Zach’s egg white dish This creation came to me with health benefits in mind. I use egg whites from a carton opposed to regular eggs because this way proves to be a much healthier alternative, and is generally easier to work with. All you do is take the carton out of the fridge and bam; there are your egg whites. I also use vegetables, usually frozen. I use frozen because of the availability, and they stay fresher longer. And besides, when you put the frozen on the cooking pan, the frozen vegetables quickly cook into a medley that would seem like it was just picked from the garden fresh. My inspiration to create this cool dish is really from seeing my parents make scrambled eggs or omelets; here though, I just use a healthier alternative to eggs by using only egg whites, and add vegetables and Dash seasoning to it to create a delicious small meal. And sometimes, a bit of tabasco sauce to spice it up. Total Time: 10 Minutes Yield: 1 serving Ingredients: • ¾ cup egg whites • ¾ cup of mixed vegetables • Dash brand seasoning, to taste • Tabasco sauce, to taste Procedure: Take out a pan approximately 12 inches in diameter. Turn on stove and heat pan until water molecules jump around on the surface. Pour ¾ cup of egg whites on to pan and start to scramble with a rubber spatula. Add vegetables and make sure that they are heated and cooked well, losing all of the ice on them. Scramble it all until everything is a good temperature, then add Dash and Tabasco sauce to taste. Pour into a bowl and enjoy. Zach W

Ramen, contrary to popular belief, are an offset of the Chinese food Lo-Mein. The logic behind this? the Japanese pronounce the Chinese Characters for Lo-Mein as "Ramen" The dish originally became popular in the Japanese island of Hokkaido, specifically the capital, Sapporo. Amusingly enough, the dish was so popular their it is now concidered their regional dish. The instant noodles that people have come to know and love here in america were created by Momofuku Ando, the founder of the Japanese company Nissin Foods. In 1970, the brand "Top Ramen" was introduced to America. While there are many other Ramen brands out their today, Nissin Foods still holds captive 1/2 of the instant Ramen industry. One of the reasons Ramen is so popular is the cost, coming in at 12.5 cents on average in america. This is also one of the reasons why Ramen factories can be found not only in America, China, and Japan, but also in Europe, Malaysia, and Thailand. Ramen consuming countries also have their own preferences for flavors, similar to the toppings in Omelettes around the world. Koreans generally have spicy Ramen with a packet of black bean sauce. Japan prefers mild spices with seafood flavors. Here in America, we generally have the meat flavors with mild spices, but apparently there is also some mushroom flavors floating around the US somewhere... for More information on Ramen and it's history, please visit http://www.konzak.com/ramen/index.html. this is an excellent website with the history of Ramen, interesting facts on Ramen, and even recipes incorporating the Ramen noodles into other foods. I seriously recommend that last one, because unless your visiting Japan anytime soon, It's highly unlikely that your going to find a nice bowl of freshly made Ramen lying around, and this is probably the closest you can get. -AdamK

Here's a recipe for a Halloween cookie, (they taste better than they look) Witches Fingers (Green food coloring optional) 1 cup butter, softened 1 cup confectioners' sugar 1 egg 1 teaspoon almond extract 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup whole almonds 1 (.75 ounce) tube red decorating gel Liam D

Chocolate Chip Cookies Every year my mom and I make chocolate chip cookies from scratch around the start of December. It is something that we have done since I was a little kid, around 4 years old. We make the cookie dough; add in the chocolate chips and whatever other treats my mom wanted to put in the cookies. Usually my mom does most of the work, and I end up just playing around and throwing stuff into the batter, but now that I am getting older I am starting to help more. We always put the cookies in the oven around two or three o’clock so that we know we can put in a bunch of batches into the oven and have them all be ready by the time dinner is over. Its best to eat the cookies when they first come out of the oven because that is when they are the hottest, and also they are soft and melt in your mouth. After they cool off and time has gone by usually they get sort of hard and have a crunch to them like famous amous cookies, but they are still good. There is no specific cookie recipe that my mom and I use, just a generic chocolate chip cookie recipe I think, but its still good in the end. We have done this every year for a while now and I hope to continue the tradition. -Spencer B.

When you think of a snack, most people think of the junk food that comes in packages that can be bought off the shelf at your closest supermarket. But instead, I prefer to come home from school and make a quesadilla!

