Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Pumpkin! Got your attention didn’t I? So did all the many new and different pumpkin foods and drinks that I’ve come upon this fall season. From the Lattes to the muffins, pumpkin is everywhere. Everyone is competing to have the best pumpkin spice fall products and I’m here to try to find who’s is the best. In the latte/tea/ coffee section I must say Panera Bread won me over with there Pumpkin spice latte although they were neck to neck with Dunkin Donut’s Pumpkin spice iced coffee. In third place would be star bucks Pumpkin spiced Latte. In the granola/bread/muffin Category I couldn’t choose between Kashi Go Lean;’s pumpkin spice Granola bars or Ego’s Pumpkin spice frozen waffles. Next on the list would be Limited edition pumpkin flavored English muffins. Although most would favor one of the big brand company’s, I would choose Big Y’s pumpkin muffins over Starbuck’s or Dunkin’s any day. It’s moist, rich favor won me over on the first bite. Mmmm, All these were so yummy and different and I enjoyed tasting and trying each and every one of these. Although I’ve tried so many pumpkin flavored products this fall already, I still have many more on my list. For example, Pumpkin Spice ice cream and Frozen yogurt. I hear Peach Wave has a pumpkin spice frozen yogurt which I’m dying to try. Also, I would loveee to try or even make some moist pumpkin pancakes bread. The thing I love most about pumpkin is that you can make so many different kinds of food with it! You can make drinks, breakfast, lunch and dinner foods. You can even make desserts! With such a variety, why not have fun with the vegetable and try everything the fall season has to offer! Written By: Kalianna F

Ever wonder what it would be like to make drinks and prepare pastries for a living? I did. Every time I went to Starbucks, Dunkin donuts or any other store like that I always found it so fascinating. Thinking about all the different drinks, and food they have to make and remember always caught my attention. I thought it would be the best job, sitting in a coffee shop all day, surrounded by the aroma of Lattés, coffees and toasted bagels. I guess this is why I was so excited when I was offered a job in the Café of my job. At first, I was beyond overwhelmed by trying to remember all the different drinks, and all their different steps and processes. After getting frothing and measuring down, it became a whole lot easier. It took me a little while to remember the difference between a cappuccino and a latte. A cappuccino has a lot of foam and a latte has very little to none at all. I find it so cool how you make millions of different flavored lattes. Every season there is a new group. With Christmas so close, it’s almost time to bust out the eggnog, peppermint and gingerbread flavors. Nothing is better than kicking off a long stressful winter day with a nice latte and warm muffin or slice of cake. Even better, a fruit smoothie or iced tea after a day at the beach or outside enjoying the summer day in the sun. No matter what, I love my job as a barista. Sitting in my café, preparing my customers treats and making their day a little better is such a satisfying job, in my opinion anyways. Written By: Kalianna F

Matt Villamana 11/19/12 Culinary blog The title of my blog would be Fun Times Cooking at Newtown Ambulance. The event took place at Newtown Ambulance Garage on Thursday the fifteenth of November. My fellow EMT partner and I got sick of eating at pizza palace, so we decided to spice things up a bit. We both have very little cooking experience so we had to do something that was quick and easy. We both decided that we would make quesadillas. But this was no ordinary quesadilla night, we kind of made a buffet thing to save some time. The toppings you could have were chicken, onion, tomato, sour cream, and lettuce. The part I am most proud of about the dish would be the chicken. We cut the chicken into tiny strips from the raw chicken and sautéed them with some oil, salt, pepper, and we even threw some minced garlic cloves. After making the chicken we diced the onion and sliced the tomato. We put out all the ingredients on the table including the lettuce. Next we heated up some tortillas in the oven and put those on the table. Finally for anyone who wanted cheese, after we put on whatever toppings they wanted, we put their tortillas back in the oven to melt the cheese. Over all the entire dish was a success, but this wasn’t the best part. The best part was the guacamole; I didn’t make it so I can’t reveal the ingredients but it was killer. It was a little bit spicy but it had a hint of lemon, so it was the perfect match up of success. To sum up my entire dish was a success having little to no cooking experience, the only experience being in culinary. I thought we did a great job overall because not only because we used great team work, but because we had all of our Mise En Place, all of our equipment was well organized utilizing the Mise En Place.

