Cookie Princesses

Lexi Lee # 16                                                     6.1

ELA-Food Memoir

6/21/16

            Cookie Princesses

The car screeched to a stop. “ Grandma, Grandma, we're here!” We shouted as we slammed the car doors behind us and raced to the door. The cool autumn breeze whisked past me as I approached the door. My five year old sister, Annie, shivered as she stood on tiptoe and delicately pressed the doorbell of my Grandmother's house. We heard footsteps and hopped up and down as the door began to open. “ Hi Grandma!” We shouted in sync.

          “Hi girls!” Grandma proclaimed as she scooped us up into a big bear hug. As she set us down, she noticed our parents approaching the door. “Hi Stacey, hello Will.” She hugged her son and her favorite (only) daughter in law.

“Come on in.” We paraded through the door and took off our shoes before going any further. My parents seated themselves on the living room couch and began to talk.

“Is anyone else here?” I asked. I always looked forward to seeing my many relatives during Thanksgiving.

“Not yet,” replied Grandma. “But that leaves us just enough time to make cookies!”

My sister squealed in excitement. We hopped in joy like kids at Christmas. “And then,” continued Grandma, “we can serve then for dessert and everyone will know that you girls made them!”

“When can we start?” I asked.

“How about now?”

Hands washed - check! Aprons on - check! Hair tied up - check!

My Grandmother entered the kitchen, royal blue apron on and hands glistening with water. She grabbed a towel off the counter and wiped her hands dry. “Alright girls, let's get started!” Grandma preheated the oven and the fun began.

Eggs, flour, food coloring. All these ingredients and more came out of the pantry. “What do we do now Grandma?” Annie questioned as she tucked a strand of blond hair behind her ear. Her gray/blue eyes sparkled with anticipation. In turn, my Grandmother said, “Now we begin. You girls can each take turns adding the ingredients. Let's start with the oldest. Lexi, could you pour one cup of flour into the bowl please?”

I stepped up to the counter and expertly lowered the measuring cup into the bag of flour. I scooped about a cup out and leveled it with my finger, sending the extra flour back into the bag. Then I dumped the cup of flour into the glass bowl on the counter.

“Done!” I announced.  My Grandmother put the bag of flour away and praised my flour pouring expertise.  

“Good job, Lexi! Your turn, Annie.”

My sister skipped up to the counter and asked, “What's my job Grandma?” I saw her cross her fingers behind her back, hoping for a good assignment.

“Well your job is the most important job of them all!”  My grandmother said, knowing this would please her.

“Tell me already!” She hopped up and down like a hyperactive bunny.

“You have to pour three cups of sugar into the bowl,” my Grandmother finally revealed.

Annie dipped her measuring cup into the bag and began to scoop the sugar. One, two...whoops! Sugar spilled all over the counter and onto the floor. For a second, there was awkward silence, but then, Annie and I burst into laughter! My Grandmother smiled as she exited the room to retrieve the hand vacuum. During that time, when my sister thought I wasn't looking, she stealthily put her hand into the bag of sugar and popped a bit into her mouth. I let it slide but I had to cough to conceal my laughter. My Grandmother returned with the hand vacuum and cleaned up the mess.

“I'm sorry Grandma,” my sister apologized sheepishly.

“It's okay Annie, everyone makes mistakes,” Grandma replied with a warm smile.

Annie and I continued on like this. I put in the butter, my sister added the vanilla extract and so on. We traded jobs until we were almost done. Just then, the doorbell rang.

Ding-dong! Annie and I stampeded to the door. We opened it and found Uncle Ken waiting outside. “Hi Uncle Ken!” He entered and almost squeezed the life out of me in a infinite hug!

“Hi girls!”

He came in and greeted  my parents. He began to enter the kitchen to greet my Grandmother.

“Don't go in there!” My sister shrieked! “We have a surprise and you can't see it until after dinner,” she explained.

“Okay then,” my Uncle replied. “I can't wait to see it!” We returned to the kitchen and Grandma took out the flavoring and food coloring.

“Girls, I have two flavors. Lemon and vanilla.”

“I want vanilla!” Annie howled.

“I want lemon!” I shrieked.

“It appears we have an agreement,” summed up Grandma.

We divided up the dough and gave half to Annie and half to me. Then we each added our flavor and a color of our choice to the dough. Annie choose silver and I choose yellow. When we had finished that, we got a scoop from the kitchen drawer and placed the cookie dough, scoop by scoop, onto the tray. When that final task had been complete, we put the tray into the oven, set the timer for one hour, and began to wait.

