Cooking up a Storm in ESL!!

Last week Levels 3 and 4 had a blast cooking up a storm in the last hours of class! What was on the menu?? Chocolate pancakes and Mexican bean dip--yum!  So what does it mean to "cook up a storm"?  This is a common idiom used here in the United States that generally means "to make a good or great meal". Check out the link to Urban Dictionary here:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cooking%20up%20a%20storm

For the past few lessons, we have been focusing on culinary vocabulary and terminology needed in the kitchen to "cook up a storm"!  This week is going to be one of celebration and a lot of cooking and eating--starting with the recipe swap and then the Thanksgiving Day party. I'm sure many of us were "cooking up a storm" to prepare for these ESL events! After the recipe swap Tuesday, more pictures will be posted, as well as the winning recipe contest winners' recipes!! Will yours be the best?

Here's an awesome recipe for yummy chocolate pancakes like the ones we made in class:

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
2 Tbsp. white sugar
2 Tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 egg beaten
1 cup milk
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
 1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips!!!
Directions:

1. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in milk, egg and oil. Mix until smooth.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.  Add chocolate chips to batter after your pour it into the pan--yummmmy!

Disussion question for the day:  "What is your favorite Thanksgiving Day dish?"  Respond in the comment box below.

Here's some photos of Levels 3 and 4 'cooking up a storm!' It was delicious!

Adding in chocolate chips to the pancake batter---delicious!

Looking good while they wait for the pancakes to cook.

Of course there's always dirty dishes to clean up after.....

Checking to see if the pancakes are ready to flip!

Voila!! One group shows off their culinary creation of yummy Mexican bean dip.

Welcome to Our Blog!!!

Hello everyone!! This is our new blog. For our first assignment, lets brainstorm for ideas and cool things we can post, exchange and chat about on our blog. Dicussion topic: Think about a time when you couldn't get your words or images to express quite what you wanted to express. What do you think the problem was? For bonus points, try again. :)