Culinary Blog Two With football season coming to an end, Thanksgiving is slowly arriving. Thanksgiving is always and has always been a big deal in my family for holidays. We always make more food then we can eat and have our entire family over to spend time with us. But my favorite part of the entire holiday is the good food. It’s our tradition (much like everyone else’s) to make a turkey for thanksgiving. But we also add in a bunch of other dishes to make us feel more at “home” at a Brazilian climate. We make delicious Brazilian dishes to be served along with the turkey and we even have my mom best, Brazilian-styled turkey stuffing. My mom’s turkey stuffing is what keeps everyone together. Her turkey stuffing is so delicious that people mainly come for that. But my mom isn’t just famous for her turkey stuffing; she also has other dishes that she makes too. Also the final tradition we have in a thanksgiving for a Brazilian family it every part of the family makes 2 or 3 dishes and brings them to the thanksgiving party for eating. By the end of our large family reunion, most of the food that was made is consumed and many people are over-stuffed with great food. I love this time of the year because holidays start coming in and families come together for them every time. But the true reason that I enjoy holidays, is because food is always made better when it’s for a holiday party or gathering. If food like this was prepared every day, then I would eat like a pig every day and weight a LOT more then I should. That’s why food is the biggest and most important part of our Brazilian holiday. Gustavo P.

Unlike most, I don't enjoy the regular turkey, gravy, and stuffing. It's just never been my thing. But, I do love all the appetizers! I love walking into my aunts house and seeing a table full of food that i don't have to sit down to eat. She has everything from vegetable and fruit platters, to pigs in a blanket. And, it is so casual! You just walk up to the table grab a little plate and a napkin, fill up, and go sit on the couch! Everything is just so much relax and there is such variety from your regular thanksgiving. Recently I have loved the sea foam salad. I've never been sure whats in it but it tastes good! And, you can never go wrong with cheese and crackers, i love a nice sea salt cracker with a slice of pepperoni and Jarlsberg. Another must have on my plate are those pigs in a blanket. They are just so flaky and delicious. Normally by the time its dinner im stuffed! But thats okay, because like i said I've never been a fan of the traditional turkey and gravy. Although, my aunt makes this awesome meat lasagna with 4 different cheese, I could live off of it! The only other thing i like around dinner are the rolls. Nothin better than a golden, buttery, , round, roll. Or crescent rolls, the way they melt in your mouth is sinful. Now, its my favorite part of my meal: dessert. Everything about is amazing. The aroma of all those sweets linger in the air, you wait in anticipation, finally dessert is out and ready, and you plate up. Now, you can't just grab one, you have to grab one of each. Everything is so delicate and beautiful, they deserve to be praised. No dessert shall be ignored. In our kitchen we have the traditional pumpkin pie, apple pie, apple tarts, and the occasional peach pie, chocolate-dipped marshmallows, festive cookies, brownies, and hot chocolate. Everything is stacked high on your plate and you don't know where to start! You decided to start with the traditional pies, they are screaming thanksgiving. You slice on in and are instantly in heaven. You know you have to save room for other desserts, but you just don't want to. Now you take a sip of your milk and start onto the next. You go for the brownie and marshmallow. They are little so you can eat more. Even though these aren't tradition they still taste awesome. One more swig of milk and your in the home stretch. You saved the cookies for last so you could dip them in your milk. With a couple dips, your done. Your stuck in a wonderful food coma with no regrets. Now its just time to wait for Christmas! -Bailey S

This past weekend was my 16th birthday.  As always, I went out to dinner.  My family and I went to the Cookhouse in New Milford, CT.  There is a bar part and a retaurant part.  Not only is the service good, but the food is delicious.  You get your food quick and it is quite tasty.  I had a Meatloaf and Cheddar Flattboy.  It is meatloaf with cheddar cheese melted on it. This is in a panini roll.  It is delicious.  My mom told the waitress that it was my birthday.  It came with a candle but I had taken it off by now.  What is in the birthday is a brownie sundae with warm hot fudge.  I was completely caught off gaurd when I got the desert.  I do not look to happy in this picture.  It is because this was taken by surprise.  I was smiling the entire time except for this.  I do not know why.  The dinner and dessert topped off for a terriffic birthday.

