cups (about 18 ounces) grated sharp white cheddar

2 cups (about 8 ounces) grated Gruyere (can substitute Swiss) or 1 1/4 cups (about 5 ounces) grated pecorino Romano (this is where I substituted 1 ¼ cups Mexican blend cheese)

1 pound elbow macaroni (I actually used Piccolini, it really doesn’t make a difference)

Tada! My final macaroni dish.

Directions:

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 3-quart casserole dish; set aside. Place bread pieces in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter. Pour butter into the bowl with bread, and toss. Set the breadcrumbs aside. In a medium saucepan set over medium heat, heat milk. Melt remaining 6 tablespoons butter in a high-sided skillet over medium heat. When butter bubbles, add flour. Cook, stirring, 1 minute.

2. Slowly pour hot milk into flour-butter mixture while whisking. Continue cooking, whisking constantly, until the mixture bubbles and becomes thick.

3. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in salt, nutmeg, black pepper, cayenne pepper, 3 cups cheddar, and 1 1/2 cups Gruyere or 1 cup pecorino Romano. Set cheese sauce aside.

4. Fill a large saucepan with water. Bring to a boil. Add macaroni; cook 2 to 3 fewer minutes than manufacturer’s directions, until outside of pasta is cooked and inside is underdone. (Different brands of macaroni cook at different rates; be sure to read the instructions.) Transfer the macaroni to a colander, rinse under cold running water, and drain well. Stir macaroni into the reserved cheese sauce.

5. Pour the mixture into the prepared casserole dish. Sprinkle remaining 1 1/2 cups cheddar and 1/2 cup Gruyere or 1/4 cup pecorino Romano; scatter breadcrumbs over the top. Bake until browned on top, about 30 minutes. Transfer dish to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes; serve.

If I were to make this dish again, I would leave out the nutmeg because it gave the pasta a sweeter flavor that reminded me too much of cooked apples.

I really have a new appreciation of all the work my mom does in the kitchen. Given how long it took me to make one dish, I don’t know how she feeds us all, every night. While I don’t think I’ll be volunteering to cook dinner again anytime soon, I feel that through this trimester, I have become a lot more confident in the kitchen. It will be sad when the elective ends and I won’t have any more yummy foods to supplement my lunches! This is Piña Colada, over and out.

What Is this Stuff?

Hey guys this is Wheat Bread with another Woodlawn Kitchen Blog post.  This week our school basketball team had our senior night which went really well we had a big upset against a better team.  Dr Pepper came up big along with some former members of the Woodlawn Kitchen Team including Soy Sauce and Baconator.

Bisquick makes it taste really good

After the game I had to do a Service PSA that night and I planning on filming in the Local Harris Teeter but the man stocking the fridge said I couldn’t film so being a stupid teenager I did it any ways.  But when I am trying to be sneaky i guess I’m not very stable with the flip camera.  So I had to get so footage of some guy walking through a Korean grocery store.  Once i watched it the first thing i thought was what is this stuff it looks gross.  It was all green and weird but then i thought that is what they are thinking about our biscuits and our BBQ.

Needs More Garlic!!!!

Our Biscuits what could they be thinking, we have drop biscuits, rolled biscuits even beaten biscuits. The Drop variety are what we made in class.  We put cheese in it and covered it in garlic butter, this is weird because it is the same way my mom makes her but they seemed different.  So i asked her every thing about the recipe even down to the butter.  It was the same but then I had a revelation it was all about the size the classes were bigger and as it is in America bigger is better.

Don’t Tell Me What I Can’t Eat!

Hey its Dr. Pepper!

Eating… we all do it a lot, and not just the three meals a day routine like always, we eat more than that. I know thats true for me anyway and I bet its true for most of you. You see I am in a stage of my life right now where I eat like a monster, and not the monster in your closet kind monster. I’m talking Godzilla hunger and if I’m Godzilla then carbs are my Tokyo. I eat carbs daily in amounts that probably aren’t healthy, but hey…. don’t judge me.  In order to satisfy my unearthly craving, I eat a lot of breads and muffins…. and biscuits. Whether it’s Bojangles, McDonalds, or my dad’s homemade drop biscuits, I eat a lot of them and I’m always reaching out for more. Once again, don’t judge me, I can’t help it. I like to blame all of this on the fact that I am a teenager and it’s my job to eat everything in site, and some. I wouldn’t really consider myself a stress eater, but when I’m tired, bored, or just  plain hungry, I eat carbs.

