In my opinion the yeast unit was a great success. In my opinion it was the best unit and was also my favorite. We made many delicious treats such as grilled pizza, soft pretzels, and bread. Most of the time we had to active the yeast by adding it to lukewarm water for five minutes. We really tested the effects of yeast on the bread. This is because we cooked one immediately and let the other one refrigerate for a few days. The bread was much better after a few days of refrigeration. I didn't really run into many problems except that my pizza had too much cheese and fell apart. It was still amazing and my favorite thing to cook in culinary. To conclude the yeast unit was by far a success and my favorite unit so far. Matt M

I think that the yeast unit in all was a success. There were many different recipes that we tried throughout this unit. We made bread, one batch that had very minimal time to rise and another that had ample time to rise. Both batches of bread turned out great. My personal opinion is that the dough that had more time to rise had a little more flavor or taste where the dough that didn’t rise turned out more bland. Another recipe that we tried was pizza. On the first day we prepared the dough and sauce. The dough was started by blooming the yeast. This process was done by adding the given amount of yeast into a bowl and putting in warm water. To make sure the water was warm you ran the water on your wrist and if it felt too hot it had to be cooled and vice versa. Over all I thing that the yeast unit was great fun and a learning experience. I did run into a few problems but all minor. I put too much cheese and sauce on my pizza but it was still a delectable treat. Michael C.

In our yeast unit we made rolls. We made an experimental batch, where we didn’t let the dough rise. The second batch we let the dough rise in the fridge over the weekend. We made the dough using flour, water, yeast and salt. We mixed it and then kneaded it until the dough was smooth and slightly soft. After that we cut it into chunks using a bench scraper and rolled it, applying pressure. When the rolls were formed we put them in the oven until they were golden and fluffy. During this process my group worked well together. We had good teamwork skills and in the end our dough came out very good. -Zoe I

My reflection of this Yeast unit is that I think it went really well. In this unit we learned the blooming of the yeast which is to let the yeast sit in water. I learned that the yeast is used as a "Leavening agent". That when we made no knead bread the yeast made the bread fluffier. I even learned how to knead the bread. There was a big difference with the bread we made right away and the bread we made that had yeast sit in it for a couple of days. Some trouble was folding the pretzels ang getting the taste of some foods. Also in this unit I learned what Luke warm water is; it's water that's not to cold or hot. Our Mis en place was set well we got all our ingredients and tools in order to prepare our food. After each meal we cleaned our station and sanitized our pots, pans, spoons, and knifes. And we did everything safely by holding tools correctly and not hurting ourselves on the stoves. Team work for this unit was well everyone contributed and help with the food. Everybody helped one another and help clean the dishes. This unit was a real success. -Dylan S.

During the yeast unit I learned new techniques. First I learned that yeast is a leavening agent, which helps the dough to rise. I also learned how to use a dough hook with the kitchen aid mixer. I learned that depending on they day and how old the yeast is, the amount of flour needed in a recipe can vary, so putting flour in a cup at a time is a good idea. My favorite food that we made was the soft pretzels in this unit. Even though they did not have the proper amount of time in the oven to allow the yeast to rise, I still thought they were delicious. On this particular day, table 31 had to add more flour then the recipe called for because the mixture still had liquid in it. After the dough was ready, table 31 put too much flour onto the table so there was no friction when rolling out the dough into long thin strips. To fix this I learned that you could fold the ball of dough so that the outside becomes the inside and the inside replaces the outside. Our group worked well together through out this unit. We made sure that once we were done using a tool that it was cleaned and put away which would save us time later and keep our workspace clean and neat. We also communicated well and helped one another out through out the unit. This was very important because we were a group of three so we had fewer hands then other groups had. ~ Mary Kate S.

Overall I think the yeast bread unit very smoothly. When making the pretzels the part we had difficulty with was the shaping of the pretzels. Some pretzels were massive while others were tiny so it was difficult to get them to bake in the oven all at the same rate. All of the breads in this unit required blooming of the yeast this means we let the yeast sit in a bowl of WARM water. The ideal temp is measured on your wrist, not your hand. All the bread we made was delicious except one bread we didn't add the salt to which, for me, completely ruined the whole experience. That bread was saved with loads of jam. The pizza was by far my favorite. The grilling was the best part and gave the pizza a great look and taste. I wish I was able to eat cheese because the vegan cheese was really nasty. The no knead bread was great, (when we added salt) but getting it to be in a perfect ball was probably the hardest part of the entire bread unit. I think we had too much flour on our table so we were getting little to no traction so it just wasn't rolling properly. The only major errors in our bread unit are easily fixable with just some careful reading of the recipe. I'm happy with the bread unit. -Emma B.

The yeast unit went well. There weren’t too many problems and everything that was made was delicious. My favorite was the no knead bread. One thing that I learned about yeast during this unit was that it was alive and if the water was too cold or too warm the yeast would not work correctly. The water that was used to make the doughs needed to be lukewarm for everything to work. The pizza was the first thing that was made. Some problems that I had with the pizza was that when we made the dough our group let it sit in a little too much olive oil. Another problem was that our dough was too airy and came out too puffed. It probably should have been formed a little better. I would have also liked to put more cheese and less sauce on my pizza next time. I did not put enough cheese on it and it turned out spotty and more of sauce on bread. The next thing that was made was the pretzels. They were also very good, except for a few problems. One problem that didn’t affect it’s taste was that I had a tough time forming the pretzels into a twisted shape. They never came out how I would have liked them to. Also after we took the pretzels out of the oven, we put a little too much butter on them. Less butter would have made them better. Our dough was good and the process of cooking them went smoothly. During the unit we made two batches of no knead bread. Both sets of dough were made on the same day, but only one of the doughs was cooked that day. The other dough was left in the fridge to sit over the weekend. Although the first batch of bread was very good, the second batch was even better. No real problems occurred during the making of either batch of bread. Nick B.

I feel that the yeast unit was overall a big success. We made dough, soft pretzels, and grilled pizza. This unit was interesting for me because I have not baked with yeast a lot in the past. I learned skills that I will definitely use in the future like kneading and blooming yeast. I found the soft pretzels particularly interesting because I think of them more as a hot, salty treat you get at a sports game than something you could make at home. The process wasn't difficult. My group used a Kitchen Aid mixer to combine the dough. I have had practice using this tool at home; however, this time we used a dough hook. The dough hook was a tool you attach to the electric mixer to knead the dough. Forming the pretzel shape was difficult at first, but once you got the hang of it, it was pretty fun. One mistake my group made was that when we put the pretzels into the boiling water and baking soda, a few unraveled. A way to fix this would be to press harder into the dough when making the pretzel so the sides stick. Other than that, the pretzels were a big success and I definitely plan on making them again!-Kate L

I learned a lot in this bread unit. Making bread was very difficult, and I could never seem to grasp how to make dough into a ball. I tried basically everything. There was even enough flour on my hands. I tried the same techniques everybody else was using. However, no luck. The ball would never come out remotely round. There were only two days in the bread unit. At the end of the day, the bread still came out delicious in my opinion. It did desperately need butter, but I think that was to be expected. The texture was decent, albeit a little chewy. This probably could have been solved by using a little less flour than we did, as I think we used a little much. Overall, I was relatively satisfied with how the bread came out. -Josh B

Soups! As a part of the soup unit for culinary I have learned a lot about the do’s and don’ts to cooking. Stock- while making the stock I had to figure out the hard way that yes, cutting up chicken was definitely going to make me woozy. But all in all, the stock was pretty easy. The only thing I really had issues with was the simmering, and how hot the burner was. I could not tell if it was too high of a flame or not. But speaking about simmering, some of the recipes we were making involved some simmering and I came to the same problem that I ran into while making the stock. I thought I was going to reduce the liquids too much. A very important part of the stock and soups was the nourishing element. As pivotal as the nourishing element is to health it is also well needed when it comes to the color of the soup and it looking appealing. One of our soups, Cheeseburger soup, smelled very good and tasted amazing, but it had a funky look to it. Knowing what I know now I probably would have added more herbs to add color and make it look less like a cheese sauce. A close relative you could say to nourishing elements is the mirepoix, it basically has the same motivation and end result. Again, we did not execute either the nourishing element or the mirepoix very well. But, on the topic of our Cheese burger soup, we pureed the soup to make sure all the vegetables were smaller than a dice but not knowing that we were going to puree it, we took a lot of time making our dicing of the potatoes and other vegetables look uniform. We could have spent more time making sure the recipe was followed correctly and quickly. One of the students in my group also put cilantro on top of his soup after it was over, which was a very nice garnish to add making it just a little more attractive. A very necessary element to all of the recipes we were given is the sweating of vegetables. This is important because the greens would never release that moisture and would end up not soaking in the soup. This was a mistake I had made while making our potato based soup, I did not let the potatoes release any of their moisture and they didn’t absorb any of the flavor from the soup. In order to strain the stocks of their liquids and just keep the chicken and the fat, we should have used a chinois, but we didn’t strain the stock of the chicken or fats. We should have due to the fact that there was a lot of fat in our stock which made it kind of unappealing. And just like the chinois, we didn’t use the cheese cloth either. Learning from this, I know we should the next time.

