#collegewritingtwo

by Heather H.

Let’s be real, I really hate preparing big meals for people, especially when I have loads of homework, stress, and whatever else college brings on (no one seems to understand how college is in my house).  Making food in my house is always a challenge due to the fact that normally dinner consists of a couple meals. It annoys me greatly how picky my family is, especially my brother. He CAN NOT eat things unless it it to his perfection, hence the couple meals for dinner (which is kinda impossible since he finds something wrong with EVERYTHING. He literally would not eat spaghetti one night because “he did not like that type of noodle).  Unfortunately, my mom is pretty much a slave to her workplace and by the time she arrives home, she is exhausted and does not want to cook dinner, which really gets my brother mad. Therefore, I can make this to make sure my mom relaxes, but pleasing my brother may be the real challenge of the project.

Ingredients:

Ingredients from left to right: 1 jar of Mantia’s meat sauce, olive oil, baking powder, pepper, all-purpose flour, pepperoni, milk, and cheese

Pizza Dough:

1 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. Baking powder

½ tsp. Salt

½ cup whole milk

2 Tbsp olive oil

Pizza:

Olive Oil (for pan)

½ pound of dough

½ cup (4 oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese

Pepperoni

Flour (for rolling out dough)

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Pepper

1 jar of marinara sauce

       To solve this, I thought to myself, “how can he not like pizza?!”. I know he enjoys pizza, he orders it almost EVERY NIGHT (must be nice). I normally make homemade pizza for my family while he is gone but I have never made deep dish. Pizza is also my favorite kind of food because it can be changed to fit my mood and it is one of the quickest yet most filling types of food around (unless there is pineapple, then you could FORGET IT!). Pizza and the sweet juice from the pineapple do not mix in my book. I do have some Italian heritage due to my father, so it is a possibility that pizza is the safest bet to ensure that EVERYONE is happy. This recipe is also inspired by my high school foods class. My teacher, Mrs. Fredricks (LOVE HER) would have the freshman classes make homemade pizzas for the seniors and the seniors would love to be the judges of them (especially my senior class since free food is a pretty great thing). I remember my freshman year, my group of three other girls made pizza with alfredo sauce and cheese. We placed second out of thirty groups. It was a very rewarding accomplishment because now I do love making homemade things.

Instructions

Pizza Dough:

In a mixing bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl.

Stir in milk and olive oil until a soft dough forms.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead 10 times.

Shape dough into a ball

Cover dough with an inverted bowl and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Separate dough and cut each piece into 6-inch pieces.

Image of: Prepped dough rolled into a ball

Pizza

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Lightly brush each muffin cup with olive oil.

Fill each cup with one 6-inch piece of dough, gently pressing to the bottoms and sides.

Season with salt and pepper

Sprinkle each dough cup with 1 Tbsp. of cheese and sauce.

Cut each whole pieces of pepperoni into fours and add to each cup to to desired amount.

Bake until golden brown; 12 minutes

Let cool for 2 minutes before removing from pan,

Image of: Dough cut and put into the pan to be filled with sauce, cheese and  pepperoni

Image of: Pizzas made and ready to go into the oven!

Links to the recipes

Dough: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/244638/no-yeast-pizza-crust/

Pizza: https://www.marthastewart.com/315712/mini-deep-dish-pizzas

   I am so excited to create this dish, I think the cupcake size pizzas will be adorable. I might get stuck making these often if my lovely brother (sarcasm) likes them enough or maybe I will teach him how to make them (which he will not enjoy learning from a nineteen year old).

   I picked a Martha Stewart recipe because I have heard of her and I like some of her other recipes, like her chocolate chip cookies and macaroni and cheese. I chose  Missy’s dough recipe because it seems quick, efficient, and cheap (Broke college student here). This is a little different that the dough I learned how to make in high school, but if you do not challenge yourself, what is the point?

