September 22, 2009 · 11:12 am

The Best Ever Chocolate Sheet Cake

A Chocolate Lovers Dream!!

A Chocolate Lovers Dream!!

The last two days here have been bad!!  I am praying for all the families that have lost loved ones in this horrible rain. We have been very blessed, but I can tell you first hand what it is like to have your house flooded.  It is just stuff, though.  Anyway…….. We need something to make us all feel better so let’s talk chocolate.  This is my GO TO dessert for company, ALTA, potluck, parties and brunch.  You get the picture. It works for most any event.  I promise you all your friends and family will love it!!!

I first became acquainted with this special cake when I was a new teacher in Wilkinson County. Marjoe Baisden gave me her version.  Since then I have tweaked it a bit.  So here it is for you to just put your face into it if you want to.  That is what GI Joe wants to do every time that I make it.  He likes it hot with vanilla ice cream, but I have seen him eat right out of the pan with a spoon.

Yummy Chocolate Sheet Cake

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 cups self rising flour
  • 2 sticks of butter
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/4 cup cocoa
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix dry ingredients.  In saucepan melt butter, cocoa and water on low heat.  Add to dry ingredients. Mix. (DO NOT use a mixer)   Slightly beat eggs, buttermilk and vanilla.  Add to mixture.  Mix. Pour into a 15 x 10 x 1 in. jelly roll pan that has been greased and floured. Bake about 20 min. at 400 degrees.

Frosting

  • 1 stick butter
  • 3 Tablespoons cocoa
  • 5 Tablespoons milk
  • 1 box powdered sugar
  • 1 cup chopped pecans

Melt butter, cocoa, and milk.  Do this on low heat.  If heated at too high a temperature the butter will clarify making your icing  separate.  Add to sugar and nuts.  Mix.  Frost cake while hot.  Place icing by the  tablespoon all over the cake then smooth out the frosting.  This will keep  from tearing the cake as you frost it.   Here are pictures to guide you along.  Enjoy!

Flour and sugar in a mixing bowl

Flour and sugar in a mixing bowl

Melting butter, water and cocoa

Melting butter, water and cocoa

Greased and floured jelly roll pan

Greased and floured jelly roll pan

Melted butter, cocoa and water

Melted butter, cocoa and water

Whisking eggs, buttermilk and vanilla

Whisking eggs, buttermilk and vanilla

Mixing dry and wet ingredients

Mixing dry and wet ingredients

Ready to bake

Ready to bake

Frosting - melting butter and cocoa

Frosting - melting butter and cocoa

Powdered sugar, chocolate and nuts for frosting

Powdered sugar, chocolate and nuts for frosting

Chocolate Icing

Chocolate Icing

Cooked cake

Cooked cake

Ready to dig into!!!

Ready to dig into!!!

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September 21, 2009 · 11:17 am

Tomato Okra Casserole— Summer’s Ending!!!!

This is sooo good!!!

This is sooo good!!!

This is going to be the  last of tomatoes and okra for a while.  At least fresh!   The Alabama girl gave me this delicious recipe.  She and I taught together for 3 1/2 years.  She is a great teacher and a great cook.  I miss her terribly,but that is another story.  Anyway,  last year we had a potluck dinner and she brought this dish and I am going to share it with you.

I get fresh vegetables from the CSA in our area and had a pound of okra to work with.  If you do not have fresh okra frozen will work. 

Tomato Okra Casserole

  • 6 Tbl. onion chopped
  • 2Tbl. Bacon grease
  • 1/4 t. curry powder
  • 1/4 t. red pepper
  • 2 1/2 T Parmesean Cheese
  • 1 qt. tomatoes peeled cooked or canned
  • 1/2 t paprika
  • 1  T sugar
  • 1 1/2 t salt
  • 8 Ritz crackers crushed

Saute onions in bacon grease.

Her is how I got the bacon grease. Save the bacon for later.

Here is how I got the bacon grease. Save the bacon for later.

 

Sauteing onions

Sauteing onions

Add okra and cook until tender.

Add okra and cook until tender.

Add tomatoes and seasonings. Stir well.

Add tomatoes and seasonings. Stir well.

 

Put in greased casserole

Put in greased casserole

Top with cheese and crackers.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes.  You are going to love this!!!  The okra is not slimy it is just plain good. 