During the soup unit, I learned many new techniques. I learned how to make stock from scratch which I have never done before. I learned how to make a bouget garni in to make our stock more flavorful and how to make the nourishing element. We had the bouget garni wrapped in some cheesecloth and we let it sit in out stocks. I thought table 31’s soup Thai chicken soup came out ok. We had a late start because we had to reprint our recipe, which took time out from our mise en place. We then had to take time away from the next class to finish cutting our ingredients for the mirepoix, which made us feel rushed during the rest of the process. We had to cut down on our time to garnish our final product, which also made our soup look sloppy. New techniques that I learner were sweating vegetables, simmering, and how to puree to make a vegetable soup. I really enjoyed the soup that we made with the potatoes as our base vegetable. It was exciting being able to see all the possibilities of soups you could make just from vegetables. Our group’s soup came out a little thicker at the end because we added cheese and we decided not to puree the corn. Our team worked well together. We usually had two people managing the station at all times while the other person either gathered materials or washed dishes as we moved along. It was nice having a group of three because we were able to eat more of our soup, however we had less hands then everyone else, which could have helped us along the way. ~ Mary Kate S.

My reflection of this soup unit is that I learned a lot from it. I learned how to make a bouquet garni in order to provide flavor to the stock. I was able to make a mirepoix and the nourishing element. Trouble that I had in this unit was team work because there wasn't any communication. Other problems were that I wasn't sure what to do like I didn't have the confidience to do things. Like with the stocks I always asked if I was doing this or that right. To improve I think that I should have been able to wrap the cheese cloth better around the bouquet garni. With my mise en place I was able to get everything and was prepared. Everything was ready to go in order to make a purée. Since our mise en place was prepared and organized we were also able to do make garnishes to decorate our food. Sanitation and safety was good because we kept liquids from mixing with others and washed and cleaned our station. And the recipe format was easy to read so I was able to under stand how to simmer and how to sweat vegetables. Overall I think I did well in this unit. -Dylan S

Soups are so interesting because there are so many different kind and verities of flavors. For my group’s first soup we selected a chicken-tortilla soup. This was a new experience for me because I have never made a Mexican soup before. The first step was to make the stock. Stock’s can be vegetable based or meat based but for our soup we made a chicken stock. We made the mirepoix and the bouquet garni which was wrapped in cheesecloth. The bouquet garni consisted of herbs and vegetables. This allowed the liquid to move through it to add flavor to the stock. The next class was used to prepare our misenplace. This is where my group had some trouble. Our recipe had not been printed out the night before and we were not prepared. By the time we got into the kitchen we had missed instruction of where ingredients were kept so we struggled finding what we needed. This caused us to lose even more time and when the bell rang we had not finished gathering and cutting. When we began our soup, however, we were more prepared. We knew what we were doing and worked together to get it done. We had good teamwork so it the process went much quicker. We pureed vegetables along with corn tortillas in a food processer. This is a technique to have a smooth pulp. The nourishing element in our soup was the chicken. In the end we had left over soup because we forgot to convert the recipe for four servings. That is something to remember to do for next time. To top off the soup we added a garnish of basil and the deep-fried tortilla strips. Our other soup was a potato-leek soup. The vegetables were pureed in the soup also. For this soup I thought it tasted a little strong and in the future I would add fewer scallions. My group was generally good in terms of sanitation and safety. We mostly divided up the cleaning but sometimes one person did more than another. Over all I thought the results were positive and in the future the main thing I would work to improve is the preparation. -Kate L

In the soup unit I learned a lot. My group had some common mistakes. My group needed to make sure to read the directions more carefully. Our mise en place for the first soup, cheddar chicken chowder, was cheddar, chicken, corn, red pepper, potato, onions, garlic, and broth. The knife skills unit helped us a lot. I got to cut up the peppers and chicken the correct way, while the rest of my group split up and cut up the other ingredients. I cut up the chicken too big though. It wasn’t that bad that the chicken bites were too big, but it would have been nicer to have them smaller in the stock. Since they were so big they took out the other tastes in the stock. Another taste issue was we put too much pepper in the stock. Some of us didn’t know that we were supposed to cut the recipe in half. Leading back to following the directions. While making this stock, we were sweating the onions and peppers. But we sweated them for too long. The red peppers became a little too crispy. The half burnt chopped peppers made the stock have a distinct taste to it. This soup could have been less liquidly. In the second soup it was very liquidly. In this Vegetable pureed soup we added carrots, onions, celeries, red peppers, and shredded chicken. Then the entire mise en place was blended together. At the end of the soup we garnished the soup with shredded cheddar and crotons. The cheddar and crotons really gave an extra taste to the soup. The crotons became warm and filled with soup. Our mistake for this recipe would be that we added too many carrots. Also we did not add enough vegetables.-Jaimy F.

At the start of our stock unit we made our own chicken stock. It was a new experience for me and the rest of my group because we had to make the stock from scratch. We butchered the chicken and cut the vegetable and even made our own bouquet garni. For the bouquet garni we took fresh herbs and wrapped in cheesecloth then placed in the stock. The first soup we did in this unit was a traditional chicken tortilla soup. This soup had a base of a chicken stock. We added tomatoes, onion, garlic, salt and pepper, and a Chile pepper. When the ingredients we done cooking we used a food processor to puree the soup. We added shredded chicken to the pureed soup. The soup was topped with Monterey jack cheese and sour cream and added cilantro as garnish. The element that really tied the soup together was the tortilla strips that we deep fried and place on top of the soup to add some crunch. We had all of our materials cut and really beforehand which made the whole cooking process much easier. The team work within the group made things much easier as well. We were able to split up the tasks so that each person wasn’t carrying such a heavy load. Our group had some slight confusion when it came to the recipe. But when we read it over more carefully we worked a lot better. One trouble spot in this recipe was that our group wasn’t prepared with the recipe at the start of class; this took away from our cooking time. The next soup we did was a potato based soup. We used proportions to get the right amount of everything. We added scallion, which was a nourishing element of the dish, and leeks. The scallions and the leeks gave the soup a really developed flavor that blended very well together. The liquid in this soup was chicken stock. When all the ingredients we added we pureed the soup. This was a really good soup because we as a group picked all of our ingredients and it tasted really good. - Zoe I

I learned a lot about soups and stocks during the first unit. We made a chicken stock and a Thai Chicken Soup. My groups stock was fine. We put our bouquet garni, which was wrapped in cheesecloth, mirepoix, and the nourishing element, which was chicken, into the liquid, which was water, to make a chicken stock. After we let the stock simmer with the other ingredients, we removed the solid ingredients from the stock by straining the stock through a chinois. However, with our Thai Chicken Soup we did run into some problems. Our soup came out as more of a pasta dish rather than a soup. This probably occurred because our group was not really familiar with the recipe and this lead to the soup not really coming out as a soup. A way to avoid this problem next time, we could read the recipe the night before the day we would be preparing the recipe. Even though there were some problems, the end result of our efforts was a success. We also made a vegetable pureé soup. The soup was potato based and we added many vegetables to it, including carrots, onions, and broccoli. After we let the soup simmer for a while, we put a food processor in it and made a puree out of it. At the end we garnished it and it tasted very good. A problem that I think we ran into with it was that we put too many different vegetables in it. The flavor turned out to be fine, but I think it would’ve been better if we had only put 3-4 different vegetables in it.- Nick B

