Grasshoppers. Om nom nom nom nom.

Ever wondered what a Grasshopper would taste like? How about how healthy they are for you? Wonder no more. According to this site (http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~cbader/ghprec.html) Grasshoppers are an excellent source of protein and calcium, and have more iron and carbohydrates than lean ground beef. On this site there are multiple recipes for preparing grasshoppers to eat (There are a few jokey ones on there too, so read the entire ingredients list before you decide to make it.)

Vanilla and Pistachio Pies. (Continuing from the boring title theme.)

So. As you may have guessed, we also made pies this week. We made two- A Vanilla Meringue with Graham Cracker Crust and the pie of our choice. I chose Pistachio Pudding, also with Graham Cracker Crust. I shall elaborate.

RECIPE #1: Vanilla Meringue Pie
Imagine the tastiest thing you can imagine. Then imagine something a thousand times yummier. This pie tasted better than that. The process of making it was uneventful and honestly rather dull, but the rewards were more than worth it. The Meringue was the most complicated bit, having to get the consistency just right, but it turned out okay in the end. The crust was very fun to do, especially smashing little crackers to bits with a rolling pin. I stirred the pudding for most of my time, and was very bored all the while, but still. Deee-licious. Due to the exorbitant amount the recipe made there was some leftover, and this is one recipe I would definitely want to make again. Maybe without the Meringue, 'cause it didn't really add anything taste-wise.

RECIPE #2: Pistachio Pudding Pie
Ah, another alliteration.One would generally not expect something so green to be so tasty, but that was the case. I had made this recipe before, so I mostly knew what to expect, but I did try some new things so I was still somewhat in suspense as to how it would taste. It was SO BLITHERING EASY to make. The graham cracker crust? Done in twelve minutes, tops. Pudding? Nothing to do but stir while the crust was baking. As a matter of fact we spent ninety percent of the time shelling pistachios to put in the filling. And we were still done before everyone else with half the class to spare. Not to mention it tasted like heaven in a pie tin. I will most definitely make this recipe again (Perhaps without the whole pistachios since they were expensive) but I would add a bit less milk to the pudding, to make it more solid and less sloppy.

Pies. (Yes, I know, it's a boring title, but it's the best I got.)

This week we made Pies. Specifically Apple Pies. Actually we only made one pie; The other one was a Tartlet, or in layman's terms a little pie. So yeah, it's a pie. I like pies.

RECIPE #1: Apple Pie
This one was a fun recipe to make. While not exactly easy (I freaked out over getting the dough right) it tasted absolutely Fantasticalicious. I was told that the more you handled the dough the less flaky and pastry-like it would be when baked, but that wasn't the case at all. After having to re-roll the dough multiple times it still was flaky and good. I kinda turned it into a monstrosity getting it into the pan, but that doesn't make any difference in the taste so I'm not complaining. I could have done with a bit less salt, though. The filling was the creme de la creme de la creme. De la creme. It tasted SO FLIPPING DELICIOUS both before and after baking, and it was ridiculously easy to make. As you can guess there weren't any leftovers. I probably would make this or a similar recipe at home, if I could find a bigger pan.

RECIPE #2: Apple Tartlets
This one was stupefyingly simple- The most complicated thing about it was getting the filling to stay balanced on the crust. The dough honestly tasted better before it was baked, although it was kind of meh after it was baked so that isn't saying much. The apples tasted a bit weird after they were baked- Maybe it was the butter we melted on top of them. All in all it was a tasty recipe, but I probably wouldn't make this at home.

The Cookiethon II

This weekend we had a Youth Rally at our school. The event in and of itself was too blazingly awesome to describe here, but the process of baking the cookies prior to the event is more bloggable. We made three kinds: Cappuccino Crinkle, Snickerdoodles, and Chocolate Chip (That's right, no sugar cookies this time.)

RECIPE #1: Cappuccino Crinkle Cookies
Ah, how I love alliterations.  So, this recipe was fairly straightforward: We made the dough one day, baked it on another. It's always fun to make cookies, because they're simple to do and tasty to sample when the teacher isn't looking (You never saw this, Mrs. Gerber.) The only major mishap of the day was when I dropped the electric mixer while trying to clean it off, and it was still plugged in, and it landed on the switch. You can guess what happened. Sticky cookie dough went EVERYWHERE. I think there may still be a few chunks on the floor. They were very fun to make, and there was an unexpected bonus: The second batch didn't cook all the way through and were unfit to serve at the Youth Rally, though definitely not unfit for the students to eat. I think I ate about nine gooey, sugar-coated chocolate cookies. I may or may not make this recipe again, however if I do I will make sure to cook at least one batch for shorter than the recommended time.

RECIPE #2: Snickerdoodles
This one was fairly boring as cookie recipes go- It was simple, easy, and very delicious. No mishaps, except that we didn't have time to make it on the Monday so we made the dough on Tuesday and let it sit in the fridge for a day. Rolling them in cinnamon sugar was undeniably fun, although we should have made smaller cookies so there'd be more of them. I would like to make this recipe again someday- I only had one or two of them.

RECIPE #3: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Also rather boring, comparable to the Snickerdoodles in difficulty and tastiness. Unlike the Snickerdoodles we did not have to put these in the refrigerator to sit for a few hours, so we formed them into blobs and put them in the oven immediately, alongside the now-refrigerated and cinnamon-covered Snickerdoodles. We had considerably more of these ones at the end, so I got to try more of them, something for which I am grateful. I will probably not make this exact recipe again, but seeing as there's a Gundark's earful of similar recipes out there it's no great loss.

