Chef's Tasting Table 2019 | Pumpkin Butter + Jicima + Pears

Watcha making for your Thanksgiving Table?

How bout something super simple, tasty, versatile and your kids can make it?

Please welcome pumpkin butter to your world - I've never made so much in my life.

You can find pumpkin butter recipes all over the "interweb" and I chose this simple recipe from Half Baked Harvest as my go-to for our food education fun this Fall season; Thank you for the constant cooking inspiration Tiegan Gerard, your food blog is AMAZEBALLS. 

I slightly lowered the pumpkin spice amount and here is what I scooped up for our November school lunch tasting in the lunch room. 

The best part =  kids can make it themselves!

Pumpkin Butter

1 14-16oz can/box of organic pumpkin puree

1/2 c pure maple syrup

1/3 c organic apple cider

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp iodized salt

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and serve as a dip, spread, oatmeal mix in, yogurt parfait...  

or your own pumpkin spice latte!

OH YEA.

The kids loved the tasting and many had NEVER tried jicima ("yambean") before. I brought an uncut, whole jicima so the students could see how weird and brown it looks on the outside and identify it in the grocery during future shopping trips. 

Big thanks to Produce Manager Bob at our local Maple St Jewel for coordinating the massive jicima order and to Chef Myra for cutting them all up for us!! 

I am so thankful to the Diamond Lake School District Administration and Wellness Committee for sharing a passion for food education. It's been a dream to spear head this school lunch room tasting program every month, and I'm simply having a ball brainstorming new "bite sized" initiatives with the committee which are making such a difference in our #d76diamonds community.  

How did we get started? 

4 years ago, I helped the school district apply for the The Chef Ann Foundation Project Produce Grant which was the spark behind our "Chef's Tasting Table."

And speaking of sparks...

HAPPY 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY CHEF ANN FOUNDATION!! 

Link over to their website and be inspired by how the foundation works tirelessly to inspire and empower school districts to reform school food. 

I am so very honored and excited to celebrate this incredible 10 year milestone with them: 

"One Mom's Mission - Food Educator, chef and mind body wellness coach Lindsey Shifley spearheads big changes in school food for Lake County, Illinois."

Thank you thank you thank you Chef Ann Foundation for leading American school food reform!

It all starts at home plate.

To the Mullies we go...

xoxoL

Chef's Tasting Table Day 9 // Citrus + Fennel

Today's diary recap of our last Chef's Tasting Table starts on the day before, as I was picking up the produce at my Jewel Osco grocery store! In my hand, you can see my very first taste of the mouth watering apple-pears (aka Asian Pears - Thanks to the suggestion of Dan, the amazing produce manager!) And I bumped into West Oak School's very own Mrs Piland! Did you know that she and I also went to Mundelein High School together back in 1995? It's such a small school foodie ed world...

Our last Chef's Tasting Table consisted of the following: One mandarine orange for all, a few chunks of an apple pear, and a small scoopful of that gorgeous citrus and fennel salad. As the school year is running out of time, so is citrus season = Good tasting timing!

A Citrus and Fennel Salad

5 navel oranges

3 grape fruits

1 small fennel bulb sliced thin

sea salt to taste

1 tbsp chopped fresh fennel fronds

1 tbsp minced fresh parsley

2 tbsp honey

Cut off the rinds and pith's of the citrus using this awesome technique. Add the citrus, sliced fennel, parsley and fronds to the bowl and mix. Season to taste with sea salt and honey. Enjoy!

These kids have so much energy and smiles were abundant! Click here for some 8th graders reactions, and click back to my home Instagram page for the 5th grade school lunch room interview I posted today. 

Afterwards, the entire school went outside to walk after lunch as it was ACES Day (All Children Exercise Simultaneously) - What a fabulous "food and move day" combo!!

SO many things to celebrate in this wrap-up post:

1. School lunch participation went UP - You can't pull apart the impact of 2 important things:

• A new school lunch service coordinator - KIM! She brought so much more organization, enthusiasm and love into the lunch room.
• The addition of our 9 Chef's Tasting Table events.

You could say it was a perfect storm.

According to Kim, her West Oak School average daily school lunch tally grew from:
140 meals a day (October)
to
170 meals a day (December/January)
to
200 meals a day (April/May)

WOW

2. Overall, the Chef's Tasting Table participation and enthusiasm went UP every week, especially in the 7th and 8th grades.

3. We're doing it again next year! Perhaps into Diamond Lake School too! Stay tuned...

4. Greater school food "player" connection. Yesterday was our first meeting of the minds to connect Illinois Farm To School Network + Preferred Meals. May the 4th was with us - We're gonna start small and dream BIG.

Enthusiastic good food education inspires everyone at the table! I am learning so much about how school food works in Illinois and I'm constantly inspired by the people who are working to improve it.