  Image of: Pizzas fresh out of the oven  (looks delicious)

   Making these were a piece of cake, except I found that next time I will most likely double the dough recipe. I also think the cheese was way too much because it eventually melted into a mess but I do love a lot of cheese. I had to figure out how to cut the dough into circles for the pan, so I used the top of a cup that was about six inches in diameter. It worked perfectly. One of my major worries before putting them into the oven was that the dough would raise tremendously and it would end up caving in, luckily that was not the case. I also found out that I had to reduce the time in the oven because it did not take 12 minutes, it took about 6-8 minutes depending on how golden you want the crust. It was super easy to get them out of the pan once they cooled a little. Overall, I would make these again in a heartbeat.

  Image of: Little mini deep dish pizzas (2) out of pan

by Eric J.

Recipe:

Ingredients

⅔ cup of milk

3 large eggs

½ cup all purpose flour (packed)

¼ tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp salt

3 tbsp clarified butter (can be substituted with vegetable oil)

1 tbsp cinnamon (approximately)

¼ tsp nutmeg (approximately)

  (Out of the Oven)

Instructions

Clarified butter

If you cannot buy this from a store, you will need to clarify your own butter.

First, cut about 5 tablespoons of butter up into a thick bottomed saucepan.

Melt the butter on low heat. This should take a little while.

Separate milk solids (white foam) on top of the clarified butter.

Let the butter cool to allow about 5 minutes. Then skim off any more solids and pour the clarified butter into a separate dish.

  NOTE: The milk solids can be kept and served on the Dutch Baby, but also go good on other food, especially popcorn.

  Dutch Baby

It is a good idea to stage your utensils before starting. You’ll need 1

8-10 inch cast iron skillet, either a blender or a simple protein

shaker, oven mitts, and measuring utensils.

First, preheat the oven to 425ºF

Blend milk, flour, eggs, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg until batter is smooth. If using the protein shaker, be sure to add milk before flour and that all of the flour has been incorporated.

Melt clarified butter into cast iron skillet on high heat until just bubbling.

Pour batter into center of skillet. Be careful for splattering butter.

Let cook on stove top for 20-30 seconds, then quickly transfer to oven.

Bake at 425ºF for 20- 25 minutes on the middle rack. Check after 20 minutes as cook time may vary

Once sufficiently risen (3-4 inches depending on skillet) and golden brown, remove and serve.

Eat quickly as the dish cools easily. Often served with some fresh lemon juice, powdered sugar, butter, or maple syrup

  NOTE: Be sure that pictures are taken immediately after removing from oven. Also, season to taste. Amounts of spices are suggestions and experimenting with berries is encouraged. Basically, treat this as a glorified pancake both in altering and serving.

(Serving Images left to right: Cut and Served)

     There are a lot of reasons for people to bake. Some people only will if they have to, others bake because they love it. I bake to eat. That means I’m not really concerned with presentation will absolutely avoid unnecessary messes. When I look for recipe I’m checking the time it takes to make before anything else. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy baking and I love when something turns out looking professional, but that’s not what I’m doing it for. I like to eat, and if I want something, nine out of ten times, I have to make it myself.

     Being as inexperienced as I am, most of my recipes come from YouTube videos where I can see step-by-step what to do. I found out about Dutch Babies from a channel called FoodWishes. I decided to go ahead and try to make one after a little research into clarified butter (which I had never even heard of previously). After getting right and having to share with my family, making Dutch Babies became a regular thing for weekend breakfasts.

     This recipe is one of the simplest, yet impressive looking dishes I’ve ever made. It take a few common ingredients, and about 10 minutes to prepare before you bake it. To make the cleanup easy on myself, I just use a protein shaker instead of a blender to mix the batter. The simplicity is my favorite part about Dutch Babies, well aside from the name. The look on people’s face when you tell them you ate a Dutch Baby for breakfast really is priceless.

     Speaking of the name, you may be wondering as to why an overly fluffy pancake is called a Dutch Baby. Although it’s perfectly reasonable to think there is some connection to the German penchant for creating gruesome fables for children, this is actually an American dish. Based on a German dish, the Dutch Baby was actually created by a restaurant owner in Washington that claimed a trademark in 1942. The owner’s daughter is actually credited with naming the dish.

