During the power outage, cooking wasn't a problem at all, thanks to our new gas stove. However, last year it was difficult because our stove ran on oil so we can't cook anything. Our oil stove was the flat surface kind. And its similar to this one below.

Last year when we had this stove it was impossible to use. And we didn't get a generator until we got our power back. We did have a fireplace, but cooking on it wasn't a good idea. When we made eggs in the morning it took about a half hour just to cook. So that whole week we had to to eat out in restaurants or order take out meals instead. I don't really like to eat out a lot because I think everything homemade is healthier and tastes better too.

But the one this year runs o gas which is better because if you had matches an lighters then it was easier to turn on. And the gas stove we have today looks like this one below. The matches helped a lot and we had a generator this year but we couldn't plug it into the generator because it takes up too much power. So my parents had to cook everything on the stove. But at least it was better than last year. My parents had to cook things without and oven only a stove but it wasn't impossible. It was easy. Just make quick home cook meals like pasta, rice, fried chicken wings.

So, the power outage wasn't that bad compared to last years. Cooking, was simple and easy and I kind of helped a little because feeding a family six was hard and all you had was a few matches and not a lot of room to work on one stove.

This weekend my mother and I made frozen Toblerone mousse squares. They were for a party that my parents were going and I helped out in making them. First we mixed 1 cup of oreo baking crumbs and butter and pressed them on the bottom of a 9-inch square pan. Next we microwaved 1 and a half Toblerone bars until melted. After that I mixed cream cheese spread with the mixer until creamy and then gradually mixed in milk. Next I blended in the melted chocolate and whisked in the cool whip. Finally I spooned the mixture over the crust and put it in the freezer for six hours. When we took the bars out of the freezer we sprinkled the second half of the chocolate bar on top of the recipe, and cut them it into squares. The bars came out delicious, my mom brought me home one. We will definitely make these again soon. Jack B

This weekend I went to The Smithy, a steak restaurant in Monroe, with my family. I ordered a demi-striploin, and it came with salad and a cheese block appetizer. There was a salad bar at one end of the restaurant and a table with a couple types of cheeses and breads at the center. I had some cheese and crackers, as well as a salad with Italian dressing. I ordered my steak medium-rare and had a baked potato with it. My steak came out excellent and the baked potato was very good as well. My mom had the shrimp scampi; I tried a piece and it was very good as well. My father had the porterhouse steak and said it was great as well. The food was delicious, and I would definitely recommend going there. I will definitely be returning there sometime in the future. Jack B

Pat’s Thanksgiving Desert J

As I stated in my first blog, Thanksgiving dinner is a very happy time of year for me, and we also make special foods that you might not find in the normal household. Believe it or not, I have my own recipe that I make for desert. My famous desert is my famous chocolate covered strawberries. This might not sound like much, but for someone as Cooking challenged as I am, I take pride in making it. This is a process that I have to start the night before, so I can let the chocolate get hard and freeze around the strawberry. However, I start by getting a lot of strawberries on a plate and put a lot of chocolate fudge in a bowl. It is pretty self explanatory, but then you dip the strawberries in the fudge and then put the strawberry back on the plate. Sometimes, I also dip the strawberries in sprinkles, and I enjoy this better. After you put them in the fried over night, you have chocolate covered strawberries, and they are very cold and I like this a lot. I make them for thanksgiving desert, but you are lucky if they make it to 2 o’clock. The strawberries are a fan favorite in my household. So many people come to my house for Thanksgiving, so you can tell that they go by very fast. Instead of using fudge, sometimes I get Hershey chocolate bars and melt the chocolate, and that also gives it a different taste. To melt the chocolate, I put the chocolate over the stove and put a little water in the bowl. This gives the chocolate a liquidly texture. Even though it does not sound like much, I take pride in my strawberries. They take a lot of care, and a lot of people like to eat them in my household, so I have to make them well to avoid angry Thanksgiving family members. McLoughlin P

