Author: foodjules

We have the pleasure of announcing that Food Jules will be teaching cooking classes at Daniels Farm School in Trumbull as part of their after school enrichment program. Our theme for the semester at Daniels Farm will be Nutritious and Delicious! Classes start at the end of this month and run for 6 weeks. Our class is already filled up, how exciting!

Stay tuned for more cooking classes to come!

This week, we returned to Europe and visited one of my favorite spots… ENGLAND!

Did you know that the English drink the most tea in the entire world? They sure do enjoy their “Afternoon Tea” parties and so did we! While sipping some English Breakfast Tea (decaf, of course), we ate some warm baked Currant Scones and nibbled on some little tea sandwiches such as the famous cucumber sandwich and an egg salad sandwich.

We talked about famous locations, people and food in England. The students learned that the sandwich was invented in England by John Montagu in 1762 and that Europe’s tallest ferris wheel, called the London Eye, is located right in London. We also saw the beautiful Windsor Castle, which is the oldest and largest castle in the world! And of course, everyone recognized Prince William and Kate Middleton.

After our tea party, we ate two of Britain’s favorite dishes, the Cornish Pasty and the Cottage Pie. The most common foods in England are the sandwich, fish and chips, savory pies and roast dinners. We created our own savory pie, originally made for miners in Cornwall, the Cornish Pasty. The traditional recipe calls for Steak, Potatoes, Onions and Ruttabaga (or Turnips) but we made a Chicken, Potato, Onion and Bacon version. It was one of the kids favorite dishes!

Are you familiar with the Shepherd’s Pie? Well, this type of pie is made with Ground Lamb, but we made a version with Ground Turkey instead, which we called the Cottage Pie. It was delicious, topped with mashed potatoes and cheddar cheese! I could have eaten the entire dish all by myself.

Next week, the kids want to visit Asia, either China or Japan…. but I was thinking it would be fun to visit the Arabian coast or Thailand and definitely India. Plus, we can’t forget about visiting my family in PORTUGAL! Maybe, we’ll make that our final destination on our trip around the world with some homemade, warm, sweet, pasteis de nata. YUM!

Our trip this week was filled with fun in the sun! We visited the largest country in the Caribbean… Cuba!

The kids learned some interesting facts about Cuba. Did you know that Cubans refer to their island as “El Cocodrilo” because its shape resembles a crocodile or that the most popular sport in Cuba is baseball, not soccer? We also learned that Cuba was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492 and that there are so many doctors in Cuba that they get sent out to other countries.

Cuban cuisine includes lots of unique fruits and vegetables since Cuba is in the tropics, including mangoes, plantains and guava which we used in our recipes.

Our delicious feast started with our famous Chicken Empanadas, followed by Pollo Empanizado (Cuban Chicken Cutlets) with Mango Salsa, Arroz (Rice) with Frigoles Negros (Black Beans), Maduros (Fried Plantains) and ended with Pudin de Pan (Cuban Bread Pudding) and Pastelitos de Guayaba y Queso (Guava and Cheese Turnovers). We had a full plate, literally, this week. DELISH!!!

Now we are back in the states and packing our bags yet again, for our next adventure. The kids are full of anticipation as each week unfolds a surprise!

Food Jules is pleased to announce that we will be offering kids cooking classes at the Trumbull Library as well as the Monroe Library during the 2012 Summer Season!

Our classes are being offered for children ages 6-10 on the following dates:

Trumbull Library: April 17, July 10, July 17, August 7 and August 21 at 3:00pm.

Monroe Library: Feb 18, June 28, July 12, July 18 and August 2 at 10:30am.

Classes fill up very quickly so call your local library to sign up today! Looking forward to seeing all my little sous-chefs!

This week, my students and I traveled to Italia. We learned about the country’s culture and cuisine, as well as some words in Italian. It was a great time!

Our winter session in Arts & Imagination has begun! We had two full classes this week with a total of 32 kids. On Tuesday, we had the older students (Gr 3, 4 and 5) and today, we had the younger ones (K, 1 and 2). Both groups were unique and lots of fun. Lilliana was my sous-chef in both classes.

As part of our curriculum, we are traveling all around the world together, visiting a different country each week. This week, we visited Italy and cooked up some Lasagna Rolls, Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs, Tomato and Cheese Tart and Nutella Bread! YUM!

The students were all amazing, so helpful, so energetic and so very enthusiastic. Today, the younger ones asked if they would be cooking the food themselves and if they could eat it. (So cute.) When I told them that was exactly what they were doing, their faces lit up. Their enthusiasm and love of such simple things in life is to be admired!

As part of our class ritual, students have to rate all the food they eat (1, not my favorite 3, good or 5, excellent) and overall, everything was between a 4 and 5. I tell you this, not because it means the food was good, but to point out that if kids are given the opportunity to cook and eat a variety of food, they will surprise you and themselves by coming back for more when they thought they weren’t even going to like it!

In our classes, we are careful with our words too so that we don’t hurt anyone’s feelings. After all, each student worked hard to prepare their meal so I try to teach them to be appreciative of each others efforts.

I’m so blessed to have the opportunity to teach again this semester. It’s going to be a fun session, filled with lots of joyous memories from our trips all around the world. Now, where will we go next week?