cooking class – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

14-8: Baked Alaska

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods July 4, 2020July 27, 20201998 dinner, 4th of July, American, blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries, cake pan, cakes, cognac, cooking class, dessert, egg whites, eggs, fairly easy, favorites, folded, granulated sugar, hot desserts, Hutton house, ice cream, inexpensive, jam/jelly/preserves, layers, liqueur, liquor, meringue, pastry bag, piped, raspberries, revisited, rum, stiff peaks, strawberries, summer, the sims, vegetarian

Today is Independence Day here in the U.S., so let’s do one of my favorite desserts and recipes from this book, 14-8: Baked Alaska. Obviously Simply Delicious didn’t invent this dish–it’s an American dessert that’s existed since Civil War times and is so well known you can even make it as a Sim.

I have a history with this particular version of the dish, however. I first made it as my “showstopper” dessert for a big family dinner I cooked as a teenager (along with a similarly-aged family friend) many years ago.

I also taught about 200 K-8 kids (ages 5-13ish) how to make this recipe and several others as part of an after-school cooking class program that was one of my first teaching-related jobs. I’ve been waiting YEARS to write this one, so now it’s your turn with it.

5-31: Oven Pizza Pancake

Adam Martin Group 05: Eggs & Cheese, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters December 1, 2016October 13, 2020anchovies, appetizers, black olives, black pepper, breakfast, butter, celery, cheese, cooking class, dinner, dried herbs, easy, eggs, fairly inexpensive, grated, ham, herbs and spices, lunch, melted, milk, Mozzarella, mushrooms, omelette, oregano, pancakes, Parmesan, party food, pepperoni, pizza, red onions, revisited, rosemary, salami, salt, seafood, shellfish, shredded, shrimp, sliced, tomatoes, toppings, twice-baked

Cooking a pizza on a pancake dough creates a very kooky, weird pizza experience. 5-31: Oven Pizza Pancake is not your usual pizza–this soft-crusted abomination is another dish created when the Simply Delicious editors decided to have one too many beers at the office.

The beer in the background of this image should have been my first clue that this was a strange dish.

Editor’s note: I used this recipe for when I taught cooking in an after-school program for K-8 kids a few years ago–I didn’t have the time or resources to make a traditional rising dough using yeast on that particular site, so this method provided me a somewhat valid shortcut.

18-18b: Cooking Glossary IIb

Jamie Martin Group 18: Basic Techniques, Section 4: Cooking School November 18, 2015October 18, 2020cooking class, cooking glossary, cooking school, how-to, shredded, sifted, simmered, skewered, slit, snipped, steam-baked, steamed, steeped, stir-fry, tender-crisp, tenderized, toasted, tossed, trussed, whipped, zested

As I mentioned in the first two installments of this Cooking School mini-series (18-17: Cooking Glossary I and 18-18a: Cooking Glossary IIa), knowing how to decipher and execute what the recipe is asking you to do is an important part of being able to cook. 👩‍🍳

UPDATE 2/5/2017: Went back and updated a few of these–mostly adding to where I’ve done more recipes since the last time I wrote. Edited and fixed some of the pictures that didn’t transfer well from the initial Tumblr migration. Carry on.

In this final portion of the Cooking Glossary series, I’ll give you even MORE recipes that I’ve covered so far in this Simply Delicious Cookbook Project, and for those that I don’t have an example, I’ll update it just as soon as I do.

18-18a: Cooking Glossary IIa

Jamie Martin Group 18: Basic Techniques, Section 4: Cooking School November 16, 2015September 30, 2020cooking class, cooking glossary, cooking school, glossary, how-to, lukewarm, marinated, melted, minced, mounted, parboiled, pared, poached, pot-roasted, purée, reduced, rehydrated, rendered, roasted, roux, sautéed, scalded, scored, scrambled, seared, shucked

I mentioned in 18-17: Cooking Glossary I (the first installment of this mini-series) that I’ll be mixing in Cooking School entries from the last three chapters of Simply Delicious along with the regular recipe/photo entries that I usually do.

Here in 18-18: Cooking Glossary IIa, we find the second page of the glossary that I introduced to you previously. There’s one more page after this one, which you can find at 18-18b: Cooking Glossary IIb. I split the second entry to limit the amount of links/pics/content in one post.

Follow the jump for links to recipes I’ve covered that will help you practice each and every one of these terms & techniques! If I haven’t covered the term yet in one of these recipes, I’ll be sure to update it when I do!

18-17: Cooking Glossary I

Jamie Martin Group 18: Basic Techniques, Section 4: Cooking School November 14, 2015September 30, 2020al dente, au gratin, barded, basted, blanched, boiled, bouquet garni, braised, breaded, broiled, caramelized, coated, cooking class, cooking glossary, cooking school, creamed, cut in, diced, dredged, dusted, flaked, flambé, flute, glazed, glossary, how-to, hulled, julienned, kneaded

Here’s a new-to-you part of the book I want to start featuring. The last three chapters of Simply Delicious comprise their own section: Cooking School. These chapters detail more of the practical culinary knowledge required to execute recipes well, and teach some skills by going through some basic recipes.

I’m going to start mixing up the regular recipe entries with these Cooking School ones as well, which shouldn’t be too different. If anything, they’ll be a lot shorter–like this one.

Chapter 18 is about Basic Techniques. I thought that 18-17: Cooking Glossary I would be a good place to start. I used this same (complete) glossary when I taught cooking to K-8 kids in an after school program a few years ago, and I inserted a copy of it into the recipe book at the restaurant I used to work at. There’s also one taped inside my spice cabinet at home for reference.

4-21: Herb-Roasted Potatoes

Jamie Martin Group 04: Potatoes & Vegetables, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters July 6, 2014October 13, 2020black pepper, coated, cooking class, dairy-free, dinner, easy, egg-free, favorites, garlic, gluten-free, herb-roasted, inexpensive, lactose-free, lunch, minced, olive oil, potatoes, revisited, roach motel apt, roasted, rosemary, side dish, snacks, thyme, tossed, vegan, vegetables, vegetarian

An old favorite that I’d like to share with you today: 4-21: Herb-Roasted Potatoes. 🍃

These are essentially homemade oven fries, and they’re super easy to do. So easy, in fact, that I used to use these as one of my recipes for when I taught elementary & middle school kids to cook in an after-school program a few years ago. If a kindergartener can do it, you can too.