In Baking and Pastry last week we made Irish Soda Bread. I had never had Irish Soda bread and had no idea what it was supposed to taste like, look like, or even what the ingredients were. Our group of four received the recipe and looked it over. It seemed like pretty normal ingredients; one thing I didn’t know is that dried fruit went into Irish Soda bread, and caraway seeds. When I saw that caraway seeds were in the ingredients I had no idea what they were. I just assumed that they were, like other seeds are to me, flavorless. Little did I know they were not. Our group gathered the ingredients and equipment needed and made the dough. After we had finished scooping them onto the pan and putting cinnamon on them they were put in the oven. About 10 to 15 minutes later they were finished and we went to divide them up. As soon as I took a bite of the Irish Soda bread I knew that the caraway seeds were not tasteless, instead it seemed to be the only thing I tasted. Other then that, I liked the dried fruit in them and the cinnamon, it added a nice “fall flavor” without it being overwhelming! -Emily A.

I love food. Who doesn’t? When someone asks me what my favorite food is I literally change my answer every time because there’s no way to choose just one, although I got to admit my answer usually has to do with desserts. I like Mexican, Italian, Chinese, burgers, and anything fried. I don’t consider myself a picky eater, but there are some foods that I just cannot stand. Olives are probably my least favorite food, and I cannot fathom how someone could eat those slimy things that look like eyeballs. It may be weird, but I’m not the biggest fan of caramel, and I cannot stand cheesecake or candy corn. I love sweet things, but sometimes things just are too sweet. That’s probably why I’m in love with dark chocolate—it’s not too sweet. So Katie Moss and I made biscuits the other day during class, and we got the recipe with lard in it. I don’t know about you, but the word lard just sounds absolutely repulsive to me. I picture some brown, thick, gooey, moldy substance that shouldn’t even be considered as an ingredient that humans put in their food and eat. However, it wasn’t that bad once I got past the name of it. It looked like a very light- colored butter, and the biscuits came out good. My sister and I made this very interesting dessert over the weekend. We made our own cookie dough and put it in a 9 X 9 pan. Then, on top of that we put a layer of Oreos, and then brownie batter. The end product was so gooey and delicious! All the flavors came together and each complemented the other. So good! When I went to California about 4 years ago, a food chain that’s really popular there is In and Out Burger. This place was the best burger joint that I have ever been to. It amazed me to find fresh lettuce and tomatoes being chopped as I peered over the counter, expecting to find those ingredients coming out of some pre-packaged container. The menu there literally consisted of hamburger, cheeseburger, hot dog, fries, and a milkshake. It was the simplest menu I have ever seen! Everything was fresh and the burger was great for the low price you got them for. I may just have to take a road trip to go back there again! Something I love doing with my mom, though very traditional, is baking an apple pie when autumn begins. The one thing that my mom puts on the top that makes it different from any store bought pie is the crumb topping. My mom chops bits of butter into the flour/ sugar mixture. After that pie is baked, it is amazing because you have little fried bits of sugar and butter in every bite of pie, to give you a little more sweetness. A couple weeks ago I went to Buffalo Bills in Monroe for 20 cent wing night, and the wings were pretty good. However, my teammates and I found hair in the wings. There were little pieces of hair, but there were also long pieces. The waitress said that it was just chicken hair, but I’m pretty sure that chickens don’t have hair that’s 12 inches long. I’m not trying to discourage you from eating there, but just be aware that if you go there for wings, check before you eat! Sarah L.

Ok so this past weekend of the 2nd was one of the more busy and tiring ones I've had this year. To start off, right after school on friday, I walked to Fairfield hills to the youth center where the relay for life was being held this year. I was put on snack shack duty where we were serving hamburgers, hot dogs, cheese burgers, pizza, chips, chicken fingers, and sodas. Let me tell you, walking to the relay was tiring butthen strafing at freshly cooked food for 3 hours, is just some kind of torture method. In the second shift I got to eat some but still had to stand around and take orders for 3 hours again. Not the worst though. Next *afternoon* (I was up late at the relay and slept in) my mom decided to make some weird concoction she called blueberry pancakes. I can assuredly tell you these greenish blue floppy soggy discs on my plate, were not your average morning snack. The blueberries had swollen on the stove top (the pancakes were fresh from scratch) to the point that they were sticking out of the pancakes on both sides. I give my mom credit for trying but that's about allo give credit for. She purposefully messed with the recipe to experiment a little. It didn't work. Then on Sunday I went to a half iron man triathlon to hand out refreshments to that athletes that had made it as far as us. A half iron man is about 1 mile swimming, right into 55 miles of biking, to 13.1 miles of running in that order. My group was at mile 9 on the running portion. There were over 2400 people at the start, maybe 500 passed us. I can't ever imagine trying one. So that was my weekend in a nutshell with some sleep somewhere in the middle Grandon S.

