Car show

Hey everyone I'm Chef Tess' son, Little Man. There is a car show on the last Saturday of every month. We got a picture of one of my favorite cars, a 1970's mach 1 Mustang.

Here we are behind of a cool 70's-80's hot rod.

A beautiful car .

That's a big truck it is very small in this picture and It's hauling a lifted trailer.

Good luck to our soldiers.

Homemade Fridge Pickles

Today we got together for kids cooking class to continue our knife skills. In the middle of class, this jar of pickles walked in attached to the hand of a dad. Wait. Does that sound like the pickles had legs? Well...they didn't. We needed them for our potato salad. We decided that we should make some pickles too. Did you know that pickles are made of cucumbers? Some kids don't know that. I bet you did.

Here's what you need:

One quart jar with lid

measuring spoons and cups

knife to cut cucumbers (if you are allowed...ask an adult!)

Food for Fridge Pickles:

2 large cucumbers

1/2 cup vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup water

1/2 tsp dill weed or seed

1 clove garlic (peel off skin and cut in half)

3-4 small red pepper flakes (optional)

Slice the cucumbers in 1/4 inch slices. We cut them in half first.

Put all the rest of the food ingredients in the glass jar. Be sure to stir it a little to dissolve the salt.

Fill up the jar with the cucumbers. If there is any uncovered pickles, be sure to fill up the rest of the jar with water.

Put on the lid tightly and put the jar in the fridge. The pickles will be ready to eat in about a week.

There you go!

Homemade Potato Chips

These need to be made with an adult. Obviously we are cutting with sharp knives. We will also be frying the chips in hot oil. Don't do this alone. You need supervising. Mrs. Chef Tess almost needs supervision. The boy holding the knife and cutting this potato is a member of our Friday kids cooking class. Today we made some homemade potato chips. I think these kids are very much improving on their knife skills. Ages five through twelve and all of them did a wonderful job handling the knives safely and practicing cutting potatoes paper thin. Amazing isn't it!

We put the cut chips in big bowls of water. Water keeps the potatoes from touching air, which will make them turn brown. This is called oxidation. It doesn't make the potatoes bad to eat, just ugly to look at. When they where all cut, we drained the chips and dried them between two clean kitchen towels. Too much water in frying oil is very dangerous. It will spit hot oil all over the kitchen and all over you. So be sure to dry them very well. Now we piled them in a bowl and heated a large heavy pot full of oil. The oil got very hot. When it came time to fry the chips, we had the kids play outside for the most part to avoid any oil injuries. It takes 3-5 minutes to cook a potato chip to optimum crispness. It took a while. We skimmed them out with a metal skimmer. Okay. Mrs. Chef Tess skimmed them. The only one who stayed and helped where the very oldest kids.

Put in a paper towel lined metal pan or metal colander. The best part of teaching knife skills with potato chips (free hand, without a food processor or other appliance) was that they felt extreme ownership for those potatoes. They could easily tell if the thickness was acceptable when it was fried and we got to talk about the cooking times being different for thick and thin cut potatoes. It was a great lesson learned.

The chips where delicious!

There you go.

Fast Taco Rice

Middle of the week fast meal here it comes! This is one the kids can do very easily. It uses the stove so if you have to have an adult with you, make sure it's okay. Taco Rice is one of our family favorites. It's got a lot of vegetables in it. You don't have to use them all, but it is good to try new stuff. It makes you a better chef when you try new foods. It really does. So, gather your ingredients.

Tess' Taco Rice
1/2 lb lean turkey meat (taco seasoned)
2 bell peppers, chopped fine
1 medium onion, chopped fine
2 cloves of garlic chopped fine
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
2 cups instant brown rice
1/2 cup chicken or vegetable broth

sour cream (optional)
chopped green onions or chopped cilantro (it's a Mexican herb)
Directions: Saute the bell peppers, onions and garlic with the taco meat in a 12-14 inch skillet with a lid that fits. Cook 4-5 minutes until meat is no longer pink and the veggies are tender.
We like a lot of vegetables around here and after years of practice, we are finally on board with wanting a lot of the good stuff in our food too. It's a process. Mom says that it takes fifteen exposures to a new food before kids will want to eat it. Sometimes you have to try it made a lot of different ways until you find a way to like it. It's worth liking vegetables because they will make you strong. Here's a picture of me...Face. Would I stir the pot if I didn't want to eat it? Maybe. But this time, take my word for it, this is good stuff.

Add the tomatoes and broth. Stir and bring to a boil. That's big bubbles. Add instant brown rice, mix well. Cover with lid and turn to lowest heat. Cook 10 minutes. Stir in cilantro or green onions if desired.

Serve with taco chips, sour cream. Homemade yogurt also works as a topping. Really anything you put on a taco would work. Yes, this would work wonderfully as the base for taco salads. You're so smart.

There you go.