Today's Lessons: Applesauce and Potato Skins

My first mistake: writing out a recipe in Imperial instead of Metric measurements... and not noticing until AFTER I'd photocopied not one, but THREE class sets. I owe Mother Nature a tree...

I did a demo for a grade six/seven class, but made applesauce with 2 apples instead of the 4 in the recipe, then forgot to reduce the water and sugar. My seventh grade assistant chef, sporting the highly coveted green coffee shop apron, was genuinely helpful and competent. Kudos to his family!

Today was the first cooking lab for the eighth grade students - it was Potato Skin Day! We learned that potato skins are a TWO day lab.

While one potato bakes in a microwave in 8 minutes, four of them certainly do not. And when you use all the microwaves in the home ec room at the same time, you trip the breaker, and none of them work until the caretaker comes to your rescue. (Okay, fine. Yes, I could have fixed them myself. But sometimes you just need another grown-up in the room)

In a 41 minute block - that adds up to a lot of valuable time lost and a lot of frantic pre-teens.

As the clock ticked down I realized the only way out of this was to finish the lab next class - so my fridge is full of half-made potato skins.

Still, the lesson has potential. I'll revise it for next term, and maybe try something else in the other terms. This term, I really need my recipes to be gluten-free. Maybe in another term I'll try some baking. With 7 week terms for the eighth graders, time will fly. Hopefully that means we're having fun!

Potato Skins Afterthoughts:

It didn't take long for the potatoes in the fridge to develop big, black spots on them. I was quite horrified, but realized it was probably just a chemical reaction - I thought maybe the metal of the spoons we used to scoop them out.

When the grade 8s returned to salvage their lab, they were even more horrified. A few students asked to start over. Remembering the initial fiasco, I hesitated. Then I realized with only a few do-overs we probably wouldn't pop the fuses this time, and it might just work out. We still managed to pop the fuses, but I fixed it myself this time. One group was too disgusted by the black spots to try again, so while 2 or 3 groups commenced damage control, the rest of them read through a recent news item on Killer Cantaloupes (a listeria outbreak).

Two applesauce labs and a potato skin salvage operation in one day... things should improve from here!