Patrick McLoughlin

Class 8

November 20, 2012

Blog #1

Thanksgiving meal

            I am pretty sure I can speak for most Americans when I say that Thanksgiving is definitely by far my favorite holiday. When you think of U.S. holidays, Thanksgiving is the main one that comes to mind. The perfect thing about Thanksgiving is that you it is a day set a side to indulge on as much food as possible, and the food never runs out. My family has many foods that aren’t in the traditional Thanksgiving meal, and I will state them for you. First of all, my older sister, Maggie, makes home made macaroni and cheese that is a fan favorite at my house for thanksgiving. She cooks noodles, not by boiling them, but however by putting them in the oven with a ton of cheese, pepper, and cinnamon drizzled on the top of it. This might not sound too good, however if you eat it, you will have to keep eating. Another thing that my house hold is famous for during thanksgiving is our broccoli casseroles. This might sound very gross to most at a first thought, but it is one of my favorite dishes. This is odd coming from me because I am a very picky eater, and the only reason I ate it in the first place is because my mom offered me 5 dollars when I was about 8, and this was a huge amount of money to me at the time, and I thought it was worth it to eat something as gross as it looked and sounded. But when I ate it, I became in love with it. McLoughlin P :) 

Thanksgiving is the time of year to be thankful, to spend time with your family, too … Okay, it’s more about the food actually.

Sift together

·       2 cups flour

·       ½ tsp. salt

·       ½ tsp. baking powder

·       1 tsp. baking soda

·       1 tsp. ground clove

·       1 tsp. cinnamon

·       1 tsp. nutmeg

In separate bowl:

·       Beat 2 cups sugar and ¾ cup butter

·       Add 2 eggs and beat until fluffy

·       Beat in 1lb can pumpkin

Then beat in flour (low speed)

Grease and flour two loaf pans and bake at temperature of 325 for an hour.

Enjoy a warm slice with whipped cream cheese or plain.

I ate a lot of different things over the week that we didn’t have power. My house lost electricity for four days and didn’t have a generator so we were out of luck in terms of cooking. The first night my mom made steak on the barbecue because it didn’t require any power to run and she wanted to use them so that they wouldn’t go bad. They were just your everyday normal steaks with montreal steak seasoning, nothing to special. The second night we went out to Tambacio’s restaurant down route 25. The barbecue had run out of propane so we had no way of cooking anything back at my house. While we were there I ordered ravioli, it had cheese inside and was in a tomato sauce, I thought tat it was pretty good. The next night I was with my friends and they had a generator so his mom cooked for us. She made buffalo chicken in the crockpot, it was cool because it had the texture of something close to pulled pork but tasted way different, we ate it on roles and made sandwiches. The last night that I didn’t have power I was out with my friends so we just got fast food at Wendy’s. I don’t go to fast food restaurants very much so I figured it was okay every once and a while. From Spencer B

Mike Davis Mrs. Hoagland Culinary November 19, 2012 Blog Number 2 This week my mother made some home made meatballs. She got the meat, and some fresh herbs and mixed them all together. She then rolled them all out into balls, and decided to freeze half so she could save them for a later date. With the ones she was going to use for that night, she baked them in the oven for a certain amount of time. Then she threw them into the crock-pot with some sauce and let that heat up for a while. When they were finally done, I took a Portuguese roll, and put a piece of provolone cheese on it. I then went over to the crock-pot and grabbed a couple meatballs to complete my sub. I added some Parmesan cheese on top, just to add a little more flavor. That meatball sub happened to be one of the better ones I have had in a while, probably because it was home made. My mom also made chicken Marsala the other night. I’m not sure exactly how she made it, because she kind of made it a surprise. She put the chicken over some freshly made pasta, and added a couple vegetables on the side. The chicken was actually very good. She said that she thought it was even better than one made from the Newtown Inn, and I actually had to agree with her. My mom stepped it up with the food this time; hopefully she continues her fabulous cooking. I’ll keep you guys posted.

This Thanksgiving it is my dad’s turn to have the kids, so my mom had her Thanksgiving dinner, this past Saturday. The dinner started with half a grape fruit with a little powered sugar on top, to as my mom says, “cleanse our palates”. Next came the main meal, it was a mix of all different side dishes and of coarse a perfectly cooked turkey. The side dishes are the same dishes we have every year, and I LOVE them, Thanksgiving would not be the same without them. Some of the side dishes were your standard Thanksgiving sides, the green bean casserole with French onion rings on top, bread roles, white-mashed potatoes and gravy, canned cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes chopped into blocks with butter, a spread of different olives and pickles, candied yams, sautéed carrots and green beans, and a broccoli, sunflower-seed, and red onion salad which is a family recipe passed down from my grandmother. And for dessert we had a choice of pumpkin or pecan pie. The whole afternoon ended with a fun family competitive game of touch football. ~Katelynn M.