The soups unit as a whole, in my opinion, was a success. The basic stock we made went very smoothly. We had to butcher a chicken, which thankfully I sat out. Next we chopped up herbs and vegetables, but them in a cheesecloth and made a bouquet garni. We let that all simmer in a stockpot and then it was done. Very easy and our group made virtually no mistakes. My group made Thai Chicken Soup for the recipe we got to decide. The first day we were just gathering and chopping up our mise en place but we accidentally started our stock. Class ended and our stock was not ready so with a miscommunication with Mrs. Hoagland we ended straining our stock with a chinois. We were left with scraps of chicken and some onions. The next day we ended up just getting 2 cups of pre-made chicken stock which was not nearly enough for our soup. We boiled rice noodles and then poured our “soup” over the noodles. To me, this did not seem like a soup. Next time I know that we can follow directions better and make a stock with a lot more liquid in it. It was 90% noodles and 10% liquid/soup. I did not eat it because if the chicken but my group seemed to enjoy it very much. The second soup we made was a potato based soup with 3 potatoes and a pound of vegetables and let it simmer for a while. The only notable error was the fact that we did not measure a full 1 pound of vegetables for the nourishing element. The soup smelled delicious and I wish that it was a vegetable stock rather than a chicken base so I could eat it! We used some basil as a garnish and the soup looked picture perfect. The soups were easy because although they vary in ingredients the process is generally the same. Every soup we made had mirepoix, stocks and a bouquet garni for a nourishing element and we had to let the vegetables sweat in the pot so they could release moisture in the soup. Our group took our safety and sanitation very seriously and we cleaned as we went and there were no accidents. We worked very well together and I am sad we won’t be together anymore. -Emma Bayuk

This is a rotisserie chicken that my family always gets from Costco about once every other week. This chicken is great to get because it tastes great and you can make many things from it. What I always do when we get this is I take a hamburger or hotdog bun, cut the chicken up, then put the chicken on and cover it in hot sauce. The first time we had gotten this was a few years ago when we all wanted pizza but my mom and dad wanted something else and they had found this which turned out to be really good and we have been eating it for so long now.-Albert D

Nadimul Haque Mrs. Hoagland Culinary 4.29.13 April Blog A few weeks ago, I went to Patterson, New Jersey. Patterson is a place with many diverse cultures. One section of the town is predominantly Latino, then another section would be mostly Chinese, and others, for the most part, Indian or south Asian. I went to the Arab side of the town to go have some dinner with a few of my relatives. After a great dinner filled with grilled chicken, steak, lamb chops, rice, and tons and tons of hummus, we went out to find a store in Patterson that exclusively sells deserts and sweets. At that place (I forgot the name) they served sweets and deserts like it was its own buffet. I got this one thing called a Jalebi. A jalebi is a really popular sweet/desert that looks like a thinner version of a pretzel, but surrounds itself with more and more layers. It’s made by deep frying wheat batter, putting it in a pretzel like shape, and then dipping it into sugar syrup. I’ve had quite the share of Jalebi’s in my life, but none like this one. This one was completely a square with no holes or anything in the middle, but it had a layer of tomato/pasta sauce and cheese on it. It looked and smelt good, but before I ate it, I couldn’t imagine it being tasty at all. Once I took a bite, I felt the freshness and the weird but complimenting tastes it had.

Over April break my family and I went to Hershey Park, but more importantly, Philadelphia. While in Philadelphia, we went to Reading Terminal Market and Franklin Fountain. In Reading Terminal Market, there are so many places you can get food, from all different places in the country and the world. Of course, I had to get a Philly cheese steak since we were in Philly. I had never had a cheese steak before so I knew if I was going to get the best I might get it. It was the best cheese steak I ever had (seeing as though I had never had one before. Then, we went to Franklin Fountain, which is a famous old-time ice cream parlor featured on Man vs. Food. We got the Mount Vesuvius, which is 3 scoops of vanilla ice cream with brownie chunks topped with whipped cream, hot fudge, and malt powder. It was the best ice cream I ever have.

Nicole O Food at UCONN Whenever I visit my sister at college one of my favorite things is going to the café. My sister goes to the University of Connecticut and the dorm that she is in just got a new café last year and it is seriously amazing. Most of the other cafes are just like your usual high school cafeteria but this one is different. This new one really focuses on international food so there’s so much exotic and different foods than your average college student would usually have. One of my favorites that they had there was the Chinese food, but that is probably just because I love Chinese food. All the food was cooked there so it was so fresh and delicious. One time I was there in the morning and my sister and I went to the omelet bar. The omelet bar is just like a salad bar but for omelets. First you get a little cup and fill it up with everything that you want in your omelet such as vegetables or meats, then you chose your type of cheese that you want. Next, you give your cup to one of the chiefs and tell them if you want an egg white or whole egg omelet and they make it right in front of you! The omelet that I had there was seriously the best omelet I’ve ever had! Another food you can get is flat bread pizza. There is a big pizza oven right in the middle of the dining hall so you can actually watch the pizza being made if you want to. There is always regular cheese pizza and then a special of the day. When I got pizza from there the special was pizza with mozzarella cheese and spinach and it was amazing! Overall, I would highly recommend eating at that dining hall if you are ever at UCONN. I don’t know the exact name of it but it is right in the middle of campus and it is seriously worth the trip up to UCONN. You won’t regret it I promise!

Over Spring Break, me and my family went to Las Vegas. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. We stayed in the strip, in the MGM Grand Hotel. It was such a beautiful, and fun experience to see all the different sights there. We ate out every single day at a different spot each time. I remember one of my favorite places called Blizz. It was a cute little froyo place that served froyo, and yummy breakfast foods. Me my mom and Riley all got mouthwatering crepes. I got the classic banana nutella crepe, my mom got the banana strawberry nutella crepe, and Riley got the apple crepe. This was hands down one of the best breakfast's I've ever had in my life, and the best part about it is that I can easily make it myself! Jurnee M

Gustavo Porto Mrs. Hoagland April 30, 2013 Culinary Blog 5 Restaurant Food Critic Weekends These past two weekends have been fun in terms of food. This weekend we went to a burger joint called 5 Napkin in NYC and last weekend, we went to an Italian restaurant in Long Island called Ragazzi. Both restaurants had amazing food and we had a great food and we had a great time eating there The first restaurant we went to was the Italian Ragazzi. Ragazzi is a small/medium sized Italian restaurant in Long Island, Ney York. What impressed me the most about this restaurant was the décor. They had great decorations and the bar they had was also very fancy with a great amount of drinks. The tables were all set up nicely and the service provided from the workers was great as well. The only thing that didn’t impress me was the menu they had. The menu had your stereotypical Italian food; nothing like you haven’t seen before. And there also weren’t many choices to pick from. The menu had only about 7 things to choose from. That could’ve been because it was prepaid from the party but still not very impressive. I feel that a fancy Italian restaurant should have more, and better choices to choose from when you go. But overall, the restaurant was a great place to eat and the food and service was great. I recommend going to Ragazzi when visiting Long Island to have some great food. This weekend, we went to NYC with a few friends and we stopped at a burger joint called 5 Napkin. 5 Napkin is a lot like the restaurant 5 Guys Burgers and Fries. The restaurant was mostly based off of burgers than anything else but they also had other dishes that were great as well. They had a bar in it too which made it even more interesting and their menu was amazing. They had a wide spread of options of burgers and many other dishes. They had so many choices it was hard to pick one! Their desserts and beverages were amazing too. I had a brownie lava cake and it was amazing. All of the food there was great. I highly recommend stopping by for lunch when visiting NYC. Probably one of the best burger joints I’ve been to. Both the restaurants were great and had great foods. I recommend any reader reading this to consider eating at one of these two places for a great time. You will not be disappointed. -G.P.

ever since I was little my dad has been bringing home all delicious kinds of BBQ foods all from the same restaurant; that is The Dinosaur BBQ restaurant. as i got older I began to see the restaurant all on different magazines and on TV. i always wanted to go and get the whole experience being there. I found out they had a location in Harlem, NY and in Syracuse, NY. finally i got my opportunity to go because my family and i were headed to syracuse to visit the college. the first thing we did when we arrived is we went to the restaurant. the restaurant itself was very small and it had all the name carvings in the tables and walls on who has been there also it was covered in old fashioned rock bands and signs. once the food came out it was amazing. i got the pulled pork platter. it came with corn bread,brisket, pulled pork, coleslaw, and corn. it was amazing and the restaurant lived up to what it was hyped to be. -jack c.

