Chocolate soft pie

The first thing i did was, make my pie crust. I did this by mixing all my dry ingredients, and then cutting in the lard. After i cut in my lard, i added some water to get the right consistency. When i had the perfect consistency, i seperated my crust into two seperate balls. I rolled the balls out to make a crust a couple of inches bigger that the circumferance of the pie pan. After laying the crust in the pan, and putting it in the oven to cook, i proceded to make my pudding. The first thing i did to make my pudding was, seperate out all of my ingredients, micing my dry ingredients into a pan and mixing it. Then i started to heat up the mixture and stir in the milk and the chocolate. Once the mixture thickend, and came to a boil, i used the mixture to temper in my eggs. After my eggs were mixed in, i took it off the heat, and mixed in the butter and vanilla. I then spread the pudding into my cooked crust, and let it cool. The last thing i made was the meringue, for which i beat my eggs till they were sort of bubbly. Then i added vanilla and cream of tarter and beat them till they were soft peaks. The last step to my meringue was to add the sugar, and beat till they were stiff peaks. Once the meringue was done, i spread it on the pie, and cooked the pie some more untill the meringue was brown.


I would say overall my pie turned out very well. The pudding was very sweet, and smooth. The crust turned out very flakey, and almost buttery. The meringue also turned out very well, it was the perfect color of golden brown. The pie was overall very tasty, and the combonation of flakey crust, and soft pudding made for a perfect texture combonation. I would recomend this recipe to anyone!

Soft Pie-Vanilla

In this recipe we made our crust the day before with our quiche. We pinched the edges of the crust to add some decoration. First thing that I made for my pie is the vanilla pudding.

To make this pudding I separated the yolks from the whites in the eggs. I saved the egg whites and used them for my meringue. Then I beat the yolks slightly. After that I combined the sugar, salt, and cornstarch in a saucepan. I stirred and then added milk to the pan while stirring. I did this so that it wouldn't burn to the bottom of the pan. I cooked this over a medium heat until it was thick and bubbly. After that I reduced the heat and cooked for two more minutes. While Mrs. Cummings stirred the pudding mixture I began to temper my eggs. I took one cup of the hot pudding mixture and poured it into the egg yolk bowl while rapidly stirring so I didn't make scrambled eggs. After the yolks were tempered I added them to the egg mixture to the rest of the pudding mix and continued to stir on a higher heat until it came to a gentle boil. After the gentle boil I reduced the heat some more and cooked for two more minutes after that. I then removed it from the heat and added the vanilla and butter and stirred until it was all blended together. After that I poured it into my pie crust and began to make my meringue.

With the egg whites that we saved from the pudding I placed into the mixer and whipped them until they were frothy. I then added vanilla and cream of tarter and beat until soft peaks. I added sugar slowly and beat on high until the peaks formed. I then spread this on top of the vanilla pudding in the crust and covered it to my liking. I baked it at 350 degrees until it looked golden brown. Then I let it cool until the end of the school day.

I enjoyed this pie because I liked the texture to the pie. It was very consistent all throughout the pie. I would recommend this to my friends.

Chocolate Meringue Pie

The first thing I did making this pie I got all of my ingredients ready. I did this because once you start heating your milk mixture with all your dry ingredients you don't want to leave it alone because it will burn. Once I got those things ready I separated the eggs. I put the 3 egg whites in the kitchen aid mixer then added the cream of tarter and started to whip those. As I did that I kept stiring my chocolate mix. Once my eggs whites got to soft peaks I added the vanilla and slowly started to add my sugar. Once I added all the sugar I whipped it just a little longer and bam I had stiff peaks. Then I got back to the chocolate mixture it was starting to thicken nicely. So I started to temper my egg once that was done I put the egg in the mixture. I stirred that till mixed then I put the chocolate into my pie. Then I realized that I forgot the vanilla in my chiclolate. But I don't think it would have effected my flavor. Then I started to put my meringue on top of the chocolate. Once that was done up put it in the oven for 10 minutes and then I had a chocolate meringue pie that was finished.

