Thursday, October 13th

Preparing for Cape's School Birthday Celebration

When Cape was asked about his favorite meal for his school birthday celebration, he was very confident in his answer. 

Bacon. That’s the only thing we need. Then just cook it.
Why bacon?
Because I love it. Because it’s so tasty. I get to eat it at breakfast and sometimes lunch. It’s usually a special thing for my birthday. 

Cape's answer led to us asking ourselves an important question - is eating just bacon a meal?
Reflecting back to our original conversation in September about meals, a meal was described as the following: 
Lily: Where you have a lot of food. 

Cate: Where you serve yourself and put lots of stuff on your plate. Like stuff that’s good for you, not just snack stuff. Like mashed potatoes are really good for you. Not just junk food or snack food.

Finlay: Like chicken or milk. 
​Remy: Or beef. 

Jack: A meal is just food. 
Saul: A meal is a big food. 

Based on our overall understanding of a meal, we asked Cape if he enjoys eating any other types of food with his bacon.
Sometimes I have eggs too. The egg white omelet with lots and lots of pepper.
While it’s cooking mom puts it (pepper) in so it gets stuck in there. And she tries not to get the yolk in.
We should have them (eggs and bacon) on two plates so people can choose what they want.  - Capers

While discussing his birthday meal choice of bacon and egg whites, another one of Cape's favorite foods was mentioned. Cheese quesadillas. It was decided that all three of these foods that Capers enjoys could be included in his birthday meal. 

Committee Work

Jade and Michael began their week by planning for their friend Cape's birthday celebration.
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​Knowing that we would be purchasing ingredients for Cape's special meal during our upcoming trip to the grocery store, they took on the responsibility of creating a shopping list for us to bring so that while at the store, we can see what food we need to buy to get stuff. - Michael 

Using a couple different "cooking books" (Jade), they searched for photos of bacon, eggs, cheese, and tortillas to inspire their drawings as well as teach us how to spell the word for each food item. 

Keeping their friend in mind throughout their work, they made sure to consult Capers when choosing specific food items such as cheese types. 

Jade and Michael also offered to think of other important items we might need to bring for our trip. 

Jade writes the names of the ingredients we will need to purchase on our shopping trip.
Michael draws representations of an egg and a tortilla.
Jade draws representations of raw bacon and two types of shredded cheese.

A Trip to the Grocery Store

With our list ready to go, the whole class was able to contribute to the exciting search for Cape's birthday meal ingredients.

We saw and found lots of exciting things in the store and learned a lot along the way too.
We will share more photos and videos from this trip with you soon! 

Cooking the Meal

Chefs Jack, Jade, and Michael 

The birthday committee members were able to use the ingredients we purchased yesterday, during our trip to the grocery store, to begin cooking Cape's birthday meal today.

We learned that we could use the ovens in the downstairs kitchen to cook both the bacon and the quesadillas for Capers. 

While preparing and cooking both the bacon and the cheese quesadillas, the birthday committee described  the steps that would need to be taken if someone else wanted to learn how to cook the same foods. 
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BACON

1. Wash your hands. - Michael
2. Turn the oven on. - Jade

Turn it to 10. - Michael
Or 8. - Jade
5. - Jack
(We learned that a good temperature for cooking bacon is 425 degrees!)

3. Put all the bacon. - Jade

On a tray and wait for it to cook. - Michael
In the oven. - Jade
Don't put the bag on (the tray) or else the bag will get cooked and not the bacon! - Michael
And don't put the bacon or your hand in your mouth because you will get very sick. - Jade

4. Cook for 8 hours. Or 8 minutes. - Jade

Or 12 minutes. - Michael 
5 minutes. - Jack
(we learned that a bacon should be cooked for about 12 minutes or even a little longer)

​Please know that lots of hand washing took place before and after each step of today's cooking experience! 

CHEESE QUESADILLA 

1. Put the tortillas out flat. - Jade
2. Put cheese on the tortilla. Enough cheese to cover the whole thing. - Jade
3. Make it look like a taco. Fold it with one or two hands.
​- Michael

Fold it in half. - Jade

4. Put it in the oven. - Jade

I saw it. A 4, a 5, and a 0. So that's four hundred fifty.
​- Michael

It's okay to eat the cheese, but not the bacon. - Jade

5. It's all done you take it out. - Michael 

They're gonna change crispy. - Jade
Maybe the cheese will melt. - Michael
It will melt. - Jack
It melts in the oven because it gets hot. - Jade

Separating EGG WHITES from EGG YOLKS

The yolk is the yellow part. - Jade
Cape doesn't like the yolk. - Michael 

​We learned a new, and quite challenging, cooking technique today when we figured out how to separate eggs!
​Keeping the yolk and egg whites separate was important to the committee because they knew that Cape requested "egg white omelette with pepper" when sharing his favorite food ideas with us. 

​Tomorrow, the committee will continue their work by cooking the eggs and preparing the table settings for Cape's birthday celebration.
​We are looking forward to sharing this tasty meal together!