Halloween Cooking Class DAISEIKOU!
Cooking class was a blast! It was so much fun that I'm going to do a picture post about it now!
For this class I decided to do a Halloween theme and we made scary and gross-looking food. The kids were great sports about everything. I did the class twice today, but unfortunately my battery died so I only have pictures from the first class. But the second class was more or less the same thing, so you're not missing anything.
Mom sent me a witch hat. It turned out to be the surprise hit of the day! All the girls were fighting each other to get a chance to wear it.
But Miku was about the only girl who would pose with it on and let me take a picture. ;P
Mom also sent me two bags of spider web and I used it to cover the entire entryway. It was a scream for the younger kids, especially with the huge spider sitting on top of the door!
Konoka was enamored by the web. "It won't break, no matter how far you stretch it!" By the end of the day, though, the boys had disproved this statement. lol
The cat that lights up and dances to the tune of Santana's "Black Magic Woman" when you press it's paw was also very popular. (THANKS NANA!) I think the batteries are worn out now.
Japan doesn't really have American-sized pumpkins (although I ordered two from the internet that will be here tomorrow evening) but I found this little cutey in one of the supermarkets and decided to carve it out. I was shocked that none of the kids have ever actually seen a carved pumpkin before! I hope the same goes for the middle school kids when I come walking in with two huge ones on Monday.
Oh right, the cooking. First up: candy apples!
These tiny apples (about the size of ping-pong ball), almost 100 of them, were donated to us by a local apple-grower. Wasn't that sweet? They are perfect dipping size. There is a very similar, but peanut-less, treat in Japan called "ringo ame" (meaning apple candy, go figure) and these are the size used. However, it turns out that ringo ame is pretty rare and none of the kids have even eaten it, let alone made it themselves! Yes! The foreigner wins again!
Each kid got to dip about four apples before the sauce hardened too much to use anymore. That's about 48 apples!
The kids quickly learned that by drizzling the syrup into their bowl of peanuts, they could taste test the candy before they ate the apples. Minori's was particularly beautiful.
Mmmm. Candy apples are surprisingly easy to make. All it takes is a little corn syrup (which I had to buy off the internet), water, and lots and lots of sugar. Mix it all together for about 20 minutes and boom! Candy.
Next up, slime cupcakes! Doesn't this look great? I accidentally added twice as much cocoa powder than the recipe called for, but that only made the cupcakes tastier! The kids loved the bitter, dark chocolate taste.
Here's the kids mixing up the slimy cream cheese filling. It took a while to add in the correct amount of food coloring to make it orange, but eventually we were able to get a color that we all agreed was scary enough. (God I love these kids!)
Next was something I totally made up and wasn't sure it was going to work, but it turned out to be better than I thought! We made "spaghetti monsters." First, make meatballs as usual. Then press an olive into the middle of it. Now you have the monster's eyes.
The last team made the two biggest eyes I've ever seen!
I added green food coloring to the boiling water for the spaghetti. The reaction was exactly what I was hoping for: "It looks like poison!" I handed the witch hat to Risa and Maho made a really scary face for me. lol
These kids look less enthused, but I kind of surprised them. "Look scary!" I said. haha they didn't know what that meant. I think my Japanese was a little off on that one. ;P
Frying the meatballs. It took awhile to cook these all the way through, but it was worth it.
Put a little sauce on top of the green spaghetti and bam! A spaghetti monster. Not bad for something I made up the day I turned the recipes in for the class, right?
By this time the cupcakes were out of the oven and cool enough to decorate. Kosuke wandered over to investigate and I let him put the sprinkles on. He was a natural!
After Kotsuke put on the basics, everyone lined up and got a chance to put on their own choice of sprinkles. (Mom sent me a Halloween sprinkle set with 8 different kinds!)
Of course, the kids' idea of their "choice of sprinkles" meant every single kind there was.
Here's Kanoka showing of her creation. Hungry yet?
Finally it was time to eat!
I asked Maho if she liked her spaghetti. Her response? "Once you took the olives out, it was really good!" In fact, all the kids hated the olives. Not surprising, but, as they'd never eaten an olive before, at least it was a new experience.
And then it was time to go. Everyone was too full to try the candy apples, but they wrapped them up and took them home. Here's Hadzuki posing so kindly with her bunch.
All in all, the class was a huge success. The decorations and stuff I brought in was all a huge hit. I have to make a theme for every class because this was just too fun. Cooking class is a major stress for me, but the kids always enjoy it. And that's all that matters. I also scored a whole day of daikyu. So, woo!
Cooking class is held every other month, so the next class will be in December. Of course that means a Christmas cooking lesson! I'm thinking of making gingerbread houses. o.O haha and I thought making candy apples was going to be hard! But I know it can be done because my friend Monica in the next town over did it. I'll ask her for some advice.
Alright! My pumpkins actually came tonight! This way I can carve them tomorrow afternoon and not have to do it in the dark! Score! I have two, so I'm going to make a traditional Jack-O-Lantern and then one non-traditional one to show that you can carve pretty much anything you want in it now-a-days. I have some kick-ass patterns that I ordered with the pumpkins so I'll use one of those.
And that's about it. I have an extremely busy week coming up, but since that busy mostly means elementary school, I'm sure to have a great time. Let's hope the Sakawa 1st years like the cockroach game as much as the Tokano kids did!