When Ms. Ruble said that we were going to be making biscuits in class I was very excited because 1) I was hungry already even though it was 1st period and 2) because biscuits are easy to make and you can make a lot at one time. It was a nice bonus that we would be making drop biscuits because you don’t have to worry about the look of them, it’s pure flavor. Not to mention the fact that we also got to put apple butter on them, and if you don’t know… I LOVE APPLE BUTTER! It’s not a strange obsession or anything, it’s just so dang good.

To start, we mixed Bisquick, milk, and cheese together in a mixing bowl. After that we used spoons to scoop out the dough onto baking sheets and put them in the oven. I couldn’t wait to to try them when they came out the oven, and I’m pretty sure I was the first in line. I tried one with garlic butter, and four others with apple butter. It only took one for me to decide I liked them and I left that class with my carb craving satisfied.

 

Gotta, Wanta, Needa, Eata Chicken Salad Sandwich?

Hey! It’s Oreo! I just ate lunch. And it was goooood!

Do you ever find yourself in a certain mood that you just really want one specific menu item and you feel like nothing will stop you from getting it? Well, that’s how I was feeling just a little while earlier. I was sitting on my pool deck, soaking up some sun, grudgingly typing out a six page history test due for tomorrow. It was getting close to one o’clock and I thought to myself, I really need some chicken salad. Like, I really need it. So I started poking around on some food blogs for inspiration and I found a delicious recipe for southwestern style chicken salad. It had chicken, eggs, plain yogurt, taco seasoning, cilantro and a few other things in it. I got up and looked in the fridge, and problem: I didn’t have eggs or plain yogurt. So I went back to searching half heartedly finding recipe after recipe that I didn’t quite have all the ingredients for. I found one with grapes, which I absolutely love grapes with chicken salad, but I didn’t have any grapes! Then I got an idea. What if I combined a few of the recipes I liked? I’ve been working on my cooking skills for a few months now, so why not improvise?

I planned out what I wanted carefully. I got out about a three cups of cubed chicken (which I already had prepped in the freezer), a cup of mayonnaise, and a quarter cup of each: shredded carrots, sliced celery, and minced onions. That was my base. I took these five ingredients and mixed them together.

Mixing

For seasoning, I put a dash of salt and pepper, about two teaspoons of cilantro, and for my southwestern flair, a little less than half a package of taco seasoning. I mixed it all together and found it slightly dry so I added another half cup of mayonnaise.

Seasoning

I stirred it again and got out two spoons for tasting, one for me and one for my curious younger sister who flitting about the kitchen with a camera, waiting for this moment when she could have a sample. As soon as she put the spoon to her lips she looked at me and smiled. It had passed her approval as well as my own. She suggested that I serve it to her on a pita bread sandwich. And she wanted salt and vinegar chips and sweet pickles. Hey, she could end up a good chef too, mixing the sweet with the salty was a good combo for a picnic style side. I made us each a plate and it was time to enjoy.

Chicken Salad Sandwich

So here I am now, back sitting on my beach towel soaking up some sun eating the absolute most delicious chicken salad I’ve ever tasted. Plus, it’s sunny enough that I might actually get a tan today!

Studying and Eating Lunch

I’ve listed the recipe below, but remember, if you try this, these are close approximations. The chicken I used had been seasoned with salt and pepper before it was baked so if you prepare your own chicken, I suggest the same. The salt, pepper, cilantro, and taco seasoning were to taste, so if you decide to make my recipe, use less than the recipe says at first and add more if you so desire. As I’ve learned today, the best part about cooking is to use your imagination. Explore what’s out there and make your own creation. Not all flavors will blend harmoniously, but some combos will be so delicious you’ll wonder why nobody else had thought of it before. It won’t always come out perfect the first time, but with a little tweaking you could come up with the best meal you’ve ever eaten!