I really liked how the grilled pizza we did in class was different from your typical baked pizza, and wanted to do at home. Even more importantly, my parents haven't had in recent memory any freshly made pesto. Nothing about that sentence was right. I made it a must to make some to try, and we might as well make some pizza to go with it. The dough was made quickly enough, though we bought the sauce. Sue me. We also picked up some fresh mushrooms to top it with, which added some nice meatyness (No, I don't know if that's a word. No, I'm not going to check). We used a gas bbq grill, which made putting the stretchy, thin, freshly oiled dough a little tricky to work with. Small pizzas, we found, are a lot easier when thin. Once those were one, the pesto was proccessed quickly, maybethrowing in a little salt here, cheese there. Easy. Off came the dough, on went toppings, grill it a bit more to melt it all. It was delicious with each piece topped with a healthy smattering of pesto, and everyone assured me so. My favorite thing about it was how simple and quick it was. There was no fussing, nothing to figure out, just assemble and do. I think we're going to make pizza again together for a while to come. Drew Szarke

Sadly I have not had too many fun experiences with food in the past couple weeks, but good news! I AM STARTING A DIET. Now don't give me the typical, "Oh, you don't need to lose weight." This is not a diet to lose weight but to manage what foods and drinks I intake on a daily basis. I noticed that I drink a lot of chocolate milk and soda, and eat a lot of chocolate, sugar-filled foods, and Five Guys burgers AND fries. That's just not cutting it. I realized that I needed to incorporate more fruits, vegetables, healthier meat, and juices. To start off this new diet I packed an entire lunch for the next day of school. It consisted of 3 different drinks. 1: Water to flush out any toxins from previous junk food. 2: Apple juice to provide healthy sugars and nutrition for my body. 3: Cranberry-Grape juice to also provide healthy sugars and nutrition for my body. For food I packed a banana for potassium and nutrition, an apple because "An apple a day keeps the doctor away", strawberries for vitamin c, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for carbs, and a poptart in the morning because I'm addicted. I also put together a salad consisting of lettuce, tomatoes, turkey, and cheese. I may have also eaten some chocolate during the day...IT WAS SO TEMPTING.

-Alex Hassinger

Matt Villamana 4/29/13 Culinary blog post Wedge University Wedge university is located on 14 Ives Street in Danbury ct I got to say I was really impressed with the food. The food you get are these massive sandwiches for a very good price. I believe I spent like 8.75$ for my sandwich. The sandwiches or wedges themselves are massive, they come with so much food all in one. I got the “Fat Smoking Blunt” which was spicy chicken, blue cheese, lettuce, tomato, fries and some more stuff all on one sandwich. Another great thing is that when you eat one of these things, that’s enough food for the afternoon, the thing really fills you up. The staff there is also very friendly I think the guy who owns it was the one who served us real nice guy. You walk in and it has a Deli like atmosphere but the guy comes right up to you, sits you down asks you if you know how it works like how they make the food, and takes your order. Then they serve you one of the best sandwiches of all time. Over all I would highly recommend it to any one who wants a good sandwich for a cheap price.

The end of the year is coming, and we only have a few weeks left to finish our culinary class. Me, and the rest of the class are still very excited to make sushi in class. We have been creating some of the best pretzels, dough, and calzones that I have ever tried in my entire life. I really do not want this year to end, especially this class. The fact that I am moving to a place where there is no culinary program in the schools district is not making it anything better, but I still have a lot to enjoy till the end of my sophomore year. On the other hand, I went to a wedding for the first time in my life, I honestly thought that there would be a little better food there, than there actually was, I was disappointed at the fact that our culinary experience could have made better food than the chefs cooking at the wedding, but overall I had a great time there. I am very happy I was able to attend this wonderful class this year. I hope I will be able to spread my culinary knowledge to others, especially my brother, who dropped culinary. Sinclair. S

When I went to Vermont over spring break my family went up to the Van Trapps. When I was finished with my dinner I had, an amazing Chocolate Brulee for desert. When it came to our table it looked delicious. Drizzled on the side of the plate was a vanilla sauce. The sauce had a hint of raspberry mixed in. The chocolate brulee was made of Bailey truffle. I think that if something could be changed to this dish I would add a little more vanilla sauce on the side. I think that it really compliments the flavor of the brulee. When I was eating the chocolate brulee I would get a little bit of the sauce with it, it added a nice touch.

Jessica L.

For my culinary blog, I decided to do a meal with lobster. Previously, I didn't have any lobster on a regular basis, but I loved the taste, being different from shrimp and fish, the usual seafood I have normally. The texture can be chewy, but not extremely so and the preparation and cooking of the meat, really regardless of the recipe, didn't seem to be complicated. My mom got two lobster tails, and immediately I could tell they were going to be delicious. I didn't have specific instructions, so I simply sliced the center of them so the meat was exposed, and then added lemon and butter. The baking was relatively short, and after a 10 minutes, they were cooked. The shell was difficult to peal, but I was soon enjoying a tasty, healthy lobster meal.
Eamon P.

On Satuday, May 31st, I went with my family to Archie Moore's Bar and Grill. I was starving at the time, but I managed to have not such a large appetite. I looked at the menu and seeing how diverse the prices and different foods were, I realized that this restaurant was high quality. I saw a delicious steak and potatoes being eaten by the family at the table next to mine, but for an odd reason, I did not want steak. The New York strip (what I normally get when having steak) was $24.00. I immediaty flipped the page and saw exactly what I wanted, mozzarella sticks. They seemed so good tasting and filling at the time, even though they were an appetizer. After about 15 minutes of cooking time I had my mozzarella sticks and they were delicous and very filling. I highly suggest going to Archie Moore's after my great experience there. I overall rate Archie Moore's a 7 out of 10.  -David B.

Tate Schwab March Culinary Blog One food that I don’t like is avocados. My mom really likes them though. She puts them on her salads and she really likes guacamole. Avocados have just never appealed to me. I don’t really like their texture and they have a very odd taste that I don’t like. If I’m in the mood for it sometimes I like really salty guacamole buy most of the time I just don’t even bother. Avocado’s one of those foods that puts a weird feeling in my throat. I don’t know if it’s a common thing but certain foods put a really weird feeling in my throat, especially if I don’t like them. It’s this weird, itchy, slightly constricted feeling. I get it with apples. I can drink apple juice and eat any kind of cooked apple but when I eat regular raw apple it always makes me throat really itchy, kind of a shame cause I like apples. But anyways, avocado’s one of those foods that just make my throat feel weird and that’s one of the few reasons that I don’t like them. One food that I really do like is tomatoes. Tomatoes are just so delicious; I really like putting them on my sandwiches. A lot of people I know just don’t like tomatoes which I just can’t understand, I’ve always had a love for tomatoes. I like just biting into them like and eating them like an apple, or slicing them up and eating them with some salt. Tomatoes are a very versatile food. There’s just so much you can do with them in regards to making different food. You can make them into salsa or throw them in a salad. I also really like tomato soup. Tomato soup and grilled cheese is one of my favorite meals. The combination of the toasty bread and melty cheese dipped in some hot, thick tomato soup is just fantastic. All of the flavors come together with great synergy. Tomato pizza is really good too. The taste of the dried tomatoes on top of delicious pizza is just great. It’s one of the few things I actually like in the school cafeteria. Lay’s makes these chips that are sun dried tomato and basil flavored and they’re some of the best chips around, I always get them wherever I can. In short, ever since I first tried avocados I’ve never liked them, but tomatoes are one of my favorite foods.

Sinclair S

            In Culinary 2, we have progressed greatly by making the various dishes, with new and tasty ingredients, including some different kinds of grains, vegetables, and dressings. Using the skills we learned from the last semester, we are able to accomplish many tasks that we never thought we would be doing. We have made some of the best tasting dishes ever. My all around favorite course in this semester so far was the grain kasha, which was used to make a pasta sauce. I would say that this is my favorite unit, or ingredient that we have used so far. I think that I am doing very well in Culinary 2 so far, and I hope that I will stay that way so I can make good food, and learn a lot of new skills.

