Hackschooling

Recently I have seen this video making the rounds on facebook.

Logan is a well spoken young man and clearly "Hackschooling", as he calls it, is working for him. At first viewing, this seems like a great way to do it and why can't every kid have an education just like this! Perhaps my years in education have made me a cynic, but I have a much more realistic view of education and I take issue with the premise that homeschooling is for everyone. Certainly, there are some families and students that this works very well for, but it doesn't work for everyone. I have had good friends who have home schooled successfully and I have taught students who returned to public education after homeschooling who were misserved by this education. I have friends who were home schooled who didn't live up to their own potential because of it and others who were able to achieve more. There is no one size fits all answer.

That being said, here are my issues with this talk…

1) This is an extremely privileged view of education.  Not all parents have the resources this family has.  They don't have the monetary resources,  they don't have resources of  background knowledge or education, and they don’t have the luxury of the time it takes to homeschool a child.  Picking and choosing your own curriculum is wonderful, so long as you have a parent who is well versed enough to be diligent with the curriculum and have the time to put into being your only teacher. Frankly, I don’t feel like I know enough to actually teach my child a foreign language, or physics, or english properly (and I am a teacher) but you can always hire out those parts, right?   Being able to join in homeschooling co-op groups is great, if you can afford the private ski lessons, or even just the private spanish tutor.  Having starbucks as your classroom is a luxury many of us can’t afford. For the vast majority of families this model is untenable.  

2) Teaching children to be happy and healthy is the job of their parents, regardless of if they are homeschooling or sending their students to a traditional school.   Should education support the parents in this job? Absolutely!  But it is not possible for a teacher who sees them for 5 hours a week to teach a student how to be spiritual, enjoy nature, volunteer service in the community, etc. especially given the narrow parameters we are allowed to operate within. Nor should parents expect this of teachers.  Which brings me to my final point.

3) Education like this is actually possible in schools. 

The 8 items needed to be happy and healthy (according to the ted talk) are “exercise, diet and nutrition, time in nature, contribution and service, relationships, recreation, relaxation and stress management, religious and spiritual”  

Let me repeat, Education like this actually is possible in schools. It is actually happening in schools.  Waldorf schools do it.  Catholic schools get close (they hit spirituality and service pretty hard, perhaps they need a little work on diet and nutrition). Public schools are putting out fires, but they have their moments,  teachers who fight for classes like forensics, home ec, music, outdoor ed, or even classes with projects that can’t be evaluated in a traditional way but are truly meaningful.  Extra curriculars that give students the opportunity for service and time in nature.  These things all happen in current schools, however they happen in limited ways.  We are focused on solving crises, providing food, social work and counseling.

Putting out fires aside, if you would like me, your public school teacher, to teach your child something besides just math I absolutely have that ability.  I can teach lots of cool things that are applicable to life and the real world and even include math. I can teach math in ways that students will actually understand it and not just memorize it.  I can teach them ways that mathematics can be meditative and relaxing and enjoyable through art, cooking, knitting and sewing, puzzles and games.   But you know what, that means that the public would need to trust the professionalism of teachers.    Public Educators have had our hands tied by legislation from public officials that the public has elected.    If you want this sort of education for your children, then why are public schools being forced to do standardized testing? “common core” curriculum? Why are teachers being blamed (and evaluated)  for under performance in math, science, reading, english, etc when we have very little say so over how and what we teach?   Why are teachers unions under fire when one of the (many) things they lobby for is teacher autonomy?   And if you want your kids to learn physics from a ski instructor then why are you so upset to pay teachers private ski instructor wages?   When teachers spend all their time preparing for standardized tests, evaluations, and fighting to retain our pensions how can we possible have the time or energy to reach the level of creativity an organic education like this would take?   Believe me,  most of us would love to teach that way if only we were given an opportunity.   If this is a model of education that you really wish for your children, then realize what it would take to get there.  

Then go vote to make it happen.

Potato Salad Recipe

This wasn't an Iron chef dinner, but I made this delicious potato salad today and I wanted to write down what I did before I forgot.  I have a tendency to make something delicious with whatever I have lying around and then I am never able to repeat it.  I didn't measure anything while I was making this, so all the measurements are guesstimates.

Yukon gold potatoes - 5 medium ones
mayo (a bunch? I never measure)
freeze dried dill (2 tsp)
dry tarragon (2 tsp)
celery salt - just a sprinkle
2 tbl spns brown mustard - the kind that has lots of seeds and is a bit spicy
2 tbl spns mcclures spicy pickle relish
1 finely chopped shallot
finely diced celery (3 ribs)
2 hard boiled eggs

I peeled the potatoes and put them in a pot with cold water and a bunch of kosher salt and the two eggs.  Once the water hit a boil, I timed the eggs for another 12 minutes and then fished them out.  The potatoes continued to boil until a paring knife stuck in them easily.  I let the eggs and potatoes cool while I chopped and mixed up the dressing.  I chopped up the potatoes and eggs, tossed it all together with the other ingredients, salt and pepper to taste, and then garnished with some chives fresh from the garden.