As if on cue, the doorbell rang and my many relatives poured in. Aunts and uncles, cousins and more. We sat down in the living room and were immersed in conversation. We talked and munched on snacks until my Grandma announced dinner. We piled into the dining room and sat at the dining table. Then, the food emerged from the kitchen. Turkey, mashed potatoes, bread rolls, cranberry sauce and more. We toasted the chef and dug in. We ate like bears after a long hibernation, eager to get to the good stuff before it ran out. Each and every dish tasted like heaven and was made by my Grandmother. After we were all stuffed and couldn't possibly eat anymore, the plates were cleared and out came dessert. Everyone immediately found space in their stomach for more and we dug in.

In the middle of my first piece of apple pie, I heard a timer beep. Annie, Grandma, and I rushed into the kitchen and were immediately overcome with the sweet, savory smell of baking cookies. We opened the oven to see round, golden cookies as sweet smelling as a flower. We set the cookies on the counter to cool. It didn't take long and soon we were drooling over them, anticipating the wonderful taste of the cookies made by us. “How about a taste test?” My Grandma offered. I grabbed a lemon cookie and Annie grabbed a vanilla one. One, two, three. We each took a big bite from our cookies and my mouth was immediately immersed in the sweet, warm, lemon tasting cookie that practically melted in my mouth. The outer crunch of the cookies deceived us from the soft chewy insides. We put the cookies onto plates to be served. I held one, Annie held another, and Grandma held the last one. We emerged from the kitchen but not without the proper introduction.  My Grandma announced us as if we were royalty. “Introducing Princess Lemon and Princess Vanilla! All hail The Cookie Princesses!”                   

        Recipe for Lemon and Vanilla Sugar Cookies.

Ingredients:

3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tablespoon milk

2 ½ teaspoons vanilla (or 2 teaspoons of lemon zest if making lemon cookies)

Food coloring of choice (optional)

Icing, premade or homemade (optional)

Recipe:

Whisk the first three ingredients together thoroughly. Then, beat the next two ingredients on medium speed until very fluffy and well blended. Add and beat the rest of the ingredients until well combined. (Except for icing if planning to use.) Gradually stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until well blended and smooth. Divide the dough in half. Place each half between large sheets of wax or parchment paper. Roll out to a scant ¼ inch thick, checking the underside of the dough and smoothing any creases. Keeping the paper in place, layer the rolled dough on a baking sheet and refrigerate until cold and slightly firm. (About 30 minutes.) Position a rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease cookie sheets. After refrigerated, take out a half sheet of dough and peel away the top layer of wax/paper from the dough. Replace it with another sheet. Do the same for the other side. Cut out the cookies and place in the oven on a rack/tray. Bake for about eight to ten minutes. Remove the tray from the oven and set the cookies on a rack to cool. Repeat the steps from remove from fridge to remove from oven with the other half of the dough. Apply icing and decorations if wanting to. ENJOY!!!!

CHEESY EMPANADAS!!!!!!!!!

 Corey Bickel                                                                                                                         6.1

ELA- Food Memoir          

We ready the ingredients for the cheesy, crispy, magical gifts that come from my aunt’s kitchen. As we put the ingredients into a long, dark wood bowl, I wonder what will become of these ingredients as we make them into empanadas. I look around the small kitchen and see the various ingredients sitting on the counter, eagerly waiting to be used. The kitchen was filled with the smell of baking soda, flour, sugar, olive oil, and cheese. As my cousin and I watched our aunt tell us the different ingredients, I desperately try to memorize them as quickly as she’s spitting them out to us.

As we break the eggs, put in hot water, flour, and the other ingredients, my aunt turns to us and asks: “Ready to get your hands in?” “Yes!” we both answer at the same time. We try to remember the last time we washed our hands. We then start to squish the flour and butter and eggs and water together. Soon, each of us claimed a piece of dough and were kneading the dough. My aunt kept pouring the hot water on our pieces of dough. “Don’t get burnt!” she warned us. We were both trying to steer our pieces of dough to wherever our aunt was pouring the hot water in our large bowl. The dough started to stick to our fingers, which was held in place by the butter just like cement.

Squish! Squish! We could hear the loud squishing noises being made when we mixed the Olive Oil with our balls of dough.

We then mashed the two pieces of dough together into one large, pale yellow ball. Our aunt poured Olive Oil on our hands to unstick the pieces of dough that were stuck to our hands. We then both squeezed and kneaded the ball of dough.

