What I've learnt in term 1

Last term in cooking we had done a lot of research about safety and hygiene in the kitchen. I also learnt a lot of recipe's, most of them you had to be really careful on the instructions because if you miss one thing the whole recipe would fail, the measurements also had to be exact or there would be no flavour or the mix wouldn't rise.

The last lesson we had was making cupcakes. I know I've already blogged about how we did in the cupcake recipe. Cupcakes are the easiest recipe and are not that hard to fail. Our group checked at the recipe to make sure we didn't miss anything so that the recipe wouldn't fail. 

What I've learnt in that last lesson was that you have to work in a team with those that you are baking with, because if you don't work as a team then the recipe wouldn't turn outright. There are certain techniques on mixing the mix, how to measure properly and how to control the texture of the mix. Also if you are baking something else you have to make sure that you go to what the instructions say.

Here are all the finished cupcakes:

Working at home

The first week of term 2 and we are still home. This week we had been given some work from our hurumanu classes. There is a lot of work to do but I've been slowly finishing them. Every week ill be writing what I have been doing each day. This is just to do some more blogging and still just getting used to writing. So hers what I've been doing for the first week of term 2:

Wednesday- Woke up pretty late, Started to find some work to do for this week, Finished off the health work that I've been working on through the holidays, talked to my wananga teacher just to catch up on my work and for her to know that I know what to do, and then I baked some smartie biscuits.

Thursday- Woke up late again, talked to my friend while working on my maths, checked on my email, did some work on my power to the people work.

Friday- Woke up early, worked on my measurement work (cooking), did some more work with the maths and the power to the people work. Did some more baking.

Cupcakes

Today in home economics we made cupcakes, this is the easiest recipe to do in cooking. This takes a lot of measuring and technique. These cupcakes took us 2 day only because when we made the cupcakes we didn't have enough time to make the icing. These looked amazing in the end, so here are is the recipe, the photos and I'll tell you how they worked out:

Ingredients:
125g margarin/butter
3/4 c sugar
1 t vanilla essence
2 Eggs (size 7)
1 1/2 c plain flour
2 t Baking powder
1/2 c milk

Steps:
1. Cream butter in a large bowl. Use a wooden spoon.
2. Add sugar and continue creaming until a light fluffy texture.
3. Add vanilla essence and beat briefly
4. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after you have added each egg
5. Sift flour and baking powder onto a large plate
6. scrap the mixture off a wooden spoon using the rubber scraper.
7. Add 1/3 of the sift ingredients and add 1/2 the milk fold with a rubber scraper.
8. Repeat step 7 adding the rest of the milk.
9. add the rest of the sifted ingredients to the mix.
10. Fold until light and fluffy mixture.
11. tip into the muffin tray and put in the oven preheated at 180 degrees.

This is the ingredients all together and the recipe.

Here are the cups in the muffin tin

These are the cupcakes straight out of the oven

This week I had a different team as last week because of how much we didn't work well, this week we had worked amazingly. We each had roles and new who was doing and getting things, we compromised on who would like to do what and we communicated as a team. This recipe was really easy and was even more easy with other's who knew what they were doing. So the recipe and the team were really awesome this week. 

Home economics - Ginger gems

Hey, yesterday for cooking we made ginger gems, we had to look through the ingredients and the direction, it was difficult cause most of the measurements you had to look at the directions. This was a very good recipe and I definitely do it again. Here is the recipe and the direction for ginger gems:

(Serves 12)

ingredients:

150g Butter
1/2 cup Sugar
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp Golden syrup
1 Egg
2 cups Standard flour
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Baking soda
1/2 cup Milk

Direction:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degc. Place gem iron (or muffin tin) in the oven to heat.
2. Cream 100g of the butter with sugar, ginger and cinnamon.
3. Beat in golden syrup and egg, adding a tablespoon or two of the flour prevent curdling.
4. Sift flour and baking powder.
5. Dissolve baking soda in the milk. Mix flour into butter mixture alternately with the milk.
6. Remove gem iron from the oven and put it on a wood board.
7. Add half a teaspoon of remaining butter to each mould or hollow. It will sizzle.
8. Fill moulds with batter. Bake for about 15 min, until a skewer inserted in the centre, comes out clean.
9. Cool slightly then remove gems to cool on a wire rack.