     As I said, this is just a dish. When you’re eating with four people, Dutch Babies go fast. It’s always a good idea to have a few thing you can pair it with. The great thing about being a breakfast food, is that there are so many sides to serve with this dish. There’s always thick cut, hickory smoked bacon, or breakfast sausages (I prefer links), but it never hurts to experiment a little. Personally, I find a small assortment of fruits and berries does the trick. Whatever you may have on the side, I suggest staying away from eggs. The Dutch Baby already has three eggs in it and in the center you can really tell from how dense it is.

(Collage Image, left to right clockwise: melted butter, gentle boil, separated butter, clarified butter.)

     So let’s talk a little about actually making this Franken-cake. First; the clarified butter. This is kind of extra to be honest, and just vegetable oil will do the trick, but clarified butter is the best thing to use. I clarified my own the night before, but you can buy this stuff at a much higher quality than what I made. Basically what happens is boiling separates the oils, salts, and fat solids in the butter. Then you just strain off the liquid oil to use. It takes time, can be messy, but definitely makes the process feel more authentic.

(Collage Image 2: left to right going down the columns: ready to mix, finished, cinnamon in, flour and salt, side view)

Second thing; mixing the batter. Like I said earlier, I just use a protein shaker. It’s fast, easy to clean, and perfect when you’re trying to be quiet cooking in the morning. If you try this recipe, please don’t make it harder than it has to be.

Now my favorite part every time is pouring the batter and watching this thing rise. You may want to make sure you use the middle rack, I’ve had it hit the top of the oven before! Something to keep in mind when heating the clarified butter is to coat the sides of the skillet and not to pour until it begins to bubble a little bit. Once you pour, wait thirty seconds to a minute and stick it in the oven to bake

.

by Angela B.

PREP TIME 35 minutes

COOK TIME 1 hour 15 minutes

TOTAL TIME 1 hour 50 minutes

SERVINGS 6 servings

  Ingredients:

1 head green cabbage

1 lb ground pork (or ground turkey)

½ lb ground beef

2 small onions, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

½ teaspoon dill weed

3 tablespoons fresh parsley

1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes

salt & pepper to taste

1 cup uncooked rice

1 egg

1 ½ cups + 1/3 cup tomato sauce or pasta sauce , divided

1 can tomato soup

  Instructions:

1.   Boil cabbage leaves about 2 minutes or until soft. (See note below for removing leaves). Set aside to cool.

2.   Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3.   Cook rice according to package directions but reduce cooking time by 5 minutes so the rice is slightly underdone. Set aside.

4.   Cook beef, pork (or turkey), onions, garlic & seasonings until no pink remains. Drain any fat. Add in rice, diced tomatoes, 1/3 cup of tomato/pasta sauce, salt & pepper. Stir in egg.

5.   Mix tomato sauce and tomato soup in a bowl. Spread a very thin layer of the tomato sauce mixture in a 9x13 pan.

6.   Remove or thin any thick stem on cabbage leaves. Lay the cabbage leaf flat and add 1/3 cup filling to the center of the leaf. Fold in the sides and roll the cabbage up. Place seam side down in the pan. (See note for small leaves). Repeat with remaining cabbage.

7.   Pour sauce over the cabbage and cover tightly with foil. Bake 75-90 minutes. Let cool 15 minutes before serving.

Recipe Notes

To remove leaves from head of cabbage, cut approx. ¼" off the bottom of the head and place the whole head of cabbage in boiling water. Boil about 2 minutes. Peel off the softened leaves. Place remaining head back in the boiling water and repeat until all of the leaves are removed. Remove any tough stems from cooked leaves.

Note, if you have some smaller leaves and still have filling leftover just overlap the leaves as needed. The rolls will still cook up perfectly.

My After Notes

I forgot the tomato sauce at the store and by the time I realized it the store closest to me had already closed. I also do not like garlic so I intentionally didn’t add that.