Next, came the really fun part! We then took turns and threw the ball at the bowl that was lying on the ground. “Don’t accidentally miss the bowl and make the dough hit the ground!” my aunt warned us. My cousin took a couple of turns throwing it and he never missed. Then I took some turns and started throwing it. I threw it so hard that it got my aunt worried. “Don’t throw it so hard! We don't want it to go to the neighbors!” Jason (my cousin) started laughing at that comment.

After we threw the balls of dough and then we kneaded it a little bit more. Then next we broke off pieces of dough, into tiny pieces and shaped them into little balls of dough and flour. Then we flattened them out and put cheese in them. We then closed up the dough completely and sealed off the cheese that was inside. Then we shaped the balls of dough into tiny pouches and set them into a pot with boiling hot water to be fried.

The satisfying sizzling sound of the empanadas being cooked satisfied both my ears and my nose. One by one, we pulled out the baked empanadas and inspected our hard work. The empanadas were a golden brown and perfect in shape and size. They looked like little pouches of perfection, crispy on the outside yet cheesy on the inside.

Empanada Recipe:

3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the work surface

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 teaspoons sugar

Pinch salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

Any filling you might use.

Oil or shortening, for frying

Directions:

For the empanada dough: Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Cut in the lard with a pastry blender or 2 knives until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg and then whisk in the stock. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and knead until a dough forms. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Then put your filling inside the piece of dough and close it off. Then fry it to get an empanada.

                                        

Don't Be So Crabby

Kelly Holmes #13                                                                                                                     6.2

ELA- Food Memoir

5/27/16

   My mom loves crabs;blue,red, all types of crabs. She especially loves to eat live crabs.

   “KELLY,” my mom shouted from the car.

   I ran to the car with my Big Nate book in my hands. As the car started to move, I began to read my amazing book. I stared at the book, but didn’t really read it. It’s like in class, when you’re daydreaming, you're there listening to the teacher but you’re thinking about something else. All I thought about was the live crabs we were going to get. I had never had live crabs before, so I was so excited.

   The car engine started to slow down. I hopped out the car so happy about cooking live crabs. We walked into the big painted blue crab shop.  After the workers bagged up the crabs, we headed back to the car. As, we drove back home to cook the crabs, my palms started to sweat. My previous excitement turned into to nervousness and fear. Just looking at the bag, watching the crabs try to crawl their way to freedom was very creepy. Of course my childish mind started to wonder, what if they got out of the bag and crawled all over me or tried to bite my head off. I was terrified like when you walk into a haunted house. So  when we arrived at the apartment, I was relieved.

    After waiting twenty minutes, my mom finally started to cook the crabs. Us kids stood twenty feet away from our mom while she pulled each live crab out of the sink and into the pot. I focused so much on the sink I couldn’t hear or see anything else. As she pulled the first crab out of the sink, we gasped. The crab continuously moved its legs and arms. Still scared, but also curious, we slowly walked towards the pot with a crab that was still crawling around.

       “What is it doing?,” my energetic brother Kevin, asked my mom.

      “It’s trying to climb out of the pot”, she responded. “It doesn't want to be cooked”

  At that point, we were all calm. I wasn’t scared or frightened by these hypered crabs. But that feeling didn’t last for long. As my mom grabbed the third crab she swung it in the direction of my siblings and I.

     “AHHHH!!!,” we screamed as we ran away from her.

  She chased us around the house, dangling the crab while it was still moving. We ran around the kitchen, the living room, the bedrooms, and eventually we arrived at the bathroom. Making sure she doesn’t catch us we closed the door. Our hearts were beating so fast and our hands were shaking like we were about to perform in front of a million people.

   “Do you think she is still out there?” I whispered to my brother and my positive sister Kim, trying not to be too loud that she might hear me.

   “I don't know ,” she whispered back.

  After another five minutes has gone by, we decided to open the door. We opened the door, expecting our mom be dangling the crab, but that’s not exactly what happened. We looked around for our mother only to find the crab on the ground, crawling into the bathroom.

   “AHHH!!,” we screamed, running out of the bathroom and into the kitchen only to find our mom laughing, cooking the rest of the crabs.

 She eventually picked up the crab and everything started to become calm. My siblings and I went to the sink to see all of the crabs that were about to be put in the pot. My brother grabbed the sprayer and started to spray all the crabs. Our childish minds also believed that this might kill the crabs. But it didn’t, it made them angry. As we laughed at the crabs trying to run away from the water, one crab jumped up.

