It’s official. I am a teacher.
Crazy! I have finished my teaching practicum, and can now apply to work in a school district. It seems like yesterday I was just beginning the program back in September, and now I have successfully passed. I can now exhale. It has been a crazy busy past few weeks, plus I got pretty sick for two days last week that kept me home in bed.
This has been a life-long dream of mine to become a teacher. I vividly remember arguing over ‘playing the teacher’ with the pointing stick in grade 1. Everyone wanted to use the pointing stick. Well, I guess I don’t have to fight anyone anymore.
P.S. teachers don’t use pointing sticks anymore. Or metre sticks. There isn’t a whole lot of ‘pointing to the board’ going on. Which is good.
The whole experience has really opened up my eyes as to what education is and what it means to be a teacher. I am really excited for what the future brings and what I can accomplish as an educator.
One thing I’m going to miss is the daily snack and story time with my grade two’s. I love reading (hence my major in English), and this was my favourite time of day. A new story everyday was like christmas. Maybe I’ll have to read myself a story book each night instead.
To celebrate I’ve made a little dessert. Don’t be fooled by the name, it’s delicious. You would never guess there is avocado in there, believe me. I gave it to Adam to taste and didn’t tell him what was in it, and he couldn’t guess.
Ripe Avocado
Pulse cocoa, honey, and avocado
Rich Chocolatey Goodness
Avocado Mousse
Ingredients:
- 1-2 ripe avocados
- 1/4 cup cocoa
- 1-2 tsp. honey
In a food processor add the avocado, cocoa and honey. Pulse until quite smooth.
You can eat it this way, it will be more liquid like a pudding. However, to have a thicker mousse I suggest refrigerating it for an hour before eating.
To garnish:
- chopped nuts: pecans, walnuts, cashews, pistachios
- shaved chocolate
- cinnamon
- berries
- fruit
- chocolate chips
- granola
It’s a day or two late – but oh well! I hope all the mother’s out there had a wonderful sunday! I know my momma did – because I made sure she did!
We had a nice little brunch celebration with our family, and then over to Adam’s parents for dinner, and then to my baseball game! Did I mention I was playing again? I’m so glad I decided to play. It’s been a lot of fun and the girls on my team are awesome.
Anyways! Back to Mother’s Day. We planned out a little brunch action – me and Alysha that is. Although, my brother surprised us all with his mad poached egg skills! I for one am no egg maker. Mainly because I don’t eat eggs, I usually avoid them because they make me feel sick due to a slight allergy. Plus I am a terrible fried egg cook, scrambled I can handle but nothing else. So when my mom requested Eggs Benny for her mom’s day brunch I was a little hesitant! Luckily my brother has become a poached-egg-specialist and saved the day. We had an english muffin, with smoked salmon, provolone cheese, egg and hollandaise sauce! Yummmmm. I ate it, even though I shouldn’t have. I also made little waffles to go with it topped with berries and whipped cream. Needless to say it was a yummmmy brunch!
OF course there needs to be dessert. But, I didn’t think we would be too hungry after all that, so I thought about what we could eat that would be tasty but light and dessert-y. I actually made this last week for the first time as a practice run to make sure I could do it! I found the recipe here, and the first time it worked out perfectly! Althought I only made half the recipe, and when I made the full recipe I had to do it in two batches and the second batch deflated a little, I think maybe the batter sat on the counter too long while the first batch baked?? So maybe i’ll do it one at a time next time.. one half that is. They are not too sweet, just sweet enough and can be made with any flavours. Just perfect after brunch! I also made some chocolate dipped strawberries.
Whole Wheat Cream Puffs with Vanilla Pastry Cream
recipe slightly adapted from: eatgood4life blog
Ingredients
Small: Yields 45-50
Medium: Yields 35-40
Large: Yields 25
1 cup water
4 tablespoons butter (4 ounces)
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
Preheat oven to 425F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper/ baking sheet.
Put water, butter and oil in a medium-size saucepan over medium-high heat and melt. When the butter has melted, add the flour and salt all at once and stir vigorously. Cook and stir until the mixture forms a ball that doesn’t separate, about 20 seconds.
Remove from the heat and cool for about 5-10 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each one and until the dough is smooth.
