Cooking with Michy

Prep Time: 15 Min

Cook Time: 25 Min

Ready In: 40 Min

Ingredients

 • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

 • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

 • 1/3 cup sugar

 • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

 • 1/4 teaspoon salt

 • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

 • 1 egg

 • 1/3 cup milk

 • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

 • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

 • 1 cup blueberries

Directions

 1. In a bowl, combine the first six ingredients.

 2. Combine the egg, milk, oil and vanilla.

 3. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients just until moistened.

 4. Gently fold in blueberries. Fill greased or paper-line muffin cups two-thirds full.

 5. Bake at 375 degrees F for 25-27 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

 6. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.

Review: These were by far the best blue berry muffins I have ever had, they tasted amazing. What went well was the choice to use frozen blue berry’s, this helped us because now the blue berries didn’t get all mushed up when we were mixing them In the batter. This made the muffins look better presentation wise. What didn’t go so well some of the last muffins we scooped into the muffin cups had only a little bit of blue berries in them causing them to not be as enjoyable as the first ones. The thing I learned today was how to make perfectly round, dome shaped muffins that looked very nice and appealing. One thing that would be good to include in the recipe is to tell us to make sure our muffin cups are in the middle of the rack for even cooking. For these being the first muffins I’ve ever made I say it was a great success and I can’t wait to make more!

Prep time: 15 min. Cook time: 15 min.

Ingredients

2 c. all-purpose flour

 ¼ c. white sugar

 2 tsp. baking powder

 ½ tsp. baking soda

 ½ tsp. salt

 ¼ c. butter, chilled

 1 apple – peeled, cored and shredded

 ½ c. milk

 1 tbsp. milk

 1 tbsp. white sugar

 ¼ tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions:

 1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

 2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, and salt into a large bowl.

 3. Cut in butter or margarine until crumbly.

 4. Add shredded apple and milk. Stir to form a soft dough.

 5. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface.

 6. Knead gently 8 to 10 times. DON’T OVERHANDLE

 7. Divide dough in half. Pat into two 6-inch circles.

 8. Place on parchment-lined. Brush tops with milk, and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.

 9. Score each into 6 pie-shaped wedges. CALL ME over to check your piece sizes.

 10. Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes, or until browned and risen. Serve warm with butter.

Review: These Apple scones were AMAZING and FUN to make too. Our day didn’t start to well because we had a mix up of what ingredients we had already gotten and which ones we needed to still get, as a lot of them look the same. So we had to go get all the ingredients again making sure we checked to see which ones we had and which ones we still needed. Although we fell behind a little our hard work and a full team effort we were able to still finish on time before class was done. In class to day once again we got to work on our kneading skills and how to properly knead the dough. One thing I would change is to put less sugar on the outside of the scone as the sugar was almost over bearing, otherwise they were great. These scones were so good and tasted sweet and yummy. Although we had a slow start we were able to make up the time and make some amazing scones

Servings: 5

Ingredients

 • 1 cup all-purpose flour

 • 2 teaspoon baking powder

 • 1/2 teaspoon salt

 • 1/4 c shortening

 • 6 tablespoons milk

Directions

 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

 2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

 3. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt.

 4. Cut shortening in until mixture has a fine crumb texture.

 5. Stir in milk with a fork to make a soft dough.

 6. Knead 8 to 10 times, and then roll out to a thickness of at least 1/2 inch.

 7. Cut into rounds with a cookie or biscuit cutter.

 8. Place on cookie sheet, and allow to rest for a five minutes.

 9. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Serve warm.

Source: Allrecipes.com

Review: These tea biscuits so much fun to make and tasted really good too. We started off strong getting all our ingredients sorted and mixed together in record breaking time. We were very fast today in getting everything ready without cutting any corners, I think that was our greatest asset in baking these tea biscuits. The one problem we faced was we must have miss measured some of the liquid ingredients because our dough after being mixed was very dry and crumble and didn’t all stick together. Although this happened we quickly made a decision to add a little more milk and that sure worked and we were able to fix our mistake. One thing I found very interesting was how to knead the dough and how to know when you have kneaded it enough. This will help me in the future when I make more quick breads. The one thing that stood out to me that I would do differently is I would change the recipe to have more milk required so that we don’t run into the same problem that we did of having our dough to dry. These biscuits tasted amazing especially with your favourite flavor of jam to go with it!

