Pancakes and Eggs

Hello and welcome to the final blog post for the Fall Semester. We had a great class last Thursday because our teachers Mr. Jordan and Mr. Tyler cooked dinner for us. They decided to make Pancakes and eggs.

What you need to make Pancakes are:

Hungry jack Pancake mix
4 eggs (2 eggs per batch)
Milk
Butter


Another thing we made were scrambled eggs. They were so delicious that I made my own eggs after I was done eating the eggs at class.

eggs bubbling 

finished eggs ready to serve

One big thing to know about pancakes is when they start bubbling on the pancakes you know it is time to flip them.

pancakes  bubbling ready to flip

2 finished pancakes

My favorite thing about having pancakes for breakfast is you can put your own toppings on the pancakes and it was so yummy to have them on it. Next time I will put some toppings on my pancakes.  Ben bought m&ms to make M&ms Pancakes.

Elliot mixing pancake batter 

finished pancake 

I hope you all enjoyed reading this last blog post for the semester please stay tuned to reading about what the 3rd years will be cooking in the Spring semester. Have a nice holiday Break.

The Animal Shelter

Hello and welcome back to another blog post. Today we will be talking about the Animal Shelter. The Animal Shelter is a place for abandoned pets who lost their owners or have been neglected by them. People can volunteer at the shelter to help the animals to be more social with other people. Over 250 volunteers come and help the shelter every year. Volunteering can be very stressful work because the noise from the cats and dogs from learning behaviors. Jordan would be a perfect volunteer because he didn't mind the noise from the dog room.

Take me with you

Every year 200 animals are being sent to the shelter. There were 100 cats staying in the shelter that day. There were different types of cages. Three or four cats can stay in one apartment cage. Volunteers can take cats in the play cage. The shelter only had like five dogs in the shelter. 

This is Chance

In 2008 the river overflowed with water and flooded the building. Which made them move to a temporary building that was 15 minutes away from the old one. In August a new building would be built closer to Iowa City. This will make it easy for people who want to volunteer because it is on a bus route.

Travis's favorite memory was looking at all the animals they had there and that one worker had a dog that was a Rat Terrier that look like mind. Jordan's favorite memory was the bunny rabbits. The bunny rabbits were huge. We loved the animals there because we all have pets at home. If you are a animal lover the animal shelter is the perfect place to volunteer.

Thank you for reading our blog and that we hope you enjoy the pictures that we took. Oh and Happy Holidays.

Senior Center

It's December 3rd. Officially three days since UI REACH beards have been shaved. I want to see Mr. Derek and Mr. Adam's beards finally gone.

The week before Thanksgiving Break we got a tour at Iowa City's Senior Center. It was built in 1904 and it was a Post Office. In 1981 the Senior Center opened. You need to be 50 years or older to go there but anyone can work or volunteer there. Members don't live there but you can go there to work out or go to art, yoga, computer, music, and choir classes. They have a pool hall too. A cool thing about this room was people decorated old pool sticks and put them on the walls. It also has a video production room. We went to the where the cat walk for the old Post Office was and watched the band play in the main room. They were playing Christmas music. Our favorite part of the tour was going on the walkway to the parking garage. People don't have to worry about going outside in the cold. Also from the walkway we saw the chunk of the building from when they put the walkway in on the lawn.

Pictures of the building from when it was older.

Art made by one of the members.

Art made by one of the members.

The band people. 

This is the weight room.

The handles add weight using air.

This is the pool table where people play pool.

The decorated old pool sticks.

We learned how to become a volunteer. You need to fill out an application. You can volunteer at the pool table room, Wii room, art room and during special events. They also are making a quilt for Christmas right now. Volunteers help make these quilts. They sell these quilts at HyVee and the money goes to the Senior Center.

I would like to volunteer at the Senior Center's pool hall because I like playing pool and they had awesome tables shaped like cars. We hope you enjoy this blog! We enjoyed our tour at the Senior Center. It seems like a great place to meet friends and have fun.

United Action For Youth

Before we went on Thanksgiving break we visited United Action for Youth. We went to United Action for Youth to give a presentation about UI REACH. To prepare we researched United Action for Youth (UAY) to learn about what they do. Then we created a PowerPoint about UI REACH. We each picked a topic about UI REACH that we wanted to talk about.

When we visited UAY, we learned that their offices are in a house downtown. It was confusing trying to get in the building because their main door is along the side of the house. We were able to sit down and talk with three people about UI REACH. Unfortunately they didn't have a computer, so we weren't able to show our PowerPoint. We did each talk about our topics though.

After our presentation we had a tour of the Youth Center. It is across the street from the house. It has a music studio, art studio, and lots of games and video games. We all thought it would be a fun place to hang out.

