What Have I Done This Week? This week has been very different for me. Mostly because I literally couldn't get out of my bed for nearly four days. This has nothing to do with my project, but the fact that I couldn't eat does. In fact I still can't eat. Since my entire project is based around me cooking food and eating it, me being sick definitely hinders the final product. I was planning on cooking various items again, such as hamburgers and chicken, to see how much I improved. Although I can still cook, my family probably doesn't want to eat my food. I know this because they are trying to stay as far away from me as possible in order to not catch whatever is sickening me.
Due to this I instead I'm going to seriously take a lot of time and focus on creating my Genius Hour presentation. My main goal for the presentation is to show everyone how although I still have a lot of improving to do, I have improved. To do this I am going to display how I have improved in various categories. Throughout this project I have tried to cook food that either I enjoy, or my family enjoys. Looking back I can see exactly what skills that I have improved in. For instance early on I struggled to flip a burger on the grill. I worked on improving this skill by using the grill more. So although during this last week I'm not actually cooking something, I'm still doing something. I have been reading a lot of my old blogs and writing down a lot of stuff that I want to include in my presentation. Once I finish my presentation I want to rehearse it a few time to make sure I know what to say and when. Also by rehearsing I am able to make sure I don't have a typo or another error. I do want to say that this has been a fun project and I think it has seriously helped me improve my cooking!
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What Have I Been Doing? Last week was thanksgiving, which meant that I was able to help with a lot of the cooking. To cook on thanksgiving it was a group effort instead of one family member fix this, and another fix this. So I didn't solely cook one thing, yet instead I helped to cook a variety of things. Among those things were classic thanksgiving food, such as mashed potatoes, corn, turkey and ham. I helped a lot with the mashed potatoes and corn. This was really good for me as I could really see how much I have grown since I started this project. The first time I cooked mashed potatoes I really didn't know how to and it was more my dad taking me step by step of how to fix it. During thanksgiving though I was able to remember most of the steps. Of course cooking corn is fairly easy so while I have cooked it before I don't think that I have written about it. While cooking for thanksgiving I didn't take any pictures as I didn't feel like it was appropriate to stop my family from cooking and talking to each other. What About This Week? This week I fixed a broccoli casserole. I chose to cook this as it was fitting to cook near thanksgiving and it wasn't too hard to fix. To fix the casserole first mix together a cup of mayonnaise, one egg, a 1/4 of a cup of onions, and a can of condensed soup. After that put your broccoli on a pan and pour the mix on top of it. Mix all of the ingredients carefully, and don't spill a lot of the counter like I did, and smooth the top after you mixed the ingredients. I then added a little bit of pepper just because I like pepper. Put the pan in the oven that is set on three fifty and wait for about fifty minutes for the casserole to cook. How Was The Casserole? Personally I'm not the biggest fan of broccoli, so I obviously don't love broccoli casseroles. But my family loves them. I ate a little bit of it and it wasn't terrible, but my family all said they enjoyed it. Like I had said when I started the project the main goal of mine was to learn how to improve my cooking to help myself for when I am living on my own, but for now I want to be able to help my family by cooking. So although a broccoli casserole isn't something I would cook to eat, it is something that my family enjoys. What Am I Going To Be Doing For The Next Few Weeks? Although it hasn't seemed like this project has lasted a long time, it has. The project is about over which means that I need to create a end product. My end product is going to be showing how much I have improved over the course of the genius hour project. To show how I am going to do this I have started a list of areas that I have improved at and have started to think of ways to present that I am improving and have actually reached my goal. So although the next few weeks I am still going to be cooking, I am also going to be creating my presentation to end my project.
What Am I Fixing This Week? This week I am going to help me family by fixing hot dogs and chili. Hot dogs are pretty simple to fix to be honest, so I decided chili would be a great addition to go on the hot dogs. I will also add a lot more stuff to my hot dog, but I'm not going to include that as it's basically just my cutting up something. How Am I Going To Fix The Chili? Since hot dogs are as easy as just putting them on the grill I'm going to mostly focus on the chili. To fix the chili I used one pound of hamburger meat and put that into a pot. I then added two teaspoons of chili powder, a few drops of Texas Pete, salt, pepper, and a cup of ketchup. Although this is all the recipe said my dad actually suggested to add a little bit of a secret ingredient. That secret ingredient was actually a soft drink from the coke-a-cola company. I used just a little, maybe one sixth of a bottle, and then drank the rest of course. After mixing all of the ingredients I put it on the stove and mixed it every once in a while until it started to bubble. Once it started to bubble it means that it's done. How Was The Food? The hot dogs were really good, and so was the chili. I ended up cutting up a little bit of onions to put on my hot dog, and I also used mustard. I was proud that I didn't burn the hot dogs as at one point I got totally distracted from cooking and I didn't check on them for a while. Everything turned out really good and I'm really proud of how much my cooking skills have improved since when I started this project.