Servings : 12

 DAY 1 - Pizza Crust

Ingredients

  1 c. flour plus about 1 c. more

 • 2 ¼ tsp. pizza crust yeast

 • 1 ½ tsp. sugar

 • ¾ tsp. salt

 • 2/3 c. very warm water – like bathtub water

 • 3 tbsp. vegetable oil

Directions

 1. In a large bowl, combine 1 c. flour, yeast, sugar, and salt.

 2. Add very warm water. Mix until well blended, about 1 minute.

 3. Add enough flour to make a soft dough (3/4 to 1 ¼ c.)

 4. Dough should form a ball and will still be slightly sticky.

 5. Knead on a floured surface adding additional flour if needed, until smooth and elastic; about 4 minutes.

 6. Cover in plastic wrap and label.

Day 2

 Ingredients

 • Pizza dough

 • 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

 • 1 cup mayonnaise

 • 1 (1 ounce) package dry Ranch-style dressing mix

 • 1 cup fresh broccoli, chopped

 • 1 cup chopped tomatoes

 • 1 cup chopped green bell pepper

 • 1 cup chopped cauliflower

 • 1 cup shredded carrots

 • 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (190 degrees C).

 2. Roll out the pizza dough onto a pizza pan.

 3. Bake crust for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Once finished cooking, remove crust from oven and let cool 15 minutes without removing it from the baking sheet.

 4. In a small mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, mayonnaise, and dry Ranch dressing.

 5. Spread the mixture over the cooled crust.

 6. Arrange broccoli, tomato, green bell pepper, cauliflower, shredded carrots, and cheddar cheese over the cream cheese layer.

 7. Chill for one hour, slice and serve.

Review: This vegetable pizza took a lot of effort and time, it took two whole classes! Once again our knife skills were really tested and I think that was the difference maker in how well our pizza turned out and look. It was really fun cutting all the different vegetable. Our pizza crust was what held us back, it got a little deformed after baking It, causing the crust to not be as round as we would have liked. It was alright though because it didn't effect our overall finished product. The one thing I would have liked to change is to remove the tomatoes and add some potatoes because I feel like that would give the pizza a nice crunch. I would also like to add some Tzatziki sauce to enhance the flavour of the pizza. The one thing I learned was how to make a pizza crust which will allow me to be able to cook all kinds of pizza. For this being our last recipe of our unit it was a good way to end.

Usually eaten hot, it’s also surprisingly delicious eaten fridge-cold on a summer’s day with a squeeze of lemon juice and a dollop of natural yoghurt.

 Ingredients

 2 carrots, peeled and sliced

 2 sticks celery, sliced

 2 medium onions, peeled and roughly chopped

 400 g leeks

 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

 400 g potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 cm dice.

 2 tbsp. olive oil

 2 tbsp. Chicken base

 7 c. boiling water

 Salt and pepper to taste

 Instructions:

 1. Cut the ends off the leeks, quarter them lengthways. Wash them under running water and cut them into 1 cm slices.

 2. Place a large pan on high heat and add 2 tbsp. of olive oil.

 3. Add all your chopped and sliced ingredients and mix together with a wooden spoon.

 4. Cook for around 10 minutes with the lid askew, until the carrots have softened, but are still holding their shape, and the onion and leeks are lightly golden.

 5. Put the chicken base into a pan and pour in 7 c. boiling water from the kettle. Stir until the base is dissolved, then add to the vegetables.

 6. Add your potatoes. Give the soup a good stir and bring to the boil.

 7. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minute with the lid on.

 8. Remove the pan from the heat. Season with salt and pepper.

 9. Serve like this or pulse until smooth using a hand blender.

Source: jamieoliver.com

Review: This was my first test to show off to my parents the cooking skills I have learned so far and it went great. It allowed me to really use my knife skills by cutting up all the different vegetables and ingredients required. I really struggled with getting everything prepare the right way as I have never had to cook that large of a soup all by myself. Even though I struggled a little bit with preparing I showed this soup who is the boss when I cooked it. After now cooking this soup 2 times I didn’t really have any changes to make except for trying to find something else that could add a little bit of a spicier flavour. During the preparing of this soup I learned how to cut multiple vegetable in different ways witch helped me create a unique soup. For this being my first test I found it went extremely well with very few mistakes.

1st layer

 ½ cup margarine

 ⅓ cup white sugar

 ½ tsp. vanilla

 1 cup flour

 Cream together margarine, sugar and vanilla. Then mix in flour. Spread on bottom of 8X8” pan.

2nd layer

 8 oz. cream cheese

 ½ cup white sugar

 1 tsp. vanilla

 Cream together cream cheese, white sugar, and vanilla. Spread evenly over 1st layer.

