Mrs. Gordon’s 3rd grade class recently read Born to Rope, a story about a Mexican-American family living in the southwest part of the United States. One family tradition in the story was going to Casa Reynoso, the grandparents’ restaurant. Here, all of the family members pitched in to help cook many Mexican meals. The students enjoyed reading and learning about Mexican culture and traditions. Chef Peter provided an extension to lessons in the classroom by inviting the 3rd graders to make pan de muertos, a traditional Mexican bread. Students enjoyed using their senses to smell ingredients like orange zest and cinnamon. After a demonstration by Chef Peter, the 3rd graders went to work kneading the dough and forming it into loaves. Thank you to Chef Peter and our 3rd grade chefs for providing a delicious Mexican bread for lunch!

The 1st graders joined Chef Peter in the dining room to make rosemary breadsticks. This was an extension of a lesson on herbs and colonial herb gardens from earlier in the year. Chef Peter demonstrated how to roll the dough and add flour to prevent sticking. The 1st graders also added fresh rosemary leaves for flavor. A big thank you to Chef Peter and our 1st grade chefs for providing delicious breadsticks for all to enjoy at lunch!

Yogurt Chicken

Serving Size : 8

• 1 cup Stonyfield plain yogurt
• 2 cups bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Cut chicken in 1 ” strips.  Place yogurt in bowl.  Mix chicken with yogurt.  Combine bread crumbs, oil, salt & pepper.  Drop yogurt chicken one at a time & lightly bread.  Place on sheet pan.  Cook in preheated oven 350 degree oven for 12-15 minutes.

Apples & Honeycomb

Slice apples in 1/8ths.  Cut Red Bee Honeycomb in 1/4 inch squares.  Insert toothpick through comb, then apple.

On Sunday September 13th, The Unquowa School participated in the ninth annual Ct Farmland Trust Celebration of CT at Graywall Farm in Lebanon, CT. This event was a benefit to help preserve Connecticut farmland. Present at the celebration were 500 of the cows who give us our milk & the Farmers Cow people who tend them. Over thirty chefs representing various businesses highlighted foods from CT.

Unquowa had a table and served clam chowder from a family recipe passed onto Chef Peter by Sharon Lauer, our Head of School. The chowder was served in the clam shell & was a big hit! Anne Cain & her daughter Shannon (Unquowa alum 2000) spent the day ladling out chowder & talking about the best CT grown school…Unquowa.

Our last day of farm camp & here is the most requested recipe.

Lavender Shortbread

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Granulated sugar
• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream butter & sugar. Beat until smooth. Stir salt into flour and mix well. Add flour and salt mixture to first mixture. Mix in Lavender flowers.

Press dough evenly into a pan.

Bake in 375-degree oven 25 minutes. Cut into bite size cookies.

Tuesday the Sweet Peas made pickles at Farm Camp. We cut cucumbers, measured spices & herbs. Tasted, smelled & had many different thoughts on the smell of vinegar. We will eat some pickles tomorrow.

Here is the recipe we followed.

Unquowa Pickles

• 1 1/2  cups  rice wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoons  sugar
• 1 teaspoon  peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon  mustard seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon  fennel seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon  cumin seeds
• 1 1/2 teaspoons  kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons  dill weed
• 4 whole cucumbers

Combine vinegar, sugar, peppercorns, mustard seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, salt & dill.

Pour combined ingredients over sliced cucumber & refrigerate 24 hours up to 4 days.

Chef Anne & Chef Peter

On Saturday, May 30 The Unquowa School Farm To Fork dining program joined forces with Plow To Plate, New Milford Hospital’s outreach program for sustainable food. The class had a chef, a nutritionist and a farmer. We discussed the Mediterranean people’s good diet and we used Connecticut ingredients to cook with.  Co-founder Chef Anne Gallagher says, “Eating locally, the desire is contagious.”

Participants were Peter Gorman, The Unquowa School; Mikelanne Phaneuf  RD, CD-N, New Milford Hospital; and Vince LaFontan,  Mountain View Farm in Kent CT.

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What could be better than making (and then eating) pizza? Chef Peter and a group of students made pizza after school one day. 

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Students enjoyed working in the kitchen with Chefs Peter and Dan to prepare a Costa Rican lunch!

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We had a great meal last Friday featuring Elk on the menu. David Dworski came up with this idea of a game dinner at the school at the end of last year. It was a pleasure to cook a unique game like elk. The dinner was delicious!

With the help of Chef Dan, John Turenne & Anne Gallagher we had a very tasty meal.  We had some extra wild boar sausage that the children have tasted on the salad bar this week.

The cracker bread was the most requested recipe.

Elk Crackers

Yield ½ sheet pan

• ½ t Yeast
• 1 ½ cup Flour
• ½ t Kosher Salt
• 1 T Red Bee honey
• 1 T vegetable Oil
• 1/3 to ½ cup Water, room temperature

Topping

• Kosher Salt
• Cracked Black Pepper

Method

Mix first 6 ingredients, form a ball.  Turn out to a lightly floured counter & knead for 10 min. till (Satin to touch, not tacky)

Place in oiled bowl & let ferment for 90 min or till double in size.

Press down, roll into square till paper thin, relax for 5 minutes; sometimes this is a good time to have a glass of wine.

Place on parchment on sheet pan, sprinkle with water, place pepper & salt on dough,

Cook in preheated 350° oven, 10-20 minutes till even brown on top, cool 10 min before breaking.