Summer Ideas + A Fond Farewell

There are so many summer recipes "out there" and, often times, I just get so overwhelmed. There seem to be so many different versions of the same thing. I sometimes think: Why can't I just simply grill a hamburger, boil some corn and call it dinner? Do I really need to make "inside out cheeseburgers"? What's so bad about a traditional Caprese salad? Why would I possibly need to change that? So, instead of reinventing the wheel, I just try and make the wheel more appealing. Translation: I try to do one thing different for a recipe that I make all the time. This can be easily and deliciously accomplished by making Quick Pickled Red Onions. When I was growing up in the South, everything was pickled: pickled string beans, pickled shrimp, pickled peaches, pickled okra, pickled corn, and, of course, pickled cucumbers. A couple of years ago, I got the idea for Quick Pickled Red Onions from a Cooks Illustrated quarterly publication called "30 Minute Suppers" and was hooked. If you want to quick pickle red onions, you can find soooo many recipes on the Web. Martha Stewart has her version, which is flavored with cloves. Bobby Flay flavors his with chopped cilantro. But, this one from epicurious.com, is super simple and one that I recommend. (If you like spicy, just slice up a fresh jalapeno and add it to the mix.) You just won't believe how often you will take these beautiful and delicious red onions out of your refrigerator. I have added them to green salads, quesadillas, hamburgers, hot dogs, bean salads, and guacamole. Recently, I served them all by themselves in a beautiful green bowl alongside a wedge of Manchego and vegetable chips and hummus to some friends (who are from Jackson, Mississippi) and they swooned. (The swooning could have possibly been from the Port City Optimal Wit, but that is another story.) 

Here are my quick pickled red onions and pickled string beans served as a side to a grilled turkey burger. I also added sliced avocado and a black bean and corn salad for a cool, delicious meal. And, yes, that is the Olio Black Walnut Aged Balsamic Vinegar drizzled on top. (The possibilities of which foods to add this Balsamic vinegar to are endless. So, so, so good.)

Another fun, easy summer idea is to make your own Popsicles. I like to use Emergen-C instead of juice. It has virtually no sugar, and tons of Vitamin C. My children cannot get enough of these things. I make a batch of 4 every day. You can find Popsicle molds at Tj Maxx, Home Goods, Amazon, or William Sonoma.

If you can, try to carve out some time for your kids to have a lemonade stand. Nobody can resist buying lemonade from kids. This photo of my daughter (right) and her friend was taken during Spring Break before we left on our "Grandparent Tour". Clearly, this is no fancy Lemonade Stand. I simply set up our craft table we usually have in the playroom; the girls brought the chairs out. The drink dispenser was perfect for the lemonade, but a pitcher works just as well. I unearthed old cups from a Halloween party and we found a shoebox to hold the money. Those girls made $22.50 in less than 2 hours. (Thanks, in part, to Miss Medrano for stopping by as a generous customer.) They were so proud of themselves. Plus, if you have any lemonade left over, (which you won't, but just in case)....make Popsicles!

Does anyone ever shop at Reunions, the gift store just around the corner from St. Clement? I love it there. I always find the perfect gift...and then some. Here is the most hilarious note card that I couldn't resist sharing. If you have a foodie friend, I think they would get a kick out of this. I did.

So, here are your summer assignments:
1. Quick Pickle something and use it as your new condiment.
2. Make homemade Popsicles.
3. Host a simple Lemonade Stand.
 4. Try one or two new recipes...just for fun! I recently tried making Baked Tostones (Plantains) for the first time...and they were delicious. I heard my daughter say: "I don't like the way that looks, but I don't judge food by the way it looks, I judge it by the way it tastes." Well. Isn't that good to know?



And, now.....a fond farewell to all of you. With great contemplation, I decided it was time to move out of the realm of teaching adorable preschoolers to cook and onto other endeavors.

So, every goodbye should begin with a story. This past January when we made Homemade Pizza, I asked the kids to share a personal story about pizza. One class didn't have much to share and we still had 5 minutes to wait for the pizza to bake, so I decided to share a story of my own. Here is how it went:

Me: "Hmmm. If you don't mind, I have a pizza story to share with you all."
Class: Stares and Silence.
Me: "So. My story starts like this: I have a little boy who is 4 years old..."
Eager Little Fellow: "...Miss Diana, is it me?"

This little comment was so poignant for me. Of course, I told his mom and dad, who thought it was equally hysterical. Then, I started thinking about it and I realized that at some point, at some moment, at some time throughout the year, I have looked at each of your children with the same pride that a parent would look at their own child. With guidance and love from --no doubt-- all kinds of people, your children have grown up this year. They have become smarter, wiser, more polite, better listeners, more skilled, more confident, better communicators...and they have become great cooks...and I have enjoyed observing this transformation!