3rd layer

 4 – 5 apples

 ⅓ cup white sugar

 1 tsp. cinnamon

 ½ cup sliced almonds

 Peel and core apples, slice thinly. Place sliced apples in a medium sized bowl. In a small bowl mix together sugar and cinnamon. Add cinnamon mixture to the apples and mix together. Put apples on cheese layer, sprinkle ¼ cup of sliced almonds over top. Bake at 450ºF for 10 min. Turn oven down to 400ºF for 25 minutes.

Source: Ms. Mann

Review: This apple tort tasted so amazing it tasted like you were eating happiness in a tiny slice. It didn’t take us long to get on a roll working as a team one thing at a time. At first I thought having to cut the apples would be hard with the core and everything but it turns out it is easy as pie you just have to do nice easy motions. We really struggles with combing the layers as we found they kept no staying the way we wanted but after a few try’s we were able to get it to just the right way we wanted it. One thing I would change about this recipe is have a warning saying how good this will smell because after one smell of it I was drooling wanting to try it. I really found learning how to create they layer very interesting and informative for future recipes I do that involve layers. This recipe was by far the best smelling one and it sure did taste good and it didn’t take a lot of time to make either, very good.

Prep time: 15 minutes Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

6 or 7 ripe plum tomatoes (about 1 1/2 lbs)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

6-8 fresh basil leaves, chopped.

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 baguette French bread or similar Italian bread

 1/4 cup olive oil

 Directions:

 1. Make sure there is a top rack in place in your oven. Turn on the oven to 450°F to preheat .

2. Prepare the tomatoes first. Score an “X” on the bottom of the tomato. Parboil the tomatoes for one minute in boiling water that has just been removed from the burner.

 3. Dip tomatoes in an ice bath. Using a sharp small knife, remove the skins of the tomatoes.

 4. Once the tomatoes are peeled, cut them in halves or quarters and remove the seeds and juice from their centers. Also cut out and discard the stem area. Why use plum tomatoes instead of regular tomatoes? The skins are much thicker and there are fewer seeds and less juice.

 5. Chop up the tomatoes finely.

 6. Put tomatoes, garlic, 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, vinegar in a bowl and mix.

 7. Add the chopped basil. Add salt and pepper to taste.

 8. Slice the baguette on a diagonal about 1/2 inch thick slices. Coat one side of each slice with olive oil using a pastry brush. Place on a cooking sheet, olive oil side down. You will want to toast them in the top rack in your oven, so you may need to do these in batches depending on the size of your oven. Once the oven has reached 450°F, place a tray of bread slices in the oven on the top rack. Toast for 5-6 minutes, until the bread just begins to turn golden brown.

 9. Align the bread on a serving platter, olive oil side up.

 10. Place some topping on each slice of bread and serve immediately or the bread may get soggy.

Yield: Makes 24 small slices.

Review: I very much disliked this recipe and found it kind of boring. It’s probably because I really strongly dislike the taste of tomatoes and the smell of them. Even though I had a little speed bump I managed to get through it which helped us peel that tomatoes with easy in no time. Although we thought everything was going well our down fall was when we were cutting the tomatoes they got a little bit crushed but that didn’t really effect the end product. The one thing I would have liked to know before hand was how delict the tomatoes were so we could have avoided crushing some of the tomatoes when we had cut them. One thing I can really take away from this I learned how to blanch a tomato, this will help me tremendously in the future when I want to freeze food for a later day. Even though I didn’t like the recipe it still turned out fine and looked good to.

Prep Time: 25 Min Cook Time: 10 Min Ready In: 1 Hr 35 Min

 Servings: 10

 Ingredients 

• 1/2 cup butter, softened

 • 3/4 cup white sugar

 • 1 egg

 • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

 • 1 teaspoon cream of tartar

 • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

 • 1/4 teaspoon salt

 • 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese

 • 1/2 cup white sugar

 • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

 2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 3/4 cup sugar until smooth. Mix in egg.

 3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended.

 4. Press dough into an ungreased pizza pan.

 5. Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool.  

6. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese with 1/2 cup sugar and vanilla until light. Spread on cooled crust.

 7. Arrange desired fruit on top of filling, glaze and chill.

 GLAZE:

 Ingredients

 • 2 tablespoons sugar

 • 1-1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

 • 1/4 cup unsweetened pineapple juice

 • 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice

 Directions

 1. In a small saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch.

 2. Stir in pineapple juice and lemon juice until smooth.

 3. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.