Vanilla Meringue Pie

        First I started by making the crust for the pie after I set the temperature to 350 degrees. Before I placed the pie crust in the oven I rolled the dough into 2 equal sized balls. Then I rolled out one the dough balls
with a rolling pin in all directions to make it evenly spread out. Then I gently folded the dough in half and then in half again. Next I placed the folded dough in the corner of my pie pan. Then slowly unfolded the dough so that it was spread over the pie pan like a blanket. After that I made sure that the dough was touching the bottom of the pie, and then I took a knife and cut off the unneeded dough so that there was about one inch of dough hanging off the pie pan. Then I folded the edge of the dough underneath to make it lay on the edge of the pie pan. Then I used a technique that we were taught in class, by taking my right thumb and and finger to pinch the edges around the entire pie to give it that traditional pie crust looks. I placed it into the oven for about ten minutes.
           While the crust was baking I started to get my vanilla pudding ready. It took a while to get ready cause you had to wait for it to get really thick and continuously stir it while on the oven top. After the pudding started to finally get thick I gradually stirred one cup of the hot mixture into the yolk that I had slightly beat earlier which is called temper. Then I poured that back into the mixture and then poured all the mixture into the finished pie crust I had taken out of the over awhile before. While I was preparing he vanilla mixture I had Meringue being prepared also, it took a while for id to reach its stiff peaks form. After it reached that stage of fluffiness I took a spoon and spread it across the pie.
          Finally I placed the entire pie into the over to bake for about 10-12 minutes. When the pie was finished I had to wait at least 4 hours before i could taste it. So when I got out of practice I finally had the opportunity to taste it and at first I got more of a sweet taste from the meringue and soft feel from the the meringue also, however, when I started to taste the actual vanilla part of the pie I got a creamy feeling from it and also gave me the extra sweetness to satisfy my sweet tooth that I've had since a child. My kitchen partner Chase Bodicker also tasted my pie and he said he enjoyed it a lot. He told me that he tasted the meringue the most, he said it gave him a very moist feeling and also he tasted the sweetness of the vanilla. He also stated that my crust was well made and that he got a flaky texture from it. The taste of the entire pie was very good I thought and so did Chase, I believe everything turned out great.  

Final Meal

For our final lab/meal, me and my partner had to figure out a theme for our food. We came up with a Classic Iowan meal. It included: meatloaf, cream corn, green beans, chocolate chip cheesecake, and lemonade. The theme had the colors of brown, yellow and red with the green beans standing out.

On Day 1, me and my partner made the cheesecake and lemonade. We started off by preheating the oven to 300 degrees. My partner did most of the work for the cheesecake while I made the lemonade. My partner combined graham crackers, butter and cocoa and pressed it to the bottom of a spring-form pan. While my partner beat the cream cheese in the Kitchen Aid, I started to make the simple sugar. I got out a saucepan and poured a cup of water into the pan, and turned put it on the stove at medium heat. I then added a cup of sugar and mixed in the water till it was dissolved. Next, I removed the pan from the heat and poured the water into a pitcher, and then added the lemon juice. My partner was then done beating the cream cheese with the vanilla, condensed milk, and eggs. We then poured in the chocolate chips and mixed. Poured the batter into the pan and baked for 1 hour.

On Day 2, me and my partner had to make meatloaf during storm lunch, and the green beans and cream corn for the first half hour of fourth block. We started by combining the beef with a cut up onion, egg, milk and cracker crumbs. Once we combined them we added a little salt for taste. We then spread the meat out onto a 9 x 13 pan. While my partner did that, I combined brown sugar and ketchup and mixed them. I then spread the mixture over the meat and put it in the oven at 350 degrees for an hour. During fourth block, my partner and I just had the beans and corn left. I started off by clipping the ends off the beans and cooking the cut up bacon in the skillet. Once the bacon was well cooked, and all the beans were thinned, I put them in a big saucepan and cooked them together with: onion, butter, chicken, broth, and some salt and pepper. I then set the heat to medium and covered the pan. I waited about ten minutes and stirred every once in awhile until the beans were more tender. I then waited for my partner for her corn dish to cooked and we set the table. I learned that forks go on the left side of your plate, while the knife and spoons go on the right side. The napkin would also go on the left side as well.