What Am I Fixing This Week This week I am fixing a few chicken legs. Instead of frying them which I prefer although they aren't as healthy, I am going to simply cook them. By cooking them it is a lot healthier, but probably requires more work to do. So I think that is a win win as I am cooking all of this food to get better at cooking more difficult dishes and to eat healthy food. How Am I Cooking The Chicken Legs The first thing that was required was to buy a few chicken legs to cook. After buying twelve and coming back home I followed the recipe that I found off of the internet. The recipe called for a half of a cup of water, and a third of a cup of ketchup. I love ketchup so I put a little bit more than a third of a cup, but not quite a half of a cup. Another third of a cup of vinegar is then required, followed by a teaspoon of honey. A stick of butter and a little bit of salt is then added to the mixing bowl. I also added a fourth of a cup of brown sugar and two teaspoons of worcestershire. I then mixed the ingredients together before putting the sauce on the oven until it came to a boil. I then took the chicken legs out of the fridge and poured the sauce onto them. I then put the chicken legs into the oven that was set on 350. About an hour and a half later they were done and ready to eat. Did They Taste Good? To be completely honest, I still prefer fried wings. These cooked chicken legs were still really good, and a lot healthier for me though.
What Am I Cooking This Week? This week I am cooking another steak. I first cooked steak in week five and I have found a recipe that I believe will be better. Not only that I am trying to do this without help, unlike week five. This is going to see how much I have improved throughout the weeks. How Did I Fix The Steaks? As previously said, I found a new recipe to fix my steaks. This new recipe called for new seasoning. This time I used Weber Chicago steak seasoning, cavender's all purpose Greek seasoning, and grill mates Apple wood rub. I then grilled it just like last time, and I even remembered that it needed to sit for a minute before you cut it. By letting it set for a little bit it allows for the juices inside the steak to spread throughout the steak. Without letting the steak set the juices will gather in the middle and the outside will be dry and it won't taste as good. Was It Better Then The One Fixed In Week 5? Honestly I didn't think that it would be as good as the one fixed in week two at first, but I think it was. The new recipe that I found was really good and I think that I have really improved since when I first cooked a steak, which is obviously really good. Hopefully I can start to cook things that I have already cooked in the upcoming weeks to see if I have improved with those meal as well. It's hard to believe that I have done this project for eight weeks already!
What Am I Fixing This Week? This week I am going to fix a salmon casserole for lunch. I usually only eat salmon by itself, but I found a recipe that looked very good. So this will not only be my first time cooking a salmon casserole but I don't think I've ever ate one either. How Did I Fix The Salmon Casserole? To fix the salmon casserole I first had to get two cans of salmon. After putting two cans of salmon into a mixing bowl I had pick bones out of the salmon. The easiest way to do this I found was to almost mash all the salmon up with my hands. I then added an egg, salt, pepper, Worcestershire, and some Texas Pete. Then you mix all of the ingredients up and put into the oven to cook. I set the oven to 400 and it took about forty minutes. Was It Good? The salmon casserole was very good, and I hope I can eat more in the future. I was surprised at how I couldn't taste the ingredients at all. I figured I could taste the Texas Pete a little bit (especially due to the amount that I put in) but I couldn't taste it at all.
What am I fixing this week? This week I am fixing pork chops for lunch, although on my chart from the first week doesn't have me fixing pork chops this week. My chart sounded good when I first made it, but I didn't plan out my weeks too well. Honestly I couldn't think of enough food to cook while I was making the chart. Of course once I got started doing my project and researching for recipes I start to see suggestions and I find more food that I want to cook and go that looks fun. How Did I Cook The Pork Chops While you can grill pork chops, and I originally planned to grill pork chops, mother nature had different plans. So instead of grilling pork chops I am fixing them in the oven. To cook the pork chops I first set the oven to 350. I then had to make a dip to put on the pork chops. The dip contained three and a half teaspoons of sugar, one and a half teaspoons of vinegar, and ketchup. Unlike with the meatloaf I carefully followed the recipe and I didn't do it by eye. I feel like over time I may be able to measure by eye, but I'm not there just yet. I also put a little pepper on the pork chops before I put the dip on the pork chops. I then covered the food with foil and put them in the oven to cook. I then waited for the pork chops to cook. About thirty minutes later I pulled the foil off the top of the pork chops so they can brown. I chose to pull the foil back half way through the amount of time that it took to cook the pork chops, so thirty minutes later they were done and ready to eat. How Were The Pork Chops? The pork chops were very good, and I am happy that I didn't mess the dip up this time like I did to the meatloaf. The dip added a sweet taste to the pork chops and it made the food really good.