 Link to Recipe

https://www.spendwithpennies.com/easy-cabbage-rolls/#wprm-recipe-container-122147

 * * *

I remember being a young girl visiting my grandmother’s house, sitting at the kitchen table while my mom and my grandma would be making Cabbage Rolls or Gołąbki as my grandmother would call it. When I was a young girl I use to be terrified of my grandma, she was always yelling at my other cousins, so I tried to always be on my best behavior. She was the type of lady that would smack your hand if you reached across the table without permission to get more, and she would swat your head if you wore a hat at her dinner table, along with intense yelling. I know where my mother learned her yelling skills from now. My grandma was Polish, and she would play Polka music while dancing to it in the kitchen. As I got older, I realized my grandma wasn’t such a scary, old, mean lady after all. When my grandma passed away, she was the last of my grandparents. Soon after she passed away, my mom and my younger sister had moved into my grandma’s house. I’m currently living back there now, sometimes I can still picture her dancing in our kitchen grabbing my hands and trying to get me to join her, I literally thought she was crazy, just out of her mind. Looking back, I now see that I was the crazy one for not dancing with her. If I could go back and change time I would, but who wouldn’t.

When I had told my mother, I was going to make this, she was shocked because it is the one Polish food she hasn’t made since my grandma passed away, over fourteen years ago. It was my first time making this, and I really enjoyed doing it. I absolutely love cabbage, I especially loved snacking on the cabbage as I cooked. It made me remember all those visits at my grandma’s house that I dreaded so much as a child, because I let my fear of her get in the way. The older I got the less scared I was of her but that’s also from me observing her through the years and learning what she didn’t like or allow in her house.

Making this dish somehow made me feel closer to her and closer to my roots, it’s important to me to know where it is I came from. There are so many children, teens or even adults that have never met their parents or family and have no clue of their background. I couldn’t imagine not knowing my roots, although I do understand that more often than not, it is for the better in certain situations. I just hope I made my grandma proud.

If I had to pick the most challenging part of preparing this dish I would hands down say that getting the core of the cabbage out was a tough job. Good thing I don’t mind a little challenge from time to time.

Some names of the Polish food my mom would make, would make me laugh as a kid because they just sounded made up, I often still laugh. I want to keep the Polish food in the family, for generations to come. If I ever get around to having children of my own, I hope to make food like this and tell them stories about my mom and my grandmother. Who knows maybe I’ll break out the Polka music and dance like my grandma did, if it’s not too late to learn the dances? I think I can live with my own kids thinking I’m a nut job, because maybe one day they will look back and get a good laugh, like I am now.

(Cutting out the core of the Cabbage)

This was the fun part I mentioned about cutting out the core of the cabbage. You want to cut the core out making it look like a cone on the inside. I can’t express how happy I was when this part was over.

(Boiling the Cabbage)

In order to be able to roll the cabbage leaves, you have to soften them by boiling them in water. I recommend boiling them a lot longer then just 2 minutes as Holly recommended. As it boiled the outer leaves softened so  I was peeled them off with prongs to help get to the inner leaves faster.

(The softened Cabbage leaves)

When I would peel off the leaves I would place them on this place to give them tip to cool while I prepped the rest of this dish.

(My diced onions and rice.)

One change I did to the recipe was I did not add the 3 garlic cloves. Simply because I’m not a garlic fan. I had to small onions I had diced up, then I measured my one cup of rice before putting it in the boiling pot of water.

(This is the ground pork and ground beef.)

I had to weigh out ½lb of beef because that was all I needed. Clearly I didn’t need all 3 lbs of the beef.

(Mixing all the goodies together)

by: Kortni C.

