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!