Overall, our guests thought the food was great and that we should cook for them more often! I thought the corn dish made by my partner was very creamy with cheese and very tasty. I thought the meatloaf was a little dry, and the green beans turned out not too tender with a little crunch. The lemonade was probably the best lemonade I've ever had considering this was made from a simple sugar. The cheesecake looked scrumptious and was. Definitely a taste of vanilla and chocolate chips with cream cheese. To make this every night for a family would be exhausting, so I'd have to make this meal on the weekend.

Final Meal

For our final meal we did an Iowan theme. We made chocolate chip cheesecake, meatloaf, cream corn. green beans, and lemonade.

Monday we made our cheesecake. To start off we preheated the oven to 300 degrees. Then we had the cream cheese in the kitchenaid and beat it until it was smooth. While we were waiting for that we mixed sugar, butter, cocoa powder, and graham crackers into a bowl. I mixed it together and put it on the bottom of the springform pan and made it into an even layer. Once the cream cheese was smooth we added condensed milk, vanilla, and the eggs. We beat that on medium speed until it was all mixed. I then put a 1/3 of the chocolate chips in a bowl with 1 teaspoon of flour to coat them so they don't sink into the bottom of the cheesecake. Then we poured it into the mixture, and mixed it together. Once it was mixed we put it into the springform pan. Then it went into the oven for about an hour. Our teacher then then took it out of the oven for us and put it into the microwave.

Also during class on Monday, my partner made the lemonade. It called for sugar, water and lemon juice. This process only took about 2 minutes. Which we probably should have made more than what we did.

During storm lunch on Tuesday we made our meatloaf. We preheated the oven to 350 degrees. It called for 1.5 pounds of ground beef, an egg, milk, an onion, breadcrumbs, and salt and pepper to taste. I mixed all this together with my hand, which I had gloves on, while my partner mixed the brown sugar and ketchup together. The meatloaf was suppose to be in a loaf shape, but my partner made it fit the whole pan so we had to cut them into pieces. When it was all patted down we smeared the brown sugar and ketchup mixture on top of it. Then we put it in the oven for an hour.

During class I made the cream corn which was pretty easy. I heated the skillet to about 350 degrees. This called for 2 packages of frozen corn, heavy cream, salt, sugar, pepper, butter, milk, flour and cheese. To start off we put the corn, heavy cream, salt, pepper, and sugar into the skillet. I had to mix the flour into the milk and then I put it into the skillet and stirred it all together and put the lid on it until it got thickened.

While I was making the corn, my partner was making smothered green beans. This called for bacon, green beans, onions, garlic, water, salt and pepper. He cooked the bacon in a skillet and then he put it into a pan on the stove with the onion, water, garlic, salt, and pepper. I ended up helping him cut off the ends of the green beans and helped him put them into the pan and it cooked for about 15 minutes.

I thought our final meal tasted great. The meatloaf was cooked well and tasted really nice. The cream corn, was nice and creamy and had a great texture to it. The green beans were good, even though I am not the biggest fan of them, I still tried some. The cheesecake was delicious. It was very creamy and rich. It made me really full. The lemonade was great and it very sweet and it tasted amazing.

Final Meal

For Lane and I's final meal we mad fish, green beans, party potatoes, Jimmy Carter dessert, and slush punch. We had problems with every step except for the punch. I kept forgetting about what we would have to do for stuff so that it wouldn't be a convenience and didn't take that into consideration time wise. I also didn't understand that bringing stuff from home would change how we could do things.

For the fish that we made I forgot to bring the mashed potato flakes from home so we had to find something else to batter the fish with.

For the green beans I didn't realize that canned green beans were different from any other kind so we would have completely messed that up if you hadn't said anything.

The party potatoes went pretty well for making them, but I forgot to mix the up again halfway through the baking process so that the sides of it didn't get burnt.

The Jimmy Carter dessert went really well except that I forgot that we would have to make our own pudding so I didn't get any eggs, thankfully Lauren had plenty so we used hers, and I also didn't think of having to do that time wise so we got set behind.