-Harrison D

November Food Blog Tonight, my mom made tacos for dinner. I was very happy because my mom makes the best tacos, and I always get excited when she makes them. To make them she cooks ground beef in a frying pan over low heat until it's browned. Then, she adds chili powder and red pepper flakes. After that, she stirs in a flavor mix powder and finishes cooking the meat. Once the meat has finished cooking it is put onto a soft tortilla roll or hard shell, depending on your preference. The tacos are then served with grated cheese, sour cream, and salsa. I prefer my taco in a hard shell, but tonight we only had the soft tortilla wraps, so I had to settle. I took my tacos to the dinner table, folded them up, and took a bite. Regardless of the type of tortilla that first bite was amazing. I was so hungry by the time we ate dinner and that first bite of taco made me incredibly happy. The first thing I could taste was the spicy meat, it was so spicy that it made my gums tingle a little bit. Some people don't like their food that spicy but I enjoy spicy food a lot. One the taste of the meat hit me I started to taste the cheese on top of it which helped balance out the spiciness a little bit. After that I noticed the salsa. The salsa was mild, so it didn't affect the spiciness of the tacos; it was just there to add more flavor. The salsa helped add to the complexity of the flavor and give it another layer. After the salsa I really started to notice the sour cream. The cool sour cream helped in cooling down the spicy meat of the taco, and added a rich creamy flavor to it. Once I had finished my food the after taste was mostly of the spicy meat, that's the flavor that was most pronounced and hung around in my mouth for the longest amount of time. So, I would say that dinner tonight was a success considering it was one of my favorite foods that my mom makes, and I was so hungry once we started eating dinner that the tacos were just like a gift from God. Tate S.

I haven’t eaten anything too interesting as of late, but I did make, and I guess eat (I lied. So what.) crepes for the first time. I had never had them before. Not for any reason in particular, it just never happened. My friend let me know this was unacceptable. He happened to be in baking and pastry and knew I liked to cook, so we decided to make some fresh. It was pretty spontaneous. He had fun making them in class, so he had the recipe on his fridge. We mixed the batter, heated the pan, and I watched him make a few, pouring a small circle then tilting the pan to spread out the batter really thin. He also didn’t use a spatula or anything to flip it; he did the one handed pan flip thing (he’s quite the ladies’ man). I tried my hand at making a few, but for the life of me I couldn’t flip it. It was a hot, sticky, very annoying pan. Even my friend had some trouble. The other part of it was I had trouble getting them thin enough, which is the whole point of a crepe. Either they burned, or I made a pancake. I’m pretty proud of my pancake skills. One folded over on itself twice and cooked like that, effectively make a crepe-sedia. Eventually I got the hang of it. You can fill them with whatever you want, including meat and other savory things, but as we are pretty lazy, we went traditional. We filled them with grape jelly and nutella. It was a good time.

The Best Bacon Egg and Cheese I have had the good fortune of trying many Bacon Egg and Cheese (BECs) over the years. It might be because I live in the center of town so driving or walking to get a BEC on a Saturday morning was easier than cooking one and my dad loves a good sausage egg and cheese so he always went out to get them. A good BEC is from the Newtown General Store. The rolls are usually fresh, the eggs cooked just right and the bacon is crisp. Sometimes the bacon has a too greasy grill flavor that I don’t like but that doesn’t happen too often. I like mine with salt and pepper and ketchup. When my older brother went to Fairfield Prep he used to always talk about a BEC from a little place near the school. They claimed to have the best BEC in the state of Connecticut. How could that be? I mean a BEC is a BEC. So one time I went down to Fairfield with my mom to pick him up and we stopped at The Country Cow on the way home. Even my mom thinks that their BECs are the best. I don’t know why but for some reason they are. We have lengthy discussions about it because the ingredients are the same no matter where you buy them. First of all the rolls are just softer so that makes the sandwich better. The bacon and egg part are probably the same as any other place so that leaves the cheese. Is it possible that a slice of American cheese just tastes better on their sandwich? Well that is the secret. The cheese is soft and melty and that makes these BECs the best. Owen Gaston

