Bear Scouts: Cooking Meeting

By Kelly Yandell and Suzy LeSage, Troop 712, Den 10, St. Monica School, Dallas, TX Safety:

Staying Clean: Be a good shopper. Look for expiration dates on meat and look closely at the meat and produce before putting it in your cart. If it has a yucky odor or it looks less than appealing, don’t buy it. Always wash your hands. If you lick your fingers, touch your face, sneeze or go to the restroom, wash your hands again. Use warm water and soap. Scrub your hands for 20 seconds including between fingers and under the fingernails. Dry with a CLEAN towel. Keep raw foods separate from cooked foods. Leftovers should be stored in the refrigerator. Defrost foods in the refrigerator, not on the counter. Make sure meats are cooked thoroughly by using a meat thermometer. Always read the recipe or instructions first so that you have everything you need handy. Rinse vegetables and fruit with water to remove pesticides, dirt and bacteria. Staying Injury-Free: Cooking fires are the number one cause of home fires and home injuries. Be very careful. Don’t wear baggy sleeves near the stove. Turn pot handles to the side. Always ask your parents to monitor you when you start the stove. Never leave the room with the stove on. A parent should be with you in the kitchen at all times if you are cooking. If someone gets a burn, run cold water on it and get an adult immediately. Do not put butter or oil on the burn. Never throw water on a cooking fire. If it is small, you can throw baking soda on it. If it is in a pan, a parent can put a lid on it. If the flames are too big for you to handle, call a grown up in, call 911 and get out of the house! If you want to learn how to use a kitchen tool, just ask. You are the perfect age to learn how to peel vegetables, open cans, and do all kinds of helpful kitchen tasks. Ask a parent to monitor you when you use a sharp knife. Things you can always help with:

Washing fruit and vegetables, peeling, helping pick cooking pans, setting the oven, finding timers, cracking eggs, squeezing lemons, measuring ingredients, mixing, some chopping, and ALWAYS helping to clean up after cooking. All kids can/should! clear dishes, rinse them, put them neatly into a dishwasher, spray and wipe down tables, counters, and any appliances used during cooking. Measuring and Reading a Recipe

Always read an entire recipe or all of the instructions on a box before you start. The saying goes, “If you can read, you can cook!” Always get all of your supplies ready before you start. Measurements are very important when you are cooking, most especially in baking, and it is important to use all of your math skills, like adding, multiplying, dividing, using fractions, and measuring time. Cooking is also one of the best ways to practice mathematics. What is GORP?

A 1913 dictionary defines gorp to mean “to eat greedily” but most scouts agree that it must mean “good ole raisins and peanuts” or “granola oats raisins & peanuts.” It really doesn’t matter. It is a great source of protein and energy that you can carry in your backpack camping or use for a snack at any time. Great GORP ingredients include: Peanuts M&M’s Pretzels Granola Dried Fruit: raisins, cranberries, apricots, dried cherries Sunflower Seeds Cashews Cheerios Chocolate Chips Banana Chips Marshmallows

How to Boil Water

Boiling is a scientific term that tells you about how liquids start to turn into gases. When water gets very hot it turns into a gas, which we call steam (which can burn you very badly if you aren’t being careful). But for cooking purposes, boiling water and steam are just great cooking liquids. Sometimes recipes ask you to “boil” water and sometimes they ask you to “simmer” water and while they are similar, they are very different for a cook. Simmering means that there the water is hot enough that there fine but fairly constant bubbles floating up to the surface. You will see wisps of steam coming off the water. Simmering cooks food gently and slowly. Boiling is when large bubbles come up from the bottom of the pot constantly and quickly and it produces constant steam. The boiling point for water is 100 degrees C (212 degrees F). Boiling cooks food quickly and almost stirs food for you. It tosses the food around in the water a bit. It helps reduce sauces (make them stronger and thicker) because boiling is by definition, liquid evaporating. Interesting stuff: For many years cooks have thought that cold water would boil faster than hot water. Cold water does not boil faster than hot water, but hot water can freeze more quickly than cool water under certain circumstances. Things I can make now that I know how to boil water…

Ramen noodles Cup O’ Soup, or any soup Macaroni and Cheese (the boxed kind) Oatmeal Hot dogs Rice Mashed potatoes (definitely add butter, milk, salt and pepper to your peeled-and-boiled potatoes) Pasta or any noodles (look for cooking times on the package) Instant hot cocoa, instant coffee, and tea How to Break and Scramble Eggs:

