Reflection S2 W17

Christian

            This week I started to work on my PowerPoint presentation for the final part of 20% Time. I started to gather all of the pictures that I took of the different meals I helped to prepare and putting them onto PowerPoint slides. For the part of the presentation in which I am going to talk about the bond that cooking forms, I was planning on just having a slide titled, “Cooking with my family” or something along those lines, but with no body text. I want to talk unscripted about my experience cooking with my family and what it meant to each of us. The presentation is coming along well and I am excited to finish it and present it to the class.

Reflection S2 W15

Christian

            This week, I started to plan out what my final presentation for 20% Time will be. I thought for a while and decided that I would start off my presentation with a slideshow of the different meals I made along with how I prepared and/or cooked them. I then plan to follow that up with an explanation of how cooking brought me closer with my family. In the presentation I want to specifically focus on how cooking with family strengthens bonds and gives your family and yourself a fun way to spend time together. I am going to cover how cooking with my grandma meant a lot to her and how happy she was to spend time with me.

Reflection S2 W14

Christian Burns

            This week was a rather slow week as far as 20% Time goes. I had work Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and I have prom at my home school tonight. I did not have a lot of free time to do a whole lot of anything this week, even though I have had three tests and a project as of Thursday morning. I am going to try my best to try to cook over the weekend. My parents are going out on Friday, and I will be home with my sisters. If my sisters are okay with it, I am willing to cook for them while my parents are away. They are easy and like foods like mac and cheese and chicken cutlets, so I do not think I will have too much trouble preparing a meal for them.

Reflection S2 W13

Christian

            Even though it was not in the past week, Mother’s Day was last Sunday. I figured it would only be right to cook for my mom on her special day. My dad and I got up early to prepare breakfast. We planned on making egg sandwiches and French toast which we prepared the night before. My dad scrambled the eggs because that’s kind of his thing and I toasted the buns and cooked the taylor ham (pork roll to some). While doing all of that on the stovetop, I put the French toast in the oven to cook at 400° F for 20 minutes. After the French toast was done, I took it out and the final step of the recipe called for it to be served with Nutella, but I didn’t see that initially, so I made a last minute run to Acme to grab some. When everything was finished, my mom woke up and loved the breakfast. I’m glad I took this project on because without it, I would not have been able to do what I did.

Reflection S2 W12

Christian

            It has become sort of a routine at my house for me to help out with dinner at least one night a week since I started this project (Already 12 weeks ago!). I have been spending a lot of time doing my 20^th century timeline, which is my U.S. History final project, but I found time to help out one night. My mom was making raviolis and meatballs, and she asked me to help. I was in the middle of working on my history timeline, so I finished the decade I was working on, and went to help her. My mom already mixed the meats and rolled them into balls and make the sauce, so all that was left is to cook the pasta and meatballs. They were done in about 45 minutes, and it turned out great. Even though I was not working on my timeline, I am glad I still got to help out.

Relfection S2 W11

Christian

            This week, I was only able to help out with one meal because I had a very busy work schedule this week. On Tuesday, my dad asked me to help him make chicken parmesan with him. Not only is that one of my favorite meals, it is one of his too, so of course I said I would help. First we dredged the chicken in egg and then coated it with breadcrumbs. After that, we threw the chicken on the stove to cook in a pan coated with olive oil. While the chicken was cooking, we added spices. Once the chicken was cooked, we transferred it to a pan that was filled about a quarter of the way with tomato sauce (previously made and frozen) and baked it in the oven for about 10 minutes or the cheese starts to brown. We ate the chicken with a side of pasta and fresh bread from the bakery. It was a great meal and took less than an hour to prepare and cook.

Reflection S2 W10

Christian

            This week, I went on a weekend trip to Ocean City, NJ with my family. When we got down on Friday, dinner was already cooked because my grandparents left earlier to get our house ready. We just had pizza and salad on Friday. The next day was terrible because all it did was rain, so we were stuck inside the house. At around noon, my grandma came upstairs to where my immediate family and I had our rooms and said that she was going to start dinner early. My mom, sisters, and I went down to help my grandma cook. It was a cool thing to see my grandma and mom cook together. My sisters and I helped mostly by gathering ingredients and measuring them out, but I still had fun. The end result was potato soup, lasagna and meatballs, and lots of garlic bread! The cooking was good and the food was even better.

Reflection S2 W9

Christian

            This week, I had a really busy work schedule. I work at the Galloping Hill Golf Range in Kenilworth. I work as a range attendant but on Saturday, the kitchen got to be really busy, so my boss asked me to hop in with the chef, Marquis, and help him out a little while my other coworkers were outside. Of course I said yes and I helped Marquis out in the kitchen for about an hour. I worked the deep fryers while Marquis worked the stovetop. Although I do not plan on having a culinary career in the future, this was a beneficial experience for me because it gave me time to practice timing, because in a restaurant kitchen, the main goal is to get out good food as fast as possible. I learned when exactly to take things out and how long to let them cook. Also, watching Marquis cook was a cool experience because I got to see someone who cooks for a living do their thing.

