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| Best Gift Ever! Love It! |
I love to cook/bake and I think my family would tell you that I am pretty good at it. I am a risk taker when I cook. I try new recipes and try to perfect old favorites. Sometimes this is a good plan, such as the first day of school. I tried out 3 new recipes for cookies and they were all a hit!
Sometimes my risk taking ends in epic fail, like last night. It was my mom’s birthday and I carefully followed the directions for what seemed like a delicious recipe for a decadent chocolate cake. The picture is deceiving. The cake looked good, but it was more dense and bitter than I would have liked. Oh, well… try again.
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| Yep! I have really been to Carlo’s Bakery! |
All this reflecting on my obsession to become the next Cake Boss, got me to thinking about the times I have woven cooking into my lessons. I will not kid you, back in the day it was much easier to do. We didn’t have so many rules and regulations about nutrition, food safety, etc. However, if you sit down and process all the skills we use when cooking, it is easy to see why this is one of my favorite real world experiences for students. Ponder this with me. When I cook/bake, I do the following things:
- Read the directions over and over. ( I believe that develops fluency.)
- Shop or select for ingredients. (This can lead to higher order thinking when I try to figure out why I must use bittersweet chocolate instead of my favorite semisweet. Also, I learn new vocabulary.)
- Follow those directions. (Check off sequencing on your list.)
- Measure ingredients. (Someone say Math Skills?)
- Mix things together. (Little science rolling in now.)
- Set time and temperature. (Adding some more math to the mix.)
- Eat and Share. (This is the truest form of reflection and analysis. I decide what works, what should be tweaked, and which things should never be tried again!)
- Pin It, Recipe Box It, or Copy It.( If the recipe is a keeper, I make sure to put it in a safe place to use again. I write notes on the recipe to remind me of what to change and what to add.)