The slush punch is where I thought I'd made the biggest mistake. I meant to cut the recipe in half at the beginning so I added all the sugar that the original recipe called for. For the rest I cut it all in half and did it the way I was supposed to and thankfully the extra sugar didn't hinder the dish it still tasted great!

even though we messed up a lot of things in our final meal, we were able to make changes and do other things to make the dishes still taste great. Even some of our accidents ended up helping the dish instead of hurting it. Our guests liked everything we gave them and didn't complain about anything. So I'd say, all in all, ours turned out pretty good.

Final Meal-Mexican Fiesta

For our final meal we decided to go with a Mexican style. We had a lot of different colors in our food making it appealing to the eye. We also had an assortment of different flavors. There was a perfect blend of spicy, sweet, and citrus.

Let’s start by talking about our main course. We went with a citrus shrimp taco. We infused the shrimp by marinating it in a lemon, lime, and southwest seasoning blend with minced garlic inside of it. We cooked this in a saucepan under a low heat so we didn’t overcook the shrimp. We cut up a head of radicchio, and a head of iceberg lettuce to bring more color to the taco. We made a homemade corn and black bean salsa. Along with that we made a creamy southwest sauce to sub as a sour cream. When we put the taco together we did a strip of the southwest sauce then topped it with the salsa. After we had the proper amount we placed 12 pieces of shrimp onto each and topped it with the different lettuces. We then folded the taco in half and placed it to the side of the plate.

For our starch we made a mexican rice. We took a long grain white rice and cooked it in chicken broth. We then added an assortment of vegetables like onion, jalapenos, and tomatoes. We used a lot of fresh seasoning like fresh garlic minced, freshly chopped cilantro, and some mint. We cooked this all on a low heat and served it alongside the taco.

For our side we did a stuffed jalapeno wrapped in bacon. We blended some cream cheese until it came out completely smooth then we added some cheddar cheese and fresh minced garlic. We cut a jalapeno in half and took out the core and the seeds making it not so spicy. After the cheese mix was finished we took the halved jalapenos and stuffed them with the cream cheese until they had just a little bit of a dome to them. We then cut a strip of bacon in half so that it fit around the jalapeno just right. We wrapped the bacon around the center of the stuffed jalapeno and stuck a toothpick into the bacon so it would stay in place. We then wrapped a cookie sheet with foil and placed the finished jalapenos onto the pan and cooked them for 45 minutes at 400 degrees, or until the bacon looked crispy enough. We then placed two of these next to the taco and the rice bring some more color variety to our plate.

To finish off our meal we made sopapillas. This was really cool to make. We took some flour sugar, baking powder, salt, and a little bit of water to make a dough. We rolled it out to a thin layer and cut them into square slices. We then took the sliced pieces and placed them in some preheated grease set at 375 degrees. We then placed them into the grease and it made them puff up to form a bubble. We cooked them on one side until a crispy golden brown and then flipped them over and did the same to the other side. We then placed 4 onto a small dish and drizzled honey on top of them to add some sweetness and then sprinkled some powdered sugar to add sweetness and for decoration.

For our drink we made a virgin mango lime margarita. This was a blend of frozen mango, orange juice, some lime juice, and some simple sugar. Once this was all blended we took our glasses and dipped them into a bowl or water then took the dipped glass and stuck it in a bowl of salt and turned making the rims of it have a decorative ring of salt. We decided to go with salt instead of sugar because our drink was sweet and the opposite flavor made the drink seem more appealing. We placed the drink inside of the salted glass and served it along with our food. The yellow in the drink tied it all together by bringing a new color to the table.

Overall I was very proud of our meal. I loved how well me and my partner worked together. My favorite thing that we made was the stuffed jalapenos wrapped with bacon. I liked this because I enjoy all things spicy, and the cream cheese blend toned down the spice making it perfect and appealing to the tongue palate. The one thing about our dish that I didn’t like was the corn and black bean salsa, this was only because I dislike the texture to the beans. Other than that everything on our plate was perfectly seasoned and I wouldn’t have changed a thing about our final meal.