When I get home from school, I take a tortilla and spread shredded cheese all over it. Sometimes I put some taco meat on top of the cheese. After that, If i’m only making one then i’ll put it in the toaster oven for about 5 minutes. After that, I take it out of the toaster oven and let it sit for a few minutes while I spread my pineapple salsa and sour cream. Lastly, sit down and enjoy

Cameron P.

GUMBO Gumbo is probably one of my favorite things to eat. It is kind of spicy and hot but I still love it. Gumbo is a stew or soup that originated in South Louisiana during the 18th century. It usually has a stock that has very strong flavor and consists of the stock, meat or shellfish, and many different vegetables. There are a lot of different types of gumbo but the most often ones seen or the most popular ones are Cajun and Creole gumbo. Creole is very popular in New Orleans and contains shellfish tomatoes and some type of thickener. Cajun however, has many different variations and usually has a dark roux (a French base, made with flour and fat) with either some type of shellfish or fowl. Sausage and ham can be added to both varieties and usually is. The first time I had gumbo was probably a year ago at The Cheescake Factory by the Danbury Fair Mall. I had never had gumbo before and I was interested in what it would taste and look like. It was a very thick soup and was served with rice and some type of garnish on top of it. The gumbo looked a lot like the one shown here and I am pretty sure that it was a Creole gumbo I ate judging by the research I have done. And as you can see in the picture below gumbo can be made in many different ways and they can also look very different. I really enjoyed the gumbo but it is very filling and I don’t think anyone could finish it in one serving but, it tastes very good and is delicious. I would recommend it to anyone especially those who are fans of spicy food and thick soup. I would really like to eat this again because it was so good. Tommy S

The picture above shows one of the happiest moments in my life and a time I will never forget. It showed my first Chiffonade of basil. The first step to chiffonade any type of herb or leaf vegetable is you must stack your ingredient up. When stacked, you must then roll up your herb into the shape of a cigar roll. Once it’s rolled you must start to slice very thinly, so the end product results in almost a ribbon like shape. In the picture you can see the bottom part of my chiffonade is sliced thinly compared to the top where it’s sliced thicker. This is because the closer I got to the end of the basil the more scared I got that I would chop my finger off. Not only did I learn about how to chiffonade but I also learned how to cut the three different sizes of batons from potatoes, carrots, celery, and other vegetables. And from that baton I learned how to dice them into squares. Similarly, I learned the proper way to dice garlic and the appropriate way to cut using the “rocking motion.” So far I have learned a lot from culinary and I can’t wait to see what else there is in store. Blake, J

The new trend these days seems to be eating healthy and living the healthy life style. My family has been working on improving our eating habits, and one of our favorite healthy recipes is a Quinoa Salad recipe. I discovered this recipe on a YouTube channel named “Shayloss”. As the chef in this video states this meal is “power-packed awesomeness!” Ingredients: • 2 cups Quinoa • ½ Cup Cilantro • 2 Lime • 1 Jalapeno • 1 Green Pepper • 1 Onion • 2 ½ Tomatoes • 5 Garlic Cloves • 1 can of Corn • 1 can of Black Beans • 1 Tsp. Salt • 1 Tbsp. Cumin • ¼ cup Olive Oil • Tortilla wrap (As needed) • Tortilla Chip (As needed) Procedure: Rinse 2 cups of Quinoa, and pour into pot containing three cups of water. Leave on simmer for 20min. stirring occasionally. (Make sure all water cooks out!) Dice the jalapeno, green pepper, cilantro and, tomatoes. (Dice should be small enough to fit on a chip). Add the vegetables to the bowl including the corn and black beans. Next, dice onion and garlic and sauté together in a small fry pan. And add to bowl containing other vegetables. After that add the quinoa to the vegetables. Next, mix the olive oil, cumin, and salt into a small mixing bowl. And once mixed together pour onto quinoa and vegetables, and also squeeze limes over mixture too. One of my favorite things about this recipe is that it is so easy to personalize it. For example, when I make the recipe I do not add in the green pepper or the jalepeno. And when my step-mom makes it she adds a lot more cilantro then I do because she likes it that way. The best way to find the best mix is to make the recipe and then try it and see what you think would taste good or if you think it needs more of something. But remember you can always add more but you can’t take stuff out. When it comes to eating the quiona salad there are a lot of options! One of these optons is to put some in a tortilla wrap and make a quinoa burrito, or use the quinoa as a dip and eat it with a couple torilla chips. And of coarse you can always eat it plain. But, my personal favorite is to put some quinoa salad in the burrito and then crunch up some tortilla chips in the wrap to give it some crunch. Quinoa is extremely nourishing and filling, and the great thing is quinoa makes great leftovers! So you can eat it for lunch or dinner and snack on it the next day. Or if your going to a party it’s a great appatizer to bring. And in my expierance it is always a party favorite! If you want to see a video of the recipe you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCcOubnEsxk Katelynn,M