Reflection S2 W8

Christian

            This week, my mom and I used the crock pot to cook two nights in a row. On Monday night, we made pulled pork. Before I went to school, I helped my mom marinate and prepare the pork to be cooked. When I got home from school, I smelled the pork cooking and knew it was going to be good just by how it smelled. My mom did not tell me, but after I left for school, she added honey to the pork, and when it was finally ready to eat, I tasted the honey right away and it was a great compliment to the meat. On Tuesday, we made roast beef in the crock pot. My mom and I did the same thing, before I left for school, we prepared the meat then let it cook until it was time to eat. The beef turned out great, but the pork was better in my opinion. I’m glad I’m getting experience with various different methods of cooking food, so I will always have options when it is time to eat.

Reflection S2 W7

Christian

During my spring break, I didn't eat home much but the Monday we started break, my mom and I cooked meatballs, sausage, and rigatoni pasta in a red meat sauce. I had two of my friends over to try the food along with my grandparents, my sisters, and their friends. This is the first time I cooked for people outside of my immediate family and I was a little nervous. When everyone took their first bite, their faces lit up and it made me really happy to know that all of them enjoyed my food. Pasta and meatballs is one of my favorite meals and I'm happy I'm getting to know how to cook it so I can have a good staple meal when I am on my own.

Reflection S2 W6

Christian

            The weather this week has been very nice, particularly Wednesday. My family loves to grill and that is exactly what we did. My dad is the parent to grill the food, so I asked to help grill steak and chicken. He obviously said yes, and the first step we took was preparing the meats. We cleaned them, marinated them, and let them sit for a while. For the steak, we simply marinated with salt and pepper and for the chicken, we marinated it with a buffalo sauce. After about an hour or so of letting them marinate, we took the meats outside and started to grill. The chicken was done a little before the steak, but both turned out great and I was happy to share a meal with my family that I helped to cook. While grilling might not be all that useful in college, it still does not hurt to know what you are doing with one.

Reflection S2 W5

Christian

            This week has been a fairly complicated one to say the least. Not only am I coming off of a surgery, but my mom and grandma also had surgeries this week. My mom’s surgery didn’t require her to stay overnight at the hospital, but she is still on crutches. However, my grandma’s surgery called for her to be in the hospital for three days after surgery day. My days consisted of a lot of homework, helping my mom around the house, and visiting my grandma at the hospital. Unfortunately, this has not left much time for cooking, so my family has ordered out every night this week, which is not such an awful thing. Ordering out allows me to get a taste for other cultural foods and what they are cooked with. I think it is very important to expand your palette because it might open up opportunities for other different dishes to be made.

Reflection S2 W4

Christian

This week, I had surgery on Wednesday the 9th and have been in resting in bed since then. I didn't have a chance to cook anything this week, but I figured that I would benefit from watching some videos of a few easy recipes. I watched a video on how to make a quick meatball Parmesan sandwich and another video on multiple easy ways to cook eggs. The videos were easy to follow along with and can definitely benefit me in the future. I subscribed to both channels and plan on staying up to speed with both of their videos.

Reflection S2 W3

Christian

            This week, I had a few friends over to watch a Pay Per View showing of a UFC fight between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz. It only made sense to me that I should cook some food for my guests. I talked to my mom about it and she suggested that we make an onion dip for chips and chili for a more hardy meal. I liked the idea of both of them, so I decided to do it. The onion dip was simple to make, but the chili took almost all day to prepare. My moms method required that we slow cook the chili in a crock-pot in order for all of the flavors to soak in. It was seasoned and watched with a careful eye throughout the day, and by the time everyone was over, it was ready. Sadly, McGregor lost, but at least the chili was good! Learning how to use a crock-pot is beneficial to me because in college, I can start cooking something in the morning, do whatever I need to do during the day, and come back to a meal that’s ready to eat.

Reflection S2 W2

Christian

            This week, I continued my role as an observer. My mom cooked loaded potato skins with buffalo chicken on Saturday night and I helped her cook it. My mom prepared and cooked everything, but I gathered all the ingredients and watched her as she did it. She seasoned the potatoes and let them cook alone on the stovetop in olive oil. She also let the chicken marinate in buffalo sauce and grilled it. She mixed the chicken and potatoes and let them bake along with chives, shredded cheese, and bacon. She served it with sour cream and more chives on top. I was surprised how quickly it could be prepared, how much of it there was, and how good it was. She said next time she makes it, she will let me know and let me help a little more than I did this time.