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.