The Greasy Five: School Cafeteria Faves

The hormonally-charged buzz of the high school cafeteria is no place for a solitude seeking, food loving soul like myself. As a teacher, I usually stray from the carb heavy meals at school and pack a lunch, but occasionally a meal lures me into the cafeteria line. Today's Greasy five is dedicated to my all-time favorite school cafeteria meals:

• Bierrocks: My first teaching job was a Centre High School, which is located in Marion county, an area in Kansas settled by Czech and German immigrants. About once a month, the cooks tapped into the area's cultural heritage and served bierrocks, a roll stuffed with a mixture of ground beef, onions, and cabbage. Before I die, I want to return to the Centre High School cafeteria and enjoy one last bierrock.

• Holiday meals at Centre High School: Most schools serve a faux holiday dinner comprised of turkey loaf, instant mashed potatoes, Stove Top stuffing, and canned cranberry sauce. At Centre High School holiday dinners were made-from-scratch affairs, complete with a bona-fide carved turkey.

• Pigs in a Blanket: It doesn't get any better than a hot dog wrapped in a pillow of white dough, unless you're dipping it into a swirl of ketchup and mustard.

• Breakfast for Lunch: It's just nice to break from routine.
  
  
• Cinnamon Rolls and Chili: I don't know how they eat their chili in other parts of the U.S., but in Kansas we like cinnamon rolls served with our chili. When this lunch room duo appears in the cafeteria, you'll find me with a little more bounce in my step.

What's your favorite school cafeteria meal?

Cornish Splitters (English Batter Bread)

I’m currently reading A Baker’s Odyssey by Greg Patent, which is an outstanding book that explores the baking traditions of various U. S. immigrants. The book contains a wide range of recipes that I could showcase in this blog. I could have prepared an elegant Gâteau Basque. Or a jaw dropping Hungarian Walnut Torte? However, I chose to make Cornish Splitters, a traditional English batter bread because I’m a bread man. I know it's not a flashy recipe, but I like the alchemy of taking simple, ordinary ingredients – water, flour, yeast, and salt – and morphing them into something complex and extraordinary. I also chose it because the one hour prep time fit well into my busy weeknight schedule, and since the recipe only made 6 rolls, I could experiment without having an excessive surplus of bread on hand.



Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 tablespoons instant yeast
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup whole or low-fat milk, heat until 110 degrees.
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, blend the flour and butter with a wooden spoon until the mixture is crumbly. Stir in yeast, sugar, and hot milk. Beat with spoon until you have a thick batter. Add salt, and beat for 1 or 2 minutes more, until smooth. (Note: The cookbook insisted that I would have a thick batter. I don't know if this stiff mixture technically constitutes a batter. It seemed much to0 thick for me. Shouldn't you be able to pour a batter? I tried to find online references to Cornish Splitters, but I couldn't find any. Maybe the cookbook author is just pulling my chain.)
   
2. Let batter stand uncovered at room temperature for 45 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees while the batter rests. Coat a large baking sheet lightly with cooking spray.
4. When the batter is ready, spoon 6 larges gobs onto the prepared pan, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Each gob will be 3 inches across. (It was difficult to spoon gobs because this batter isn't really a batter.)
   
5. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the splitters are pale golden brown and srping back when pressed gently in the center.
   
6. Serve and enjoy

I didn't care for the overly yeasty flavor of these rolls. The rolls weren't bad, but if you want bread in a jiffy, stick to biscuits. This recipe won't supplant any bread or roll recipes already in my repertoire, but it satisfied my craving to bake and gave me some more experience. You never know when Cornish Splitters might pop up in a conversation. If they do, I'll be able to contribute more than a blank stare.

Pass the jam,
muddywaters

Single Skillet Baked Ziti

Last Friday my students turned in their ten-page autobiographies, so this weekend I was faced with reading over 650 pages of student writing. There were stories that made me laugh, stories that made me cry, and stories that had me scratching my head. Although reading the autobiographies was time consuming, the experience made me feel blessed to be a teacher. Today I allowed students to quiz me over their autobiographies. I felt like I was facing a firing squad, but I held my own and correctly answered almost 80 percent of their questions.

After working so hard this weekend, I wanted to cook something that wasn't time consuming; I found it as I watched baked ziti being prepared in a single skillet on PBS's America's Test Kitchen. This recipe exceeded my expectations. I'm amazed that something that required so little effort achieved such a rich flavor. This recipe will be a staple in our household. I didn't take any pictures, but I'll do it the next time I prepare this dish.



Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3-6 cloves crushed garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
  
• 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
• 3 cups of water
• 12 ounces ziti
• 1 teaspoon salt
• pepper to taste
• pinch of sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 cup half & half
  
• 2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese
  

Instructions:

NOTE: Make sure you use an oven-proof skillet for this recipe.

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees.
   
2. Add the olive oil, garlic, and crushed red pepper to a cold skillet. Heat skillet to medium-high heat.
3. When the garlic becomes fragrant, add the can of crushed tomatoes, the water, salt, pepper, and sugar.
4. Add pasta and cover. Lower heat to medium-low. Cook for 10-12 minutes until pasta is cooked to your liking.
5. Once the pasta is cooked, add the basil and half & half. At this point the sauce might seem a little runny, but it will thicken in the oven.
6. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top of the ziti. Place the skillet in the oven, and cook the ziti until the cheese gets nice and brown. This should take about 10 minutes or so.
7. Serve and enjoy.