Happy cooking,

The Teacher Cooks

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September 17, 2009 · 7:25 pm

BISCUITS Made from Scratch

WOW!

WOW!

Biscuits made from scratch are in most households a lost art.  I teach that skill for many reasons.  Homemade biscuits are good, better than canned and frozen ones.  They are cheap to make.  You can put them together in no time.  They are versatile.  And most importantly it makes you feel good about yourself when someone says ” You made this?  WOW ! I am impressed. ”  So today my students were given the task of making homemade biscuits and surprisingly they did very well.  This is not the easiest thing to do if you have never handled biscuit dough before.  It is hard to judge how much milk to add and how many times to knead the dough.  Usually there will be one disaster out the classes , but not today.  They all did pretty well.  I will have to brag on second block.  They were all super.

So how do you put these things together.  Really it is quite easy and very quick.  It just may take a few times to get the knack of it.  My first biscuits were not edible so there is hope!!   Always use WHITE LILY self rising flour and CRISCO.  I am not advertising for White Lily flour, but this is the only kind that works for me.  I use the recipe that is on the package.  You cannot go wrong.

  • 2 cups of White Lily self-rising flour
  • 1/4 cup Crisco
  • 2/3 cup – 3/4 cup milk

 

Using a pastry blender cut shortening in flour

Using a pastry blender cut shortening in flour

 

Using a pastry blender cut Crisco into flour until it is about the size of small peas.  This makes the biscuits tender and flaky.

Add milk and stir with a fork

Add milk and stir with a fork

Do not add all the milk at once.  The amount to humidity in the air will determine  the milk you will need.  The dough should be stirred with a fork and it should pull away from the sides of the bowl.  Pour on wax paper with flour.  Sprinkle a little flour on top to keep it from being sticky and put flour on your hands.  Knead the dough for 4 to 6 times.  The dough should be smooth and spongy. These two things are important when making biscuits :  1.  Do not handle the dough too much and 2.  Do not add too much flour when kneading.  Flatten out with your hands to a thickness of 1/2 inch and cut out with a biscuit cutter or something with an open end that will not trap air and cut smoothly.   

Cutting out biscuits

Cutting out biscuits

Place the biscuits flour side in the bottom of a slightly greased pan. Bake at 500 degrees for 10 min. 

Ready to bake

Ready to bake

That’s all there is to it.  Just give it a try.  Then practice and then practice again.   Now here are the results of today’s bake off!!

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September 10, 2009 · 7:17 pm

Waffles

Here you are again!

This is GOOD!

Here you are again!

Here you are again!

Piled High and Ready to Eat!

Piled High and Ready to Eat!

I could not choose one for the top of the post today so you all three have the honors.  Great job.

Between pancakes and waffles, waffles win everytime for me.  I love the crunchy ones sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar.  Reminds me of a funnel cake. Yum !  Today I was living the tasters best life.  These were sooo good.

Yesterday I was a little worried during the demonstration.  It was almost a catastrophe.  Let me just tell you that last semester some good intentioned student cleaned the waffle iron  a little too good.  Not knowing this I  poured my waffle batter in there  like I always do.  Waited the appropriate time.  Opened it up and in front of God and everyone was a mess of stuck batter.  For a minute there I thought I would faint.  I turned this into a “teachable moment”  and we had a lesson on seasoning a waffle iron.  Using a pastry brush or paper towel coat the waffle iron top and bottom with vegetable oil.  Turn on for about 15 minutes.  To make the class even better  one of my “thinking ahead” students said she thought we should season all 8 of our waffle irons.  GREAT IDEA!

So today went without a hitch.  What can I say ?  But,  I have some great students that are loving this cooking.

Here is what they cooked up today.

Happy Cooking,
The Teacher Cooks

Good Job!

Good Job!

Looks Yummy!

Looks Yummy!

Strawberries added the touch!

Strawberries added the touch!

Smiley!!

Smiley!!

Great Waffles!

Great Waffles!

Just 4 U!

Just 4 U!

Awesome!

Awesome!Good Looking!

So Cute!

So Cute!Just look at these they are GREAT!!!

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September 3, 2009 · 6:51 pm

FLUFFY PANCAKES

A little artwork here!

A little artwork here!

Just the smell of bacon and pancakes is GOOD!  The taste is even better.  It was a great day in the laboratory.  I love it, the power of “teacher persuasion”.  It is so funny sometimes how you can put a firecracker under students to get them motivated.  All of them worked so diligently today to beat the clock and they did!  Congratulations on a job well done.