And so, Miss Lee had her version of Cooking Class then Miss Cathy had her version. When I came along I offered the students and teachers my version of Cooking Class. And soon, someone great will come along and offer his or her version and you all will have fun listening to your children talk about Cooking Class once again.


I would like to thank Miss Dory for offering up the opportunity to teach your children. In addition, I would like to thank the teachers for their support throughout the year. Basically, I didn't know what the heck I was doing in the beginning and everyone offered up their encouragement and gratitude as I figured out my way of teaching the kids. (I would like to share that some of the teachers have even been inspired to purchase a couple of cooking tools for their own kitchens. One teacher enthusiastically purchased a microplane and couldn't wait to tell me about it. Another teacher got a Global knife for her kitchen. If memory serves, I think she may have even passed it off as a "Father's Day gift", which is SO something I would do, so I wholeheartedly support this strategic move.) I would like to thank Joy Pochatila for giving me the idea for the blog. The blog has offered a vessel for the parents (and the grandparents) to share in their children's lives, and it has served as a vehicle for allowing the reader to get to know their child's teacher (me!) in a whole different way. Throughout the year, I have been randomly inspired in surprising ways and, as a writer, have experienced the feeling of great anticipation of transforming an idea in my head into a sentence on this blog. And, I would like to thank the many parents who generously donated their time to volunteer in our Cooking Class this year. I hope that I have adequately expressed my gratitude about how much I enjoyed getting to know you all and how much I appreciated the extra help!

All the best to each of you. Please keep in touch, especially if you have a recipe that you would like to share with me! If you haven't noticed....I love to try new things!

Have a great summer!

Diana Duplantier
St. Clement Cooking Teacher
2013-2014

Homemade Lemon-Lime Soda Pop

With only 2 days of school left in the year, one last Cooking Class, a hot, humid day and nearly 70 rowdy children, I needed a great recipe. So, I consulted Molly Katzen's book "Pretend Soup and Other Real Recipes: A Cookbook for Preschoolers and Up" and found the perfect one. Homemade Lemon-Lime Soda Pop is a fun, refreshing drink that would be great for this very unique day! 

Vanessa Havener, (Owen's mom, Green Room) volunteered to help (and to bring a few supplies!) We brought our ingredients, our various cooks tools and a rolling ice chest filled with ice into each classroom to make the drink together. Here is the prep for 6 classes.

We used 4 different citrus juicers to let the whole class juice the lemons and limes at the same time!

Vanessa brought in her soda stream so we could show the kids how to convert plain water into fizzy water! 

We filled small plastic tumbler cups with ice.

...and celebrated a great year!

Quotes of the Day:

"We're like grown ups!"

"I like it!"

"This drink is yummy!"

"Miss Diana, we're good cookers. This morning, I cooked a smoothie!"

Homemade Lemon-Lime Soda Pop

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon lime juice

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons apple juice concentrate (thawed)

3 ice cubes

1 cup soda water

1) Combine everything in a glass and stir.

2) Add more ice, if desired, and drink with a straw or slurp from a spoon.

Yield: 1 serving!

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

Just for kicks, I thought it would be fun (and slightly tricky) to make homemade frozen yogurt with the kids. The tricky part involved keeping the ice cream maker bowl cold enough to make frozen yogurt for 6 classes on Thursday and 5 classes on Friday. But, this problem was easily solved by continuously rotating 3 different machines! So, thank you to Noelle and Mark Williams (Nolan's parents, Yellow Room) and Vanessa and John Havener (Owen's parents, Green Room) for lending us your ice cream makers for this week's Cooking Class!

So, we discussed three important things at the beginning of each class:
1. This would be our last time meeting in the Cooking Classroom for the year...so we were going to make something really fun!
2. Our recipe is really special because it only had 4 ingredients: strawberries, sugar, lemon and yogurt.
3. We were doing things backwards! First, we put a pre-made batch of the yogurt mixture in the ice cream maker to allow it to churn during class. Then, while it was churning, we made a batch for the next class!

We used a lot of cooking tools for this cooking lesson: an ice cream maker, a food processor, a chef's knife, a microplane, a lemon juicer and a spatula! First, we used the Chef's knife to slice the strawberries.

Then, we placed them in a bowl and added sugar.

We used a microplane to zest a lemon, then we added the juice!

We stirred it all together....then...

...for the first time, we used the BRAND NEW Cuisinart Food Processor that was recently purchased with PTO funds. Wow! The Red Room took this powerful machine on its maiden voyage. 

