For this assignment I made another cake but for my dad’s birthday this time. The cake tasted really good and I’m proud of how I decorated it. The tradition I chose is that I bake a cake/ dessert for my dad’s birthday every year. the tradition started 3 years ago so it hasn’t been going on forever. this tradition is really fun for me because I really like baking so it gives me an excuse to do so. I think my mom appreciates it because it mean she doesn’t have to buy/ make the dessert herself. I know my dad appreciates it because I made it myself. I think my favourite part of this tradition is when I bring the dessert out to my dad and get to see his reaction. The only challenge I faced was that I was having a hard time spreading the icing but I fixed that problem by getting a cup of warm water and dipping my off set spatula in it. I believe my greatest success was the final product because it looked and tasted really good. I’m most proud that I can bake stuff on my own and it still turns out well.

For this cooking at home assignment I made homemade piglet in a bun. I used veggie hotdogs, greek yogurt, flour and baking soda. I used a recipe that one of my aunts gave me. If I were to make this dish again I would cook the hotdogs for a little longer because they buns weren’t fully cooked on each side. The challenge I faced was when I was rolling out the dough. I forgot to put a little flour on the rolling pin so it was sticking really bad. I overcame this challenge by scraping the dough of the rolling pin and putting flour on it. I think my greatest success while making these hotdog in a bun was when I was wrapping the veggie dogs. Because I was wrapping them perfectly. I am most proud of the overall taste because they tasted very good and they were really easy to make.

I think my buddha bowl turned out great! I put kale, cucumber, peppers, avocado, chickpeas and quinoa. for the dressing I used ranch because that was the only thing we had. The challenge I faced while preparing the quinoa was that I undercooked it a little bit so it was a little tough to chew. I think my success was the plating. you can’t really tell from the angle but if you saw it from above you could see that everything had it own section and I was all divided very nicely.

The task I completed this week was making my brother breakfast for the week. I have never been asked to take on this task because usually my mom does it. I felt like it helped my mom a lot because she had a lot of work to do. I helped my brother because he isn’t very good at making breakfast for himself and he usually bothers my mom while she is working. my responsibilities have changed due to covid-19 because my parents used to make my brothers breakfast but now I do it. I knew I would be successful because I have watched people make this recipe before so I knew what I was doing. the challenge I faced was that I didn’t put it in the oven for long enough so it was undercooked but I put it in the oven for 10 extra minutes and it was completely fine. I will continue to do this task if my parents want me to but I think it is something they like to do.

The skill that I chose was cake decorating because I love baking and it was my mom’s birthday. I looked up videos on YouTube about how to decorate a cake without any professional tools. I baked a homemade confetti cake to practice my skills. My advice for anyone who wanted to learn this skill is to make sure you have a flat surface to decorate on and spend a little extra money on cake decorating tools because it doesn’t look good without real tools. A few challenges I faced were that I dint have a flat surface to decorate the cake on so it was very hard to make it smooth. I also didn’t have a piping bag so I had to use a ziplock and as you can tell it was very hard to control. I think my greatest success with this cake was getting the icing smooth on top and it tasted pretty good. I am most proud that the cake wasn’t a complete fail and I tried my best to make it look good with the stuff I already had.

For this cooking at home assignment I made quinoa chickpea kale salad. The leftover ingredient I used was roasted chickpeas from a few day before. I used a really good recipe for this one. https://www.acouplecooks.com/kale-quinoa-salad/ If I were to make this dish again I would add the carrots and other vegetables but I didn’t have them at my house so it wasn’t really possible. The challenge I faced while making this salad is that I cut my finger while I was cutting the onions. I overcame this by putting a bandaid on my finger and holding my fingers farther away from the knife. I think my greatest success was cooking the quinoa because it was my first time cooking it and it turned out well. I also had very good mis en place and I cut everything up before I needed to put it all together. Im most proud of the dressing that I made because it tasted SO good and I have been making it for every salad that I have ate since.

For my first cooking at home I chose to make spaghetti and meat sauce. I didn’t use a recipe to make it but my dad told me a few things that would make it taste better.if I were to make this dish again I would use vegetarian meat because I think it tastes better then regular turkey meat. one challenge I faced was when I was boiling the pasta it started to boil over and I got a little scared. I needed to be more calm in the kitchen and I think I haver improved on this skill. I believe my greatest success was cooking the pasta, I made the perfect amount of pasta and we didn’t have to waste any of it and I cooked it perfectly. I was most proud of the fact that I made the whole meal myself without any help from my parents. because it was my first time cooking meat on my own.

Before starting the lab I made sure to do all the necessary steps to insure that everything I made was sanitary. For example, I washed all the veggies, I washed my hands and I made sure to tie my hair back. Before I started cooking everything I made sure to mis en place (I cut all the ingredients in advance.) I cooked everything in the right order to insure that everything was fully cooked. Once I cooked everything I plated it to make sure that it was appealing. I set the table for my mom and I. The burrito tasted delicious! After we finished eating I washed all the dishes following the proper procedure. I dried all the dishes and put them away. If I had to rate the burrito on a scale from 1-10 I would give it a 9.5/10 because there is always room for improvement.