Image of ingredients, blue and green sprinkles, butter, 2 eggs, sugar, jell-o vanilla instant pudding box, nestle white morsels salt, flour and vanilla extract

Ingredients:

1 Cup Sugar

1 ½ Sticks Butter (room temp)

2 Eggs

1 tsp. Vanilla extract

1 pkg instant pudding (french vanilla)

  2 ¼ Cups Flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

  ½ Cup Sprinkles

Instructions:

Set oven to 350

Cream together sugar, butter, eggs, pudding pack and extract (in Kitchenaid mixer, low)

In separate bowl, mix flour, salt and baking soda

Slowly blend in powder mixture to creamed mixture

Once dough is in ball form, mix in sprinkles and chips

Take dough out of bowl and hand roll into solid ball, place in refrigerator for fifteen to twenty minutes

Ball dough into palm sized balls and put on silicone lined baking sheet

Bake at 350 for  15-20 minutes, until edges and bottoms are browning. Cookies may cook faster depending on oven, the electric one I use at my parents usually cooks the cookies faster than our gas oven at home.

Slowly adding flour into Kitchenaid mixer which contains the creamed sugar, butter eggs, pudding and extract.

  Almost five years ago my life changed in a very positive way. I had been struggling with depression and anxiety that was untreated and misunderstood since childhood and I was living  in a personal hell that hopefully you do not understand. Coming out the other side of an opiate addiction lead me down a path of self discovery. I literally did not know who I was or what I enjoyed. Learning about myself included learning to take care of myself again, and I realized quickly that cooking was bringing me meditative peace and the ability to process emotions that I was seeking. It was comparable to a midnight drive down a back road blaring music and crying, or playing soccer and using my physical abilities to work off anger or sadness. Cooking meals was great, but the real golden ticket was in baking for me.

Baking is a way for me to bring others joy and relieve personal stress at the same time. Who doesn’t love cookies, cake and pie? I know I love them. During this time of growth I tried many recipes that I had found in a variety of places, Facebook, blogs and Pinterest being the most common.  I stumbled across a recipe for “Fruity Pebbles” cookies that I thought was intriguing. My childhood favorite cereal, that Grandma and Grandpa never failed to have, in a cookie? That’s awesome! However, it was not. The cookies were actually rather disgusting. I was not a fan of them AT ALL. The cereal left the cookies feeling flaky, strangely crunchy and too brittle. The texture was too hard for me to overcome in order to enjoy the flavor. The flavor was okay, very sweet and fruity like the cereal. Though I consider that recipe a fail, this recipe did teach me a new strategy in cookie making. A new magic ingredient! PUDDING! Yes, pudding. Just a simple packet of pudding (the instant kind) unprepared, added to the batter is magic.  Pudding changed the way my cookies were tasting and the way the dough was baking. The cookies are light and still have a softness to them that I had previously been unable to create.

Jell-O instant pudding Vanilla, 3.4 oz box

  This magical pudding realization started a great experiment! There are so many different flavors of pudding to play with, and there are an equal amount of extracts to pair. Some of the things I have created include pumpkin spice pudding with pumpkin extract and pumpkin chips or chocolate chips (this recipe was obviously around fall when all of these things are readily available). I have tried coconut pudding and extract with chocolate chips and shredded coconut. I have tried banana, strawberry, Oreo, lemon, pistachio and chocolate puddings with different combinations of sprinkles, ground nuts and chocolate chips. The chips have included white, dark, and milk chocolate and the wonderful pumpkin ones available in the fall and the Reese’s peanut butter chips that are pure gold. I recently found Andes mint chips that I am dying to try with chocolate flavored cookies.

Cookies, fresh out of the oven, browned around the edges and on bottoms.

  These cookie creations have all been a blast to make and I have come up with some really interesting and fun combinations. I have made them for many events and have even started freezing dough to bake for my upcoming nuptials. I have had to take baking hiatus for my fiance and I to “wedding diet” and it has been a struggle for me to maintain sanity. Thankfully there is still soccer and driving to counteract this lack of baking. Thus far, my favorite, and long time go to has been the sugar cookie recipe above. Simple, but  tasty! The sprinkles I use are always of the “jimmy” variety, never the sugar crystals, they do not bake well in the recipe. This is the cookie that everyone asks me for and about. It is my ultimate favorite of the great pudding experiment. I hope that others can love it as much as I do! I also hope that others can experiment and create their own favorite concoctions the way that I have!

by Justin S.

