Cookies

Recipe

1 cup margarine

1 1/2 cups white sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Cream the margarine and add the sugar gradually. Beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at time, mixing well after each addition.
3. Stir in the vanilla. Add the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt gradually to the creamed mixture, stirring in by hand. Cover and chill dough overnight.
5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
6. Roll dough out on a floured surface to 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick and cut into your favorite shapes. Place cookies onto the prepared baking sheets.
7. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 6 to 8 minutes or until cookie has a golden appearance.

Recipe retrieved from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Michelles-Soft-Sugar-Cookies/Detail.aspx.                

 

Royal Icing

Ingredients

3/4 cup of warm water
5 Tablespoons meringue powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 kilogram powdered icing sugar

Instructions

1.  In mixer bowl, pour in the warm water and the meringue powder. Mix it with a whisk by hand until it is frothy and thickened…about 30 seconds.

2.  Add the cream of tartar and mix for 30 seconds more.

3.  Pour in all the icing sugar at once and place the bowl on the mixer.

4.  Using the paddle attachment on the LOWEST speed, mix slowly for a full 10 minutes. Icing will get thick and creamy.

5.  Cover the bowl with a dampened tea-towel to prevent crusting and drying.

Tint with food colourings or thin the icing with small amounts of warm water to reach the desired consistency.

Omelets

Omelet Recipe
Veggie Omelet

2 tablespoons butter

1 small onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

4 eggs

2 tablespoons milk

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 ounces shredded Swiss cheese

Melt one tablespoon butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Place onion and bell pepper inside of the skillet. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes stirring occasionally until vegetables are just tender.
1. While the vegetables are cooking beat the eggs with the milk, 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper.
2. Shred the cheese into a small bowl and set it aside.
3. Remove the vegetables from heat, transfer them to another bowl and sprinkle the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt over them.
4. Melt the remaining 1 tablespoon butter (in the skillet just used to cook the vegetables) over medium heat. Coat the skillet with the butter. When the butter is bubbly add the egg mixture and cook the egg for 2 minutes or until the eggs begin to set on the bottom of the pan. Gently lift the edges of the omelet with a spatula to let the uncooked part of the eggs flow toward the edges and cook. Continue cooking for 2 to 3 minutes or until the center of the omelet starts to look dry.
5. Sprinkle the cheese over the omelet and spoon the vegetable mixture into the center of the omelet. Using a spatula gently fold one edge of the omelet over the vegetables. Let the omelet cook for another two minutes or until the cheese melts to your desired consistency. Slide the omelet out of the skillet and onto a plate. Cut in half and serve.

Recipe retieved from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/yummy-veggie-omelet/detail.aspx.

For our omelets, we didn't use the ingredients from the recipe. Instead, we used spinach and feta cheese. It was actually really good, and I usually don't like spinach. That week, we learned different ways to cook eggs. You can scramble, easy over, sunny side up, hard/soft boiled, over hard, and poached, and many more. For the omelet, we had to fry it in the pan, and put it in the oven. Things that went well were the taste, it had really good flavour even though there was only 2 ingredients. Although, it was a little bit too salty for me because of the feta. Things that didn't go so well were that we didn't really understand exactly how to make it. We then were told to put the egg mixture in the pan, add the spinach and feta, fold it, and then put it in the oven for a few minutes. I really like how the omelet turned out and I know I will try this recipe at home.

Make A Meal At Home

Baked Rigatoni with Spinach, Ricotta, and Fontina with Parsley Chicken

Groceries - The only groceries I had to buy were the ricotta and fontina cheese, rigatoni noodles, a red chile, and spinach. I bought these at Safeway and Extra Foods.

Preparation - To prepare the food, I had to grate the parmesan and fontina cheese, cut the chicken, chile and garlic, and rinse/drain the spinach, and of course get all the ingredients out and ready, as well as the equipment/tools.

Time Needed to Prepare Meal - about 45 min.
Time Needed to Serve Meal - 10 min.
Time Needed to Clean Up after Meal - 30 min.
Total Amount of Time: at least 1 hr. 25 min.

