Don’t forget to submit your entries to the 4-H office by the 3rd of the next month! Send a photo of your completed challenge to somer.meade@wsu.edu to be entered into our drawing for prizes at the end of our 4-H year.
Instructions
MAY 2021
The Challenge: Using food only, create and edible & delicious portrait of a mom in your life. For example, you could use pancakes, berries, and whip cream to make your picture. Before it gets eaten, be sure to take a picture!
What you need: Depending on what you decide to make you could use any of the following- Plates, Forks, Cooking Spray, Frying Pans, Sauce Pans, Glass Pans, and Utensils. Don’t forget the food! Strategize with an adult for the safest way to create something.
Grab Paper and Pens for planning.
How to prepare: Look through your fridge, and consider what you have on hand and what might be needed. Look online or in cookbooks for ideas, consider making something fresh or reaching for left overs!
Make sure that the food you choose is tasty and safe to eat.
What to do: Choose your ingredients, wash your hands, and then play with your food! Recreate a photo or just capture her face with food. It should be tasty and the design should be clear.
Reflection Questions: What sort of food did you choose to use and why? What sort of techniques were used to make the portrait? What are some other possible ingredients you could have used? If you made it sweet, how could you transform it into something savory? If you made it savory, how could you transform it into something sweet?
Even More Fun: We recommend also asking someone in your family to be a judge! How many stars do they give your creation?
Make sure you give it a creative name!
For Fair Entry: You can document your process and your recipe, and create a poster or plan to give a demonstration or an educational presentation. You can also enter the photo!
Be sure to refer to the premium book for specifics!
Instructions
APRIL 2021
The Challenge: Test your creative cooking skills and reduce food waste! Open your fridge and use leftovers in a transformative way. Find something that you already have made (leftover rice, or veggies for example) and use those leftovers to make a dish that is very different.
For example, if you had white rice leftover from making curry, cook the rice on a skillet in oil and use the crunchy rice in burritos.
What you need: Depending on what you decide to make you could use any of the following- Plates, Forks, Cooking Spray, Frying Pans, Sauce Pans, Glass Pans, and Utensils. Strategize with an adult for the safest way to re-create something.
Grab Paper and Pens for planning.
How to prepare: Look through your fridge, and consider what you have on hand and what might be needed. Look online or in cookbooks for ideas, consider adding food to a recipe!
Make sure that the food you choose is still safe to eat.
Resource: Storage Times for Refrigerated Foods from the USDA
What to do: Look at your chosen leftover and describe what sort of food it is typically eaten with. Then, prepare your leftover in a new way to make a new type of dish!
Hint: potatoes, rice, vegetables are all easier to work with but you can be as creative as you want!
Reflection Questions: What sort of food did you start with and what did you end with? What sort of cooking technique was used on the first dish and what did you do for your dish? Are there other things that we transform so that we can use it again and again? Do you think you saved money by using up leftovers? Do you know how much food is wasted in your community each year? What else can you do to not waste food?
Research:
Even More Fun: We recommend also asking someone in your family to be a judge! How many stars do they give your creation?
If you made your own recipe make sure you give it a creative name!
For Fair Entry: You can document your process and your recipe, and create a poster or plan to give a cooking demonstration or an educational presentation.
If your meal came out great and you want to enter it in fair, make sure that you save all of the details of your recipe and process to ensure you can replicate it when fair rolls around. You can recreate the recipe for a judge during a cooking demonstration.
Be sure to refer to the premium book for specifics!
Instructions
MARCH 2021
The Challenge: Test your creative cooking skills! You will make the dessert of your choice from our random list of ingredients. Look at the list, choose your ingredient, and make something from a recipe or get creative!
What you need: Depending on what you decide to make you could use any of the following- Plates, Forks, Plastic Wrap, Muffin Pans, Cooking Spray, Frying Pans, Sauce Pans, Cookie Sheet, 9×9 Glass Pans, and Utensils.
Grab Paper and Pens for planning. You can choose any of the ingredients below to work with!
List of Ingredients to choose from for this challenge:
Flour, White Sugar, Brown Sugar, Salt, Pepper, Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Butter, Eggs, Cornstarch, Milk, Oil, Vanilla, Apple Cider Vinegar, Peach Pie Filling, Cherry Pie Filling, Cinnamon, Marshmallows, Yogurt, Fruit, Corn Chex Cereal, Nuts, Rice Krispies Cereal, Chocolate Chips, Butterscotch Chips, Mint Chips, Cocoa Powder, Blueberries, Raisins, Graham Crackers
How to prepare: Look over the supplies and ingredients, and consider what you have on hand and what might be needed. You will need to either find a recipe that uses the ingredients you have chosen or come up with your own recipe based on your knowledge of cooking/baking. Once you have decided, prepare your ingredients and supplies accordingly.
Resource: Baking ingredients & Function: A Breakdown(PDF)
What to do: With your recipe ready and the supplies and ingredients out, give yourself 30-60 minutes to put it all together. Follow your recipe, and aim to have a dessert that is nice in appearance, delicious in taste, good in texture, and stellar in overall quality!
Reflection Questions: What was the best thing about your dessert? Could it be improved upon or what would you change if you made it again? How can you pick good recipes in the future? What was the most important thing you learned from this activity?
Even More Fun: We recommend also asking someone in your family to be a judge! How many stars do they give your creation?
If you made your own recipe make sure you give it a creative name!
For Fair Entry: You can document your process and your recipe, and create a poster or plan to give a cooking demonstration or an educational presentation. If your dessert came out great and you want to enter it in fair, make sure that you save all of the details of your recipe and process to ensure you can replicate it when fair rolls around. Be sure to refer to the premium book for specifics. For the Skamania County Fair, there is a class for Baked Goods, Food Preparation, and Preservation (traditionally 501). Entry Rules according to the 2019 Premium Book: All exhibits must include the recipe on a 3 x 5 inch white index card with exhibitor’s name, class, and lot numbers. • If shortening is not used, please note such on recipe card and entry form. • Ready mixes will be accepted. Brand name and type of mix must be included on a 3 x 5 white index card with exhibitor’s name, class, and lot numbers. • Entries will be displayed on a sturdy paper plate, or cardboard cut to suitable size. • Entries may be reduced in size to allow space and to best show the entry. • Refrigeration is available. • All entries must be fresh, not previously frozen.
4-H Scorecard for Pies (PDF)
4-H Scorecard for Cakes, Cupcakes, & Cookies (PDF)
Activity adapted from Utah’s Discover 4-H Curriculum “4-H Cooking Challenge”