Recipe:

3 cups cubed seasoned chicken
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
1/4 cup shredded carrots
1/4 cup sliced celery
1/4 cup minced onions
2 tsp cilantro
1/2 package of taco seasoning
dash salt
dash pepper

Biscuits = Memory Lane

Hey, everybody! Alfredo here.

Have you ever laughed so hard that you peed your pants? I have. More than a few times, actually. What can I say? I come from a line of weak-bladdered women.

This past summer, I came extremely close to ruining my four-month streak of pee freedom. It was okay, though! I managed to hobble to the bathroom just in the nick of time.

Two of my cousins were arriving that day for their three-day long stay. As I walked in the door, everything seemed normal. We hugged each other and talked for a minute, and then I noticed that my cousin’s yellow flat-bill hat had what looked like a weird hamburger on it. And this hamburger had eyes, a mouth, and arms. It was obviously for a team because the hamburger was peering around a big yellow M. But what mascot is a burger?! You can imagine my confusion. My cousin told us that no, it wasn’t a burger; it was a biscuit. That’s right, a biscuit. The Montgomery Biscuits, Mongomery’s pro baseball team. He had just visited his grandma (on the side I’m not related to), and she had taken him to a Biscuit’s game.

 

Montgomery Biscuits

At this point, we were already laughing and teasing him for having a Biscuit’s hat, but it got even better. Apparently, at the half-time show, the Biscuit Bunch performed. This was where I started laughing uncontrollably. The thought of a stadium full of fans yelling, “Go Biscuits!” while the Biscuit Bunch danced along was more than my funny bone could bear.

This past Thursday, when Ms. Ruble told us we’d be making biscuits, my cousin’s crazy hat was the first thing that popped into my mind. Thankfully, though, our drop biscuits didn’t have eyes and arms. They had scrumptious apple (or garlic) butter instead! Maybe it was the Bisquick or all that cheese, but these were to die for.

 

Okay, so they're making pasta salad here. But see that ham in the measuring cup? It was amazing with the biscuits and apple butter!

We started out by mixing all the ingredients together (minus the garlic and butter) and then used two spoons to scrape the dough off and drop it onto the pan. Hence the name!

As they came out of the oven, we could smell the cheese mixed with the signature Bisquick scent, and my mouth watered in longing.

I tried two biscuits: one with garlic butter and one with apple butter. Being a Reese’s lover, I prefer sweet-and-salty tastes, so the apple butter topping on those cheesy biscuits was right up my alley. The garlic butter was still amazing, though, and would be a great side dish to some roasted or fried chicken (or anything, really!).

 

See those orange and blue bowls right there? We used them to put our butter and garlic powder in mise-en-place style.

Want to drop some cheesy biscuits of your own? Check out the recipe!

Cheesy Drop Biscuits with Garlic Butter (or Apple Butter!)

Ingredients:

1 cup of original Bisquick

1/3 cup milk

1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

1 tablespoon butter, melted

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

apple butter (optional and delicious!)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a medium bowl mix Bisquick and shredded cheese together. Add milk. Stir with fork until soft dough forms. On a cookie sheet (we covered it in parchment paper), drop dough by 5 or 6 spoonfuls (we got six out of our batches) about 2 inches apart. If you don’t use the parchment paper, lightly grease the baking sheet because the cheese will cause the biscuits to stick.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown (this time frame worked for us). In a small bowl, stir butter and garlic powder until well-mixed: brush on half of warm biscuits (or double butter and garlic powder for all of the biscuits). Serve warm and slather apple butter on those without garlic butter. Enjoy!

Jazz Potatoes

Hey, this is Piña Colada, back again for a post.

In English class, we have been discussing the 1920s, a time of turbulence and change in American history, when jazz arose as the soundtrack to the modern era. In conjunction, we are reading The Great Gatsby, and we even got to learn the Charleston, in a very hot, crowded speak-easy atmosphere, minus the alcohol (a.k.a. the English room).

 

The pot of potatoes boils away on the stove.