  1 box elbow macaroni noodles

8 tblspns butter

4 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

10 ¾ oz can condensed cheddar cheese soup campbells

1 tsp salt

2 cup whole milk

1 tsp dry mustard

1 tsp black pepper

Instructions

1.Boil macaroni until soft

2.Drain

*3.In a saucepan mix butter + cheese

4.Stir until melted

5.Add beaten eggs, sour cream, soup, salt, milk, dry mustard, and pepper

*6.Stir

7.Place in crockpot pour cheese mixture over and stir

8.Cook on low for two and a half hours

**spray crockpot with cooking spray prior to standing.

I chose this recipe because it has been around my entire life and it is something my family knows my mother is “famous” for making. My mother has made her homemade macaroni and cheese for as long as I can remember. Any event the family is jumping at my mother’s throat to make sure that she is bringing the macaroni and cheese. A sense of that makes me proud to know that something my mother has experimented with has brought glory to my small immediate family and something that tastes so good. Now this may not seem like much but, my family contains a lot of grouhy older negative people who are never happy and tend to be bluntly honest which some people just can not handle but that holds true when they say nice things you can count on them to know they mean it. I chose this because not only do I think this has a glory to my mother but making it the exact way, maybe I can turn this recipe to a family tradition. Passing it on to my children and hope it goes farther down the tree. Now this project was perfect to be able to bring some light and some family gloating to a place outside my family, my class.

by Erin C.

My mother has been using this recipe for six years, ever since I became a vegetarian and she had to find creative ways to cater to my diet, but also keep our traditional family meals simple and healthy. She usually makes two batches of soup, one with chicken and one just for me. According to her, mine usually turns out tasting better. The recipe comes from our family’s traditional caucasian chicken noodle soup recipe, complete with bland vegetables and no seasoning, but with a little extra something and no meat. The appeal of using the not-chicken broth cubes as opposed to vegetable broth is the added flavor. It’s packed with seasoning that gives you all the flavor that regular chicken broth would give. It has been a while, but I remember exactly what traditional chicken noodle soup tastes like. My version, while not quite as filling without that additional protein, has just as much flavor and all the same comfort as the traditional version. It is the best-tasting meal in the world to me because I never thought that I would be able to taste chicken noodle soup again, and my mom went out of her way to make sure I could enjoy it with the rest of the family. It’s the kind of meal that makes you feel super healthy while you’re eating it and warms you when it’s chilly outside, and I am glad I don’t get to miss out on that since I am not a fan of most other soups. Of course, the appeal to this kind of meal is the fullness it provides and the fact that it can stand alone as a meal. No sides are necessary, and I usually don’t even have a drink with dinner on nights like these. The beauty of it all is its simplicity, traditional comforts,  and the fact that I have been able to enjoy it with my family for all these years even though my diet differs from theirs.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

2 tsp. minced garlic, (3 – 4 cloves)

4 stalks celery, sliced

4 carrots, sliced

64 oz. low sodium “Not-Chicken” broth cubes (or just vegetable broth)

2 cups fine egg noodles

¼ tsp. salt, or to taste

¼ tsp. black pepper, or to taste

  Wash, then chop, 4 stalks of celery and 4 carrots. Put a stockpot over medium heat. Add olive oil and minced garlic.

    Add two cubes of “Not-Chicken” broth cubes to about 2 cups of water, or use vegetable broth, and add that to the stockpot.

  Stir, then add celery and carrots. Cover the pot and bring to a boil.

by Chase M.

Raggmunk (potato pancakes) with salted pork and lingonberries

Ingredients- 

 1 ¾ lb potatoes

¾ cup (all-purpose) flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 egg

1 ¼ cup milk

3 tbsp butter

ANY amount of bacon/salted pork (if desired)

Lingonberries

Tips before cooking!

Do not grate potatoes until ready to fry. It will discolor the potatoes!

Spread batter out so it gets thicker towards the middle. Leaving a nice crisp edge with a more “chewy” inside to it.

(Optional) Fry bacon or salted pork in pan before pancakes to add flavor.

Do not use new potatoes as they do not contain enough starch.