This week our food didn't work out as well as last week and this week my group didn't work as well as last weeks group. My ginger gems were a bit different from everyone else, they were lumpy and wasn't cooked well either. Here is our Ginger gems I the gem iron (muffin tin):

As I said before my group this week didn't work as well, we didn't really know what we are doing and we didn't really communicate properly as we were meant too. I think the reason why the ginger gems didn't look as well as the other groups were because we put the baking powder instead of the baking soda in the milk. The gems were also not spicy enough it was a bit plain but the texture on the outside was crispy and the inside was good but the flavour and the look of them weren't very flattering.

Home economics review

Scones

This week for home economics we made scones. When we started we had to get all our ingredients ready and make sure that they are the right measurement. Then once we had got all the ingredients we had look what the next step was, we used a big bowl and added the dry ingredients in the sift. While one person was sifting another person was cutting the butter into cubes. When the butter was ready and the dry stuff was sifted we added the butter and massage the butter into the dry ingredients. Then once the butter was all smooshed in we added the milk and quickly mixed it with a knife.

Then when the mix was formed into dough we placed on the table (with flour on the table) and knead it. Once it was in done we cut it into 6 pieces. Then we placed the dough onto the sheet of paper that's on the baking tray. Then we cooked them for 10mins on fan bake. Our team checked if the scones had risen and golden, once they were golden we took them out and placed them on a tray to cool them. Our scones looked amazing and the taste was amazing.

How we worked: My team worked amazingly we did have up and downs but we had worked as a team and when someone messed up we supported them and kept going. We had separate jobs which were really good cause we all did our jobs well and we finished in time.

Here are our scones after they came out of the oven:

Recipe:

• 3c Plain Flour
• 6 t Baking Powder (level0
• 1/4 t salt
• 75g Cold Butter
• 1 to 1 1/2 c Milk

In class, we had to make a word shape about hygiene so here is my word art:

Bacteria - Home economics

Home economics
In home economics, we learned about our hygiene, safety and what bacteria are in class, we watched a video and also made a presentation on what we learned so here is my doc and video on safety, hygiene and what is bacteria:

What is the difference between Hygiene and Personal Safety?	Food Safety is food that is safe for a person to eat, whereas Food Hygiene is mostly about how you deal with the food, store the food and preparation.
How would you have demonstrated these in the two practicals you have done so far?	Hygiene Washing hands Clean nails Tied up hair Closed shoes Clean apron Personal safety Handling knife properly Well cooked food
When we use chicken what are some key things you need to remember to ensure your food is safe to eat?	When dealing with raw chicken always wash your hands when picking up something (turning on/off the light or answering the phone), always use another board while chopping chicken and cook the chicken well (make sure it’s not pink)
What is Bacteria?	Bacteria is a living germ that is in all shapes and sizes, they can not be seen easily cause they are really tiny and you can only see them in a microscope. They can be spread really fast if you don’t wash your hands when dealing with something dirty and then preparing something to eat.
What do bacteria need to survive?	Bacteria need food (of course), water,  a warmish area and time.
Give 3 examples of how we avoid spreading bacteria?	Always wash your hands Cover open cuts When sick do not prepare food
What does the term cross-contamination mean and what is it’s the effect on you?	A process by a bacteria transferred from one substance to another, the effects are the sore stomach, loss of appetite, headache and diarrhea.

Chopping board:

Yellow=chicken

Red=raw red meat

Brown=cooked meat

Green=veg/fruit

Blue=fish

white=bread & cheese

Cow Eye dissection

Aim: To look at a cows eye and the main parts of the eye.

Equipment:

1. Dissection scissors
2. Gloves
3. Cows eye 
4. Tweezers

Method:

1. Remove bit of the tissue
2. Gently puncture the eye and cut around the cornea
3. Remove the humour from the eye
4. Cut the rest of the eye in half
5. And get rid of the retina

Findings:

While cutting the eye there was a lot of fluid coming out of it, There was also jelly called the humour. What I found was that dissecting the eye is very disgusting at first but when you see the rest of the eye it's really pretty and fun.