Chicken Mozzarella Marinara with Spaghetti

I chose this recipe because it was perfect for my family as we already had the ingredients to make this dish. For my chicken I had to cut them in half as they were to big and would be too much for one person and would have taken a really long time to cook. I laid each one out and covered it with mozzarella cheese then marinara sauce and toping it of with parmesan cheese. When the time that was left was the same as the amount to cook the spaghetti, I put the pasta on so that everything would be done at the same time.

I give this 5 stars because I worked hard and did it all in good time and I had confidence and didn’t need to ask any questions.

” Cooking at home” Greek Week

This was a very big meal we had to make. for my chicken souvlaki I chopped it up and marinated it the night before. instead of just cooking them in a pan, I decided to put them onto skewers. For the pita bread I made it a few hours before I did the cooking for my dinner. they turned out pretty well, but I didn’t roll them out enough and they were to thick. It was a little tricky to figure out when to start cooking everything because the potatoes took a lot longer than the chicken. when the potatoes were cooking, I chopped up the Greek salad and then I cooked the chicken. This dinner was really nice, especially with the homemade pita. I will definitely make this again in the future.

I’m giving myself 5 stars because I was able to get a lot of things done and still eat dinner at an early time.

“Cooking at Home” Chocolate Lava Cake

I was really excited to make these cakes as I also made them last year. What I love about these lava cakes are that they are actually really easy to make, the hardest part would be getting them to be cooked just right. I planned to make this on my brothers birthday so I could give it to him. when I was taking the cakes out I was a little worried that they were over cooked, but they ended up being just right. Another thing I found hard was getting the cakes to come out of my ramekin, probably because I didn’t grease it enough or didn’t have enough coco powder in it. over all this recipe was quite successful.

I give five stars because the dish was made with good time management and I was able to get the lava cake to be gooey on the inside.

” Cooking at Home” Asparagus, Peas and Mint Risotto

For this risotto we hade to pick a vegetable and a herb, I choose peas, asparagus and mint. This risotto took a long time to make which started to make me frustrated, I think this is because I had the heat to low so the rice took longer to suck up the chicken broth. when the risotto was close to done I didn’t add us much cheese in as the recipe because if I did it would have been way to salty, I also didn’t add the full amount of butter at then end because it was already really creamy. I would make this again in the future, but next time I would cook it at a higher temperature.

I give 4 stars because my risotto turned out well, but I had some trouble with preparations and with time management.

“Cooking at Home” Yule Log Cake with Homemade Ice-cream

For this weeks cooking we had to make a complicated meal or dessert. I decided to go with a log cake and ice-cream. over all the making of the cake wasn’t to hard, and the thing that took longest was the whipping of the egg whites. the recipe called for kosher salt which I wasn’t to sure about, but still ended up using. I felt very rushed during the end of making this cake. originally the recipe called for a different filling, but I opted to not do that one and go with a homemade ice-cream. It was difficult to spread it all evenly on the cake and to roll it up without the ice-cream melting. To cover the cake I made a chocolate ganache, which I realized was a lot easier than expected. when I served the cake, I was happy that I went with ice-cream because I personally found it to be a bit too salty and the ice-cream made it less noticeable. My family really liked it and went back for more during the rest of the week. I don’t think I would make this cake again since it, took a lot o effort and wasn’t my favourite to make. I think next time I’ll just buy one, but it was nice to try to make it at home.

I’m giving myself five stars because I tried out a new recipe and learnt new things, also because the cake turned out well.

Potato Hash

This was our last meal we cooked in class be for quarantine. we got to use a lot of great ingredients like bacon, eggs potatoes, turnips and cheese. in this dish I was really able to practice my knife skills, sautéing and use of seasonings ( I ended up giving it a bit more spice then I wanted too). I think next time I make this I would work on my presenting of the dish more, to make it look more appealing. I was really happy with my partner and I because we were able to use our time wisely so that we had time to eat and clean up before the = end of class. In the future I would like to make this again for my family.

I’m giving myself 5 stars because I got to use a lot of skills and I used my time wisely.

Pineapple Delight

I personally found this dessert to be too sweet. I would probably make this dessert again, but I would try a different recipe. This was a layered dessert with crushed graham crackers at the bottom, then an egg mixture, topped with a whip cream with canned pineapples folded in. Although this was an easy dessert to make it required quite a few steps which included mixing graham crackers with melted butter and baking it. After that I had to cream the egg, softened butter, vanilla and powdered sugar and freeze it for a few minutes. we then had to drain the pineapples and fold them into the whip cream and refrigerating it before eating it.

I give myself 4 out of 5 stars because I wasn’t the fastest at my cooking and was a bit behind at times but overall I did well.

Mexican Rice

I really enjoyed making this rice dish. It was super flavorful and wasn’t too difficult to make. When making this dish I was really able to experiment o spices figuring how much I needed and which ones went well together. One of our goals were for the dish to be colourful and tasty which I believed it was. My partner and I were successful with our meal and successful by getting the meal ready in time and cleaning up before the class was over. I was able to work on my cutting skills and also learnt to not put the garlic in with the onions, so that it doesn’t burn.

I give myself 5 stars because the rice turned out how I wanted it to do and I was proficient with my time.

Veggie Frittata your Way

This dish was fairly easy to make. We had to choose a vegetable combination to put in our frittata. My partner and I choose peppers, zucchini, and spinach for our frittata and topped it off with feta cheese. With this dish I was really able to work on my knife skills since there were so many vegetables to cut, I also got to practice sautéing. The product standards for the frittata were to be colourful, thick, held together and to be cooked through.

I give myself five stars because in this lab I worked efficiently, the food tasted good and it looked as I wanted it to.

Basic Crepes and Apple Filling

For this recipe we had to do two things, make the crepes and the filling. It was really hard to do the crepes because we had to get the amount of batter right, not too little but also not too much that it would become thick. It was also hard figuring out how long to cook the crepes and also how to flip them n our pans. once we figured this all out we got the hang of making them and they turned out well! For our apple filling it tasted good, but we could have cooked the apples a little more so they were softer and have more liquid. Before we started making these I watched a vide on how to fold the crepes, I decided to give it a try and I would say it worked too!

I give this recipe over all four stars because there were some mess ups and some things we could have done better.