Guacamole Deluxe

What is it about guacamole that's at once decadent and incredibly wholesome/purifying? And there's nothing better than guacamole made by brilliant, funny, hard-working teenagers:

Josh, Ingrid, Sofia, Jerry and Tiana's tasting finger.

Bracelet action. Lots and lots of bracelets in our kitchen. Don't know if it's a health-code issue or not, but they sure make pretty jangling noises while we cook.

Alexi peeling charred chiles for the salsa we were making that same day. A post on that coming later.

Teacher Josh taste-tests. Why do we love to cook? Because of this moment when you feed your friends, families and even strangers and they can't get enough of what you made. Sixth period at Walden gets lots of snacks from scratch straight from our kitchen.

Teacher Matt knows his guacamole, loves to cook and eat good food.

I'm not just saying this to passive-aggressively get the students to keep up the good cleaning work, but this group has been excellent about that all-important cooking skill--dishes. I sometimes dread teaching cooking classes because it's hard to get everyone to clean. Not so in Locavores.

Andrew the Cheese Monger is Rad

What's your favorite cheese in the case?  What do you put on a cheese plate?

Why is Tiana so happy?  What kind of cheese is she eating?

How do you get a job as rad as Andrew's, and what does a cheese monger do?  

What are those crystal things in Parmigiano Reggiano, and how does cheese get that rind?  What cheese caves have you been in?

If you wanna know, go see Andrew at Harmon's on 8th North in Orem.

Clarified Butter

Our guest chef Chance extolled the virtues of clarified butter, which is butter cleansed of impurities and water, leaving pure buttery goodness.

We're melting.

We're bubbling.

We're skimming impurities from the top and leaving water on the bottom.

Pure buttery goodness.  Chance recommends putting it on popcorn but

we were making garlic bread, which we bathed in clarified butter. 

Amen.

Walden Chef Amanda V.

Amanda was nominated for Utah County Youth of the Year!  Congratulations!

Born: Provo

Favorite Color: turquoise and green

Favorite book: Star Girl series

Favorite movie: Nightmare before Christmas & Pirates

Hobbies: Music, dancing, singing, playing games and sports

Learned during intersession: about different food cultures

Favorite dishes from intersession: fruit salad, crepes and pot stickers

Quote: "I like cooking because you can express yourself with different flavors and textures.  I liked that we all worked together to make  things and we all got along."

Walden Chef Katy B.

Katy has a great smile, and she overcame her fear of opening the oven during intersession!

Born: American Fork

Favorite color: Blue

Favorite book: The Secret Journal of Brett Colton

Hobbies: Reading, hanging out with friends

Quote:  "I like food.  My favorite thing about class was eating the food we made."

Favorite dish: I love sweets, so I liked the chocolate lava cake and the birthday cake.

Walden Chef Mckenzie

Mckenzie has a great eye--she took many of the photos for our blog.

McKenzie Christiansen

Born: Utah

Favorite book: Kissing Snowflakes

Favorite movie: Enough

Hobbies: Eating, photography, walking (provo river trails), dancing

Quote: "Cooking class is fun—I didn’t know how to make crepes and now  I do, so I’m gonna use it 24/7."

Favorite dishes: Crepes, chocolate lava cakes

Walden Chef Cali

Cali has great knife skills, and she amuses us with her stories.

Cali Lott

Born:  Lake City

Favorite color: Bluish greenish turquoise kinda

Favorite Book: Maus

Favorite Movie: Phantom of the Opera, the newer version

Learned in Intersession cooking: I liked shopping for ingredients.  It hurts when oil pops out of the pans and burns your fingers.  I learned about mise-en-place and poaching eggs. Random small techniques.

Favorite Dish: I loved the chocolate lava cake, gateau de crepes florentine,  pots de crepes, Chinese chicken salad.