When we moved into our first house in September of 2017, we were gift a calamansi tree from Queenie’s breeder. Admittedly, after falling into our care the tree didn’t bare any fruits for several years, and when it did, they only grew to the size of dimes, rotted, and then fell to the ground. With a little time and TLC, we got a better handle on caring for our tree. This year, we had our first true “harvest” and were able to make something with it for the first time.
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Every year without fail, lots of students want to make cheesecake in class. With students being at home, I wanted to make more videos and recipes that they can use as a reference. With the kids working at home, my classroom now typically has me running around, logged in to multiple devices, trying to do live cooking demos with my students. I also have a camera set up with a tripod and try to film the whole process for those students that weren’t able to make it, (and as a resource for students in the future).
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2020 was all about self-improvement: getting in better shape, improving on current skills, and learning new ones. With all the closures and the stay at home measures in place, Megan and I suddenly found ourselves with more free time. To keep busy, we signed up for a bunch of online courses that we had always meant to try (Bee keeping 101, Hunter’s Education Course, and some pastry stuff). Hopefully the situation will begin to improve, but regardless we hope to continue to do this in the new year. Just before the shutdown, I was also fortunate enough to get the chance to have a one-on-one crash course in soppressata-making from a past member of Culinary Team Canada Juniors. His name is Robbie Aggarwal, and he owns his own charcuterie company in the Niagara Region called Beniamino Meats. With the success of my very first batch, I was excited to continue learning and to try out more recipes. I didn’t know it at the time, but this first experience would come in handy later this year.
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In the Chocolate 101 page, I shared my story of how I became involved (temporarily obsessed) with chocolate. There was a somewhat intense period where chocolate occupied pretty much all of my free time. This involved cutting marzipan and lots and lots of dipping for practice.
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This year marks my tenth year teaching high school, and it has been a little different than most years for obvious reasons. I’m still doing in-school lessons, but now I’m also teaching some students completely online, which requires some adjustments. Prior to this new teaching model, I have always wanted to create more videos of our class recipes so that students can continue to refer to them, and create them at home with their families. I have finally started to make some progress on this. Every now and then I say to myself, why didn’t I do this sooner?? Perhaps I’m lazy, maybe because there always seems to be something else to do…But now, with the pandemic (and currently, lock-down), I figure I have no more excuses. I’m going to try to post more recipes, more frequently. At least for now, until we can go out and do things.
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Smoothies & Sundaes 