Going right along with jazz, this week in cooking we got to make Bacon Cheese Mashed Potatoes. For me, potatoes have always been a bland food. Put as much butter on them as you like, add ketchup, and somehow they still soak it all in and end up dry. Mashed potatoes are better, but not much. Then, I discovered the Bacon Cheese Mashed Potatoes, or as I like to think of them, jazzed up potatoes. No longer are potatoes dry and boring! This recipe rocked my opinion of potatoes. They suddenly became an amazing treat, and I probably could have eaten a whole plate of them.

So, how did we accomplish this amazing feat? We divided and conquered, racing the clock to try and broil steak and make the potatoes in the same 55 minute period. It all started at the most basic level, with the chopping and boiling of the potatoes by one group. Dr. Pepper braved the heat and seasoned and seared the steak. Meanwhile, Crazy Cooking Joe was hard at work, chopping a perfect cube of parsley and mixing it into combined butter.

Crazy Cooking Joe mixes the herbs to make combined butter.

I was in charge of laying out the bacon on a pan so it could cook. The hardest part was making it all fit properly, and getting the whole package worth on one sheet, because I didn’t want to be left with just a couple of strips at the end. I also learned how to chop chives, a much easier herb to chop than parsley, and was in charge of measuring out all the whipping cream and sour cream. Don’t forget the difference between wet and dry measuring cups—if you want to learn from my mistake, make sure to use a wet measuring cup for whipping cream, and a dry one for sour cream, which, although it is semi-liquid, levels better in a dry cup.

Me chopping and measuring the chives.

Unfortunately, we ran out of time just as the steak, potatoes and bacon were finishing up, so we missed the fun mashing part. However, we got to enjoy it all at lunch time. I took one bit of the potatoes and was totally hooked. I could have eaten a lot of them, with their rich creaminess and bacon flavor. The food was much appreciated not only by the cooking kids, but also by our classmates who benefited as well! This is definitely the best way I know to eat potatoes.

If you want to “jazz up” your own potatoes, here’s the recipe:

BACON CHEESE MASHED POTATOES

Recipe by: Emeril

Ingredients:

8 baking potatoes such as russets, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

3 1/2 teaspoons salt, plus more for seasoning

1 cup heavy cream

8 tablespoons butter

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning

16 slices bacon, cooked until crisp and crumbled

1 pound sharp cheddar, grated

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup chopped fresh chives

Directions:

Place the potatoes and 2 teaspoon salt in a heavy 4-quart saucepan and cover with water by 1 inch. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are fork tender, about 20 minutes. Drain in a colander and return to the cooking pot. Add the cream, butter, remaining 1 1/2 teaspoon salt, and black pepper.

Place the pan over medium-low heat and mash with a potato masher to incorporate the ingredients and achieve a light texture, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the bacon, grated cheese, sour cream, and chopped chives and stir until thoroughly combined. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

BACON

Ingredients:

16 slices bacon

aluminum foil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F. Place bacon on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes or until crispy. Allow to cool and crumble on a paper towel.

Toasty is Tasty

Hello people, its Crazy Cooking Joe and once again I are here to tell you people about the wonders of the Woodlawn kitchen. This week we made Italian food and boy oh boy do I love Italian food, especially pasta, but I’m not going to talk about the pasta. I’m going to talk about the garlic bread, because while pasta may be good and all, but my all-time favorite spice is garlic and nothing has more garlic than garlic bread. But I must say this is so far my all-time week for cooking class, because this was the first week that we cooked a full meal and I know it’s kind of cheesy, but in my opinion there’s a certain togetherness that is created between people when they cook together. And cooking the Italian food reminded me of togetherness and family and how around certain times of the year the scattered parts of my family would all meet at my grandmothers and we would laugh, eat, and simply enjoy each other’s company. But, the part that resonated with me the most from these family meet ups was the food and how I would be in the kitchen watching my grandmothers every move, smelling all the seasoning, and tasting all the food before anyone else. But, hey I’m getting of track; let’s get back to the here and the now and the now is garlic bread; delicious toasty, garlicky, garlic bread. And yes I know that last sentence was redundant, but redundancy just seems to taste so good and you’ll know what I mean when you taste this garlic bread.