Homemade Pizza Today I cooked homemade pizza for dinner. I made the pizza with fresh dough from the grocery store, sauce, sausage, onion, and a clove of garlic. First I kneaded the dough with flour on a butcher block until it was fairly soft. Next I rolled the pizza until it was evenly flattened and had an even thickness of crust. Next I spread the sauce on the pizza evenly with a spoon. I had also been pan frying the sausage while the rolling the dough. I put a little bit of olive oil in the pan and cooked the sausage until there was no pink. I then spread the crumbled sausage on the sauce. I also cut up some onion and spread this on the sauce after the sausage Next I minced some garlic and placed it on the pizza. Finally I spread mozzarella cheese on the pizza and put it in the oven at 450° for 10 minutes. Benedict,J

Recipe for toffee bars

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine , soften

1 cup of packed brow sugar

1 egg yolk

1 1/3tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 cups (9oz) semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Beat butter, brown sugar, egg yolks, and villa in large mixer bowl until creamy, stir in flour, spread into grease 13k9 inch baking pan  

I enjoy the toffee bars because they are good and I like the way they taste and I beg and beg my mom too make them for me

Andy D

On October 9th, I went out for my birthday dinner at my favorite restaurant. I went to Toro. Toro is a Chinese restaurant in Newtown and my family and I love it. We always order a lot of food and share all of it. We sat down and we ordered, fried dumplings, pork lo mien, sesame shrimp, fried rice, ribs, and beef with vegetables. The dumplings and ribs came out first because they were the appetizers. Both were very good. The rips had delicious barbeque sauce that made the rips a lot better. The dumplings had soy sauce with it and it went very well with the dumplings. I like sauces on a lot of my food so that’s why I really liked both of those dishes. The pork lo mien, sesame shrimp, fried rice, and beef with vegetables then came out. The pork lo mien was very good. It also had onion in them which I really like and the pork was very good too. The best part of the dinner was when I ate the sesame shrimp. I love shrimp and the sauce made it so good. The sauce was a little hot and it was amazing. The fried rice was also good. The rice was mixed with corn, onions, and carrots. I also put sweet n soar sauce on it and it made the rice much better. The last food of the night that I had was the beef with vegetables. The beef was mixed with broccoli, corn, carrots, and peppers. The vegetables with the beef made it a lot better. It was one of my best dinners that I have had in a while. Michael P

Christmas Eve Meal On Christmas Eve every year my family and I cook a giant seafood dish. This dinner has been a tradition in my family since I was born and I look forward to it every year. The first coarse is a shellfish soup served with a crostini on the bottom of the bowl. My dad makes a mess of the kitchen and we all stand around and watch. He usually starts with the toasting of the crostini. He slices Italian bread, then sprinkles olive oil on each slice with a bit of garlic powder. He then toasts them in the oven. Using two frying pans he cooks the shellfish in a broth and small portions of a whitefish in another pan. The kitchen smells amazing at this point. Out comes the toast from the oven, while my father directs us to start helping. Each crostini piece goes in a huge white bowl and then my dad puts a piece of cod on top of each crostini. As the shellfish begins to open, my dad adds different stuff into the broth to make it tasty. We each walk over with our bowls and he scoops the broth over the cod and crostini. He counts out the shellfish to make sure each of us gets the same amount (I think he takes more though). He sprinkles a bit of parsley and cranks the peppermill over top of the bowl. We all enjoy the muscles, mahogany clams, and shrimp that float on top of the bowl. We always put a big bowl in the middle of the table and throw our empty shells in the bowl. It truly is amazing! -Jack C