We really appreciated learning about the UAY Program and giving them information about UI REACH.

This is the only picture we have. Because we were so busy talking about UI REACH!

Shepard's pie

Evan making shepards pie

Evan puting the meat for the pie

Next is the veggies

Then the mashed potatoes

Add cheese

Shepards pie in oven

It was very good I liked all of it and it was easy 

Fettuccine Alfredo The Great

Hello, and welcome back to another blog post for this week. For this week it was Ellie's turn to be the host for cooking lab, where we made Fettuccine Alfredo.

The Fettuccine Alfredo ingredients were:

• Butter 1 cup 
• Half & Half 3/4 cup
• Parmesan Cheese 1 cup
• Garlic Salt 
• Salt & Pepper
• Fettuccine noodles

These are the ingredients

The first thing we had to do is melt the butter in the half & half.

The second thing we had to do is boil the water to put the noodles in.

Then we added the Parmesan cheese, salt, garlic salt, and pepper to the butter and half & half mixture. 

Here is a picture of the finished product. We made garlic bread in the oven as a side.

Here is Evan: basking in the afterglow of our decadent feast.

I hope you guys enjoy our blog this week and that you all have a good Thanksgiving. Oh and stay warm out there.

Pretzel Chicken & Doritos Chicken

Andrew was the host this week, and we made Pretzel Chicken & Doritos Chicken. We had a fun time making the chicken and it was delicious!

All of the ingredients

The finished product

First we prepared three bowls to get the chicken ready. The first bowl had flour, the next bowl had eggs, and the last bowl had crushed pretzels for the first batch and crushed Doritos for the second batch. We used thinly sliced, boneless, skinless chicken breasts. To make the chicken, we first put it in the flour and then in the egg. The flour helps the egg stick to the chicken. Then we rolled the chicken in the crushed pretzels or Doritos. When that was finished, we laid the chicken on a baking sheet. The chicken cooked for 12 minutes at 425 degrees, then we took it out of the oven and flipped them over to cook for another 12 minutes.

Evan crushing Doritos

Chicken in the oven

Andrew enjoying the chicken

Here is a link to a recipe similar to what we made.

Almost everyone tried the chicken and really enjoyed it. It was a big hit!

The Ronald McDonald House

Hello and welcome all to another blog boast with REACH. We had to plan a menu for 45 people staying at The Ronald McDonald House. The RMH gives the family's a place to live so that there kids can get better and stay close. RMH gives family's health care, meals, laundry, and they have a playroom for the kids.

The six pizzas

We voted on the types of pizzas to cook. The winners were BBQ chicken pizza, Veggie, cheese, Fruit, breakfast, and pepperoni. We went to get the pizza items on Wednesday before volunteering. We went to Hy-Vee, and got there by bus. We split into groups and where told to bargain shop.

In this one Travis is cutting fruit, the others are Ben & Jordan, Elliot & Andrew

The Ronald McDonald House is a nice building because it was very clean and the people who worked there were very nice. Their were four kitchens total, but we use three to cook the six pizzas. It was hard to hear, and it was a small space, but we were able to focus on our task. So we split jobs. Like cutting fruit & Veggies, place the fruits on the pizza, doing the dishes, making the pizza crust from scratch, and using the mixer for the pizza sauce.

It took us around one hour and a half to do the pizzas and clean the kitchen. When we got done with the pizzas one of the co-workers came up and said that "Those looks good". The food that we made was for the family's who had kids the hospital. The favorite pizza was the breakfast pizza and that it looked the delicious.

Thank you for reading our blog for this week. Commitments would be appreciated.  

Food Bank

Before the big volunteer at the Ronald McDonald house we went to the food bank. We rode the bus and it went by Ben's internship. We had to walk one block to the food bank from our bus stop. Before we started we got a tour of the food bank. We learned that food bank serves 1000 people everyday. We learned that 75% of the food is donated. The day we volunteer they a 4000 pound donation.

Food donation

Food and Toilet Paper Donation

Food Bank floor

Food Donations

Some donations

When we got there we sorted toilet paper. Ellie unpacked the toilet paper. Elliot and Ms. Katelyn got bags ready. Evan, Ben, Jordan, and Michelle put the toilet paper in the bag. Only one roll of toilet paper went in the bag. Andrew and Travis put the toilet paper in the box.

Andrew and Travis packing the toilet paper

Evan Jordan and Ben bagging the toilet paper.

Evan Ben Elliot Jordan bagging the toilet paper

Ellie Travis and Jordan bagging the toilet paper.

Ben and Elliot Bagging the toilet paper.

Have you ever been to a food bank?