I have tried many recipes for pancakes and coming from a make from scratch kind of cook this is not easy for me to say, but BISQUICK pancakes are the best. You can’t seem to go wrong with a little Betty Crocker.  I have been using this recipe for about 20 years in the classroom.  It is almost foolproof.  Alas, read my last paragraph and you can mess this up.

I used their website on my smartboard to show the recipe and to give tips for making pancakes.  It is a great way to start a demo.  I use a teflon skillet that will cook six pancakes at a time.  Along with this we discussed the labels on two different kinds of bacon and discovered how misleading they can be.  Who would have thought that companies would try to get us to purchase their product by fooling us????

As you can see from the photos they all turned out great.  To add a little extra each group invited an adult guest.  You know what that means–they have to talk!  Oh, wait they can do that well.  Table conversation with an adult is quite different.  It was all good though.  I was impressed.

One little”oops” that turned into a great learning experience.  I tasted a group’s pancakes that were quite horrible. I questioned them and “no ma’m we did not measure incorrectly .”  BUT looking at the box of Bisquick brought from home lo and behold the use by date was 2007. What can I say?   They made another recipe quite hurriedly and they were very good.

Another great day in my cooking world,

The Teacher Cooks

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September 1, 2009 · 4:29 pm

Easy Danish – Our 2nd LAB

Easy to make! Taste YUMMY!
Easy to make! Taste YUMMY!

Today was a learning experience all about judging cooking time.  The inexperienced cook has no conception of cooking time when it comes to baking.  In other words we had some Danish today to get a little on the “brown”  side.  BUT…It is all about learning.  Next time the little angels will know to check after 30 seconds when they aren’t quite ready and not wait two to three minutes. The majority of the Danish were very good. 

 

I did have to head  straight to the gym after tasting twelve of those yummy melt in your mouth  sweet things that go right to your hips.

While you are here  take a look at what we  cooked up in the kitchen today. 
Pictures are posted after the recipe.   The recipe  appeared on the Bisquick box awhile back.   Try it out!  EASY DANISH!!!
Easy Danish
  • 2 cups Bisquick
  • 2 T sugar
  • 1/4 cup margarine
  • 2/3 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup fruit pie filling

Icing

  • 1 heaping cup powdered sugar
  • 2-3 T milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  If using dark pan decrease by 25 degrees.  Lightly grease a cookie sheet.  Add 2 T sugar to Bisquick.  Cut in margarine into Bisquick with a fork.   Add milk and stir until blended.  Place a heaping tablespoon on the cookie sheet placing each mound  about 2 in. apart.  Makes 12.    Make a well with a spoon in each mound.  Fill with about a tablespoon of your favorite fruit pie filling.  Bake for 12 – 14 min. until lightly browned on the edges.   Mix 1 cup of powdered sugar with milk  adding a little at the time .  Being careful not to get the icing too runny.  It should be thick enough to drizzle from a spoon.  Drizzle on top of the Danish.  Serve hot.  

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August 30, 2009 · 9:41 pm

Muffins – Bright Day Banana Muffins

Bright Day Banana Muffins

Bright Day Banana Muffins

What a great way to end the week. These muffins are so tasty.  I promised my students that I would make muffins from scratch so here is what I did.  This recipe came from an old Pillsbury cookbook.  My students loved it.  Hope that you love it too.  Try them they are  so easy and healthy.

Bright Day Banana Muffins

  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • ¾ cup whole wheat flour
  •  1/2 cup sugar
  •   2 teaspoons baking powder
  •  1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  •  1/2 cup (1 medium) mashed ripe banana
  •  1/2 cup milk
  • 1/3 cup oil
  •  1 egg, slightly beaten
  • Topping
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 Tablespoons butter melted                                                           

Heat oven to 400F.  Grease bottoms of 12 muffin cups or line with paper baking cups.  Combine all dry ingredients; stir in remaining muffin ingredients until dry particles are moistened.  Fill 2/3 full.

Bake at 400F. for 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown.  Immediately remove from pan.  In small bowl, combine ¼ cup sugar and cinnamon.  Brush tops of hot muffins with melted  butterand dip in sugar-cinnamon mixture.  Serve warm.

