Sunny Days...

This is what we do when muffins are baking and it is FINALLY a beautiful sunny day! We just couldn't resist :)

Chicken Stir Fry

This recipe turned out great! Some thought it a little salty, so if you wanted to cut back a bit with the soy sauce it wouldn't be a horrible idea. If you're feeling ambitious, made this! The students have been learning about carbohydrates and we talked about making rice. Go for it! I promise you won't be disappointed :)

Chicken Stir Fry

1 bouillon cube
1 C hot water
2 Tbsp corn starch
1/4 C soy sauce
1/4 tsp minced garlic
1 small bunch of broccoli
1 carrot
1 stalk of celery
1/4 of a large onion
1/4 C water chestnuts
1/4 C snow peas
1 chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
2 Tbsp oil

1 1/2 C rice
3 C water

1. In a saucepan, bring 3 cups water to a boil. Add rice, cover, and lower heat to a simmer. Cook until water is gone and rice is soft and fluffy
2. In a small saucepan, combine 1 C hot water and bouillon cube and bring to a boil. Stir until bouillon cube is dissolved and then REMOVE FROM HEAT.
3. In a cereal bowl, combine soy sauce and cornstarch. Stir with a fork until completely dissolved and smooth. Add garlic to the coy sauce mixture. Slowly add the soy sauce mixture to the saucepan with the bouillon. Whisk the sauce mixture over medium low heat until it thickens slightly. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Wash and cut up: broccoli, carrot, celery, and onion into bite sized pieces. Cut the water chestnuts in half. Wash and trim snow peas.
5. In a large skillet, add oil and chicken pieces. Cook over medium-high heat until cooked through and golden brown.
   
6. Add carrots and broccoli to skillet and cook for about 5 minutes or until tender. Add celery, onion, water chestnuts and snow peas and cook for an addition 10-15 minutes, or until all vegetables are tender.
7. Add sauce mixture to the vegetables and chicken and stir until all ingredients are coated. Cook for about 5 minutes until completely heated through and remove from heat.
8. Serve the stir fry mixture over rice. Eat and enjoy!
   

Banana Bread = Quickbread Happiness

The key to great banana bread is making sure that you add all of the ingredients :) Some of the students didn't manage to get their flour into their banana bread. The result? Flat, non-rising, yucky looking goop. Yeah, not the best idea. My suggestions, as always, is to follow that recipe!

Here is the recipe below! Enjoy!

Banana Bread

1/2 C sugar
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1 T milk
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 C oil
1/2 C mashed bananas
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 C flour
1/4 tsp baking soda

1. In a bowl, combine sugar, oil, and egg
2. Add the mashed bananas and blend thoroughly
3. Add lemon juice and milk
4. Sift salt, flour, baking soda, and baking powder together and add to the mixture
5. Pour into 2 small greased loaf pans
6. Bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes, or until crust is brown
7. Remove from pan onto a rack and cool

Makes 2 tiny loaves. For a regular loaf of bread, double recipe and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Yummy Buttermilk Biscuits!

The day after we had our muffin competition, we had a perfect biscuit competition. Our goals were:

1. flat top
2. flat, straight sides
3. flakey layers

So, here were the results, and here is the recipe! Enjoy!

Buttermilk Biscuits

1 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt
1 T sugar
1/3 C shortening
1/3 C buttermilk

1. Sift dry ingredients together
2. Using a pastry blender, cut shortening into dry ingredients
3. Add buttermilk, stir with a fork until dough forms
4. Knead on a lightly floured counter 10-12 times
5. Roll into 1/2" thickness and cut out biscuits
6. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes on ungreased baking sheet until lightly browned

Makes 8 biscuits

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

The 9th graders have been learning about the muffin method, and the correct way to make a beautiful muffin. We had a competition to see who could make the PERFECT muffin. You'd be surprised how many were SO close! What muffin would you choose?

You can find the recipe here.

Irish Sugar Cookies!

We had a great St. Patrick's Day listening to Irish music and making very green sugar cookies. We added green food coloring to the dough, and then smashed little cookie balls into shamrocks. Hope you enjoy the recipe below!

Sugar Cookies

1/2 C shortening
1/4 C butter
1 C sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
2 1/2-3 C flour
1 t baking powder
1 t salt

1. Cream shortening and sugar
2. Add eggs and vanilla
3. Mix dry ingredients together and add to the others
4. Chill in fridge for at least one hour
5. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 1/4" thickness. Cut out cookies with cookie cutters.
6. Place on ungreased cookie sheets
7. Bake at 400 degrees for 6-8 minutes

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

3 C powdered sugar
1/3 C butter or stick margarine
1 1/2 t vanilla
1/2 T milk

1. Mix powdered sugar and butter in medium bowl with spoon or electric mixer on low speed.
2. Stir in vanilla and 1 T of the milk.
3. Gradually beat in just enough remaining milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable.
4. If too think, add a little bit of milk. If too thin, add a little powdered sugar.

Frosts 13x9 cake generously, or fills and frosts an 8-9" two layer cake. Add food coloring if desired!

Cleaning and Bubbles...

Well, we got in a cleaning mood and before you knew it - BHAM! I had the cleanest windows in the entire school! Thanks kids!


Also, I witnessed the biggest hand blown bubble I have ever seen. I didn't get the biggest one on camera, but these pictures show kind of how cool it was!