Sue Kruckman = One superbly-amazing school wellness coordinator and school nurse. We could not have done this year's tastings without each other's partnership, vision and leadership. I love you girl.

Here is the equation that came together for a year of fun food education in the lunchroom:

Inside buy-in: Diamond Lake School District 76 administration and teachers who want and support it
+ A passionate outside volunteer (like me)
+ An incredible real school food education program grant from The Chef Ann Foundation | Healthy Skoop --> Project Produce = $2500 of funding!
+ Support from D76's school service provider Preferred Meals
+ A local farm (Jen and Jeff from Prairie Wind Family Farm)
+ A local grocery store produce manager (Dan from Jewel Osco on Maple/Midlothian)

= FOOD EDUCATION SUCCESS

THANK YOU from the bottom of my Food Revolution heart!


To the Mullies we go...
xoxoL

ps

You can catch up to the previous 8 "Chef's Tasting Table" events by scrolling down on the left hand side of my blog's home page under "Topics in the Mullies."

Chef's Tasting Table Day 7 // Super Food Salad + Dragon Fruit

HUGE rocking thank you's to Ambassador Sara Lohrmann's Stevenson High School Gourmet Foods and Food Revolution Club Students for coming out and helping with our 7th Chef's Tasting Table event!

Skoop and the Chef Ann Foundation Organization teamed up to launch the Project Produce Grant Program which awarded Diamond Lake District 76's West Oak School $2500 in funds to help give all students access to more fresh produce and food education during the school day.

It was incredible to watch this team of high school students taste the dragon fruit for the very first time! They prepped + chopped + mixed + INSPIRED real food education in front of over 400 students and staff!!!!

Get Jamie Oliver's Super Food Salad Recipe HERE.

With the Project Produce funds only going towards fresh fruit and vege, this salad was an almost perfect match! The only ingredients from the pantry were quinoa, extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar! WOW!

Note: We did not include pomegranates (out of season), nuts (school allergy concerns) or feta cheese (school allergy concerns).

Did you know? Dragon Fruit can also have pink flesh!

The high school students demonstrated how to cut open a dragon fruit and took turns speaking to each lunch about the super food salad produce ingredients.

We left the peels out so that the students could come up and touch them!

West Oak Middle School's principal, Mr Willeford suggested we stuff the dragon fruit with the super food salad... WHAT AN AWESOME food plating idea!

Mrs Kluvers collected all of the dragon fruit peels for her class composting project!

Absolutely hilarious student feedback!

Smiles all around. Even on the students who didn't like the tastings... They were proud of themselves for trying something new!

Enjoy watching our fun interview video with some students!
(Note: Video can be viewed on computer, not on some phones):

I had never seen a dragon fruit or tasted one before. I cut one open the day before the tasting and made this fun video. (Note: Video below can be seen on computer, not on some phones):

See you next month West Oak #D76Diamonds! I can't hardly WAIT!

To the Mullies we go...

xoxoL

ps

Here are the pics from the Stevenson High School foods lab were we cooked the quinoa and roasted the broccoli + sweet potatoes the day before! Thanks again for helping and having me guys!

INCREDIBLE!!!!

I'm hungry again now...

Chefs Tasting Table Day 5 // Cabbage + Apple + Carrot Slaw

With Superbowl Sunday coming up this weekend (hollah chili, hotdogs, pulled barbeque chicken and pork, sausages, fried chicken, corned beef...well really, any grilled meat will do!), what better way to get some VEGE in than by eating and learning about COLESLAW!

I had a very special guest with me today - Meet Charlotte, the Assistant Farm Manager from Prairie Wind Family Farms! She spoke to the kids about how much fun her crew team has together when they harvest cabbage from the fields. It was certainly some "catchy" food education to pair up with Superbowl food conversation... Sign us up for some cabbage football!

The kids are getting pretty excited to talk about the new food adventures we're going on!

This is one delicious, sweet slaw folks - Get your kids in the kitchen! What could you have them do? For older kids, teach them safe knife skills and have them help you chop up the vege. Younger kids can be taught to safely cut with a pairing knife. It's ok to have vege that's different sizes! All ages love to measure and whisk up the wet ingredients in a bowl - Pump up those math skills!

Skoop and the Chef Ann Foundation Organization teamed up to launch the Project Produce Grant Program which awarded Diamond Lake District 76's West Oak School $2500 in funds to help give all students access to more fresh produce and food education during the school day.

The students were inspired to pair it up with their chili today in the lunchroom; Many had never thought to combine the two before and it was really fun to watch some of the students taste test! Thanks Preferred Meals - What a perfect pairing!