-Jack Condon Although it may be expensive and not appetizing for others, sushi is my all time favorite food. Sometimes you may hear that sushi can make people sick. It's because sushi is fish that is served raw. It is important to go to a good sushi restaurant that serves the freshest fish. Regardless, sometimes I go to a place I have never heard of and take the risk, because in my mind, sushi is worth the risk. Once you have sushi there is no way to explain how delectable it is. There are many different types of sushi rolls consisting of Hamachi, Tekka Maki, Unagi, Temaki , and many more. some American rolls are the California Roll, New York roll, and Boston roll. Whether it is American or Japanese sushi it is very good! One time when I went to a Sushi/hibachi restaurant with my family and I, we had to kneel on matts on the ground to eat our food. It was very strange but I am sure it was part of the culture revolving around the food. The food ended up being amazing and the vibe of the restaurant was extraordinary. ever since the first time I have eaten there, which was almost 3 years ago, my family and I have eaten there 4 times. sushi is an excellent type of food and I am willing to travel and spend money on a food I can trust that will taste amazing. If you still believe sushi is gross and you are afraid to try it, go ahead and take a bight I guarantee you will be surprised on how delicious it is.

Over the summer, I went to Italy for a month to see my mother who lives there. I stayed with her and her boyfriend, who manages a resort hotel just outside of the center of Rome. I went to this hotel almost everyday, and I ate a lot of delicious new food combinations that I’ve never had before. One of the two dishes that became my favorite was the Tomino. It looked like this:

This is a small block of tomino cheese wrapped in bacon with balsamic vinegar on top, resting on top of a small bowl of salad. This was a completely new idea to me and it was one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. I would recommend this dish to anyone who enjoys cheese. It’s a new flavor and it’s fairly simple to make, using only a few ingredients.

By: Cameron Partrick

Food can be anything
Food is different
food is unique
and can always use a tweak
Food is big, small, hot, cold
and can occasionally catch mold
Food can be fatty
Food can be lean
and can even be green
Food can be yummy
it can be chummy
it all depends on your tummy
Food can be Mexican Japanese or Chinese
it can be anything that we please
Food can take all different shapes, sizes, and smells
It can be delicious, ambitious, and most importantly nutritious
Food is here
Food is there
Food can be everywhere
Food can be anything

 Poem by Blake Jarvis

Nicholas Carozza Last Sunday I ate something rather different for lunch. I had made a duck, which I normally don’t eat regularly or basically at all. In the morning I went to the store and I saw that they were selling whole ducks, so I thought that it would be a good choice for lunch because it was something different. When I had got home I started to prepare the duck, I got a big baking pan and put the entire duck in. Then What I did was peel and cut four or five potatoes and place them all around and on top of the duck. Then I got some herbs and spices and placed it all on the duck itself. When we bought the duck, it came with some kind of orange sauce so I got the sauce and rubbed it all over the duck so that when it was cooking the sauce would go inside of the duck and add even more flavor. To cook the duck I turned on my oven to 200 degrees and put the duck in. I let the duck sit in the oven for about three to four hours. During the cooking period, I had to make a side dish, so I decided to make Chestnut corn bread stuffing. To make that I chopped up stale bread we had lying around, chestnuts, carrots, celery, onion, chicken broth and seasonings. (Salt and Pepper). To cook that I added all of those to a cooking pot that is oven safe and I let that cook for about a half hour to fourty five minutes. Once the stuffing and the duck were done I combined them in a dish and ate. The duck was so flavorful and the stuffing was so good. You never know the outcome of a dish you don’t really eat unless you try it.

For this thanksgiving I wasn’t just going to go the usual, I wanted to try something different. Me and my mom both decided that this year we would smoke the turkey for thanksgiving. I looked up some different ways to smoke a turkey, not a recipe but just an idea. Some were dry rubbed and some were marinated and some were brined. Brining is when you take a choice of meat and u let it sit in a liquid for hours, some people use cider, citrus and some will even use honey brine’s. I’m choosing to use a cider brine, what I am planning on doing is taking apple cider, brown sugar , salt , pepper , and some fresh herbs and letting it sit completely submerged overnight. This will make our turkey moist and juicy. Usually you cook your average turkey in the oven at 325°-350°, when you smoke you use a temperature that is lower so you can cook it low and slow. I will probably be trying to maintain a temp of 285°-295° for the whole cooking period. Since I have an electric smoker it will be easier to maintain the temperature. After cooking all day we will sit down to a new way of enjoying turkey! Michael B