For this class I decided to do a Halloween theme and we made scary and gross-looking food. The kids were great sports about everything. I did the class twice today, but unfortunately my battery died so I only have pictures from the first class. But the second class was more or less the same thing, so you're not missing anything.
Mom sent me a witch hat. It turned out to be the surprise hit of the day! All the girls were fighting each other to get a chance to wear it.
But Miku was about the only girl who would pose with it on and let me take a picture. ;P
Mom also sent me two bags of spider web and I used it to cover the entire entryway. It was a scream for the younger kids, especially with the huge spider sitting on top of the door!
Konoka was enamored by the web. "It won't break, no matter how far you stretch it!" By the end of the day, though, the boys had disproved this statement. lol
The cat that lights up and dances to the tune of Santana's "Black Magic Woman" when you press it's paw was also very popular. (THANKS NANA!) I think the batteries are worn out now.
Japan doesn't really have American-sized pumpkins (although I ordered two from the internet that will be here tomorrow evening) but I found this little cutey in one of the supermarkets and decided to carve it out. I was shocked that none of the kids have ever actually seen a carved pumpkin before! I hope the same goes for the middle school kids when I come walking in with two huge ones on Monday.
Oh right, the cooking. First up: candy apples!
These tiny apples (about the size of ping-pong ball), almost 100 of them, were donated to us by a local apple-grower. Wasn't that sweet? They are perfect dipping size. There is a very similar, but peanut-less, treat in Japan called "ringo ame" (meaning apple candy, go figure) and these are the size used. However, it turns out that ringo ame is pretty rare and none of the kids have even eaten it, let alone made it themselves! Yes! The foreigner wins again!
Each kid got to dip about four apples before the sauce hardened too much to use anymore. That's about 48 apples!
The kids quickly learned that by drizzling the syrup into their bowl of peanuts, they could taste test the candy before they ate the apples. Minori's was particularly beautiful.
Mmmm. Candy apples are surprisingly easy to make. All it takes is a little corn syrup (which I had to buy off the internet), water, and lots and lots of sugar. Mix it all together for about 20 minutes and boom! Candy.
Next up, slime cupcakes! Doesn't this look great? I accidentally added twice as much cocoa powder than the recipe called for, but that only made the cupcakes tastier! The kids loved the bitter, dark chocolate taste.
Here's the kids mixing up the slimy cream cheese filling. It took a while to add in the correct amount of food coloring to make it orange, but eventually we were able to get a color that we all agreed was scary enough. (God I love these kids!)
Next was something I totally made up and wasn't sure it was going to work, but it turned out to be better than I thought! We made "spaghetti monsters." First, make meatballs as usual. Then press an olive into the middle of it. Now you have the monster's eyes.
The last team made the two biggest eyes I've ever seen!
I added green food coloring to the boiling water for the spaghetti. The reaction was exactly what I was hoping for: "It looks like poison!" I handed the witch hat to Risa and Maho made a really scary face for me. lol
These kids look less enthused, but I kind of surprised them. "Look scary!" I said. haha they didn't know what that meant. I think my Japanese was a little off on that one. ;P
Frying the meatballs. It took awhile to cook these all the way through, but it was worth it.
Put a little sauce on top of the green spaghetti and bam! A spaghetti monster. Not bad for something I made up the day I turned the recipes in for the class, right?
By this time the cupcakes were out of the oven and cool enough to decorate. Kosuke wandered over to investigate and I let him put the sprinkles on. He was a natural!
After Kotsuke put on the basics, everyone lined up and got a chance to put on their own choice of sprinkles. (Mom sent me a Halloween sprinkle set with 8 different kinds!)
Of course, the kids' idea of their "choice of sprinkles" meant every single kind there was.
Here's Kanoka showing of her creation. Hungry yet?
Finally it was time to eat!
I asked Maho if she liked her spaghetti. Her response? "Once you took the olives out, it was really good!" In fact, all the kids hated the olives. Not surprising, but, as they'd never eaten an olive before, at least it was a new experience.
And then it was time to go. Everyone was too full to try the candy apples, but they wrapped them up and took them home. Here's Hadzuki posing so kindly with her bunch.
All in all, the class was a huge success. The decorations and stuff I brought in was all a huge hit. I have to make a theme for every class because this was just too fun. Cooking class is a major stress for me, but the kids always enjoy it. And that's all that matters. I also scored a whole day of daikyu. So, woo!
Cooking class is held every other month, so the next class will be in December. Of course that means a Christmas cooking lesson! I'm thinking of making gingerbread houses. o.O haha and I thought making candy apples was going to be hard! But I know it can be done because my friend Monica in the next town over did it. I'll ask her for some advice.
Alright! My pumpkins actually came tonight! This way I can carve them tomorrow afternoon and not have to do it in the dark! Score! I have two, so I'm going to make a traditional Jack-O-Lantern and then one non-traditional one to show that you can carve pretty much anything you want in it now-a-days. I have some kick-ass patterns that I ordered with the pumpkins so I'll use one of those.
And that's about it. I have an extremely busy week coming up, but since that busy mostly means elementary school, I'm sure to have a great time. Let's hope the Sakawa 1st years like the cockroach game as much as the Tokano kids did!