Homemade Wheat Thins and French Onion Potato Cheese Soup

Okay kiddos. Chef Tess is here. We're doing some crazy cool stuff today. When was the last time you made homemade crackers?! You've never made crackers?! What?!

Every other week, I do some cooking classes with my sweet Bakeroose. Class is starting to grow. Any kids who cook at home are welcome to join the fun here on Bakeroose. A group of Home school kids and their moms along with my two sons (Little Man and Face) are in on the group for Friday classes. I don't know about you, but it seems a cryin' shame to me that Home Economics was ripped out of school curriculum. Far too many are growing up with absolutely no idea how to cook even basic meals. That will not be the case with these little dolls. No way. Meet my girls...(If I could adopt them all, I totally would!) Notice the sweetie on my left doing the exact same thing I am with my arm on the table. Seriously...I almost cried seeing how much she wanted to be like me. It's a great responsibility and honor to have someone try to emulate you isn't it?


There are a few posts here on this blog that were written and submitted by some of our little chefs. I'm open to any new posts by kids. I can be contacted here: chef-tess@hotmail.com so if you and your family cook and want to add your adventures...I'm happy to look at your ideas and add them if I like what I see. Hint...I usually like what I see if it involves kitchen math and some basic skills for kids.

We started with the Homemade Wheat Thins from here on my blog.The real trick was not making the crackers so much as getting enough rollers to do the job right.

Mix in a large bowl:
3 1/4 cup whole wheat cake flour (50% barley 50% hard wheat if grinding your own flour).
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt.


whisked well :
1/3 cup oil
1 cup water
2T honey

Add liquid to dry ingredients, mixing well, but as little as possible.

Divide into 2 balls. Totally non-rocket-science, right?

Roll them out really thin. This is enough dough to make two pans of crackers. If you roll them thick they will be more like a teething biscuit, but I don't have any babies who would appreciate that anymore.

Oh my gosh! She could not be any cuter if she tried! Look at that...

Cut and bake. 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes. That's perfect time to make the soup.

Now for the French Onion Potato Cheese Soup of glory. Pause for effect. Kids will eat onions. Mind you...they can't be toxic overpowering onion. So we had a lesson on how to make them edible-happy. Caramelizing them makes them sweet and amazing. Believe it or not, the kids actually really liked the soup.

Chef Tess' French Onion Potato Cheese Soup

2 large yellow onions, sliced thin
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 large shallots, peeled and sliced thin
2T butter or olive oil
3/4 cup flour
9 cups good beef broth or stock
1 tsp each: thyme, dill
1/2 tsp each: celery seed, fresh ground black pepper
zest of 1 lemon, micro grated
8 oz. cream cheese (I use the 1/3 less fat)... soft and chunked
4 oz sharp cheddar, shredded
2 oz Parmesan or asiago cheese, shredded

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/4 cup fresh chopped Italian flat leaf parsley


Okay...I have to say...this sweetheart is one of my favorite people. Love you Dolphin Girl! This was her first time using a micro-plane zester. I know it won't be her last. She measured, cut, chopped...and well, was an excellent right arm. I'm keeping her.

Now kids...this is how to cut an onion.

Cry it out. Emma Bug was laughing so hard that her eyes were watering...and tearing up because of the onions. It was so funny to watch.

Oh the vision of love.

In a 2 gallon heavy pot melt butter over medium heat and add the onion and shallots. Slowly cook until very dark brown but not burned.

Add a little broth and scrape the pan clean. Simmer until broth is evaporated and onion begins again to stick to the pan and get dark. Add a little more broth and scrape pan again. Add the potatoes.

This little doll worked very hard to cut all the potatoes. We need to think of a blog nick-name for her. She's been to all my classes...

In a separate container, whisk the flour into the remaining beef broth. Pour the beef broth into pot with the onion and potato. Your onions should be very dark colored.

Stir in the seasoning: thyme, dill, celery seed, pepper and zest. Simmer this 15-20 minutes until the mixture thickens and no starchiness is detected when tasted.

TURN OFF HEAT. This ensures your soup will not get a "grainy" texture. Add cream cheese, cheddar, Parmesan and parsley and stir until cheese is melted and Incorporated.

Enjoy this with someone you love. 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.

Bakaroose Spaghetti and Spice Basics

Chef Tess and our two newest chefs will be on Fox 10 AZ AM on Tuesday morning at 9:45. If you would like to get some ideas of things to cook with your kids during spring break, this is a good one to watch. The Bakeroose got together today for our second class. This is where we are starting to learn about herbs and spices and some basic cooking skills like how to cook noodles to perfection. If someone handed you a few jars of tomato sauce and said, "Make spaghetti", could you? That was what we wanted to learn. We also where just excited as ever to see each other again!