Recently I have gone to Maggie McFly’s which is a small restaurant in Newtown with my family. The food contains all the basic types of food such as steak, hamburgers, pizza, mac & cheese, pasta and many more. The restaurant has no specific theme; it is many cultures mixed together. The food is nothing special and pretty average tasting. Therefore, it was not the best food that I have ever eaten it got the job done. The real issue was in their service. The food took forever to be prepared and served to us. By the time we got the food it had been over an hour since we had ordered. The food was not worth the wait in my mind. I don’t want to say it was a bad restaurant because it wasn’t there was just a few issues. I got the filet steak, it was very moist with little grill marks. It was cooked medium rare which is exactly what I had asked for. At least they had got the orders right to make the experience a little more desirable. Overall I give the restaurant a 7 out of 10 because of the preparation time. - Jason S.

Zach Waller Hoagland Culinary 1 19 November 2012 Bolognese Sauce My father loves to cook, and always is up to try something new. Bolognese sauce is not a new project for him, but he had not made it in at least 6 months. This time, I decided to help him out making it, and it was very informative and interesting. First, I will briefly discuss what Bolognese sauce is, for some of you may not know. It is an Italian meat sauce that is generally served over thicker, heartier pasta to support the overall volume of the sauce. Think of it as grinded up meatballs almost, but significantly more elegant and distinguished. We started by gathering our “mise en place”, getting all of the ingredients in place and ready to roll. I was in charge of making a homogenous mixture all the ingredients in the actual Bolognese sauce. So, my dad did most of the actual mixing and applying of the ingredients, which consists of a multitude of vegetables, some tomatoes, olive oil, etc. And of course, meat. We used very lean pork with nearly every bit of fat either chopped or cooked off. After the application of all the ingredients is finished, you let it simmer on the lowest possible heat for a long time in the pot, around 4 hours, to give it a delectable consistency. Upon it’s finish, Mix in a knob or two of butter if wanted, but personally I did not. Also, about two generous tablespoons of freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano per serving. This gives it an incredibly creamy flavor. It is a fantastic, hearty sauce that should be a favorite of any pasta fans. Zach W

Lobster Lobster is an expensive food, but it is definitely worth it because it is extremely delicious. It is one of my favorite foods and is definitely my favorite kind of seafood. It’s also my Dad’s favorite seafood. My dad likes his lobster boiled and with butter. I personally like lobster rolls the best. Lobster can be in soups, bisques, and Cappon Magro (which is a salad of seafood and vegetables served on hard tack) also. It can be boiled or steamed and is usually served with clarified butter. The butter gives the lobster a sweeter taste which is why people like it so much. But, there is some danger in eating lobster because it has an average mercury level of 0.31ppm. Most of the meat in a lobster is located in the claws of the lobster. Meat is also located in the tail (usually the best meat) and where the claws connect to the body. People say the best lobster comes from Maine. I’ve never compared any lobsters so I’m not sure. Overall I think lobster is delicious and is definitely one of my favorite foods. Tommy S Class 8 11/19/12

As the thanksgiving season comes along, I thought it would be nice to think about one of the main foods we eat: Turkey!

Here are some interesting facts about the animal, feel free to ponder them while digesting that thanksgiving meal:

1. These birds are omnivorous and will try many different foods. Most of their diet is grass and grain, but wild turkeys have a varied diet and will also eat insects, berries and small reptiles. [1]

2. Benjamin Franklin never proposed the turkey as a symbol for America, but he did once praise itas being “a much more respectable bird” than the bald eagle. [3]

3. The wild turkey’s bald head and fleshy facial wattles can change color in seconds with excitement or emotion. The birds’ heads can be red, pink, white or blue. [1]

4. The average American eats 18 pounds of turkey every year, and more turkeys are consumed on Thanksgiving than on Christmas and Easter combined. [1]

5. Turkeys have heart attacks. When the Air Force was conducting test runs and breaking the sound barrier, fields of turkeys would drop dead. [2]

6. Turkeys can drown if they look up when it is raining.[2]

7. Wild turkeys were first domesticated in Mexico and then exported to Europe. European settlers brought domesticated turkeys back to the New World with them as colonists, but would also hunt the wild birds they found. [1]

8. Wild turkeys see in color and have excellent daytime vision that is three times better than a human’s eyesight and covers 270 degrees, but they have poor vision at night. [1]

9. Alaska and Hawaii are the only two states without extensive wild turkey populations. [1]

10. A turkey’s gender can be determined from its droppings–males produce spiral-shaped poop and females’ poop is shaped like the letter J. [3]