 4. Cool slightly. Drizzle over fruit. Refrigerate until chilled.

 Source: AllRecipes.com

Review: Cooking the fruit pizza was amazing and it tasted good to. We had a really strong start getting everything done on time and making sure everything was done right, the best part was how well our pizza crust turned out it looked so yummy. It wasn’t until later in the class when we hit a bump in the road were our group had a little disagreement, it took us a little bit of time to solve it but eventually we did and were able to get back on track with making the pizza. If I was to make this fruit pizza again I would have liked to be able to choose the fruit we wanted to use so that we could make it a more personal design. I really liked how in this class we learned how to make a glaze. This really intrigued me because it will help me improve the experience of future food I make. Although we had a slight disagreement we still managed to pull it together to make a spectacular pizza!

Prep Time: 20 Min Cook Time: 45 Min Ready In: 1 Hr 5 Min

Ingredients

1 tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons butter

 1/2 onion, chopped

 2 large carrots, chopped

 1/2 clove garlic, chopped

 2 cups water

 2 tablespoons chicken bouillon powder

 1/2 pound (3 c.) fresh broccoli florets

 1 cup half-and-half cream

 1 tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

 2 tablespoons ice water

 1-1/2 teaspoons soy sauce

 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

 2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Directions

Melt butter in a fryingpan over medium heat; add chopped onions, carrots, and garlic, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until softened.

In a medium-sized cooking pot, add 2 cups water and chicken bouillon granules and bring to boil.

Add precooked onion mixture to soup pot.

Add broccoli florets, reserving a few pieces to be added near the end of cooking time.

Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes or until broccoli is just tender.

In a blender or food processor, puree soup in batches and return to pot.

Reheat soup.

Stir in half and half cream and remaining broccoli florets.

In a cup, mix flour with cold water to form a thin liquid.

Bring soup to boil; add flour mixture slowly, stirring constantly to thicken soup as desired.

Add soy sauce, black pepper, and stir well.

Garnish with chopped parsley (or carrot curls) when serving. Serve soup hot or cold. NutritionalInformation Amount Per Serving Calories: 247 | Total Fat: 16.3g | Cholesterol: 48mg

Source: Allrecipes.com

Review: This cream of broccoli soup really tested our cooking skills. It was really easy cutting up the different vegetables, although we had some troubles chopping up the broccoli we still managed to get all the preparing done on time. Then of course came the hard part, we had lots of troubles trying to get our soup to the right thickness by blending it in a blender. After a few stops and starts we finally got it to where it was just perfect. If I was to make this soup again it would help if there was a suggested time to blend the soup, that way it will save us time from having to stop and start the blender to see if it is the right thickness. I thing I can really take away from this is the fact that I learned how to thicken a soup using the puree process. This will help with many soup down the road. Although we had a few bumps in the road we managed to keep it together and get our soup done in the class time given.

1/4 c. butter

 4 c. thinly sliced onion

 1 lt beef broth

 1/4 tsp. salt

 6 slices French bread, 1 inch thick

 2 tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese

 2 pkgs. (1 oz. size) process Gruyere cheese, grated

1. In hot butter in large kettle, saute onion until golden, about 8 minutes.

 2. Add beef broth and salt; bring to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, 30 minutes.

 3. Meanwhile, toast bread on both sides in broiler. Sprinkle one side with Parmesan and Gruyere cheese; broil just until cheese is bubbly, about 1 minute.

 4. To serve: Pour soup into individual soup bowls. Float toast, cheese side up, on soup.

Makes 6 servings.

Source: Miller Cafeteria

Review: For this being the first soup I have ever cooked it was awesome. Although we had some ups and downs we still made a great soup in the end. The thing that went really well in in the making of this soup was the advantage of having 4 group members, this really helped in preparing the soup in no time and allow us to finish our soup by the time the bell range. It also really helped in being able to not have to rush because we didn’t have enough group members, but that was not the case. I’m sure you know that not everything can go right every time, one thing that didn’t go well for us was that when we were cutting our onions it’s caused us to cry as if we just saw a sad movie. This caused us to cut some of the onions not the same size as others causing them to not cook as equally at the same time. Now there is always something you can do differently to make the recipe better, what I would do is to try and cut the onions faster so that I don’t start to cry again. This will allow us to cut the onion more of the same size so that they can cook evenly. In the making of this soup I learned that cutting onion is not easy it is hard to deal with your crying while also trying to cut with a very sharp knife. My suggestion is to be prepared for what cutting onions is going to do to you, IT WILL Make YOU CRY!!!!! All in all the soup was great, it was a nice and easy soup for our first one. I really enjoyed making it!