      “AHH!!,” my brother yelled running for his life.

  The vicious crab was hanging off of his thumb. He ran and ran, trying to shake the crab off of his finger. He ran all the way to his bed when the crab finally fell off of his finger crawling away. My mom grabbed the crab and put it back in the sink while my brother was breathing so deep like he just ran 300 miles.

    “Are you okay?,” my sister asked my brother, laughing so much tears were coming out of her eyes.

    “Yea,” he responded barely being able to speak.

   We all laughed about this later, while eating the delicious crabs. The crabs were very frightening but tasted so delicious that it made my mouth water. We talked, laughed, and watched some good television.

    “We are definitely doing this again,” I said after all the crabs were eaten.

    “We are definitely NOT doing this again,” my brother said, making everyone laugh.

   “Best Day Ever,” my sister said.

   “Agreed,” I responded.

   “Besides having to run for my life and almost getting the blood sucked out of me by a crab, best day ever,” he said laughing.   

   

    

Jose Rodriguez #26 6.2
Ela - food memior
6/21/16





THE PUMPKIN
It was a cool and sunny day on the upper east side of Manhattan. That day like every single day of second grade we went to the basement of the school. We ate breakfast before we went on a trip to a garden. It was on a yellow school bus which was a long and for the most part a smooth ride but when we got there it was really bumpy. The reason for this is because when we arrived there were a lot of rocks on the ground. I was talking to my friend during the entire bus ride. We were talking about Beyblades because at the time that was all we liked. Once we got to the farm it smelled like animal. It was disgusting and I already nauseous. We went to the farm to pick pumpkins. We met these really nice people who told us about different types of pumpkins and when they grow and what they need to grow. At that time, I was really young and very interested. Towards the end of the day they let us pick our own pumpkins.  At the end of the trip we returned to the school in a school bus. Once again I felt the same way as I did when the trip started, nauseous and not wanting to be on the bus.  On the bus ride back to the school,  I spoke to same person I spoke to when we started the trip. However, we did not talk about the same thing we spoke about what we were going to do we get home. It was very interested but I had a hard time listening because I didn’t feel well. Finally we got back to the school with the same smooth ride that we came with. Once again I got off the bus feeling okay and better than before when we were on the bus.   It was a long day but  it did not feel like it though. I had after school after the trip so that meant I had to stay until 6 o'clock at school. So I had to do my homework in the first period of after school. My second period was to go play basketball. Finally it was 6 o'clock and my grandfather came to pick me up from the school. I went home with the pumpkins. It was close to Halloween so we made a jack o-lantern on one of the pumpkins. My mom and I also made pumpkin pie with pumpkins that were left. My grandparents and my mom were the ones who ate the pumpkin pie because I don't like pumpkin.  They said it was really good but I still was hesitant to try it. The day finally ended and I was happy that I went on the trip.  I was also happy because I got to make something with my mom for the first time.

The Lemonade Surprise!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brian Mhando #22 6.1

ELA -D#2                     

06/05/2016

FOOD MEMOIR

“We should go to the store,” said my dad.

We were walking near the street, cars zooming by and a bridge over me. We walked into a supermarket, food all around and people everywhere. The cashier was located near the door. We entered and the lines were crammed together like a can full of sardines. My dad went to one aisle, then he moved to another. In front of us was the fruit, vegetables and meat section, so we decided to start there. Finally, when we were done shopping, I saw lemons.

 “Daddy! Daddy! What do you use lemons for?” I asked him

“Well you can use them for many things,” he responded.

“Like what?” I asked.

“........like……….lemonade”, he responded.

“Ooooh….Can we make some?!” I asked.

“Sure,” he answered.

We picked about ten lemons and we walked to the line. My dad remembered that he forgot something so he left me on the line. After a few minutes of wiggling and jiggling, my dad finally came back.

“What’s that?” I asked him as we stepped towards the register.

He was holding a clear plastic bowl that had a handle and cap. The cap was blue and it had many holes around the highest part of the cap. The top of the cap was pointed and it was shaped like a cone, it also had a rigid pattern to it.

“A juice squeezer,” he responded.

“Oohh Ok,” I answered.

As we finally reached the cash register we payed for our items, bread, milk, 10 lemons, a juice squeezer, Oreos, and yogurt.

“Hey daddy, what do you like playing the most in soccer?”