Sources: 

[1] - http://birding.about.com/od/birdprofiles/a/turkeyfacts.htm

[2] - http://home.aristotle.net/thanksgiving/turkey-index.asp

[3] - http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2011/11/14-fun-facts-about-turkeys/

~Adam K

Andy DeWolfe

Culinary

Class 8

 

My favorite thing that I ate when hurricane Sandy came was MRE’s (meals ready to eat). I got the meals from Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire Department because of hurricane Irena last year. When the hurricane came Fema (Federal Emergency Management Agency) gave us the MRE’S and water. I took about 4 cases of water and 4 boxes of MRE’S because they were left overs. The meals last for eight years if closed.   

The meals were really good they have different verities from spaghetti and chili and more.  They also have a cookie of some kind, peanut butter, crackers, a pop tart, and a kind of powder drink. The MRE’S that I picked comes in a water proof bag and includes salt, pepper and utensils.

The meals are premade when you open them up. You use the salt water to warm the meal up. The heaters are like hand warmers but they are a lot warmer.  To activate them you need to add the salt water, then the food gets warmed. 

Then you eat it!!

 

I go into culinary class one day and my teacher (Mrs. Hoagland) tells the class that we are making bechamel sauce and we are going to put it on pasta. My group finishes the sauce and I’m very excited to try it. I try the sauce with the pasta and it’s really good. I eat the rest on my plate and I want more. I then take the recipe home and tell my mom that we have to make this because it's very good. 2 days later my mom tells me that we are going to make the sauce and put it on are pasta for dinner tonight. I am very excited. That night, my brother and I made the sauce and the pasta. It came out very well and the whole family loved it. We kept going for seconds and thirds until it was all gone. My brother and I are definitely going to make the sauce again and try it on all different kinds of food because it was so good. I highly recommend this sauce.

        Michael P.

 

 

Butternut Squash Soup




Butternut Squash Soup

6 cups chicken broth/stock

One 2-pound butternut squash-quartered, seeded, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces

5 thyme sprigs

2 garlic cloves, halved

2 medium leeks, white and pale green parts only, cut into 2-inch pieces

½ Lbs Bacon cut into small pieces

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

First I had to wash the butternut squash, then peel them, and then finally cut them into cubes. I then I also had to wash the off the leeks and cut them. After that I had to cut the bacon into small pieces. Then place the bacon pieces into a stock pot, when the bacon is done I took it out of the pot but, left the juice in the pot. Then after the bacon was done I added the squash, thyme, garlic, leeks and the chicken broth and I let them boil. Once it was boiling I covered the pot and let cook for 45 minutes.  When the 45 minutes was up I used a stick blender and mashed everything together and then added the bacon, pepper and salt.

Jessica L

 Prior to Hurricane Sandy, my mom went to Arthur Avenue in New York City and bought a lot of different pastas (fettuccini, cavatelli, ravioli) and bread. It was poor timing though because the storm was about to hit, and we always lose power. However, my mom didn’t want the nice food she bought to go to waste so we brought it over to our family friend’s house in Bethel because they never lose power. It was a good thing we did because Monday afternoon we lost power but we went to our friend’s house for dinner because they still had power and our food was there! That night my mom cooked spinach fettuccini and had me make a sauce for it…little did I know that it was a variation of a Bechamel sauce, Mornay. I started the sauce by making a roux, combining flour and butter. Then I added the milk and allowed it to heat up a little longer and get thicker. Then I added the cheese, parmesan and cheddar, and continued to stir it until it was finished. I then put it over the pasta, and it was finished! It turned out to be the best meal I had eaten during the storm!

-Lindsay B.

This past weekend, I had an unusual form of pasta. My family has named it “Genu”. It is one of our favorite Thanksgiving Day side dishes and is made rarely throughout the year. It is not time consuming and therefore can be easily made. The ingredients are as follows: 1 lb. Tubetini pasta, ½ cup of olive oil, 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 small can of mushrooms, 3 sprigs of parsley (finely chopped), salt and pepper (to taste) and ¼ cup grated Romano cheese. The taste is very rich but it does not have a very strong smell. In addition to Genu this weekend, I also ate beer can chicken and a sweet potato. Genu happens to be one of my favorite foods. Once I take the first bite, there is no way to stop until it is all gone. I highly recommend this recipe for all pasta lovers along with anyone who likes to try new foods. It is definitely worth giving it a shot. -Jason S.