Servings from the Meal - Grains: 10 (Pasta)
                                           Fruits/Vegetables: 4 (Spinach)
                                           Dairy: 6 (Ricotta, Parmesan, Fontina)
                                           Meats/Alternatives: 6 (Chicken)
                                           Fats/Other: Olive Oil

Preparation/Process/Serving -

Ingredients for the pasta

Equipment/Tools

Grated cheeses

Mixture of ricotta, spinach, fontina, parmesan, and spices for the noodles.

The noodles cooking

Finished noodles

Ready and going into the oven

Finished product

Ingredients for the chicken

Cutting up the chicken

The chicken cooking

The finished chicken, with the wine and spices

Table setting

Family Comments - Mom: The rigatoni casserole had lots of nice colour and taste. The chicken was a bit
                                 spicy but was cooked well and was really juicy. Very tasty!
                                 Brother: The pasta was creative with colour, but was a bit overcooked on the top and
                                 lacked a bit of flavour. The chicken was really good and had lots of flavour.
                                 Sister: The pasta was pretty good but I didn't really like all the spinach, and the
                                 chicken was phenominal with a little less spice.

The whole process of preparing and serving the meal went pretty well overall. The recipes were actually really easy, especially the rigatoni. I had everything ready to go so it was easy to finish everything quickly. The pasta seemed a bit hard to make but once I got started it was really easy to follow. Although, I didn't completely mix the spinach mixture with the noodles so some of the noodles were a bit dry and didn't have the mixture on it, but it still turned out.

The chicken was also really easy to make, but I think I cut the chicken too small, but they still worked. One thing I did wrong was add too much red chile, it made the chicken way too spicy. Also, I think I added just a little bit too much white wine, but the chicken was really well cooked and juicy, and had lots of flavour. I could have also let the chicken simmer with the wine and spices for a little longer.

If I were to do anything different with the recipes, I would cut down the ammount of red chile and white wine in the chicken. I would also add something (like olive oil) to the pasta mixture so it wouldn't be so dry. Also, I would have given myself more time to make the meal, I was kind of rushing. My favourite part of making the meal would be making the chicken, I really like making chicken and adding different things to it.

Crepes

Ingredients for the Crêpes

·         3/4 cup of flour

·         1 cup of milk

·         3 large eggs

·         4 tablespoons of butter

·         1 tablespoon of sugar

·         1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract (optional)

·         A pinch of salt

Ingredients for the Fillings

·         Crêpe Suzette: sugar + lemon juice

·         Choco-Banana: banana slices + chocolate sauce

·         Nutty: honey + nuts

·         Be creative and feel free to use the fillings of your choice!

Directions

1.     Steps for making the Crêpe batter:
1- Warm the milk and butter in the microwave until the butter is melted – about 45 seconds.

 2- In a bowl, mix all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, and pinch of salt).
3- In a separate bowl, beat the 3 eggs; mix in the vanilla.
4- Incorporate the flour mixture into the eggs.
5- Slowly add the hot milk and butter to the eggs and flour mixture. You will obtain a very liquid batter.

2.     Steps for cooking the Crêpe batter:
Note: You will need a non-stick pan preferably reserved for only making crêpes.
1- Heat the pan on medium-high heat before starting to make the crêpes.
2- Once the pan is hot drop in ½ tsp margarine, Pour in one ladle of batter and spread the crêpe batter by rotating the pan in a circular motion.
3- Let the crêpe cook for few minutes in one side before flipping it to the other side. The crêpe should have a golden colour.

3.       Final steps:
Fill the crêpes with your favourite filling and serve warm. Enjoy!

In my crepes, I put bananas, syrup, and chocolate sauce.

This recipe was taken and adapted from the following site - http://www.cookingwithalia.com/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=77&Itemid=110.

Chicken Quesadillas

90 g skinless, boneless chicken breast, diced

7 g fajita seasoning

3 ml vegetable oil

3/8 green bell peppers, chopped

3/8 red bell peppers, chopped

1/4 onion, chopped

2 (10 inch) flour tortillas

45 g shredded Cheddar cheese

1 g bacon bits

45 g shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1. Preheat the broiler. Grease a baking sheet.
2. Toss the chicken with the fajita seasoning, then spread onto the baking sheet. Place under the broiler and cook until the chicken pieces are no longer pink in the center, about 5 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
4. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the green bell peppers, red bell peppers, onion, and chicken. Cook and stir until the vegetables have softened, about 10 minutes.
5. Layer half of each tortilla with the chicken and vegetable mixture, then sprinkle with the Cheddar cheese, bacon bits, and Monterey Jack. Fold the tortillas in half and Place onto a baking sheet.
6. Bake quesadillas in the preheated oven until the cheeses have melted, about 10 minutes.