Instructions-

Peel the potatoes, fill pot with water over potatoes.

Pour flour and salt in along with black pepper. Beat egg in and add milk slowly. Complete until lump free.

Put medium sized frying pan on high heat. While waiting for heat to come grate potatoes and add to batter in step 2.

Fry pancakes in butter and add bacon. Fry for at least one minute on each side until golden brown.

Repeat. This recipe should grant you at least a dozen or more pancakes for the whole family!                                                 

When I thought about what recipe I would choose for this assignment I could have chosen something my family makes.  However, being in the kitchen with my mom or grandma has never been my thing. So, I figured if I must make something why not just look for a recipe on my own.  In my online search I came across the recipe called Raggmunk which to me was interesting enough in its name alone. However, after seeing it is basically a combination of my two favorite things, potatoes and pancakes, this looked like a good recipe to try.

Raggmunk is the Swedish version for a potato pancake.  Sounds easy enough to make and not many ingredients involved either.  In America the potato pancake is usually thought of as a hash brown. Usually we eat our hash browns for breakfast, while in Sweden their hash brown, a.k.a raggmunk, is not served at breakfast but rather served during the later meals of the day. As I researched potato pancakes a bit more, I found out many countries have their own versions of this dish.  The Irish version is called boxty and usually made with buttermilk and baking soda. Jewish cultures celebrate Hanukkah with a version of potato pancake called latke. A latke does not necessarily have to be made with potato. Any starchy vegetable could be used. The people of Germany enjoy their potato pancake as a side dish. They may add applesauce or blueberries to it for a sweet option.  Many countries serve this simple dish at holiday festivals and fairs.

A country near Russia called Belarus has the potato pancake as its national dish.  That got me to wondering what is America’s national dish? That is not a question easily answered as I found out.  It appears there has not been one single dish defined as America’s national dish. You could ask 10 people and likely get 10 different answers.  From Hamburg’s, hotdogs, pizza, mac n cheese, to apple pie would likely be some of the most common responses. That’s a whole different topic though, I was just curious myself so wanted to check into it, now back to my recipe.

Raggmunk got its name from a combination of two words.  Ragg which means crispy and munk which is derived from the Swedish word munkpanna which translates to donutpan. There are two different versions of potato pancakes in Sweden.  One is a lighter version called raraka, which is made by a more finely grating of the potatoes. Usually this version is served during the warmer months. While the version I am making, raggmunk, is a thicker, heartier version most often served during colder times of the year.

The key to a good raggmunk is to have a very starchy potato and use a lot of butter.  The frying of the pancake in the butter is an important step as the crispier you can get the edges of your pancake the better it will taste.  Shredded onion or spices of your choosing can also be added in. For my recipe though I am going to keep it basic and just add salt and black pepper.

Raggmunk is usually served with pork of some type.  I prefer bacon so that is what I will go with. The thicker the bacon the better!  Another item usually served with raggmunk is lingonberries. Not knowing what those were I did a little research and found out they are hard to find in the U.S. and likely may only be available online or in specialty European markets.  The lingonberry is also a powerful antioxidant and helps to reduce inflammation. They are red in color with a bitter taste requiring sugar to transform into a jam for a more appetizing option. The cranberry and raspberry are both considered “distant cousins” to the lingonberry.  Due to my inability to locate lingonberries locally I am going to serve my raggmunk with an option of raspberry flavored preserves instead.

Here are all the ingredients needed for the recipe. Most of these are common staples in households.

Peeling potatoes isn’t exactly fun. Put them in cold water after peeled so they dont turn brown since we are not ready to shred them yet.

  Nothing beats the smell of frying bacon.

You next will begin making the batter. The batter consists of our flour salt pepper and egg all mixed. Slowly add in milk while stirring to create a pancake batter form. Do not be alarmed if the batter is a little thin, the shredded potatoes will thicken it up

Shred the potatoes. After removing from the cold water you can use a paper towl to dry them and hold better. Then add potatoes to batter.

  Fry like a pancake. Make sure the butter is hot to help cook the potatoes evenly.