Learning in the Kitchen Most of my life, my parents have made me my meals due to their talent in the kitchen. After watching them cook for so long, I started to get interested in how to cook and different secrets that my parents use in their recipes. This curiosity is what influenced me to enroll in culinary class, and further my knowledge in the culinary arts. The most recent experience I had in the kitchen was making cheeseburgers. But just like every other food made in my house, I had to add my own twist. Before I cooked the ground beef, I mixed in jalapeno peppers, hot sauce, and chili powder. Instead of taking the traditional route and using a grill, I put the meet in a pan on the stove and covered it on top. This exploits the steaming technique, something I acquired from Ted’s Restaurant in Meridan. While the beef was being steamed, I put jalapenos on top of it, and then covered the jalapenos with pepper jack cheese. All of these components mixed together created a very spicy, but delicious burger. Troy F

This Thanksgiving Dinner I plan on having a great feast with my friends. The idea was developed when my friend Zach and I were discussing our plans for that special day. Soon to discover that neither of us had plans, we decided that we should have Thanksgiving together! Of course he just wants to make it simple and go out to get Taco Bell. I want to actually make a whole entire feast for us to demolish. What I plan on making is obviously a turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, etc. To make the turkey, we plan on just taking a turkey and cooking it. To make the stuffing, I'm going to take bread cubes and cook them in a pot mixed with chicken stock and sauteed celery and onions. While cooking the stuffing, I am going to throw in some cranberries to add some extra flavor. The mashed potatoes will be made my mashing the potatoes, obviously, and adding lots of butter and milk to make it creamy and fluffy. The mac and cheese will be pasta boiled till tender and thrown in a pot of cheese sauce. Many other foods will probably be added to this delectable platter, but for now the dishes are simple, yet delicious.

-Alex Hassinger

Tarry Lodge By Jackson Cryder My first time at Tarry Lodge was my first exposure to fancy Italian food. This restaurant is owned by Mario Batali, an acclaimed Italian chef. His business partner, Joe Bastianach, (Son of Lydia Banstianach), is also an acclaimed Italian chef know for his harsh critiques. The dish I ordered was orrechiaetta with sausage and broccoli rabe. It was delicious. The bitterness of the broccoli rabe was contrasted with the spiciness of the sausage. The appetizer we order was a pizza with Fontina cheese, jalapenos, and meatballs. Every family member we took there was weirded out with that combination but once they took a bite, they realized they were dead wrong. Although the jalapeno was spicy, the cheese numbed it a little and the meatball added layers of flavor. Jackson C.

Emma Cizmazia

Class 7

Parchment Paper vs. Wax Paper

Any person whose substituted wax paper for parchment paper in in there lifetime can tell you that the after affects can be disastrous and result in the burning of your food. About halfway through the baking of your food, I’m sure a strange smell and soon after smoke, could be seen and smelled coming from your oven. That smell can be classified as the wax paper overheating, and then burning in your oven. This weekend I was one of those unfortunate people who almost set there ovens on fire because I was to simple minded to care about the very subtle, but very important differences between wax paper and parchment paper.

The basic difference between wax paper and parchment paper is in how they are each coated. Wax paper is coated with a wax to give it smooth, nonstick surface, but it is not heat-safe.  Wax paper is typically waterproof thanks to a wax coating. It is similar to standard tissue paper and it will usually have around 3 coatings of wax. This means you probably wouldn’t want to stick it in the oven underneath you’re freshly made from scratch chocolate chip cookies, like I so unwisely did. Parchment paper, on the other hand, has a type of silicone coating, which gives it slickness and a heat-resistant surface, and makes it perfect for those delicious cookies. Parchment paper also removes the need for grease on a baking tray or pan and is just what you need when it comes to baking. Believe it or not, some brands of wax paper can be made heat safe and you can use them in the oven.