Of Disasters and Deliciousness

This week was weird. On Tuesday we began with Cuban Beans and rice, and gradually devolved into a mess. On Thursday Jeniffer's mother and grandmother came in to teach us how to make tortillas and rice, Mexican-style. It was an about average week, but only because the two recipes cancelled each other out.

RECIPE #1: Cuban Beans and Rice
I really wish I could just forget this recipe. I have little doubt that it tasted good, but after all the headache and trouble it took to make it (The stove in our kitchen hates me) I didn't even want to try it. It took all of Foods class and most of lunch period to cook, and even then the rice was still hard! Either we did something wrong, or the stove wasn't working properly. I will almost certainly never make this recipe again.

RECIPE #2: Tortillas, Rice and Charro Beans
This pretty much made up for Tuesday's disappointment. It was easy to make, fun to do, and utterly delicious. The Charro Beans were complicated, but yummy. The flavours of the many different veggies soaked through everything, making it very worth while. The rice? I've never had better rice. I've never had orange, tomato-flavoured rice before, either, so I guess it makes sense. The tortillas, though, were the ice cream on the pie. Delicious, healthy, and appealing to my boyish nature (Crushing little squishy objects in a metal compactor) they made my day. I brought the recipe home with me, so hopefully we can make these again in the near future.

Mainly About Curries.

For the last two weeks I have been making curries. Four different types, to be exact. It was a unique experience, because honestly I have never had a traditional curry before in my memory.

Stop gaping at me in horror. It's not that unlikely.

Anyway, we made English, Thai, Sri Lankan, and Mattar Paneer curries on the four cooking days of the week. They all tasted good, and it was an interesting look at another culture's recipes, but as my experience with curry is limited to a bit of power sprinkled over chicken, I don't know how I'd tell a good curry from a bad one. So. Enough blibberblabber. Let's get to it.

RECIPE #1: English Curry

So, this week we made an English curry. It was quite good. Really I was much too stressed over getting it done that I did not do a very good job, so it didn’t turn out as well as I would have liked; Still, it tasted decent. The texture was a little odd, as I am not used to having potatoes and rice and the other ingredients all mixed together, but it wasn’t bad. I did like the taste of this curry better than the Thai curry, but mostly because of the lack of chick peas and zucchini. I probably would take this slower and try to be less stressed next time.

RECIPE #2: Thai Curry

Next up is the Thai curry. We struggled through a long, arduous procedure of not having one of our team members there, so me and Bradie had to do everything ourselves. Mrs. Gerber helped (Thanks, Mrs. G) but for the most part we chopped up vegetables and mixed spices on our own. It turned out quite well, I suppose. The taste was quite nice, although I did find it necessary to pick out the zucchini and a large portion of the chick peas. The texture and taste were pretty much the same as the English Curry, as far as I could tell. Next time, if I ever made this again, I would omit the zucchini and use beans instead of chick peas, and maybe add something to make it a bit spicier and a bit less sweet.

RECIPE #3: Sri Lankan Curry

This one was the best of all the recipes, in my opinion. It was fairly quick and simple to make, and I had a lot of fun. The combination of broth from the meat and cashews in the rice was utterly delicious, even though Jenny and I kept snitching the cashews. The only thing I did not like about this recipe was the faux chicken we put it. How one can digest such horrendous fodder, I have no idea- The stuff tasted like burnt rubber soaked in beef broth, and had roughly the consistency of gritty Jell-O. The broth added quite a nice flavour to the rice, but I ended up picking all the chunks of meat out. Next time I made this I would either omit the meat entirely or actually use real meat instead.

RECIPE #4: Mattar Paneer

This one came in a close second in terms of how good it was. Luke's brother came in to help us with the recipe, and gave us many pointers on how to make it as good as possible. It was easy to make and took only about half an hour, though I did overcook the rice a bit. The cheese, though utterly tasteless on it's own, soaked up the juice and spices and became a delicious addition to the mixture. The mixture of exotic spices gave the curry a delicious taste, although it was a little bit too hot. If I ever made this again I would not change anything except maybe add a bit less peas and onions.

Cake and Fruit Pizza- I think I'm in Heaven.

 So, this week was filled with yummy desserts. We made two types of food- A Coffee Cake, and a Fruit Pizza. Both were very tasty. Here are my reviews:

RECIPE #1: Applesauce Coffee Cake

For this lab we made an Applesauce Coffee Cake. I spent several weeks not understanding why it was called a “Coffee Cake” because there was no coffee or coffee substitute in the recipe, but it was recently explained to me. We mixed up the batter and poured it in the pan, then forgot to put the crumb topping on it before we put it in the oven. It worked quite well- despite the lack of topping, it tasted very good and was fairly easy to make. The texture was quite nice, light, fluffy and moist, but because I rarely eat anything with my Hot Chocolate the cake’s status as a “Coffee Cake” was kind of moot. Hopefully if I ever make this again, I will remember to put the crumb topping on it before I bake it.

RECIPE #2: Fruit Pizza

This time we made a Fruit Pizza with a cookie dough crust, cream cheese sauce, and chopped fruit.  This worked very well- The sauce was just the right consistency for spreading, and the crust was nice and thick. The whole thing tasted heavenly, the cookie, cream cheese, fruit and brown sugar topping all blending together into a delicious dessert. The apples and bananas added a nice contrast in texture, making it crispy and soft at the same time. In my opinion, this is a recipe that is suitable for just about any situation with sufficient time, although I’m probably biased. Next time I would make a larger pizza so I could get more of it!