The January dinner menu

For the dinner classes starting in January, we will be making the following meals and adding them to out recipe books!

Chicken Pot Pie

Little Meat Loaves

Southwestern Spaghetti Bake

Crazy Crust Pizza

There has been a little bit of confusion on the dates of the January classes so let me clarify.
There will be two classes, a Wednesday class - same time as the current one, from 3:30-4:45 and a Friday class which will be at the same time 3:30-4:45. (Basically, the Monday class has been moved to Friday to accommodate schedules.)

I will send out an email to the people I have currently enrolled in the class to verify your day/time.

We've been having so much fun in our baking class, I can't wait to start the dinner session!!!

One too many pots....

Today was candy making day! On the agenda? Christmas Lollipops and Easy-Peasy Toffee.

The girls learned a great lesson today about cooking in the kitchen. Too many unwatched pots on the stove leads to burnt sugar which in turn leads to yucky tasting lollipops! I had each of the girls try one anyway so they knew what it tasted like. They learned just how important it is to watch closely what you're doing, especially when making candy! Not what I intended for them to learn today, but a good lesson to learn, nontheless! Here's what they were supposed to look like! I don't have a picture for the toffee, but the girls' looked de-lish!

Next week we'll be making cookie bars! I also promised the girls we would do our lollipops again while our bars are in the oven.

Next week is our last baking class and I will have recipe books for the girls to take home. If they are taking the dinner class in January, they can continue to add to it with those recipes. I will have the menu for the January session posted here in the next couple of days. This way, you know in advance what the girls will be bring home for din-din! They are so excited for that session, as am I.

Cream Puffs!

Today we made homemade cream puffs and learned to make a yummy whipped cream filling!
These girls took on a big project a did a fantastic job! We had a lot of fun especially with the whipped cream..... :)

To try at home - This week, girls, try making just the homemade whipped cream at home. Use it to top any dessert (cakes, brownies, pies), put a big scoop on top of your hot cocoa, top your ice cream with it, put a spoonful on your pancakes or waffles, put it on jello, or my personal favorite...fresh strawberries, yum!

Here's a the basic whipped cream recipe (without the cream cheese mixture we added):

1 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon powdered sugar (regular sugar will work too if you don't have powdered on hand)

Mix it will an electric mixer (or by hand but it takes longer) just unitl soft peaks form.

Remember these tips from class?
- The cream should be really cold.
- If you put your beaters and/or mixing bowl in the freezer for a few minutes before you mix it or use a metal bowl, it will also help keep it cold.
- Don't over mix or it will become lumpy and more of a butter consitency.

The girls learned to use an electric hand mixer and by the third time we used it in the recipe, they had become quite efficient!

stay tuned, next week we'll be making more homemade goodies......