Best Way to Slice a Watermelon

One of the most often asked questions I get is:  "how do you slice a watermelon?"  Here are the instructions that I give to the parents who do that job.

Watermelons

Please wash hands and have clean surfaces as you prepare food.  Wash outside of melon getting all the dirt off.  Dry off with towel.  Cut off the ends into about 1-1 ½” of the top and bottom.  Cut watermelon in half lengthwise.  Turn halves onto flat side.  Then, cut each of those halves into three parts, also lengthwise.  You will have six pieces. 

Lay the pieces on the side and cut into ½” slices.  The pieces will be sort of a triangle.  Place melon slices into foil pan and cover tightly with foil.

Time to Get Back to this Blog

Today marked the first competition for the 2012 Marching Band competition season!  The kids marched in the parade held in Cupertino this morning, then did their fabulous field show tonight!  This year, Saratoga High Marching Band has been selected to participate in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City on Thanksgiving day!  Hence, the practice at the Cupertino parade.

I was not able to view the parade as I was back at the school getting their lunch ready for when they returned.  I think that is the only drawback to organizing the food--missing some of what the kids are doing.  I do love to help feed the band though!

There were two meals to plan and serve today.  Lunch was tacos, and a "light dinner" was pasta salad.  I always plan a balanced meal for the kids.  So there is always fruit, and usually some type of vegetable, even if it is just salad.  I had many helping hands to get the food prepared and served!  There were two mom's who got out their iPhones and took a couple of photos of dinner.  There are no photos of lunch, but here is what we had to put them together:

Taco's

Flour or corn tortillas

Refried Beans

Ground Turkey, cooked with taco seasoning

Tortilla Chips

Chopped tomatoes

Shredded lettuce

Grated cheddar or mexican blend cheese

Salsa

Sour Cream

Sliced Olives

Guacamole

Pile beans, meat, and toppings on a tortilla, or over tortilla chips. 

This was served with sliced watermelon and bananas.

Pasta Salad

Cooked Pasta

Canned Kidney Beans, drained

Sliced Olives

Cubed or shredded Cheddar Cheese

Chopped Celery

Chopped bell peppers (I like the try-color)

Sliced Green Onion

(you can any other items you want such as:  cherry tomatoes, garbonzo beans, broccoli flowerets, etc.)

Italian Dressing (I like to use the Smart & Final brand)

Toss everything in a bowl!

Homemade Rolls! Yummy!!

One of our most favorite parts of a special meal is the homemade rolls! When Matthew was coming home for Thanksgiving, his request was homemade rolls. This is an easy recipe to follow and I've never had them fail.

Basic Roll Dough

7 cups of flour

2 packages active dry yeast

2 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup of sugar

1 stick of margarine (=1/2 cup)

2 tsp. salt

2 eggs

In a mixing bowl combine 3 c. flour and yeast. In a pot, constantly stirring, heat milk, sugar, margarine, and salt until margarine is almost melted (115 degrees on thermometer). Add quickly to flour mixture and add eggs. Beat for a couple of minutes on high speed. Stir remaining flour in by hand.

Place into bowl that has been oiled. Dough should not be too sticky.

Cover bowl with a towel and put in warm place.

Let rise until double in size, about 1 1/2 hours.

The dough is now doubled. Punch the dough, or punch down the dough. Cover again with towel and let rest for 10 minutes.

Pour dough out onto floured surface. Shape into rolls. We simply take a ball of dough about the size of a golf ball. Be sure your fingers are floured. Stretch out the sides a little, folding under, and making a smooth round top. You can shape however you want.

Spray pans with Pam. After the ball is formed, I dob the dough onto the spot where the roll will go in the pan. This puts a bit of oil on top. Turn it over and place down in that spot. Repeat, keeping fingers floured, until dough is gone. Cover again with a towel for 30-45 minutes, allowing to raise again.

When the second rising is done, your rolls are ready to go into the oven. Place into a preheated 350 degree oven. Set a timer for 10-11 minutes.

Rolls should be lightly brown on top. Take out of oven and glaze the tops with butter! We take a stick of butter, roll down about 1/2 inch of the paper, and roll the butter across the tops! Cool for 15 minutes--then eat!

This roll dough is also good to make cinnamon rolls. After the first rising, roll out on floured board with rolling pin into a rectangle. Brush with melted butter; sprinkle on sugar and cinnamon. You may add nuts or raisins at this time. Roll the rectangle starting with one edge until it is in a roll. Cut the dough into 1 inch pieces. I use a piece of thread. Scoot the thread under the dough, gather the two ends up, cross them over, and pull. This should cut right through. Allow to raise again. Bake as above for regular rolls. After they cool a bit, you may top with a powdered sugar glaze.

Fresno BBQ Chicken with Funeral Potatoes

On the Championship weekend in Fresno, we served bbq chicken with funeral Potatoes. I try to make a nicer meal on our last weekend. The menu: bbq chicken, funeral (cheesy) potatoes, rolls, variety of salad, and always fruit.