I attribute the deliciousness to the spicy relish and mustard.

Decorate the Cake- Mystery project part 2

When I saw these molds I thought that the harp looked so like a Michelangelo sculpture, I tried to get that effect by using chocolate and candy melts which are opaque instead of using poured sugar.  The result does in fact look like a statue and would make a great stand alone candy piece, or be lovely atop a wedding cake or valentine. 

To make these candy molds, you can use either candy melts, or almond bark or melting chocolate.  I feel like it is more economical to use almond bark when color is not necessary.   You will also need a decorator piping bag for each color you plan to use.  Depending on the temperature in your kitchen and how fast you work, you may also like to use a heated work surface.  I use a heating pad under a cookie sheet when my candy is setting too quickly.  I also like to work with multiple molds and colors at the same time. If multi-tasking is not your thing, you can plan your layers of color and work one color at a time.  

Put your candy melts or chopped up almond bark into the decorators bags.  Melt in the microwave at 30 second intervals one bag at a time. Be sure to check for hot spots, mash the bags around to mix, and towards the end I often drop down to 15 second intervals to ensure that I don't burn the candy or melt the plastic. Depending on how fast you work and the temperature in your work space you might need to experiment with out long you melt your candy. 

Once the candy is melted, snip the tip of the bag.  For very fine detailed work, go about 1/8th of an inch.  For larger areas, you can go a bit bigger. 

For solid areas of color, you can use the tip of your bag to get down into the details and fill in as you go. The neater you are when you fill now, the less clean up you will have to do at the end.  After you have filled the mold, take a toothpick and use it to stir and smooth the candy and clean up the edges of the mold.  If you have no colored details, you can also use the toothpick to ensure the candy has gotten into all the corners of the mold. 

If you would like to add colored details, you must do that before you fill in the main color.  Here, I piped in the roses and let them set prior to adding the white. 

This particular mold has many fine details, so it was important to have very warm melted candy and a fine tip to get into the little corners.   I sometimes have a hard time seeing what the details will be from reversed image you get looking at just the mold, so before I choose to add color I like to create a solid candy in the mold and look for things like flowers or ribbons that I want to have in color.  If you hate the solid one, you can always re-melt the candy and use it again.  Be careful when you re-melt the candy melts or chocolates.  They do not always melt as slowly the second time, and if you try to re-melt them too many times they do get a bit funky. You can some times get uneven color or spotting or a bit of a frosted white look to your end piece as the repeated melting affects the tempering of chocolate. 

Once the detail colors have set, fill in with your back ground color.  This time as you smooth with your toothpick, be aware that if you stir too deeply you can end up mixing in your contrast color.  This is a nice effect if you are going for marble or swirls, but if you want crisp edges you should avoid poking down too deep. 

Now, wait for your candy to set. If you are impatient you can put them in the freezer to speed up the process. When I remove the molds, I loosen all around the edges before I pop out the entire piece.  DTC molds are extremely flexible, even out of the freezer. Here is a close up of the harp with red roses. 

If this is a show piece and you really want to make it pop, brushing on a dab of Confectioners Glaze will make your candy very shiny.  I used it on only the roses to add to the contrast.  

In this image you can see, the solid red flowers are glazed, and the ones with contrasting white buds are not. You can also see how the roses on the harp stand out, making the matte white look more like marble or an ivory statue.  It is a very nice finishing effect. 

Decorate the Cake - Mystery Project!

I was pleasantly surprised to find my Mystery Project was several lovely rose molds, a harp, and cupid.  The largest of the rose molds was the perfect size to do something slightly different than your typical Decorate the Cake how to,  molded butter!  Now, to create a lovely butter to accompany a romantic dinner the choice of mold is very important.  Butter is softer and more fragile than candy.  It is brittle when its cold, and very soft at room temperature.  Unlike gum paste or fondant, butter never hardens. It can be a tricky substance to mold, and your selection of a shape or mold to use will make or break your finished product.  To illustrated this very important point, I have included a "what not to do" example along with my how to.

My choice mold for the butter.  Notice, the rose is deep and round, compact and with out too many outlying shapes.

And equally adorable, but ill-suited for a butter application, we have cupid. See how cupids wings are very shallow? Watch what happens to poor Cupid. 