For most types of baking, parchment paper tends to be the better option. It doesn’t stick to the food or the pan and that makes cleaning up afterwards much easier. Wax paper can be a different story and comes with plenty of nasty consequences. While baking with wax paper, it can melt and this is what causes the food to burn and smoke.  Not only can this be messy and inconvenient, but it can ruin the taste of the food you worked so hard to prepare. The only real disadvantage of parchment paper when compared to wax paper is the price.  Although it's slightly more expensive, parchment paper is still the better choice for most of your baking needs. Wax paper is best to use when lining pans and baking sheets, or when you need grease to spread evenly over a surface.  

On October 16^th, 2012, I cooked the most amazing sauce I have ever had. It was called a hollandaise sauce. It is made of 2 full sticks of butter, salt and egg yolks. The sauce was boiled in a pot and mixed to make an amazing flavor. Once the sauce was made and warm, hot dog buns were grilled and then grazed with some oil and hollandaise sauce. The whole meal was easy to make and when I had the first bite, I couldn’t stop. And now for Thanksgiving, I am going to make my family hollandaise and bread to share my great food experience with them too.

            -David B

A Feast in the Making -- Every year, our family comes together to create a huge feast for Thanksgiving. Every few years each side of the family switches off and creates a special meal to share. We’ll eat either at my grandparents’ house or take the long drive to Ohio to spend time and enjoy a fabulous meal with the family over there. This year, we’re going to be enjoying the meal at my grandparents’ house. Our task for the feast? Making the turkey, a sweet potato dish, and of course, the pumpkin pie. My mom is usually always in charge of the pie because the recipe she uses to make it has been in her family for god knows how long. Years and years of trial, error, and attempts has created a rather fabulous pie. The sweet potato dish is another recipe that’s had its time to be perfected. It consists of, of course, sweet potatoes that fill a square dish about half way, with a topping of brown sugar, oats (don’t worry, they get nice and glazed by the brown sugar when baking in the oven), granulated sugar, and walnuts. Usually we serve this dish with butter, just for an even richer, sweeter taste, if you’re of course, willing enough to eat something as sweet. As for the turkey, you ask? Its thawing out (in of course, the safest way it can, we don’t need people getting sick the day after quite the grand feast!), awaiting its date with the stuffing. Mikaela S.

Albert Dean This is a princess cake that my mom makes for almost every family party that we go to. The green top layer is marzipan from Sweden and the little pink flower comes with the marzipan. The filling is yellow cake, seedless raspberry jam, vanilla custard and heavy whipping cream. This cake can be found in almost every Swedish bakery you go to. Whenever people try this cake they always ask what is in it and how my mom was able to find it.

A few weekends ago I had a friend over and we were getting very hungry so we decided to make a meal, but once we started making an mixing all different kinds of food we couldn't stop. We started off by sharing a tub of cookie dough ice cream. After that we took a loaf of Italian bread and made a big roast beef, bacon, barbecue, and cheese sandwich. After that we were still hungry so we melted different kinds cheeses inside of flour tortillas. After having the cheese tortillas we thought that pizza bagels would be good so we cooked 36 pizza bagels. After we had all the pizza bagels we wanted to have more ice cream so we ate the majority of a tub of chocolate ice cream. While eating the ice cream we started to feel a little sick so we had some tums and then went to sleep. Stephen G

As a gift from a friend, my family and I received a pizza making kit. It came with a pizza pan, tomato sauce, a packet of yeast, and a flour mixture that would be used for the dough. This was my first time making pizza dough so I was very excited. My brothers and I mixed hot water and the yeast and then added the flour mixture. We then drizzled in a little olive oil and began to knead the dough. Once we were finished kneading the dough we wanted to start making the pizza right away but we had to wait an hour for the dough to rise. An hour later we started, layering on the tomato sauce and the mozzarella cheese. My younger brothers are very picky when it comes to pizza toppings so we decided not to add anything extra. Unfortunately, after we were finished making the pizza, we had to wait another 30 minutes until it was done baking. But the wait was worthwhile because our pizza came out very well and everyone enjoyed it. Casey D.