Every Sunday is an NFL football Sunday. Throughout the fall and winter on Sundays I love to watch football and cook up some great food. Last Sunday, (October 14) I made slow cooked wings with a soup on the side. For my wings, I woke up early at around 9 o’ clock and cut up the wings for my liking. Then what I did was I turned on my grill outside to a very low heat and put the wings in. Every half hour for four hours I would go outside to my grill and flip the wings around and position them at different parts of the grill. Now while the wings were cooking I made some soup. The soup consisted of some pan seared steak (thinly sliced), carrots, tomatoes, jalapeño peppers, salt, pepper, celery, parsley, oregano, broccoli, and some linguine. I had to use canned chicken broth for the liquid of the soup because I am not really good at making a fresh homemade broth. Now I let that sit on low heat for about a half hour occasionally stirring it and adjusting the heat. At one o’ clock, I took the wings off the grill. When I brought them in on a plate they smelt so good and I could see that they would fall apart in my mouth. Since I like some hot wings on football Sunday I needed to make a hot wing sauce. First I had to get 2 cups of Franks Hot Sauce, 1 stick of salted butter, a tablespoon of tobasco sauce and a half-teaspoon of cyan pepper. I put all of the ingredients in a pot, I put it on low heat for 5 minutes when it is done, and I rubbed it all over the wings. When all of the football games started I had so much good food in front of me. There were fall of the bone hot wings and an everything soup. Sunday is great because you can enjoy good football and great food. Nicholas Carozza

As the weather starts to get colder, many people start to enjoy hotter foods such as soups or even warming drinks like hot chocolate. This weekend my mom made my family chicken noodle soup. Her soups are normally very good, but this one was delicious. She spent a lot of time preparing the chicken and making sure it was kept out of the temperature danger zone. She put in vegetables like carrots and celery that added an abundance of flavor. She put in some spinach or kale to introduce a new flavor. With the soup, she made egg noodles that really topped off the dish. The egg noodles mixed very well with the chicken noodle soup. I got a big bowl and put a handful of egg noodle in the bottom of it. Then I proceeded to pour the chicken noodle soup over the noodles until I got my desired amount. I sprinkled a little graded Parmesan cheese on the top and added a pinch of salt. I waited for it to cool down a little, and then I dug in. The warm feeling you get after you have hot soup is one of the better feelings I have ever experienced. Overall I was very happy with the effort my mom put into making chicken noodle soup for the Davis family. Hopefully, she tries to top her performance this weekend with another dish, so I have something to write about next month. love, Mike D.

Imagine this a delicious chocolate melting in your mouth. Yummm!! When you take a big bite you get this crunchy and caramelized taste but what is it? Its coconuts and almond mixed together in a caramel sauce. This is a homemade German chocolate cake that my step dad had made. The caramelized topping was made from scratch. When you have cakes they are usually covered all the way with frosting but not this cake. The cake has some of the frosting on the top of the cake and in the middle of the cake as well. Since the frosting is sweet the small amount that was added on the cake was not too much or too little. I think that when something is homemade it tastes better. When they are made at the store sometimes they add some artificial flavor and could have a lot of salt that is not healthy. When something is made at home you could substitute some of the ingredients and make the food healthier. For example you could use a lot less salt then something that was bought at the store. Jessica L.

Nut Free Granola Bars I always like to take snacks that I could buy at the store, and make them at home. I decided that the next thing I would make was granola bars, however when I was searching for a recipe it was hard to find one that was nut-free. I am allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, and most of the recipes I was finding had nuts and nut products in them, so I was unable to take them out. But, I came across a recipe that didn’t even have nuts listed as a necessary ingredient. I found this recipe, and couldn’t help but want to make it! “Playground” Granola Bars Ingredients: 2 cups rolled oats 1/2 cup unpacked light brown sugar 1/2 cup wheat germ 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 cup whole wheat flour 2/3 cup dried, sweetened cranberries 1/2 cup honey 1 egg, beaten 1/4 cup canola oil 2 teaspoons vanilla extract Procedure: 1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Generously grease a 9x13 glass dish, and line it with parchment paper. 2.In a large bowl, combine oats, sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, and cranberries. In a separate medium bowl or large measuring cup, whisk honey, egg, oil, and vanilla together until well combined. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients, and pour the honey mixture into the well. 3.Combine the wet and dry ingredients with your hands until everything is moistened and mostly holding together in a loose ball. Flip the mixture onto the baking dish and pat into one giant rectangle, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edges. 4.Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until edges begin to brown. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes, then cut into squares. The granola bars turned out great!! I even added white chocolate chips in mine! They turned out to be like a combination of an oatmeal cookie and a granola bar. They were very soft, and flavorful! My mom also enjoyed them too because she too is allergic to tree nuts. I have come to realize that I don’t need to go searching in the stores for granola bars that I can eat, and instead I can make my own and try making different flavors. -Lindsay B.