After we added the yogurt to to food processor, we carefully poured the mixture into the ice cream maker...

which was soooooooooo fascinating!

With the use of our three different ice cream makers...the results...

...were delicious! 

Quotes of the Day:

This stuff is the yummiest.

This frozen yogurt is the best cooking class.

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt 

Ingredients

1 quart strawberries, hulled and chopped
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest
Juice from 1/2 of a lemon
1 quart of whole, plain Greek yogurt


Directions

A full 24 hours before you make your frozen yogurt, place your ice cream maker insert into the freezer.

Combine the strawberries, sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice to a food processor. Pulse the berries until smooth, and then add the yogurt. Continue to blend until smooth.

Turn your ice cream machine on and pour in the chilled yogurt mixture. Churn until the mixture looks slushy like soft serve, about 12 to 15 minutes.

Thank you, again, to Vanessa Havener (Owen's mom, Green Room) for volunteering on Thursday. We did a lot of "appliance shifting" and "lesson strategizing" to accommodate this very fun recipe. Thank you for your much needed help!

Fruit Spring Rolls with Mint Lime Dipping Sauce

Total disclosure: This recipe was discovered by Miss Susie (Blue Room) and is totally and completely taken from the Food Network's Giada's deLaurentiis. (I am a huge fan of giving credit where credit is due.) And, what a great idea it is! When I read over the recipe (and watched the you tube video), I thought that it would be really fun (and slightly adventurous) for our preschoolers. In addition, it is light, refreshing and goes perfectly with our curriculum surrounding the use of fresh herbs.

Look at these gorgeous ingredients: fresh mango, fresh strawberries, fresh mint...all of which required the use of a BRAND NEW CHEFS KNIFE, which was recently donated by the PTO. Thank you so much! It has been put to good use already!

First we discussed the use of herbs in our previous recipes: we used rosemary in our foccacia, parsley in our meatballs, cilantro in our salsa...and now, we have mint for our Fruit Spring Rolls. Everyone examined the mint then separated the leaves from the stems so we could chop up the leaves for our recipe!

First, we snipped some cooked rice noodles with kitchen sicssors....

Added some honey...

...then, we added some finely chopped fresh mint...and stirred.

The kids were fascinated by the rice paper. Here the Blue Room is holding up their individual sheets!

To prepare the rice paper for the Spring Roll, we submerged it in water for 30 seconds. It required our "gentle fingers" to take it out of the water and place it on a paper towel.

Then, we began assembly. This step required a LOT of grown up help, so I was especially thankful for my parent volunteers this week! 

We discussed how the translucent rice paper allowed us to see all of the ingredients we wrapped up!

Overall, some were very unsure about the rice paper, and some chose to open up the roll and eat the ingredients separately. But, there were definitely some who totally enjoyed the newness of this snack...and who asked for seconds!

Quote of the Day:

"Those noodles look like Elsa's hair!"

Fruit Spring Rolls With Lime-Mint Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups cooked pad thai noodles, cooled and drained
1/4 cup honey
1/4 packed cup fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
6 (8-inch) rice paper rounds
6 medium strawberries, stemmed
1 mango, halved, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch thick slices
6 tablespoons sliced almonds, toasted

Dipping sauce:

1/4 cup packed fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup finely chopped mint

Directions
For the rolls: Put the noodles in a medium bowl and add the honey and the mint. Using 2 forks, toss the ingredients together until the noodles are coated. Lay a damp kitchen or paper towel on a work surface. Soak a rice paper round in warm water for 20 to 30 seconds until softened. Put the rice paper on the damp towel. Add 1/4 cup of the noodle mixture in the center of the rice paper and form into a 3 by 2-inch rectangle. Using a paring knife, slice a strawberry lengthwise into 1/4-inch slices. Arrange the slices over the noodle mixture. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon almonds on top. Arrange 2 to 3 mango slices on top of the almonds. Roll the rice paper around the filling and seal the ends with a little water. Repeat with the remaining ingredients. Wrap the finished spring rolls in damp paper towels and store in the refrigerator.

For the dipping sauce: In a small bowl, combine the mint, honey and lime juice. Pour into a serving bowl.

Arrange the spring rolls on a platter and serve with the dipping sauce.

Thank you to Vanessa Havener, Owen's mom (Green Room) for her help on Thursday.

Thank you to Susie Foster, Zack and Olivia's mom (Blue and Orange Rooms) for her help on Friday.

And, thank you to Joy Pochatila, Petra and Lindy's mom (Green and Yellow Rooms) for joining our cooking party on Friday.

It is always so much fun to have parents come into the Cooking Kitchen to help. What a party!