Zach's Cracker Crusted Chicken!!

Our last cooking lab before break was hosted by Zach, where we made cracker crusted chicken. We crushed some saltine crackers, added garlic and onion powder, and some salt. Zach also had some breading mix from another meal that we mixed in. We also made an egg dip to put the chicken into before rolling it around in the dry mixture. Then we baked it in the over at 450 for about 20 minutes. We had a fun semester of cooking where we learned how to make many new meals!!

Cracking eggs to make the egg bath

Cracker and spice mixture

Dipping chicken in the egg before dipping it in the dry mixture.

Chicken in the oven. We flipped it halfway through cooking.

Final product!!

Cooking at the Ronald McDonald House

Last week we volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House in Iowa City. The Ronald McDonald is a house that families can stay in when they have children in the hospital. It is a big house to host all of the families! Our task was to prepare lunch for the families that are staying there. We cooked pizza!

On Tuesday we had to go shopping to buy the supplies for the pizza. We went to Fareway. We made six pizzas. The kinds of pizza we made: pepperoni, breakfast pizza, Hawaiian pizza, veggie, cheese, and barbecue chicken pizza.

There were two kitchens at the Ronald McDonald house that we got to use. Each group split up and made three pizzas each. Each member of the group had a certain task in the making of the pizza. Some of them were: chopping vegetables, spreading the sauces on the pizza, putting the ingredients on the pizza, and cleaning up.


The pizzas all looked delicious! We hope the families enjoyed them!

Grilled Ham And Cheese

This week, Boris cooked Grilled Ham And Cheese everyone had one and enjoyed it! We had a little difficulty at first with the cold butter, but we softened it up a bit and that worked much better. Adrienne also had some margarine, which was easier to spread.

Step one:

First we sprayed butter on to the bread

Tanner putting butter on to bread 

Step two:

Then we put meat on the bread.

Now he is putting meat on to the bread 

Step Three:

After that put it into the pan to cook

Cooking the Sandwich 

Step four:

Flip until it's done

Someone enjoying it now 

I really enjoyed it, it was so good. I would make it again!

Johnson County Crisis Center

Last week we volunteered at the Johnson County Crisis Center. First we got a tour of the facilities, then we got to work.

October was TP the Crisis Center month. During this month they accept donations of toilet paper for as many families as they can help during the winter months. Our job was to individually package the toilet paper, so that then it was easier for families to grab. They had received a lot of toilet paper during the month, so we packaged as much as we could to help them out.

Sausage pepperoni and Cheese Pizza

Alex was the cooking host for this week. He made two pizzas, one cheese pizza and the other one was sausage and pepperoni pizza.
First he  cooked the sausage over the stove.
Next he open the can of sauce to put on the pizza crust.
After, he put on the pepperoni, sausage and cheese on the pizza crust.
When he was done putting the toppings on the pizza he put it in the oven at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.
The pizza turned out very good and it tasted very good as well.

The ingredients that was used to make the pizzas

One of the toppings for the pizza was sausage

Putting the sauce on the crust

adding the toppings

Cheese pizza 

The sausage and pepperoni  pizza 

The pizzas  in the oven 

Yummy the pizza is good!

The finished product of homemade pizza 

Creepy Campus Crawl

Last week we volunteered at the Old Capitol Museum, and helped them prepare for the Creepy Campus Crawl. We painted grave stones, tumbleweed, signs, saloon,
pinwheels.

Then we cut out apples and mice. The Creepy Campus Crawl is an annual event put on by the Old Capitol Museum and the Natural History Museum. Each year they choose a different theme, and each building has a different theme. The Old Capitol's theme this year is Wild West and the theme for the Natural History museum is Indiana Jones. Over 1,000 people attend the event each year! This is the 8th year that this event is taking place!

Tan Man's Tasty Tacos

The cooking host this week was Tanner, he made tacos.

First you have to brown the hamburger meat.

Then you chop the tomato and onions.

Next you chop the onion in half and cut it in pieces.

Then you chop the cilantro.

Last you have to drain the meat, and add seasoning.

We made a assembly line with all the food in different bowls for people to eat and add what they wanted.

I think the tacos were really good and they were easy to make.