To create the butter mold, the easiest way to get the most details from your mold is to melt your butter. The liquid butter runs into every nook and cranny. You can also use softened butter and spackle it in with a butter knife, but I find that there are many air pockets and you lose details in your finished product. The trick to using melted butter is to be careful to not over-melt the butter. Butter has a high water content, and if over heated the water can evaporate out of the butter and mess up the consistency. I put two pats of butter in the microwave for 30 seconds until it looks like this. 

A few seconds of stirring ensures that it is melted completely and not over melted.  Then pour into your molds and put in the freezer to set for 5 or 10 minutes.  The amount of time it takes to set will depend on how large your mold is and how hot your butter was.  The good news is that you can't over-freeze butter. Frozen butter  comes right back to room temperature beautifully, so when in doubt leave it in 5 minutes more before you fuss with it.  Also, be aware that liquid butter is happy to spill all over your freezer, so take out some insurance by placing the molds on a tray with a lip.  It is easier to keep things level, and to clean up spills. 

Now comes the fun part!  Time to un-mold!  DTC molds are extremely flexible.  I like to pull back all around the edges before I pop out the molded item.  If your butter is set hard enough, and your mold was compact and round, it will come out just like a chocolate or hard candy. 

If your mold had thin feather wings like our friend Cupid, or very shallow parts here is what happens. Notice, the wing I over poured came out, but with that ugly extra lip. Cupid's head was deep and round, it looks good.  But that thin little wing was just too brittle and it fell apart, along with the v shaped feathers under his face. There are just some shapes and designs that are not meant to be in butter.  

But look at our lovely rose! 

Now, if plain old butter is too boring for you, get creative!  There are hundreds of delicious herb butter recipes out there. Here are a couple tips for making molded herb butter. 

#1 The tinier the pieces of herbs, the less they will poke out or interrupt the design of your mold. Remember, we are doing this for the beauty of the finished piece and not just the flavor. 

#2 Just because every recipe on the planet says to use fresh herbs doesn't mean you cant use dry, or even better, freeze dried. Dry herbs tend to be in smaller pieces and mix into liquid butter easier than fresh. 

#3 Experiment with your favorite flavor combinations!  You don't need a recipe. Choose something to go along with whatever recipe you are making for the meal.. Herb Butter is a delicious addition on top of mashed potatoes, steak, fish or chicken as well as breads and rolls. 

#4  If you are using unsalted butter and making a savoury herb butter, be sure to add some salt! 

A few flavor profiles that I really love:  

Garlic Powder and Thyme

Honey and Cinnamon

Cardamom and Curry Powder

Chive and Onion Powder

Ginger (I like to use fresh grated)

Lemon and Dill. 

Here is how I made the Lemon Dill Butter.  I used freeze dried dill, but dry or fresh would work as well.  Be sure to start with either melted or softened butter to make it easier to mix.  Just a splash of lemon is enough, so start with a little and then adjust for taste.  Remember, butter has a large water content, so it can take liquid ingredients if you mix well and use the right proportions.  Mix well, mold, and put in the freezer to set! 

And here are my final roses, ready to sit atop a fresh bun! 

Stay tuned for part 2, a more traditional molded candy. 

Iron Chef Dinner: Battle Beer

Me -vs- my inability to do anything in moderation

I am limiting myself to iron chef dinners one day a week now.  This is to limit the grocery bills, and so that I actually accomplish other things with my time besides cooking. Not that we mind eating it all. :)

This desire to be more moderate includes trying to use what ingredients we have instead of purchasing tons of new items every week.  So for battle beer I tried to use only what was in the house.  Our land lord left us with two bottles of Winter Bourbon Ale in the fridge when we moved in and I recently bought some Honey Brown for nostalgia's sake (and then continued to drink nothing but wine as usual). I couldn't really make an iron chef beer dinner with out including Guinness though, so I caved on that one and ran out and picked some up. Choosing my dishes was not easy as beer lends itself to many delicious things, so instead of making less dishes I just made smaller servings.  Still, too much food. So much that we actually skipped the entree. So much for moderation.

Appetizer #1 was baked brie filled with a mushroom mixture that had been sauteed in the Winter Ale.  Dan tasted it and said "It smells like Thanksgiving." and even though it was nothing like Thanksgiving, there was something about the mushroom and herbs and puff pastry that really did smell like it.

Appetizer #2 was Fish and Chips, battered in a Honey Brown beer batter.
The fish was tillapia in a seasoned batter, and the "chips" were various veggies like carrots, parsnips, beets, peppers, and onions. I tried really hard to make this a small dish, but that beer batter just puffs up.

Our Entree was Guinness Shepard's pie.  We are going to eat it for dinner tomorrow. It smelled good.

And finally, the piece de resistance:  Guinness Chocolate cake frosted with Bailey's buttercream.

Which I have decided to call Irish Car Bomb Cake.  Dan decided to make himself an Irish Car Bomb with the leftovers.