The bbq chicken is simply done by putting chicken tenders into a baking dish, slice two large onions into rings and toss on top of meat. Cover with foil and bake for an hour. At this time, raise the foil, drain off the liquid, and pour on your preferred bbq sauce until it covers the meat. Do not dilute the sauce. I used Cattleman's brand that Costco carries. Bake for another 20-30 minutes. Have extra sauce on the side.

The funeral potatoes, yes, funeral potatoes, are a cheesy potato casserole. Why are they called funeral potatoes? Well, the casserole is a great comfort food with the potatoes and cheese. This casserole is taken to a family who has just lost a loved one, hence funeral, to help them with a meal. It comes to the family with love and kindness and helps the family at this time of sadness.

The recipe is posted at the bottom of this post.

Kids can wait a long time in a line to get food.

For dessert, I had Sarah bake and decorate a cake from the bakery where she works. One cake was chocolate, and one white. Both had white butter-cream frosting. Very tasty!

Here is the recipe:

2 2-pound bags of frozen hash brown potatoes, (Shredded or Southern Style)

2 cans of cream of chicken soup, I use the 98% fat free

4 cups of sour cream (I use 2 c. light sour cream and 2 c. of plain yogurt)

4-5 cups grated cheddar cheese

5-6 green onions, sliced

2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix everything together until well blended. Put in 9x13 inch pan; cover with foil. Bake for one hour. Take foil off and stir mixture; outside to inside, inside to outside. This will even out the baking. Keep foil off and put back into oven for about 20 minutes, or light brown on top, or heated all the way through.

Enjoy!

Logan Competition Meal

I didn't have my camera with me at Logan, so I don't have any photos from that night. However, I think most anyone can imagine our meal.

We had baked potatoes with butter, sour cream, bacon chunks, cheese, green onions as toppings. There was hot chile to go with the potatoes. You could have the chile in a bowl or on top of your potato.

Also on the menu was caesar salad. Ingredients are romaine lettuce, large croutons, and parmesan cheese. Toss with a bottle of Smart and Final brand caesar salad dressing. The kids love this salad.

I discovered that the kids look forward to the baked potato night. It is one of their favorite meals. The observation that I made that night was when I was talking to one of my food mom helpers. She is Asian and she said that she never made baked potatoes at home. I'm guessing that most of the Asian moms cook asian food at home. The baked potatoes are just really different and hit the spot!

Fresno Hawaiian Haystacks

Today, we are headed to the Logan competition and I just realized that I did not post from Fresno State, October 30! It was threatening rain, and there was a downpour on our way, but we didn't have to put up the canopies. The evening ended up being a beautiful night.

I offered a new menu that night to the kids. . . The jury is still out if they liked it enough to have it again. The parent were amazingly surprised that the meal was tasty! I did hear several kids say that it was good, but Jonathan is convinced that most didn't like it. I have to do a bit more research.

Shopping, Shopping, and More Shopping!

I have spent the last two days shopping for food that will be served to the kids this weekend! I do all the shopping myself, and there is so much to buy, but I don't mind. I usually hit Costco, Smart & Final, Safeway, and sometimes Target. Sometimes I order things to go with dinner that I don't want to confuse my helpers with cooking. I also pick up items during the week that I know I will be needing. I can get the strangest looks by others in the stores when I have a flatbed cart loaded--heaping--with all this food! There is at least one person each shopping trip that asks, "what are you doing"?

We are having a new dinner item this week. I am calling this my "experimental dinner". We'll see if the kids like it and if I figured out the right amount of stuff. We are having "Hawaiian Haystacks" or some might call them "Chicken Sundaes".

I ordered 20 trays of steamed rice from Panda Express tonight. I will pick it up in the morning, just before noon. The haystacks are made by first a scoop of rice. Next, toppings are added to your flavor: chicken, cheese, green onions, pineapple, celery, tomatoes, chow mein noodles, coconut, almonds and then a scoop of "gravy"--which is cream of chicken soup thinned out with chicken broth.

Also on the menu is my asian salad. I make it different than my original recipe, but the modification is best for feeding a large crowd. I mix up the salad as needed. Otherwise, if it sits for too long, it gets soggy and isn't good. Here is my original recipe:

Chinese Cabbage Salad

1/2 head cabbage, sliced

4-5 green onions, chopped

1 pkg. chicken flavor ramen noodles

2 T. sesame seeds

chopped almonds (toasted)

1/2 c. salad oil

1 T. vinegar

1 T. sugar

Salt and pepper

**chicken, optional

Toss together cabbage, onions, sesame seeds, almonds, and broken up ramen noodles. Put together in a jar with lid, the oil, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper to taste, and the contents of chicken flavor packet. shake until blended. Pour over cabbage mixture. Serve immediately. This salad does not keep well.

**add chicken pieces and make a meal