Flip after 1-2 minutes. These come out fairly thin. So make sure they dont break  apart on you.

Add your bacon and raspberry perserves to add the sweet and salty effect to the raggmunk and enjoy.

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By Jailon P.

Banana pudding to me is something that is sacred in my family between both of my grandparents. It is at every single family event and every occasion and the closest thing to a tradition that I have inside of my family. Before it was simply a dish, that I looked forward too whenever I was visiting my grandmothers or a dish that I knew was going to be there for my birthday after we had family dinner. I never thought anything of it out side of being a delicious dessert. It was not till fairly recently that I figured out the significance behind the recipe, and that every piece of the dish is symbolic. It was my grandmother from my father’s side who explained why we eat banana pudding, it is not just a treat for family occasions but a remembrance of where and what we came from and how far we have prospered in the last 100 or so years.

Let me explain, not all the ingredients are vital in the quantity or quality, but it’s more about the presentation. The wafers, the bananas, and the custard, were the key ingredients and how they laid mattered in the dish and to my family. The wafers needed to go first once everything was laid, the symbolic meaning behind it was that the wafers represented determination as that was the things that kept my ancestors always going no matter what they faced in the eyes of diversity. The custard was spread across the wafers as they were symbolic of faith. Faith and determination was my great grandmothers backbone to life, my grandmother made it clear to me that these were things that were instilled into her as a young child and if she held to these things then she would ultimately attain the bananas/ The bananas represented freedom, my grandmother went on to explain that if you kept your faith, and you kept your determination, that we would eventually be free from the oppression that plagues the African american community daily.

She went into further details that freedom did not represent only the slaves but the freedom to know that the color of your skin does not make it so that I have a limited amount of usefulness in life. That the sky’s the limit and the reason that I need to have faith and determination to attain freedom is because I am going to need to struggle a little bit harder than everyone else no matter what I do. I am going to get discouraged, I am going to have to put in more effort and more time than my peers because even though I am not confined by bars, or working against my will even though I am same on the outside and  the sad fact is that people will sometimes look at me differently for something completely out of my control and in some cases, think that it lessens my worth as an individual

. This is why bananas go on the top, because freedom will be a feeling in which I know I am worthy to make something out of myself, that there is not a thing in this world that can hold my back from the potential inside of me to make it in the America that my ancestors envisioned. Learning this gave me a new found sense of pride in my family and culture, that we have been through so much and are still able to maintain culture in a way that is not only down right delicious but so rich in history and meaning that I feel that if I also stick to these things that I will one day fully grasp what my grandparents did and what my parents feel. In short, I chose banana pudding not only for the fact that I love the taste and everything that comes with it, but also because it gave me a different way of looking at my heritage.

Ingredients

Instant pudding mix (Vanilla)

2 cups milk

1 box vanilla wafers approximately 45 wafers

5-6 bananas

1 can of condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

We start with the Vanilla pudding and throwing that into the bowl first. Usually my grandmother would be able to make it from scratch but she said this will do just fine.

Add in the entire can of condensed milk. Add that after the pudding mix.

Add in 2 cups of milk, but don’t be like me and not fill the measuring cup to the brim otherwise you WILL get yelled at saying “What’s the point of the measuring cup if it isn’t full, Jailon!?”

Next add in a teaspoon of vanilla extract into the mix for flavor.

After all the ingredients are inside of the bowl, you want to mix it making circular motions in the bowl to make sure you get all the edges and minimal bubbles. You want to let that sit after stirring for about 5-10 minutes while it takes form and then you will have your custard.

After you are done with the custard let it sit while you start your layering. Start off by taking your vanilla wafers and keep putting them down till the bottom is filled. This will make the bottom of your pudding have a crust like feel to it.

Then take your custard and smear it across the top of the wafers.

Then your bananas lay on top of the custard

And finally your whipped cream.

Keep repeating till your layers are to your satisfaction and just set in the refrigerator to cool for 30 minutes to an hour to really let those wafers sit and everything to solidify.