Harry D

            Last weekend I went to NYC with my family to go to the Broadway show for Spiderman: Turn off the Dark.  It was a great show.  I then went to the Brooklyn Diner in Times Square right after.  I got a double bacon cheese-burger with fries.  It was really expensive for some reason.  It cost $27.50.  I still think it was for every penny of it.  It tasted delicious.  The service was a little bit long.  This is because it was really packed.  I think this is alright though because the people were friendly and the food tasted great! 

P.S.  Ms. Hoagland: I’m sorry that my blog is late… we just got our internet switched from at&t to charter… It is finally working.

Recently both inside and outside of school, cupcakes have been very relevant. We just had the cupcake wars in culinary class a few weeks ago (which was won by the dream team table 12), and so our groups had to find creative cupcake recipes to use. It was fun picking out flavors of cakes and frosting and deciding how to present them in a decorative way on the plate.  We got to try different flavors than you might normally expect, like smores cupcakes with graham cracker crust as the cup's shell and whipped frosting that tasted like marshmallows. Testing out different combinations of flavors was interesting and we got to experiment. Coincidentally right around the time of cupcake wars, the new cupcake shop in town just opened, called Cherries Cupcakes. I went on the opening day last week for an after-lacrosse snack with some teammates. I tried two cupcakes that day: the Oreo cupcake and a chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache and some type of frosting. They both tasted great, but the Oreo cupcake was better than I could have expected. There was a perfect amount of frosting and a piece of an Oreo cookie on top. Oreos are one of my favorite things by themselves, but the Oreo flavor in the cupcake was much better than regular Oreos alone. Another day that I went to the shop, I tried a "vanilla fudge sundae" cupcake with chocolate cake, vanilla frosting, sprinkles, and a cherry, and an apple crumb cupcake which was surprisingly one of the best cupcakes I think I've ever had. It's definitely a plus having a good cupcake store in town, and I'm going to keep going back to try all of the flavors offered there.

- Hayley D

Gustavo P

Ash Wednesday and Good Friday Meals

            As a catholic, we don’t eat meat on Ash Wednesday or on Good Friday to show respect. So we have to come up with something to replace our delicious meat and poultry. Normal people would just go to fish instead but we like to make our meals a little more interesting and a little more flavorful. For Ash Wednesday, we did fry some fish and made a mashed potato with some peas as a side dish. Later that day, for dinner, we had more of the great fish we had made and we also had some corn on the cob to go along with it. But the food fun doesn’t stop there. Even though we could eat meat the other days, we chose to continue making meatless meals because they were so much more interesting and less mainstream. We made meals that included fried eggplant, other fried vegetables, and different kinds of fish and cooked different ways. With good Friday coming up soon, we already started our meatless grocery shopping to prepare our great meals ahead of time. We have salmon ready to be cooked and various kinds of vegetables to be fried, broiled, and other ways to be cooked. Cooking is such a big part of my family because depending on the occasion, the food we make is different every time. We don’t always eat the same thing which always makes dinner and lunch interesting. Without food variety, holidays and life at home would always be so boring.

Nicole O

Cookies

Cookies are by far the best things in the whole entire world. They are just so amazing it is ridiculous. And the best part is there are so many different kinds of cookies. My favorites are the classic Toll House chocolate chip cookies. I prefer making them from scratch rather than buying the premade dough that you just have to slice and bake, but those are still fantastic. The other week when we had to chose a cookie recipe to make in culinary my group chose double chocolate chip Oreo cookies and they were amazing. We made them by making regular chocolate cookie dough and then adding in white chocolate chip cookies and crushed up Oreos to the dough. The only thing that could have made them better would have been if we cooked them for one or two minutes left because once they cooled down they got hard very fast. For my sisters birthday I made her Snickers cookies which were delicious. They were just like the Oreo cookies where I made chocolate cookie dough and then added crushed up Snickers and then baked them.

            Other than just making homemade cookies, there is a plethora of premade cookies that can be bought at the grocery store. Some of these include Oreos which are just amazing. I love how there are special types of Oreos for the different seasons. For halloween there is Oreos with orange frosting in the middle and then in the winter the frosting is red or green and then there is pink frosting for the spring. Also, with Oreos the more frosting in the middle the better, double stuffed Oreos are heaven. Cookies just make everyone’s day better and there isn’t anyone I know that doesn’t like cookies. The great thing about cookies is that they can be eaten any time of the day all year long. As for ice cream, it’s also amazing but it isn’t something that someone would want to have in the middle of the freezing cold winter. Cake and cupcakes are also good, but if you don’t have frosting with them then they aren’t as good and having frosting around the house isn’t always as handy as having the ingredients for cookies. Cookies are so easy and fast to make which makes them even better. Mrs. Fields Cookies are also so cute and amazing. They are the size of a pizza but a cookie; I mean seriously what could get better than that!?  So, it is easy to conclude that I love cookies and baking all different kinds of them. There is definitely over 100 different types of cookies that are all so delicious.

Jackson C

3-27-13

Chilis

Last Saturday, I went to Chilis in Danbury; one of my favorite “chain restaurants”. For an appetizer we got chips and queso. For an entrée I got my usual, Big Mouth Bites. In my opinion, these are the besty things there because their ranch sauce is so good when put on the burger. My sister got the same and my dad got the avocado burger.
            For dessert, we went to Friendly’s, which is right next to Chilis. I got my usual, the Oreo Friend-Z, which is pretty much a Dairy Queen Blizzard. Over all, the night was a success.

Matt Villamana

3/27/13

Wing Night Buffalo Bills

Every month Newtown Ambulance has a meeting one Wednesday out of every month.  These meetings usually run for about 2 or 3 hours.  Around the end of the meeting its usually about nine o’clock and everyone is starving.  The one thing I look forward to on these Wednesday nights is going to get wings after the meeting.  Me and about 5 or six other people usually go to Buffalo Bills, in Monroe.  Buffalo Bills is just a fantastic place to go if you’re just getting wings.  To be honest I don’t even think they serve much else.  I do not recommend going there though if you want a quiet dinner.  The one downside to Buffalo Bills is that it is mainly a bar so its very loud at times. But it’s a great place to go with a bunch of buddy’s to go get some wings.  The bonus about going with a bunch of people is that its 30 cent wing night.  You can stock up on as many wings as you need for only a few dollars.  The wings themselves are also very good I believe you have a total of five different flavors ranging from mild to Very hot to Choose from. Any way it’s always a great place to go with a bunch of friends and I highly recommend it.

Albert D

Deviled eggs

These are deviled eggs. Every party we have at our house or a family members house we have deviled eggs. We make deviled eggs because they require a lot of eggs and we get 6 eggs a day from our chickens. These are good to make because it uses up the whole egg. The orange on top of 1 deviled egg in the picture is roe. Roe is eggs from a female fish’s ovary. These deviled eggs were used for a party we had for a family friend’s graduation party. 

ever since i was a young boy, when i was first introduced to sushi i fell in love. in my eyes it isn't just food it is a gift from god. I could and would eat sushi for the rest of my life and i would not want anything else. well that isn't true but i could eat a whole lot of sushi. the first time i had sushi was during my 7th or 8th birthday, my family and i were on vacation and we decided to go to a Japanese restaurant on the resort. when my parents described the "sushi" food to me it sounded nasty but i am the kind of person that will try anything. i can not recall what my first roll was but i just remember i hadn't had anything as tasty and different before. since my first bite i have been hooked and almost half of my birthday dinners have been to a sushi restaurant and once a month my family and I eat sushi together as a family on a friday night. i always look forward to taking the first bite of the dynasty roll on Toro's special roll menu; that role is my favorite. Also making sushi from scratch has always been on my bucket list and i can't wait to do it in culinary this year! -Jack C

Today I made an amazing sauce, bringing me back to the good ole' days of Intro to Culinary I. I Made the famous hollandaise sauce; the sauce commonly used for eggs benedict, but I used it with baked bread. First I took the egg yolks from the eggs and got the lemon juice. I whisked those together and put the bowl over a pot of water making a double boiler. I then melted butter and added it to the egg mixture completing the sauce, except for seasoning it with salt. I then took some peiced of bread, spread some olive oil on them and baked them in the oven. After they were done cooking, I put the hollandaise sauce on them making a very delish afterschool snack! -David B

Just thinking about this makes my mouth water all over again. About two weeks ago, I went to one of my favorite restaurants of all time, Chili's. I can't even count the amount of times I have been here. Whenever my family and I are up to it, we decide to go here. It's an easy go to restaurant with not too long of a wait and delicious food. This was the first time I decided to order the Spicy Southwest Chicken and Sausage Soup instead of the usual South Western Egg rolls that I usually get. I definitely felt like ordering something new, and boy was I glad I did. This soup was filled with tender white beans, oven-roasted chicken, savory sausage, and chunky garden veggies with garlic and chicken broth topped with tortilla strips. It was easily one of the best choices I've made in a long time. I can't wait to go back and get it again! Jurnee M.