Eggs really are incredible. They are inexpensive, available, a natural whole food, an excellent source of high-quality “complete” protein, and provide all the B vitamins, especially choline, which gives us energy, helps us see better, and helps us best use our brains. Eggs have a lot of cholesterol, but studies have shown us that by eating eggs, our good cholesterol increases, while our bad cholesterol decreases. Speaking of cholesterol, can you guess what your entire brain is made up of? Eat some eggs! Unless….you have an allergy to them. Eggs are one food that cause an allergy for some people. Also, eggs should almost always be cooked versus eaten raw. Finally, the very tastiest, most nutritious eggs you can eat will almost always come from a happy Mama hen, wandering around a clean and safe yard, picking at the grass and eating small bugs or seeds. These eggs can be hard to find in our modern world, and grocery store eggs are very yummy and perfectly good, too. But – if you ever have a chance – try a fresh egg from a pastured hen someday. Breaking an egg: Tap, tap, tap the egg on a hard surface until it just starts breaking. Hold the broken “crazed” portion pointing up, and gently poke your two thumbs through the shell. Turn the egg upside- down over a small bowl and pull the shell apart until the raw egg falls out. Don’t waste the whites. Let them ooze right on out in their own good time, into the small bowl. If the egg looks good, and smells good, add it to your larger egg pile. Always break eggs one at a time over a small bowl, and then transfer to a larger bowl full of your needed eggs. You will be bummed out if you break one stinky rotten egg into a bowl FULL of a dozen already broken and perfectly good eggs. Yuck. If you lose a piece of the shell in your broken egg, get it out! Who wants to eat crunchy scratchy eggs? The easiest way to extract a shell from the slippery egg, is to use the rest of the shell to scoop the renegade piece out. This truly works. Cooking eggs: When you have all your eggs in one big bowl, add a little salt, and a little pepper, and beat those eggs just right! Not too hard, not too soft, you just beat them with a fork or a whisk until they are all broken and combined. And for the love of all that is GOOD, do not beat milk in with your eggs. Milk is watery, and watery things will turn your scrambled eggs watery. And probably rubbery. Ugh. Now, fry a little butter in a pan. Wait until it melts and tiny butter bubbles emerge on the pan’s surface. Dump in your eggs, stirring them occasionally, until they are just the way you like them. The slower and lower you cook your eggs, the creamier and yummier they may turn out. Plate them up, and enjoy. Scrambled Eggs are delicious with parsley or chives, buttered toast or in a tortilla, topped with cheese, and sometimes served with hot sauce or even with ketchup. Incredible!

How to Cook Ground Beef & Create Taco Seasoning:

Cooking Ground Beef: Warm a pan over medium high heat. If you are not using a non-stick pan, add a teaspoon of vegetable oil. When the pan is hot, add the ground beef. Using a sturdy wooden spoon or spatula, begin to break the meat into pieces. Continue to break up the meat as it cooks. When all of the meat is brown and all of the pink is gone, turn off the heat. Get a big plate and put several layers of paper towels on the plate. Empty the pan of meat onto the plate and put the pan back on the stove top to cool completely. The paper towels will help absorb the grease. Now you are ready to use the meat in your favorite recipe. If you would like to make tacos, or meat for nachos, try this seasoning mix. All you need to do is add 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of seasoning for every 1½ pounds of ground beef. Return the hamburger meat to the pan and stir the seasoning into the ground beef. Cook the mixture for about 2 additional minutes on a low setting until the seasonings are fully mixed in. You can taste the ground beef with a clean spoon, and add a little more seasoning or salt if you like. Serve with your favorite toppings.

Recipe for Taco Seasoning: (enough for 4 uses) Ingredients: 4 tablespoons ancho chile powder 4 teaspoons corn starch 2 teaspoon kosher salt 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon onion powder 1 teaspoon granulated sugar 1 teaspoon oregano flakes 1 teaspoon parsley flakes 1 teaspoon cayenne powder 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper Instructions: 1. Combine all of the listed ingredients. This will keep in a sealed jar or plastic bag for several months. This is enough seasoning for approximately 4 uses. Use approximately 1 tablespoon of the spice mix per one pound of ground beef.