One of the foods that my mom has made for our family for many years is pumpkin muffins. She has normally always put blueberries in them, and our whole family likes them, especially my brother who is a big blueberry fan. However, this month we started experimenting with the recipe. I’m not as big a fan of blueberries as the rest of my family, so I suggested that we try using different ingredients and making variations. My mom has made the pumpkin muffins every week so far this month, sometimes a few times a week, and we tried them with dried and fresh cranberries, raspberries, and nuts. My favorite variation was the one we made last weekend with fresh cranberries and pecans. The fresh cranberries worked better than the dried ones because they had the juicy flavor that came through more after they’d been baked in to the muffins. They were cut into pieces with a bit of sugar added to reduce the sourness. We also used caramelized pecans which worked very well with the other flavors. They are definitely the best muffins that we’ve ever had at home from scratch, and are something that I could imagine buying at a café, especially around this time of year (Thanksgiving, pumpkins, cranberries- it’s all in season). I ate mine with a little cream cheese and it was a great combo. If you ever make muffins at home I recommend trying ingredients like these in yours sometime. - Hayley D.

This is exactly what you think it is, a Taco Pie, but not just any Taco Pie, it’s impossible. This Pie tastes just like its name says. This recipe is surprisingly not impossible, this meal only requires some Bisquick, eggs, and all of your regular taco ingredients, although you can also include some green chilies, any one of your favorite cheeses. This taco does not belong in a shell, it has stretched out and has become the most delicious pie you will ever eat. Sinclair. S

Last weekend I went out with my friend to take pictures for my page. It was around 12:20 and my friend and I were hungry and she asked if I have ever had a Jamaican patty. Well I have never had one. So she brought me to the little place in Bridgeport and they had these a little dough things that had meat inside like chicken and beef. So I ordered the chicken one it. I took I bite into it the burger was wonderful. The taste was spicy and the dough outer shell was crispy. Its almost like a hot pocket but it has more flavor to it. This burger was outstanding and people should really try one. - Raquel Crespo

One day in October, when Hurricane Sandy hit and destroyed everything in it's path.  Ten's of thousands of people were left without power, as well as many other sentimential valive objects like trees people may of loved fell down damaging everthing on it's fall.  As a result of the Hurricane we had the whole week of school off, and as a result of having no school, the school's had food that would of went bad if it hadn't been sold on school days during lunch.  As a result of having no school, the school's had a policy to throw out the food's that they kept in their refrigerators for a certain amount of time, let alone not having power to keep the foods fresh.  so getthing back what had happened after the Hurricane, our neighbor works at a high school, and he stops by to drop off something at our house while my father is outside helping him with the load.  As i go outside to get a better look at what it was, i had to go over open the boxes and you'd never guess what it was...  It was nothing but cheese, all kinds of cheese and it was box after box of nothing but sweet cheese.  It was literally over a year supply of cheese for us when it was a week supply for a school!  Our kind Neighbor said, "Here's a surprise for Chen!"  Chen he's my Sister's Potbelly pig, weighing approximately 60 LBs currently.  Chen can Eat litterally anything he that's edible if he wants to, and a lot of it.  So the day we got the cheese was the same day we went to go pick up chen, to give him the tasty cheese that had arrived.  Chen was in heaven when we set him loose and put a full bag of shredded cheese on a piece of cardboard acting as a plate for the cheese.  Just watching Chen eat the cheese was funny,  As he ate the cheese for about an hour, he started to slow down and then after awhile he stopped, after his stomach was full of cheese.  When you get fulll of food you get tired Right?  Well yes Chen was tired and I set up a bed for him and he fell asleep like a baby right away.  Then once the next day came around let's just say my sister doesn't want him to come over again without her permission because I got to believe that Chen got sick and That's definitly the last time we'll feed him cheese..........

Kevin R

Columbus Day weekend, October 7th, 2012 I went to the most delicious pizza restaurant in Connecticut. Mystic Pizza is not just a movie made in 1988, but it’s also a restaurant in Mystic CT. The pizza and other food are delightful; as soon as you take bite into their cheesy pizza you feel like you’re in heaven. The service at the restaurant is outstanding. The movie Mystic Pizza runs non-stop. The atmosphere is great. Seeing the smiles on everyone faces was joyful. My experience at Mystic Pizza was wonderful sitting at the table, seeing my family smiling and having a great dinner. I would recommend this place for a fun, enjoyable time with the family/ friends. The memories that happened at this restaurant are unforgettable Mystic Pizza is the place to EAT. -Raquel C