The weekend before last I ate with a friend at the One Eyed Pig in Newtown. I had been to this BBQ restaurant once before and got some ribs which weren't too bad. Not bad, but not the best I ever had. So this time I decided to go with their deluxe pulled pork sandwich, the Whackadoo, with some in house sauce on the top. And, of course, this delectable cholesterol popper comes with a king sized bed of fries. My friend got the regular pulled pork, and it was pretty good if not a little dry. A good helping of sauce took care of that nicely. My own sandwich was a bit more tender and I think a little fattier, meaning less dry. At each table they have four BBQ sauces, regular, hot, mildly vinegar based, and very vinegar based. Not a huge fan of Carolina style BBQ myself, I went with the slightly thicker classic sauce and before I knew it I finished the whole thing. I should warn you, if your stomach doesn't agree with greasier or fattier foods this may not be the sandwich for you, but if not what are you out getting pulled pork sandwich for in the first place? The service was friendly and the atmosphere nice if not a little hodgepodge. They really like their antique chicken feed signs there. If you don't mind an eye patched taxidermy warthog looking down at you as you eat, the One Eyed Pig is a nice place for something a little different in the way of BBQ. -Drew Szarka

Culinary Blog 3/27/13 New things have been happening in culinary, including the reveal of the sushi or (vinegar soaked rice) coarse of culinary 2, after the video that we watched in class about one of the greatest sushi chefs in the world, we also were given the presentation, about how to make sushi, and an educational experience about a culinary college that you can go to After high school. Everyone is very excited to make sushi, and I believe that it will taste good, even though I have never tried sushi I my life. It was interesting to learn about a culinary college, because it slipped my mind that there were actual colleges that focused on mostly culinary skills. I feel that the rest of the year in culinary 2 will be the best coarse of food products we have made ever. With the thought of advanced culinary next year, I really want to look into it, as a full time class, and to follow it in my later life. I am looking forward to the rest of my culinary career, I hope that I my move out of state will effect it. Sinclair S.

If anyone read my last post they all know that I had went to a seafood restaurant last year in Boston called No Name. It was by far one of the friendliest and most appetizing place I have ever been, too. Well just last weekend, my friends and I spent a couple days in Boston again and of course had to stop at this delectable eatery. The owner of the place, Nicholas, that I had mentioned on my last blog had instantly recognized us and sat us down. He even remembered my name! This man was very generous and gave us plenty of extra food and drinks with no extra cost. But the real story I want to tell you today is the seafood platter I had ordered, Sauteed Seafood with Vegetables. By far one of the most delicious dishes I have ever encountered. It arrived on an oval shaped plate covered in butter and a nice lemon placed in the center. The dish had contained shrimp, squid calamari, scallops, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, and lots more! The flavors had all mixed together perfectly to form what I would say to be one of the best seafood platters out there. No doubt about that in my mind. If anyone would ever want to know where this place is and visit sometime, just come speak with me! I promise that you will not be dissatisfied!

With love,
Alex Hassinger

Tate Schwab February Culinary Blog This weekend I went to a birthday party at the Waterview. It was Samantha Pavlicek's 16 birthday party, David Bauch was there too. The first thing I noticed when I walked in was how big it was in there, and how extravagant the whole place looked. That party must have been pretty expensive. Anyways, before I sat down I noticed all of the food everywhere. I proceeded to go to the buffet. I decided to start out small, so I just got shrimp and cocktail sauce, one of my favorite dishes. The shrimp was very good and the cocktail sauce was quite spicy, which I like. A waiter came around and offered us samples of mozzarella balls and marinara sauce. That was pretty good too. They were pretty hot though. After I finished my mozzarella ball and shrimp I decided to try the macaroni and cheese. But this was no ordinary mac and cheese. It was made with bow tie pasta, and deliciously amazing cheese sauce better than I have ever tried before, and bread crumbs on top. It had a very interesting texture, there was the soft somewhat squishiness from the pasta, the crunchiness from the bread crumbs, and the saucy texture from the cheese sauce. They all tied together and made for a very different mac and cheese eating experience. All in all, it was some of the best mac and cheese I have ever had the pleasure of enjoying. There was also some delicious penne alla vodka. Penne alla vodka is possibly my favorite pasta dish. Ever since I was little I've had an infatuation for the dish, it used to be the only thing I ordered at this restaurant I used to go to with my mom when I lived in New Haven. Anyways, this penne alla vodka was some of the best I've ever had. Just pure deliciousness. The soft tomatoes just provided my mouth with a sweet delicious tatse. The vodka sauce was done beautifully and tasted amazing. There were also some pretty delicious onions in there too. The rest of the party was spent dancing, socializing, or eating more food. It was a pretty enjoyable time. I definetly reccomend going to the Waterview if you ever get the chance.

Kevin R

Madame Hoagland

Monsieur Neumyer

Class:  7

3/21/13

St. Patrick’s Day

Hello, how are you guys?  Well I’m totally good, how was your St. Patrick’s Day?  What special dishes did you guys have?  Not that I need to know, for that matter, my holiday was pretty decent as it is.  Well as you may know my family by now, I have a big one, and soon to have a brother in law who’s still running that family restaurant with his family.  To remind you of that fancy little deli right next to Abbott technical High school is Named “A & J’s Subs”.  As many of you might know this is a very well done place that sells great food, and from this class of culinary that you see me in currently I may start working at “A & J’s Subs”.  Anyways the good old’ holiday known as St. Patrick’s Day, I can say was totally wicked dude!  What we did for this was create a Bon Fire in a pit in my back yard and invite a handful of people over to stay for a bit and hang out.  So as we beefed up the bon fire in my back yard, we took raw succulent meat and put them on sticks since our grill wouldn’t start, and the flame inside it was extremely low and non-affect ant to cook the big chunk of succulent meat.  Although the meat was heard to be very tasty, some leprechauns’ would have been extremely jealous otherwise, since it would have been cool to have beer battered ribs with that succulent meat we were chowing on.  As a matter of fact this occasion wasn’t too bad as it is since it is also a good occasion to spend with the family …..  But yeah it would have been nice to have more varieties of food available to us, but there was not much as it is.  But for those cupcake wars we had in school, I can say oh mah God that was extremely great cupcakes I’ve had, but unfortunately I didn’t have my first one’s since, some of the guys didn’t save any for me when I came down the next period due to freakin’ Capt make up.  But I clearly learn my lesson that there needs to be more of a variety of food to make this special occasion into a tasty occasion.  Well So long  how was your St. Patrick’s Day by the way?

Even though this may be late I still wanted to share one experience I had around this time last year in Boston. My friends and I had spent a long day at this convention and were very hungry, we kept asking around at local places if there was a restaurant nearby that wasn't too expensive. After a good 20 minutes of asking around, we were informed of this place called No Name. Sounded pretty sketchy at first but the reason it was called this was because when the people opened the restaurant on the harbor they had no idea what to name it and the idea of calling it No Name brought a sense of mystery to the place. Well nevertheless we made our way to the harbor and found this place hidden in the back of a mini plaza. I can hands down say that this restaurant blew us away. We were seated almost instantly and were served the most delicious food I have ever tasted. I decided to get a cheeseburger and fries while my friends got some seafood. All of it was amazing! Not to mention the service was amazing. At one point two people had run into each other, one was a customer, the other an employee. The customer ended up with a drink spilled all over their pants. The boss came out and told the customer that he would not only get his clothes dry cleaned but he would not have to pay for anything. The boss covered it all. Even I didn't have to pay full price when I went to pay for my food at the end! The lady at the desk had her hands full and was being very generous when she saw that I was low on money. Absolutely amazing service and food, no doubt.