On December 2nd, our class made chicken quesadillas. Everything seemed to go okay, we thought that we were supposed to cook the chicken in the skillet because we thought it would cook faster, but we were told to cook it in the oven, and it turned out good. We got all the vegetables and cheese ready. We cooked the quesadilla in the skillet because it was already hot, greased and ready, and we thought it would cook faster, even though it just barely fit into the pan. We just made one big one and then cut it into 4 seperate pieces. Everything was cooked thoroughly in the quesadilla and it tasted really good, and the whole wheat sesame tortillas gave it even more flavour. If I were to do anything different in the recipe, I would add more chicken. Other than that, the quesadillas were really good.

Granola Bars with Pumpkin Dip & Apples

Granola Bar Recipe

Ingredients

• 2-1/4 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons packed brown sugar
• 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease one 8x8 inch pan.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine the oats, flour, baking soda, vanilla, butter or margarine, honey and brown sugar. Stir in the 2 cups assorted chocolate chips, raisins, nuts etc.
3. Lightly press mixture into the prepared pan. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes then cut into bars. Let bars cool completely in pan before removing or serving.

Recipe retreived from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/chewy-granola-bars/detail.aspx.

Pumpkin Spice Dip Recipe

Ingredients

• ¼ can pumpkin
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla
• pinch cinnamon
• pinch pumpkin pie spice
• 3 tbsp fat free Greek yogurt
• ¼ cup cool whip free
• cut up apples to dip

Mix pumpkin with brown sugar, vanilla and spices, blend well. Mix in yogurt. Fold in cool whip and chill in refrigerator until ready to eat.
Makes about 6 cups.

On Friday, November 25th, our class made chewy granola bars with pumpkin spice dip with apples. Everything seemed to go well, even though there was only two of us. The pumpkin spice dip seemed a bit too dark, and more brown than orange. But after we finished adding everything and mixing it together, it came to the right colour. Everything went good with the granola bar mix, although we weren't sure if the consistency was right. It seemed really 'loose' and not sticky enough. We were told that it was supposed to be like that, and to just pack it into the pan tightly. We did that (after greasing it), put it into the oven for about 20 minutes, and they came out perfectly. In our granola bars we added chocolate chips and sliced almonds, and they were delicious. I normally don't like pumpkin pie, but the dip was really good. If I were to do anything different in the recipe I would add a little bit more honey, and I would also put coconut in it.

Blueberry Flax Hot Cereal with Quinoa

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup water
• 3 tablespoons quinoa
• 2 tablespoons quick-cooking oatmeal
• 1 -2 tablespoon maple syrup or 1 -2 tablespoon honey or 1 -2 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons flax seeds ( ground or whole)
• 2 tablespoons blueberries, fresh or 2 tablespoons blueberries, frozen and thawed
• milk (optional) or half-and-half cream (optional) or vanilla yogurt (optional) or soymilk (optional) or almond milk (optional)

Directions

1. Rinse quinoa well with water to remove bitter coating; drain.
2. Place the water and quinoa in a small saucepan, bring to a boil, and cover. Reduce to a simmer and cook for ten minutes. Stir in the oats, cover and continue to cook for another five minutes, until the oats are tender. Remove from heat. Stir in the maple syrup and flax. Fold in the blueberries and top with milk, cream or yogurt, if using. Serve immedietely.

Recipe found at http://www.food.com/recipe/blueberry-flax-hot-cereal-with-quinoa-426336.

On Friday , November 18th, our class made hot cereal with blueberries and quinoa. Our whole group thought that it wouldn't turn out very good, but it actually tasted really good. We followed the recipe's directions, except we didn't fully cook the quinoa. It was a bit crunchy rather than soft, but it still tasted good. If I were to change something about the recipe I would add more brown sugar and berries so that there would be more flavour and sweetness. I really enjoyed it and I know I will make this at home sometime.