I really enjoy having an Italian father. For one thing, he really appreciates food. He's owned a cafe and a bar and he knows pretty much every restaurant in port Jefferson and Stonybrook. Yeah, he lives in long island. So every week, he drives up to take me and my brother out. We have all these little eating places all around Connecticut. The Sycamore Diner is our favorite in Bethel. What I enjoy about Sycamore is that it is a fantastic place known for its 50's and 60's nostalgia. And its not fakes, which is great. You have old posters and clippings surrounding you and reminding you just how long this place has been around. And then there's the food. The thing about the sycamore diner is that you get the sense that is hasn't changed much since 1950. while other burger joints might have added a variety of sizes and a thick slab of meat, sycamore doesn't do that. Not that the hamburger meat is puny! No, its reasonable. And besides all those layers of lettuce, cheese, onion, tomato, ketchup, mustard, and pickles take up space too. And when its comes together. When you take a bite and all of these flavors burst onto your tongue. The sweetness of the ketchup. The freshness of the tomatoes. The sour of the pickles. The zing of the onion. The creaminess of the cheese that is melting off the burger. Its fantastic. All of burger places make the meal around the meat. The only problem is that a burger is more than the meat. Its the dressings. Its the sauces and the flavors that work alongside the hamburger to satisfy you. You just have a patty of meat that's just what it is. A patty of meat! But put on a toasted roll with some mushrooms, pickles, lettuce and cheese and suddenly you have an American classic. Its not just burgers. They have homemade root beer. Honest to god, home made rootbeer. You can taste the vanilla and its is so sweet and good. Its not over caffeinated and pumped full of bubbly fizzy chemicals. Its just a sweet soda. But, oddly enough, I am not crazy about the fries. They're kind of flavorless and thin, not entirely spectacular. I wouldn't be surprised if they were frozen. But, anyway, let's face it, the only place to get fries is Five Guys.

Today, I made my own dinner for the first time ever. It was basic pasta, from a box, but I mean. I was so proud of myself, because I never took charge of making my own food before. My mom or dad would always be by my side interfering all the time. It was definitely a moment to remember, because now my parents will be more likely to let me actually use the kitchen now, since they can see that I won’t blow up the house or anything, you know the usual concerns. I’ve been telling my mom what I’ve been making throughout baking class, and she’s  impressed with me and even is asking me to make deserts for her now. She asked me to make her a coconut cake, I’m excited to take on the challenge of doing so for her. Plus fathers day is coming up soon, and my mom told me I should definitely make him one of his favorite deserts. Being asked to make them deserts, honestly makes me happy, because before they would never even let me touch anything in the kitchen. Which is lame, since they never even attempted teaching me how to even use anything in the kitchen. I was going through all the cabinets today, and for a family that does not bake at all, and basically buys food out everywhere, we actually have everything I would need to cook. The one thing I didn’t find was baking powder, and surprisingly when I brought it up with my mom, she went out and bought me some so I can bake whatever I wanted. Speaking of which, my dad made a strawberry pie the other day. I was so bummed he didn’t ask me to help him, because he ended up buying pie crust for it, and in my mind I was thinking, “I’m so boss at making pie crust!!” It could have turned out a lot better, if we combined are awesome baking skills. Honestly, this class has tought me so much. I would always be so envious of my friend who made practically everything from scratch, because I never understood how to even do such a thing, but now I totally get it and see how fun it is. My favorite part of making cakes, or cupcakes or any kind of desert, is the decorating part. One of my passions is art and designing things, and so I made these cupcakes not too long ago, and I just had a blast because I was able to incorporate something I loved into this delicious desert that I made from scratch and could share with people. It was a nice moment for me, I must say. I always find it so cute, when I go to little desert shops and see all the designs and decorations on all the deserts there. Because it gives me ideas, and motivation to do things like that on my own.
-Jamie D

Since I started baking & pastry class at the beginning of the semester, my mom has stopped buying snacks when she goes grocery shopping to try and get me to make stuff as a hobby. She complains that all I do is dance and sleep (which is true to an extent) but she thinks I needed something more. Also, around April break my family discovered a new love for the Food Network, specifically the shows Chopped and Sweet Genius. So basically in the past month my life has been surrounded by food, more so then typically. This increase in the amount of food has impacted my life in several ways. For one, I’ve had to go to the gym a few more times then usual, but usually when I would bake or cook anything it would just be like a one time thing that I would enjoy making. Since my recent baking surge, I’ve had family and friends suggesting/demanding foods for me to make. This has lead me to be so much more creative with my food. It has inspired me to make more fun dishes with more exciting ingredients. For example, I always used to make lemon curd just to eat like a custard or pudding. But after just some sitting and thinking about food (one of my favorite activities) that transformed my lemon curd into lemon strawberry curd in a pastry dough bowl shaped from the bottom side of a muffin pan.  Also, for birthdays and events, I started making cakes and things from scratch because I have learned how much better unprocessed foods are. What all of this expresses is how much I have actually learned in this class; so many practical things that I do use on a weekly, if not daily basis. The information I have gathered in this class is so valuable, unlike how to factor quadratic equations or what year Confucius said something. This course is important to me, and I am still grateful to this day for the choice of it.

-Hope M.

Making Cookies

            A few days ago, i made cookies. i took the easy way out and used the pre-made cookie dough instead of making it from scratch like we did in class.  For this method, all that you need to do is use a scoop to take some cookie dough out, put it on a pan, and then bake them.  This is not fun, or challenging, but you still come out with a pretty good tasting cookie.  However, i would much rather go through the entire process: making the cookie dough by hand.   That way i know exactly what is in the cookie that i am making. You never know nowadays what they put into these types of food products. 

            Not only do I like the full process more because it is fun, but i also think that making things by hand, following a recipe makes the item produced taste much better than an already made product. For example, would you rather have Fresh corn on the cob, or the stuff that comes in the cans?  I prefer fresh foods that come from myself.  This is why from now on I will only make my baked goods from scratch.

-Mike Davenport