The Recipe: Toasty Garlic Bread

You’ll need one sixteen ounce Italian bread or if you prefer French bread, a half a cup of unsalted butter (a.k.a. one stick), two cloves of garlic smashed or mince its purely preference, 1 heaping tablespoon of freshly chopped parsley, a fourth of a cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (this last bit is again purely preference), obviously measuring instruments, a knife to cut the bread, a baking pan, hot pads, and an oven. As a general note I fell I must add that this recipe is quite easy and takes approximately fifteen to twenty minutes.

1.      What you are going to want to do is take your bread and cut it horizontally and preheat the oven to three hundred and fifty degrees

2.      To make the butter all you need to do is take the butter at room temperature and mix it in a bowl with the garlic and the parsley. *Side notes you can use whatever kind of garlic you are comfortable using whether it is fresh or pre-chopped. Now make sure that you mix the butter thoroughly so that the garlic and the parsley will spread evenly over the bread.

It's Me, Chopping Parsley

3.      Now all you have to do is take a spoon or a knife and spread the garlic butter over the bread and make sure you remember wherever there isn’t butter there isn’t garlic and the more garlic the better it will be. *Another side note, while I didn’t have trouble with the butter to bread ratio I can see how some people might, so if you don’t feel like there is enough its ok to make some more butter just remember to cut the amounts evenly; you’re supposed to eat what you want to eat.

Spreading the Garlic Bread

4.      Now all you have to do is place the butter covered bread on a baking pan and place it in the three hundred and fifty degree oven for ten minutes. Then using hot pads take the pan out of the oven and sprinkle your parmesan cheese over the bread evenly and again using the hot pads place your baking sheet back in the oven on the highest oven rack. But, pay close attention, because this is where it gets tricky; what you are doing by placing the bread back in the oven is called broiling and it is here that it become easy to burn. But have no fear, because all you need to do is crack the oven slightly and watch the bread for two to three minutes/until the edges of the bread start to look toasty and the cheese starts to bubble.

5.      After the aforementioned requirements have been met all you need to do is remove the bread from the oven, let cool for a minute or so, slice into approximately one inch slices, and enjoy.

The Final Product

Frying Rice IS a Good Thing

Alfredo making it look easy

What is up everybody? This is Wheat bread here and I have decided to talk to you guys about what we did this week in our cooking class. I figured out that enchiladas aren’t as hard as I had once thought, but the most important thing I did this week was expand my repertoire of rice recipes. I am almost a master of three kinds White, Instant and Spanish.  With Spanish probably my favorite of them all, Spanish rice! YUM!

The way we prepared it was insane, who would think to fry the rice in a skillet before boiling? Not me. Also why would you make the white rice brown? I still don’t understand but it tastes great all ways possible including burnt, moist, hot, cold it’s all good just a little different.  This lead me to think how did somebody come up with this bizarre way of making rice but then i thought how do people think of anything and from there i gave up and decided that the rice we made was better than any I have had at a Mexican restaurant, well almost.

Look at that rice browning!!!

Now for the Recipe:

Spanish Rice

Recipe by: Simply Recipes

Yields: about 2 to 3 servings

Ingredients:

1 tablespoons olive oil (can use up to 1/4 cup)

1/4 onion, chopped fine

1/2 garlic clove, minced

1 cup of medium or long-grain white rice

1.5 cups* chicken stock (or vegetable stock if vegetarian)

1.5 heaping teaspoons tomato paste

Pinch of oregano

1/2 teaspoon salt

*Check the instructions on the rice package for the proportions of liquid to rice. They can range from 1:1 to 2:1. If your rice calls for 2 cups of water for every cup of rice, then for this recipe, use 4 cups of stock for 2 cups of rice.

Directions:

In a large skillet brown rice in olive oil, medium/high heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook onion rice mixture, stirring frequently, about 4 minutes, or until onions are softened.

In a separate sauce pan bring stock to a simmer. Add tomato sauce, oregano, and salt. Add rice to broth. Bring to a simmer. Cover. Lower heat and cook 15-25 minutes, depending on the type of rice and the instructions on the rice package. Turn off heat and let sit for 5 minutes.

P.S. I did some math in my head and decided that 1.5 heaping teaspoons of tomato paste is the same as 2 teaspoons of Tomato Paste