Drop heaping tablespoons of dough about 2-inches apart onto a greased baking sheet. Or transfer the batter to a pastry bag with a round tip and pipe circles about 2-inches in diameter and about 1-inch apart onto baking sheets previously lined with parchment paper. Round off the tops with your finger, so the top is not ‘pointy’ otherwise it will get overly brown.
Bake puffs for about 11-12 minutes at 425 F (medium sized ones, for small ones 10-11 minutes at 425F and 6-7 minutes at 375F). Reduce the temperature to 375 F and bake for an additional 6-8 minutes until they are golden brown and puffy.Turn off the oven and open the door a crack and leave cream puffs inside to cool for 20-30 minutes. Remove the cream puffs from the oven.
Allow to cool completely before cutting in half, and filling with desired cream.
You can fill them with simple whipped cream and strawberries as I did the first time I made them, or this time I made Vanilla Pastry Cream filling, and then topped it with some whipped cream as well and dusted with icing sugar.
Pastry Cream
from Joy of Cooking 75th Anniversary Edition
Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 tbs. flour
- 2 tbs. cornstarch
- 4 large egg yolks
- 1 1/3 cup milk
- 1 vanilla bean, or 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Directions:
Beat first four ingredients in a bowl/stand mixer on high speed until thick and pale yellow, about 2 minutes.
In a saucpan on medium heat bring to simmer milk and vanilla. Remove vanilla bean once finished.
Gradually pour 1/3 of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking to combine. Scrape the egg mixture back into the pan and cook over low to medium heat, whisking constantly and scraping bottom and corners of pan to prevent scorching, until the custard is thickened and bubbling slightly.
Continue to cook, whisking for about another minute.
Using a clean spatula, screap custard into a bowl. Cover the surface with wax paper or parchment, or plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. let cool, then refrigerate up to two days.
Once filled, keep refrigerated until ready to serve.
Enjoy!! What’d you do for mother’s day? Are you a mother?? Were you treated to brunch!?
My momma and I!
These. are. delicious. Even saying it is an understatement. I picked up Alicia Silverstone’s book The Kind Diet last weekend. It’s a great read, with lots of tips and info about trying to go vegan, or simply adding a few vegan items to your diet. It also includes recipes as well. I also got Heidi Swanson, of 101 cookbooks, latest book Supernatural Everyday and it’s also so good! I wanted to try and make everything, every picture looks so delicious.
These are vegan, if made with proper butter, and are a way healthier version of the yummy, but bad for you, Reese’s PB cups. I am a total peanut butter freak. Definitely have it every morning on my oatmeal, so naturally these were delicious.
I would only change a few things about them, for one, I might not even use butter at all, or scale it way back with only a tbs or so, instead of 1/2 cup! And, she says to pour the chocolate on top of the peanut butter right away and then chill, but I found that my peanut butter was too warm and runny, and the chocolate sank to the middle. Hence the inside out PB cups. But, of course they are still so so so good!!
My changes for next time: Less butter, and I would refrigerate the peanut butter layer for a bit before I added the chocolate to appear more like a reese’s peanut butter cup. I also used natural smooth PB and not the crunchy, so maybe that made a difference? Either way, it tastes de-licious!!
Definitely make these for a sweet treat this weekend!!
Recipe slightly adapted from: The Kind Diet
Servings: Makes 12
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Earth Balance butter substitute (I would probably use a Tablespoon next time.. )
- 3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter (preferably unsweetened and unsalted) (I used natural, unsweetened, unsalted and smooth)
- 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs or 10 graham cracker squares
- 1/4 cup maple sugar or other granulated sweetener ( probably don’t even need added sugar either, their pretty sweet with the chocolate )
- 1 cup grain-sweetened, nondairy chocolate or carob chips ( I used organic carob )
- 1/4 cup soy or rice or nut milk ( I only had regular skim milk )
- 1/4 cup chopped pecans or almonds or peanuts
Directions
Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs, and maple sugar and mix well. Remove the mixture from the heat. Evenly divide the mixture, approximately 2 Tbsp. per cup, among the muffin cups.
*I would refrigerate them at this point, and add the chocolate layer afterward*
Combine the chocolate and milk in another pan. Stir over medium heat until the chocolate has melted. Spoon the chocolate evenly over the peanut butter mixture. Top with chopped nuts.
Place in the refrigerator to set for at least 2 hours before serving.
Seriously. So. Good.