With love, Alex Hassinger

Have you ever tried to do an extreme diet? It looks and seems like the most difficult challenge in the whole world, right? I thought that to until I accomplished one. I went from eating large amounts of fast food, sweet and sugary junk food and the unhealthiest of the unhealthy, all in a day’s work. I went from having no limits, no moderation and no cares at all to having self-control and a healthy diet. I went from all that to eating only vegetables, fruits, nuts, grilled chicken, fish and water. Never junk food, never sweets and never too much of anything. Along with that were huge amounts of exercise, weight loss and a boosted confidence. I thought it was going to be so terrible, such an impossible task, but it wasn’t. It was the best thing ive ever done for myself. I remember thinking about how much I was going to miss the old food and hate the new. After a little while I began to love the healthy life style and had no interest in junk food. I began to crave apples and natural peanut butter instead of chips. I remember feeling so more awake and happy every day. Never in my life would I ever of thought it would have been thanks to a good, clean diet. Thinking about it now is still kind of mind boggling. Many people would ask me how I did it, ask me for help and after I told them it was simply a good diet and exercise they were intrigued. I believe that if people could really see just how simple it really is to give up bad food for good then our country would be so much more healthy and happy. A huge part of this is also about what you’re surrounded with. If you are surrounded by a bunch of junk food, then you’re going to eat a bunch of junk food. If you’re surrounded by a bunch of healthy food, then that’s what your options are, and that is what will help you. School is a large part of this for many students and I believe that if the school would follow this and keep more healthy options compared to un healthy, Our students would learn to love vegetables and fruits and would grow up to be a healthy and fit.   -Kalianna F

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

½ cup butter

1 ½ cups brown sugar

1 (20 ounce) can sliced pineapple

10 maraschino cherries

1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix

Preheat oven according to directions on cake mix box. Then make the cake according to cake box directions. After the mix was made we put it off to the side to assemble the rest of the cake. Then I took the butter and melted it in a large skillet. Then when it was all melted we took it off of the heat and evenly spread the brown sugar over the top of the butter. After the brown sugar was evenly spread out we added the pineapple slices on top of the sugar. Then in the center of the pineapples slices we added a maraschino cherry. Then we took the cake mix and evenly poured it over top of the brown sugar, pineapples, and cherries. Then we put the skillet in the oven and baked it for 45 minutes. When the 45 minutes were up we let it cool for 10 minutes then, took it out of the pan and we have a cake!

Jessica L.

After a fierce battle,

Cupcake War No. One
Presentation: With 19 points, Table 12.
Taste: A tie, with 8 points a piece, Tables 21 and 22.


Cupcake War No. Two
Presentation: Table 12
Taste: TAble 12



Cupcake War No. Three
Presentation: Table 12
Taste: You guessed it. Table 12

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that Harry's team???!!!???
Go Ginger Caramel!!

Jackson C.

A Food Journey through the Big Apple

            Over February break, my family and I went to New York City for my birthday. Not for the sights, but for the food. Our first food destination was Eataly (This is around lunchtime). We did some looking around but then, of course, went for the food. We looked through the whole building looking for a place to get a quick sandwich. We found a place deep in Eataly that had an assortment of gourmet Italian deli sandwiches (hot and cold). We got a roast beef sandwich and a pork panini with Italian cheese (can’t remember) and a spicy red tomato sauce. It was good, but not my thing.

            After some sight-seeing, we went to Max Brenner’s chocolate restaurant, but to no avail. There was a 2 hour wait. Instead, we went to Stumptown Coffee, which my dad says, “has the best coffee in the world”. I didn’t get anything, but my mom and dad got espressos.

            For dinner, we went to Joe’s Shanghai, a little restaurant deep in Chinatown. (About a half hour cab ride from Times Square). Imagine standing in a cramped elevator. That’s what waiting for a table was like. When we sat down, my dad ordered us the pork dumplings, which apparently they are famous for. Since this is an authentic place, you had to eat them a certain way. You had to poke a hole in it. And then drain the soup out (there was soup inside). Then you drank the soup and then ate the dumpling. They were amazing. We ordered 3 entrees; General Tsao’s chicken, spicy fried shrimp, and Kung Pao chicken (fried rice included). They were all amazing.

            The last stop (dessert) we went to the new Georgetown Cupcake location in the city. You can’t go wrong with cupcakes, so of course, they were amazing as well (Our Oreo cupcakes are better though).

Nicole O

One of the best parts about going on vacation is trying all the delicious food from that place.  Last week I visited my grandparents in Naples Florida and all the food there was amazing. One of my favorite things that  I had while I was in Florida was the homemade strawberry ice cream that I got from a small little ice cream shop right on the ocean. It had actual pieces of strawberries in it and it wasn’t just made with strawberry flavoring. When we were there my cousin got a coconut ice cream and she said it was the best ice cream she’s had in her life.

One day we went out to lunch and the special was “Bang Bang Shrimp” so my cousin and I both got it and it was amazing. It was fried shrimp dipped in some kind of tempura sauce and it was served over lettuce and it was delicious. We both finished our entire meal in less than ten minutes because we loved it so much. While we were there and my grandpa got steamed clams and they came in a plate with some of the clam juice still on the bottom so he took his bread and dipped it into the clam juice. When I first saw it I thought it would be disgusting because usually those two things don’t mix, but I tried dipping a small piece of my bread into it and surprisingly it was really good!

Every Saturday morning my grandparents go to the farmers market that is near their house, so when my cousin and I were there they decided to take us. The farmers market had so many fresh fruits and vegetables and they were all so colorful and ripe and looked delicious. There was also a bunch of homemade pastries so my cousin and I got fresh bagels. She got cinnamon and sugar and I got blueberry and we split them and they were the freshest, softest bagels I’ve ever had in my life. Most bagels are hard when you bite into them but these ones were so soft even after we toasted them. Overall my trip to Florida was fantastic and the week went by so fast and I wasn’t ready to leave. The food and the warm weather combined just made it fantastic and I can’t wait to go back!

BACK IN THE 7TH GRADE DURING THE SUMMER, MY DAD AND BROTHER AND I WERE DRIVING BACK FROM A LACROSSE TOURNEMENT ALL DAY IN LONG ISLAND. ON THE WAY BACK WE WERE RIGHT NEAR BROOKLYN NY AND DECIDED TO FIND A GREAT RESTERAUNT TO GRAB A BITE TO EAT. WE CAME ACROSS THIS OLD ITALIAN RESTERAUNT IN THE MIDDLE OF NO WHERE. WE WANTED TO CHECK IT OUT AND TRY IT SO WE DECIDED TO GO THERE. AS WE PARK WE NOTICED THAT THERE WAS A SERIES OF NICE CARS AND TINTED WINDOWED LINCOLNS PARKED ALL AROUND THE BUILDING. WE ALL LAUGHED AND JOKED ABOUT HOW THIS RESTERAUNT WAS SOME SORT OF ITALIAN MAFIA COVER UP. WHEN WE WALKED I WE NOTICED ALL OF THESE ALL OF THESE BIG ITALIAN LOOKING GUYS AND ONE REALLY OLD MAN THAT EVERYONE THERE LISTENED TO WERE ALL STANDING NEAR THE BAR IN SOME SORT OF SMALL GATHERING MEETING. WHENM THEY SAW US THE OLD MAN GREETED US AND TOLD US TO TAKE A SEAT IN THE BACK.HE WAS THE OWNER. WHEN WE WERE READY TO ORDER MY PLATE OF SEAFOOD, PIZZA, AND SOME OTHER AMAZING DISH THAT I FORGET THE NAME OF; MY BROTHER WAS JOKING ABOUT HOW A LAMBORGHINI WAS GOING TO SHOW UP IN THE FRONT OF THE BUILDING. WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT FIVE MINUTES LATER A BEAUTIFUL LAMBORGHINO PULLED UP TO THE FRONT OF THE BUILDING. THIS YOUNG MAN GOT OUT AND WENT INTO THE BAR AND JOINED THE ITALIUAN MENS CONVERSATION. WHEN WE GOT OUR FOOD IT WAS AMAZING AND WHENEVER I AM IN THAT AREA I WILL STOP AT MICHEALS RESTERAUNT AND GET SOME GREAT FOOD. STILL TO THIS DAY IT IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE RESTERAUNTS EVER.

