Video Transcript:
Hello again junior scientists! But today we’re not going to be junior scientists because we’re going to be junior chefs with our Story Explorers program. Today’s activity is brought to you by one of my favorite books of all time, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Now this is the time of year that is filled with so much yummy and delicious food and I know that we like to help our families out in the kitchen. So make sure you check out, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.
Today we’re going to be talking a little bit about food. And I’ll be sharing two recipes with you today, okay? One is for a chocolate pizza, I know, so excited! And another one is for an ice cream cone fruit cornucopia, which is also going to be really, really delicious.
Now one of the things that is always really great to have is a recipe book and you can either buy a recipe book or you can make your own recipe book and as you discover new recipes you can add them. So for me, this is mine and I actually added the two recipes that I’ll be doing today into my own recipe book. So that’s something really exciting to have that you can build over lots and lots of time.
Now as you know a recipe basically gives us step-by-step instructions on how to make something. We use measurement to measure cups and liquids can be in ounces or milliliters. So there’s a lot that goes into actually making something.
Today’s recipe is super easy and you’re going to get to be really, really, really creative and hopefully our book today, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, will also inspire you to make some really creative things.
So we’re going to start with our dessert pizza first and with our dessert pizza I’m using a pita. But you can use anything you want as your base. You can use a rice cake, you can use a tortilla, you can use, if you’re feeling really crazy, you can even use a cookie!
Once you get your base, so for me I have my pita bread you’re going to want to get your chocolate spread and I like the little packs of chocolate spread but you can also use peanut butter if you wanted to or anything else you want to act as your sauce, okay?
So I am using a chocolate base, what I’m going to do now then is I’m going to take my chocolate sauce and squeeze it on or spread it on to my pita bread. From there, I’m going to spread with my knife. Now if you are one of my younger junior chefs, you might want to ask a grown-up for some help with that. If not, go ahead and spread, spread, spread. Spread as much or as little as you like, okay? That’s up to you! I like a lot so I’m going to add a lot.
From there comes the fun part, my favorite part at least, the toppings! Love the toppings part! Now I like fruit with my chocolate spread and I especially love bananas. So I’m going to cut up a banana, and once again if you’re one of my junior chefs make sure you have a grown-up nearby to help cut up some of your fruits if you’re adding them to it, okay? So I cut up my banana and I add it to my pita base.
From there, you know what I really love raspberries, so I’m going to add some raspberries.* Once again pop on some raspberries.
*NOTE: Although Miss Erin said raspberries, in the video she is using blackberries, which are just as delicious and work well on dessert pizza too! She also apologizes for the confusion 😊)
Last but not least, just to add little more flavor and add a little more sweetness, I’m going to add some dried cranberries. I love dried cranberries.
All right, so I’ve added my toppings on my pizza, now it’s time to cut it into little triangles, because as we know, a pizza is always in triangles. I’m going to cut it up, once again junior chefs grab a grown-up.
Now that is a good dessert pizza! And like I was saying before friends, you can be as creative as you like.
So our next recipe, is our fruit cornucopia. Around Thanksgiving time, a cornucopia is one of those, looks like a little tube. Surprisingly, it looks like an ice cream cone, so that’s why we’re going to be making those today.
All right, so first things first, you’ll want to take your sugar cone and you’ll want to take a piece of parchment paper, which looks like this, you can get it at any grocery store, Target, anywhere like that and you’re going to want to cut a little piece off. The easiest way to do it, is to take the corner and cut the corner, like that.
After you do that, you get kind of a triangular shape and you’re just going to slip that inside of your ice cream cone, okay? This makes sure that your ice cream cone doesn’t get soggy. Especially if you’re adding fruit, because fruit can be very, very wet and there’s nothing worse than a soggy ice cream cone, blech!
After you do that, just like with your dessert pizza you can add whatever you want to your fruit cornucopia. Once again, I’m going to add my bananas, because I love bananas. I’m going to stuff those all the way to the bottom. I’m going to add my raspberries, because I love my raspberries.*
*NOTE: Once again, Miss Erin realizes those are blackberries and apologizes for the confusion. She also loves blackberries as much as she loves raspberries. 😊
But this time I’m going to add something new, I’m going to add some apples because I love apples and fall is such a great apple time. So I’m going to stuff my apples in here and they’re going to kind of peek out a little bit and they’re going to create this cool, kind of cascading effect out of my ice cream cone. And we have our fruit cornucopias.
Easy peasy! Easy peasy my friends! So easy to make and it’s something really fun that you can do in the kitchen and maybe even make some for your family too and share with them because I’m sure they’d love to have all the recipes that you create as well.
So once you do that my friends, grab your recipe book and make sure you add these recipes to your own personal recipe book and make sure to check out, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and give that a read not just for inspiration for your fruit pizza and fruit cornucopia, but to also read a really great and funny story about the town of Chewandswallow.
That’s all the time I have today my friends. Thank you so much for joining me today for our Story Explorers program, my name is Ms. Erin and I’m your friendly neighborhood librarian! And we’ll see you next time with another fun and exciting activity.
Have a great day guys! Great job!