What am I fixing this week?On the chart that I published in my first blog I'm supposed to be cooking hamburgers and fries. I have already grilled hamburgers, so I made the executive decision to not grill hamburgers again as I already know how to grill them. Although I did have a lot of problems with getting the hamburgers off the grill, I am not going to fix them again because I know how to fix them and I think overtime I will be able to get stuff off the grill. So this week I'm going to fix steak and mashed potatoes. How did I fix the steaks?![]() After I made the decision to make steaks I immediately started to look for recipes for steak. To my surprise the recipes were fairly simple. In fact the one I found only had four steps. First step is to season the steak, the second is to grill it, the fourth step was to let it sit, the third is to serve it. Going into this week I seriously thought steaks were a lot harder to make! To season the steak I used McCormick steak seasoning. I put a good amount on both sides of the steak then I waited for the grill to heat up. After the grill heated up I put the steak on the grill then waited. Unlike almost everyone I know I like my steak well done, so it took a little bit longer for the steak to grill. After the steak was grilled I brought it inside and put it in a pan to rest. The secret to a good steak is to let it sit for a while to allow for the juices to go inside of the steak instead of leaking out of the steak when you cut into it. How did I fix the Mashed Potatoes?Going into the week if someone would have told me fixing mashed potatoes would have been harder than fixing steak, I would have thought they were joking. The mashed potatoes weren't hard to make, but there were a lot of step that went into making them. The first thing to do with the potatoes is to peel them. After peeling the potatoes I put them into a pot of cold water. The reason I did this was to wash the potatoes again. After a few minutes I took the potatoes out of the pot and cut them into a few small pieces. I then put the small pieces into a pot with new cold water. I then put the pot on the stove. After a while I removed the pot and put the potato pieces into a bowl and used an electric beater to mash the potatoes. The last step was to add butter and pepper. Was the food good?This week I am really happy with how my food turned out! The steak was awesome and I liked the mashed potatoes too.
What am I fixing this week? This week I have completely went against my chart and fixed meatloaf. I was looking back at my chart and I happened to realize that I didn't include meatloaf, which is one of my favorite meals. So this week I decided to fix meatloaf. How did I fix the meatloaf Fixing meatloaf is a lot more simple than I first thought, and it doesn't take a long time to fix it. Of course the most important ingredient for meatloaf is, meat. I used a pound and a half of meat for my meatloaf and mixed in salt, pepper, garlic, Worcestershire, Heinz 57, and ketchup. After mixing the ingredients up, I put them into a pan to cook in the oven. Before putting the pan in the oven, first you need to put a glaze on the meatloaf. The glaze is a combination of ketchup and brown sugar. I was supposed to use a cup of brown sugar, but I used about a cup and a half. After applying the glaze on top of the meatloaf, I put it in the oven. The oven is set at 350 degrees, and it will take about one hour for the meatloaf to cook. I got this recipe from my great grandmother rather than pintrest this week. I love my great grandmother's meatloaf so I knew that I had to follow her recipe. How was the meatloaf?To be honest, I wasn't a big fan of my meatloaf. It didn't taste like how my great grandmother fixes it. I think I put too much garlic powder into the meatloaf, or maybe I put too much brown sugar. It was still good, but it wasn't as good as I was used too. Hopefully I can fix my mistakes and make a better meatloaf next time I try to fix one.
What am I cooking this week?This week I am cooking hamburgers for my family. I know that on my schedule I wanted to do something else, but I changed my mind. So I'm probably going to continue my schedule as if this was the week I was supposed to grill hamburgers and combine what I originally planned to cook this week with another week. How did I fix the hamburgers?After starting the grill I went inside and started to make the patties. To do this I put ground beef in a bowl and added a few spices. Those spices were onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, and a gourmet seasoning packet that was bought at the store. I mixed the ingredients then with my hands I made the hamburgers. I only made two, because it was only my dad and I at home for dinner. I put the patties on a pan and waited for the grill to heat up. While I waited I cut lettuce, onions, and tomatoes to go on my hamburger. I then put the burgers on the grill. After waiting for a while, the burgers were ready and I struggled to get them off the grill. After a few attempts I was able to pick the burger up with the spatula long enough to put on the pan to take back into the house and put on a bun. Was the burgers good?I really enjoyed the hamburgers I made and I was proud that I was able to cook a meal by myself. I did use a few tips off of a various of apps that helped me a lot. I will say though, there is something about me cooking the hamburgers myself that made them taste better.
After this week I do have a new side goal to try to accomplish. I seriously struggled to get the burgers off the grill and broke a piece of one off. Over the next few weeks I want to be able to get the food off the grill without messing the food up. |
AuthorI am participating in a project for my English class. To learn more about my project and to track my progress check out my blogs Archives
November 2020
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