Over the weekend, my friend and I, went to eat at the place I'm currently working at, Fusion 25. This is one of the most amazing restaurants I've ever been to, and not just because I work there and have to say that, but because I actually believe it's amazing place. I ordered my two favorite dishes, California Rolls and Pad Thai. California Rolls are a kind of sushi roll, usually made inside-out, containing cucumber, crab meat or imitation crab, and avocado. Pad Thai is a thai dish based on rice noodles. These two dishes are easily some of my favorite foods to exist. I order them very often and just can't get enough. Jurnee M

Brazilian Valentine’s Day As you all know, Valentine’s Day is a day where many people get chocolates and devour them and many other sweets. But instead of store bought chocolates, my mom made some of her own sweets for Valentine’s Day. She made a delicious sweet called “brigadero” in Portuguese. It’s a creamy ball of chocolate covered with chocolate sprinkles and any other topping of your choice. There’s also other versions of the brigadero where they’re made with different flavors, textures, and with other toppings too. Along with those baked goods, we also made some homemade chocolate milkshakes to go along with them. Even though the brigaderos are usually used for party snacks, this was an exceptional situation to have them. Along with these snacks, my mom also made some Brazilian flan (pudding) for us as well. This is by far one of my favorite deserts because it sweet and fits well for any situation or event. It also has a sweet syrup that’s made along with it that makes the flavor out of this world. As you notice, Valentine’s Day is a very exciting day in our family because we eat many sweets in order to celebrate our love for food. But after a day like this, sweets are rare at our house because our blood sugar sky rockets after something like this which is never good. But having fun eating food together is what’s important. Food is by far the most important thing in our house because it’s what brings us together and displays our culture. These Valentine’s Day treats are just an example of what we do. Someday you should try some Brazilian sweets and deserts because I guarantee you’ll love them. They’re amazing and flavor packed in every bite and no one can resist. I hope someday you’ll be able to experience something so delicious. Gustavo P.

This weekend, I went to the Outback Steakhouse in Danbury. I had a pretty good time. I got the thing on the menu when you get to basically make your whole meal. I got the 9 oz. steak with potato walkabout soup, clam chowder, garlic mashed potatoes, and sautéed mushrooms. It was delicious. I finished it all, and I didn’t even get a stomach ache. I had a good time and I recommend for everyone to go there. It is a convenient location, nice and quick service, and most importantly: TASTY FOOD! It is a terrific restaurant, and the perfect place to go out and have a good time with your friends and family.-Harry

Recently my dad and I had a hankering for some tacos, as we hadn't had them in a good while. Not your normal taco, though. We like to sometimes go to the nice place in Danbury, Panchos Tacos. Instead of getting two tacos filled with beef or chicken in crunchy or soft tacos shells, you get a much better variety. You can get lamb, steak, tripe, pork, fish, ground sausage and a few others in a double tortilla not much bigger than the circle you can make touching you thumbs and middle fingers (one tortilla just isn't enough to contain all that flavor). Though they are smaller than your average taco, you can order as many as you want in as many combinations as you can think of at 1.75 each. You leave with both your stomach and your wallet full. This time I believe I went for the marinated lamb, ground pork sausage, beef head and beef tongue tacos. The lamb was very well seasoned as was the ground pork, but I’m a sucker for that beef head. Don’t be put off by what it sounds like; both the beef head and beef tongue have this wonderful sweet, fatty, beefy taste that you just can’t get anywhere else on the cow. It’s like deboned ribs, but better. You can’t go wrong with it. On top of the meat, tastefully simple, is just some onion and cilantro with a sliced lime on the side. All together it gives you this rustic, uniquely Mexican taste that anything else added would only detract from. No lettuce and cheese here. I love it because you can go back time and time again and never get bored with what you get. Mix and match or stick with your favorite for a cheap, satisfying meal out.

Who doesn't like Superbowl Sunday? well every year people look forward to watching it whether they're into football or not. It is especially entertaining, when two teams make it to the finals to compete against each other. Anyways the good thing about watching the game from your home is that you can sit back and relax, and eat some delicious food. My family tend to be very good cooks, especially my parents. My mother, whose Brazilian opened a new cuisine of food choice for us. And my father whose always been a great cook to me is that he is can simply take some food from a recipe and turn it into something unique and delicious. Anyways back to the Superbowl, as the 49ers and the Ravens faced each other, my Brother in law and sister came over with a bunch of delicious foods such as the typical finger foods you'd see at parties. Which would consist of a variety of cheese with those delicious meat choices such as salami and pepperoni that go on those oval shaped crackers. Not to mention that my brother in law runs a family restaurant, with his family and makes sandwiches that are so delightful. The restaurant is called, "A & J Sub Shop" and it's located in Danbury, CT for anybody interested and would want to check it out. As for other foods we enjoyed that day, wings go very nice on a occasion like this, and other exotic foods. Such as a family favorite prepared by my mother is her flan. She makes it burst with sweet flavor as a dessert option our family likes to go with. It sure is nice to have a family with such talent in the makings of food. Not to mention my cooking skills need much improvements which is such a delight to take culinary 2 and learn recipes to cook, like a great dip of Hummus to add to my cooking arsenal. But what makes their foods so great, is that they put a lot of love into it, and they sure are experienced in doing such a wonderful favor with such flavor. A lot went on in such a great night of fun while we watched the two teams of the Superbowl battle against each other for the title. As that night was soon to be over, I could never ask for a more of a better opportunity to hang out with my family and watch a great game of football, with the many food selections, that I have whenever a special event like this decides to come up. P.S. for those interested in the deli I mentioned I'll include the location of it. It should be easy enough to find if you know where The Abbott Tech High school is since it's right near there. Kevin Ross

This past weekend I had the chance to go to New Jersey with the NHS basketball team. We arrived on Saturday and stayed overnight until Sunday afternoon. We stayed in a nice hotel where our dinner and breakfast were provided for us. They were served buffet style, the way they are in many hotels. Buffets can really have any type of food depending on the meal, and this hotel had your standard breakfast and dinner foods. For dinner we had a small buffet table reserved in a room just for the team, with salad, chicken fingers, quesadillas, and desserts. While these aren't anything out of the ordinary, they were delicious. The chicken fingers were probably some of the best I've had; they had the perfect amount of crunchy breading. The salad also tasted fresh and good. For breakfast, we ate in the main hotel room among other guests and had a huge selection of food. There was bacon, sausage, eggs, potatoes, dozens of muffins and pastries, and an omelette and waffle station, among other things. I piled my plate with potatoes, bacon and waffles and ate all of it. The best part about the buffet was that I could even go back for more. Buffets with breakfast food are the best kind of buffets since breakfast food is the best kind of food. After this meal we had to check out of the hotel, but I was content with my buffet experiences for the weekend. - Hayley D

Matt Villamana

2/25/13

Culinary

Food in Times of Crisis

How much food was enough food? On the December fourteenth massacre there was many people who responded. Many of who were very hungry. Within hours of the incident there was food being delivered to the sandy hook fire house. And when I mean food I mean a lot of it, this was by far the most amount of food I have ever seen before. In fact someone called Carmanuccios our local pizza shop and asked to have 100 pizzas delivered to the fire house.  If you put it all together we had month’s worth of food being delivered each day to the fire house. The fire house had to get a refrigerator trailer to store all of the food in. even though we had  pizza boxes stacked up to the ceiling, It wasn’t only the place getting food as a member of Newtown ambulance I saw first hands the two emergency service companies had acquired significant amounts of food. We also can’t forget about Newtown police who had to use our refrigerator trailer because they ran out of places to store all the food.  It got to the point where we had to start to turn people away because we were just accumulating too much food.  We also can’t forget the people who donated thousands of dollars to food establishments like Panara Bread and peach wave so that Newtown residents could get free food.  It just goes to say when there’s so much hate there’s so much love and people show that through food.