Cabbage, Apple and Carrot Slaw 

(divide in half for a smaller football crowd)

1 head of green cabbage

2 carrots

4-5 apples

1/4 c apple cider vinegar 

1 c mayo (I used egg-free Just Mayo brand for school allergy concerns)

1/3 c honey

1 Tbsp sea salt

1/2 Tbsp pepper

Finely slice (using a knife or food processor) the cabbage, carrots and apples. In a separate bowl combine the vinegar, mayo, honey salt and pepper and whisk to combine. Combine all ingredients together in a large bowl until fully incorporated. Taste and add more salt or pepper if needed. Refrigerate for at least an hour and serve.

To the Mullies we go...

xoxoL

Chef's Tasting Table Day 2 // A Pear Challenge

Our second Chef's Tasting Table was all about pears!

With every trip into the lunchroom, we aim to introduce new foods, new tastes, new experiences and new ideas about REAL FOOD! How can we inspire students to think more about:

What is IN the food they eat?
Where is their food coming from?

AND of course, to inspire them to try cooking from scratch more often with their families.

Puppies and Pears... This was my favorite trip to the farm yet! These gorgeous Asian Pears are sourced from one of Prairie Wind Farm's partner farms, Mick Klug Farm in St. Joseph Michigan.

Skoop and the Chef Ann Foundation Organization teamed up to launch the Project Produce Grant Program which awarded Diamond Lake District 76's West Oak School $2500 in funds to help give all students access to more fresh produce and food education during the school day.

I dropped a pear off with Chef Rob at his local Mundelein Cooking School, Youthage Culinary, and you won't believe what he did with it to inspire the students!

He made us a BEAUTIFUL plate of poached pears!

I love what Sue Kruckman, the District 76 Wellness Chair and West Oak School Nurse has created for the lunchroom Tasting Table announcement board. This food education rocks!

Thank you Mary and Preferred Meals for joining our pear challenge! Every student (regardless if they purchased a lunch) received a D'anjou pear! It's amazing to collaborate and have even more real school food for ALL!

It was so fun having both Chef Rob and Chef Tracy from Youthage join me at the tasting table. The kids LOVED learning about how to poach pears and they could not believe you turned them RED!

Well, it looks like the Asian pears were the winner this time around! It was a tough call for me, but the D'anjou pears had some wonderful tartness... so the green little guys got my vote:)

Enjoy the following recipes we gave out to the students and faculty to get cooking with pears! 

Inspired? We'd love to hear from YOU and see what kinds of things you are are cooking up this holiday season!! Please feel free to share any of your recipes and/or adventures in the kitchen with our local Lake County Food Revolution Facebook page so that we can inspire each other to get cooking with our kids! 

Stay tuned, our next West Oak Chef's Tasting Table will be on December 13th!

ENJOY!! 

To the Mullies we go...

xoxoL

Chef Rob’s Poached Pears

SIMPLE SYRUP

1cup Water

1cup Honey or Sugar (try using coconut sugar!)

1. BRING ABOVE INGREDIENTS TO A BOIL, THEN REDUCE HEAT. 

2. ADD FOLLOWING INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup Pomegranate syrup or juice

1/4 cup Passion fruit syrup or honey

2 tbsp Lemon juice

2 to 3 Pears (large)

3. PEAL THE PEARS.

4. ADD PEARS TO LIQUID AND COOK ON LOW HEAT FOR 40 MINUTES. 
5. SERVE WITH VANILLA ICE CREAM. DRIZZLE ANY REMAINING SYRUP OVER THE ICE CREAM.

Youthage Culinary

Farm Kitchen Pear Tart

Crust
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 tablespoon cold, unsalted butter
2 tablespoons canola oil
1-2 tablespoons cold water

Filling
1 large ripe, firm pear, peeled and thinly sliced
1 teaspoon plus 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, divided, plus additional for dusting
2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Toss pear slices, 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a bowl.
3. Whisk 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour and the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in another bowl. Cut in butter with fork until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle oil over the mixture and stir with a fork until evenly combined. Add 1 tablespoon water and stir until the dough just stays together when pressed with a fork; add up to 1 additional tablespoon of water if the dough seems too dry.
4. Line a work surface with parchment paper, generously dust with flour and turn the dough out onto it. Form the dough into a small patty, dust the top with flour and roll into a 10-inch circle, adding more flour if necessary to prevent sticking. Transfer the crust to a baking sheet with parchment paper.
5. Lay the pear slices in decorative, overlapping circles on top of the crust, leaving a 1-inch border around the edge. Spoon any remaining pear juice over the slices. Pick up the edges of the crust using a spatula and fold over the pears. The crust will not meet in the center.
6. Bake the tart until lightly browned and bubbling, about 40 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.  Serves 2-3.

From the farm kitchen of Prairie Wind Family Farm 

www.prairiewindfamilyfarm.com