To brush the tops of the muffins I used a Le Creuset pastry brush with a silicone brush.  I LOVE it.  It will withstand high heat and can go directly into the dishwasher.  It is perfect.

About nutrition:  These muffins have 210 calories, 3 g protein and 2g fiber.  Better than most.  Freeze these babies and just pull them out and microwave for 30 seconds.  Pair with a cold glass of milk and you have the perfect breakfast.

Happy Cooking,

The Teacher Cooks

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August 23, 2009 · 8:19 pm

Blueberry Muffins – LAB DAY!!!!

Great muffins and a cute card

Great muffins and a cute card.

 The first lab of the semester is always interesting.  I never know what to expect.  A very quiet shy body can turn into a firecracker in the kitchen.  I’ll see a leader emerge in each group or some may look at them as “control freaks”… whatever…it is the in charge person.  Anyway, I find it quite interesting to watch the meshing of  personalities that in the end want one thing-  MY STAMP OF APPROVAL.

So was today a good lab day?  One of the best!  Problems were few – 1 glass broken, 1 oven turned off instead of on, 1 oven left on, some dishes washed in cold water, and some muffins a little too brown.  I cannot complain! I think that we are off to a great semester of cooking.  

Just take a  l00k at these amazing picture of muffins that were made by future chefs, cooks, family meal planners, or better yet OUR FUTURE.  It is just the tip of the iceberg and we are in for a treat!!

Just a note here.  I got a message yesterday on Facebook from a former student that said “I thank you everyday for my culinary skills!”  Of course I don’t take credit.  I just gave her a little nudge, she did the rest.  Things like that are so good to hear.  It makes me feel like I make a difference  and that is why I am….

The Teacher Cooks

Enjoy the pictures from “CHEFS IN TRAINING”

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August 20, 2009 · 5:44 pm

Muffins and Getting to Know Your Kitchen

Lemon Poppyseed MuffinsToday was the first demo of the semester.  I made muffins from a box. ” Why?”  So you think I  should be making these from scratch.  I will later. This is a great way for the students to get to know who they will be working with, get familiar with their kitchen and figure out exactly how they will be graded.  They all want to make the perfect product and are most eager to hear what I have to say after I taste!!  

Notice that one of these muffins is really peaked!!  I promise I did not overmix them.  I am guessing that I put a little more batter in than I should have.  The rest are rounded as they should be. 

The first lab of the semester is always interesting.  I have a great variety of students some of which cook everyday and others that have only had the experience of eating in a kitchen. 

Will be posting pictures of tomorrow’s  pieces of work!!! Until then,

Happy Cooking,

The Teacher Cooks

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August 20, 2009 · 4:49 pm

MEASURING INGREDIENTS

OK THIS COULD BE A BORING SUBJECT.   But it is necessary to those who have never stepped foot into the kitchen.   Believe me I have seen almost every kind of mistake that can be made by measuring incorrectly.  So I am giving you the basics here.

Measuring can make or break a recipe especially when baking.  Even a small ingredient such as salt  makes a big difference.  On the other hand if your are making spaghetti sauce  or something similar you can vary amounts of ingredients or leave some out all together and the sauce will still be tasty.

Measuring Liquids  – Liquid measuring cups come in various sizes. They should be glass or plastic with a pouring spout.   For those who have never measured ingredients pay attention to this small detail, when measuring 1/2 cup of a liquid do not measure it in a 4 cup measure.  The smallest amount you can measure is 1 cup.  Measure liquids at eye level.  Don’t measure liquids in a dry measuring cup!!

 

Measuring Flour

  • Use dry measuring cups
  • Sift if necessary or stir to add air if packed
  • Spoon lightly into a measuring cup
  • Level with a straight edge
  • Do not scoop flour out with the measuring cup or measuring spoon. You will almost  DOUBLE the flour you need. 

Wax paper is a great to use  on the counter when measuring because you can pour the leftovers back into the canister. 

Powdered sugar should be measured same as flour.

Brown sugar should be packed into a dry measure.

Use measuring spoons for small amounts of ingredients and level.

Shortening can be measured in two ways:

  • Pack into a dry measuring cup
  • Water Displacement method:  if you need 1/2 cup shortening measure 1/2 cup cold water and add shortening until the water level is 1 cup.  Keep shortening under water by pushing in to stick to bottom or side. Drain water.

Remember that measuring correctly is the key to great baking!!

Happy Cooking,

The Teacher Cooks

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