Here are the ingredients

Browning the meat

 Tan Man chopping the toms

Patrick chopping the onions

The assembly line

The Finished meat

Here's a photo of the delicious tacos

Baked Honey Mustard Chicken

Torie was the cooking host last week, and we made baked honey mustard chicken. It was delicious!

Click here for the recipe

How to make Baked Honey Mustard Chicken:

1.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

2. First we stirred the honey and mustard together with the dry ingredients

3. Next we had to microwave/thaw the chicken because it was frozen

4. We then put the chicken in the pan, and then we put the sauce on the chicken

5. We put it in the oven to bake for 25 mins. Halfway through we flipped it and topped with sauce.

6. Last, we took it out of the oven and let it cool, then enjoyed!

Here is the honey mustard sauce

Here we flipped the chicken to add more sauce. The sauce sitting on the pan turned black!

Here is the finished chicken with some sauce added to it. Alex made some tator tots as a side dish. Great meal!

Back to the Garden!!

Yesterday on the 6th of Oct we went back to the gardens to help them once again. We were very excited to go back.  

To start they had us pull out plants by their roots. We then trimmed some sage. It was a very strong smell. The sage had a lot of pollen. It made all sneeze our brains out for a while.

Iowa City Public Library

This week we went to the Iowa City Public Library. Iowa City has a very nice library that gets really busy! They have over 300 volunteers that assist them in multiple ways.

When we first got to the library we took a tour. Most of us had been to the library but we had never had a tour. It was great to have someone give us a tour to show us where everything was at and explain the exhibits. This week is Banned Book Week so the staff member that gave us a tour explained why it's important for people to have the right to read books even if they don't endorse the content of the book.

After the tour we began volunteering. Some of us stuffed Baby Book packets and the rest of the group arranged and organized books to keep the library looking nice! Every baby born in the hospitals in Iowa City received a Baby Book packet to learn the importance of childhood literacy.
We all enjoyed our experience at the Iowa City Public Library. If you are ever in Iowa City you should definitely check it out!

Pretzel Chicken

This past Thursday, Fran graced us with her cooking skills. The recipe we made was gluten pretzel chicken. Click here to see the recipe online

First we cut the chicken that she bought into small bite size pieces. Then we mixed all the dry ingredients, which was mostly flour with some salt and spices. In a separate bowl was crushed pretzels. This was an exciting part of making the recipe. I myself was one of the many crushers. We crushed them by putting them in two ziplock bags and pounding away. After everything was ready we breaded the chicken with the mixed dry ingredients, egg, and then crushed pretzels and put them on a pan lined with tin foil. We then put them into the preheated oven at 400 degrees.

After it was in the oven we socialized for a good bit, including making our own salsa for the REACH office competition. The chicken eventually was cooked to perfection and I hear that it was quite delicious. I was unable to try due to an upset tummy. 

Well that's all we have all of you hawks out there, this has been Zach of the Sugar Spice and Everything Hawkeye blog, signing off! Keep it classy, Iowa City.

Ingredients for the pretzel chicken

Fran measuring the flour

Mr. Jordan demonstrating how to cut the chicken into equal sized pieces.

First you dipped the chicken in the flour/spice mixture, then egg mixture, then crushed pretzels.

We made two pans, here is the first one coming out of the oven!

First Volunteer Experience 2015

The last two weeks we have been volunteering with the Iowa City Gardens. The first day we volunteered the weather was warmer. The second day it was a bit cooler and cloudier. On the first day of volunteering we started on Clinton Street near Pepperjax Grill. To start we planted new plants, pulled weeds, and picked up trash.

After we were done with that flower bed we moved to the corner of Clinton and Burlington Street across from Starbucks. There we pulled Hollyhocks. We had to dig them out with a shovel. They have a lot of seeds on them! Some of them were difficult to pull out!

On the second day we continued to pull out the Hollyhocks. After we were finished we split into two groups and cut the tops off of the plants to prepare them for winter. It was a lot of fun! We learned that cone plants used to be used by the native americans as hair combs. We think they should actually be called the comb plant!

We enjoyed our first two times volunteering with the Iowa City Gardens and look forward to volunteering with them again in October!