Spaghetti sauce:
1 Tablespoon oil
One large onion
1 shallot, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, minced
40 oz tomato sauce
Italian herbs and spices (we are learning to smell and use by "feeling")
salt and pepper

We cooked the onions and shallots over medium heat with the oil until they where about clear. Then we added the garlic. In this way, we keep the garlic from getting all nasty and burned. That is good. We learned that onions,shallots, and garlic help clean out your blood. Most of the herbs and spices used in food are good to help your body digest food! So, not only does adding herbs and spices make food taste better, it's better for your body. That's cool right?

Here are some of the spices and herbs we used. Mom (Tess) showed us how to crush spices, let us smell a ton of spices and herbs, and told us how to tell which ones went together. Starting with Italian herbs and spices today, but she gave us homework. Homework?!! Yes. Spring break is for geeks...she says. We have to make a pasta salad using the herb and spice list she gave us and make it so that the spices and herbs work together. It will be fun to see how we do.

We learned the difference between a spice and an herb. Spices are the seeds and bark of culinary aromatic plants. Herbs are the leaves, stems and flowers. Did you know there was a difference? When someone says herbs and spices they aren't talking about the same parts of a plant.

The Italian herbs we smelled and then used in sauce today are:

Oregano, rosemary and basil. Mom says there are a lot more. Can you think of some? Marjoram and thyme also work with Italian food. The spices we smelled today where black pepper and fennel. There are a lot more though. Cumin we smelled, but didn't use because it goes in Mexican dishes better than Italian. Isn't that good to know?


We learned what boiling water looks like. It has big fat bubbles with chins on it. When it gets hot like that, we had an adult put the noodles in the water. It's important to add salt to the water, not only to help it boil, but also to add flavor to the noodles. Reading the noodle package is good to know how long to cook the noodle. You know what else helps? Taking one piece out when it looks like it's close to being done. Let it cool a bit, and then taste it. If it isn't hard, it's done.

We had a draining system already set up before we cooked the noodles. When they where ready we drained them right away.
Have an adult move boiling water pots and drain the noodles. Don't get burned!!

Mom told us that once the onions where clear and the garlic wasn't brown, to add a small amount of tomato sauce or paste to the onions, along with the herbs and spices. We stirred and stirred the small amount with the onions and stuff until it got nice and slightly browned. This is a very important step for nice sweet sauce without adding sugar. It gives perfect flavor to the sauce too.

This was the hardest part...waiting. It took about 5-7 minutes. That sauce smelled so good we wanted to just suck it down.

Finally we added the rest of the sauce.
Mom added some lemon zest with her grater. Lemon? Yes.

What does adding lemon zest to spaghetti sauce do? It makes it freaky good! Well, it makes it taste fresh and bright.

What do you know about salt? We saw French Grey Sea Salt...

Regular Kosher Salt...

Salt not only adds flavor, but it helps things not get moldy so fast. It kills germs. Mom says that it is used in a lot of things, like cheese and some meats to help preserve them. Pickles have a lot of salt. We are going to read about Jesus and what he said about being the salt of the earth. I'm excited to hear His thoughts on salt. What do you think?

Salt in cheese, piled on spaghetti with our sauce...

Cheeeeese.

Can we eat it yet?!

Yes. Yes we can. It was crazy good.

One of our chefs had four plates full and cleaned them every time. She sat next to my mom, and it made mom very happy.

There you go. Try spaghetti sauce without using a pre-made jar. We dare you!

Perfect Pizza Dough

Hey guys! This is the new chefs who just joined. We made some really good pizza dough and then just got out a jar of spaghetti sauce and blended it up so the tomatoes and mushrooms were un-see-able.
Here's the recipe:
1 2/3 cups warm water
1 pack active dry yeast (one pack is 2 1/4 teaspoon)
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for the work space
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

1. Pour the water into a glass measuring cup and add the yeast. Let stand until the yeast dissolves and mixture froths, about 5 or so minutes.

2. Mix the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl.

3. Add the olive oil to the yeast mixture.

4. Slowly pour the yest mixture int the flour and stir with a fork. When it gets hard to stir with the fork, use your hands.

5. Squish the dough around to combine all the ingredients.

6. Try to form the dough into a ball. When it holds together in a ball shape, it is ready to knead.
(When you have the dough almost ready to knead, set the oven to 450.)
After that, just put some flour out on the work space and knead the dough until you think its ready to be shaped into a pizza.
Then just spoon some pizza sauce on and spread it. Then put what ever toppings you like on it. Cook for 10 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling. Oh, and you can save some dough and store it in the freezer up to 3 months.
This is my pizza right before it was put in the oven. And this is the pizza's after they're done. Don't they look good? Yum!!


This is me, eating my pizza. And this is my sister, who helped make it, eating her pizza.
It was a really good pizza. So as Chef Tess would say, there you go. ;)

Nacho Cups and Pizza Bites

Nacho Cups and Pizza Bites are really fun to make. We had them for lunch yesterday.