“Well…..I love playing defence"

“Cool!”

We were both crazy about soccer, so we always talked about soccer.

As we walked into our apartment building, my dad whispered into my ear and he told me

“The lemonade  we are going to make will be a surprise to your sister and mom after lunch okay?”

“Okay.”
We walked into a smell of spices and the warmth and heat of the boiling stove.  At that moment, I knew that lunch was almost ready, so we had to hurry in making the lemonade.  We already knew that my sister’s hair was getting braided by my mother in the living room, so we felt that we still had enough time.

My dad took out the groceries as I rinsed the juice squeezer.  Then he tried to make the lemon softer by hitting the lemons with the flat side of a knife.

“This helps make it easier to squeeze the juice”, my dad said.

When my dad was done softening the lemons,I asked him,“Can I squeeze the lemons?”

“Okay, but let me demonstrate.”

He first cut the lemon in half right over the bowl of the juice squeezer.  A small amount of juice came rushing out.  Then he put the lemon on the rigid point arch that is on top of the juice squeezer cup.  After that, he held the lemon and the juice squeezer, and twisted the arm that was holding the lemon on the juice squeezer.  Immediately, the juice came out that barely filled the ball, but with ten lemons, I thought that the juice squeezer would be full in no time.  While I   juiced the lemons, I repeated this phrase in my head,

“Push, turn, add water into the lemon, repeat the process.”

Push the lemon into the juice squeezer, add water to the squeezed lemon and squeeze it again, then repeat the process.

I squeezed the lemons until they looked like a pale, chewed piece of cloth.  I did this for what seemed like hours, with the cold wind crawling up my back from the open kitchen window, and the heat from the hot cooked food that made it feel like 1000 degrees everywhere on my body, except my back which still felt cold like an ice block.

Finally, I finished the task. The whole kitchen smelled like an aroma of spices, but in my little part of the kitchen, it smelled strongly of lemon.  My dad was right next to me the whole time cutting the lemons.

“What’s next?” I asked.

“Now we combine the water, sugar and the lemon juice together,” my dad responded.

“OH...OH...CAN I PUT THE SUGAR INTO THE LEMONADE AND CAN I BE THE TESTER OF THE LEMONADE?”

“You can test, but I will put in the sugar.”

“AWWWW…come on,” I whined.

My dad poured the lemon juice that was almost filled to the brim of container into the jar.

“Almost half full,” he murmured.

He opened the tap in the cold water side and waited for 30 seconds before he collected water to add to the juice.  He then put the tap water in the small ball of the juice squeezer to wash away the remaining juice and added it to the juice jar.  He stopped adding the water when the jar filled up to about an inch from overflowing.  Then he got a spoon that looked longer than the juice jar itself.  He took one big scoop of sugar and stirred it in the juice mixture.

“How does it taste?” my dad asked me.

I took a little tea spoon and drank the lemon juice.

“It still needs A LOT of sugar,” I replied.

My dad took the big spoon, and this time, he returned with one and a half scoop of sugar.  He stirred until he felt no sugar crystals at the bottom mixture.Then I tried the lemonade again.

“SSLLLURRRPP…..SSLLLURRRPP…..MMMMM, it tastes just right”

“It is about time the food is almost ready,” my dad replied.

My dad and I put the lemonade in the freezer hoping to surprise my mom and sister after lunch.  When the lunch was ready, we ate quickly, but I was actually not concentrating on the food because my thoughts were on the surprise that we had prepared, the lemonade.

When time was ready, my dad took out the almost frozen lemonade, and I prepared four glasses to drink from.  We went to the living room with smiles on our faces.  The surprise actually worked. My mom and sister were flabbergasted by our luscious lemonade.  I served everyone a glass of lemonade and we all thought it tasted very good.  Sounds of laughter and joyous conversation filled the room accompanied by  explosions of sweetness and a little bit of sourness in the everyone's taste buds.  I knew that this late Thursday afternoon would be great, and it turned out that way.

How to Make Lemonade

Ingredients:

1. Lemons (4-10)
2. About 2 quarts of water
3. One (1) cups of sugar
4. One gallon jar

Procedure:

1. Squeeze all the lemons and collect the juice into a 1 gallon jar
2. Add 2 quarts of water into the jar.  Make sure there is enough space to allow stirring
3. Add 1 cup of sugar to the lemonade mixture
4. Stir the lemonade mixture until all the sugar is dissolved
5. Enjoy!!!!