We recently read the story Jalapeno Bagels from the second grade readers. Ds wants to make the chango bars. I noticed that the recipe says 1/2 butter and then 1/2 cup margarine. I have never had a chango bar before and don't really know what to expect but it looks like it is a cross between brownies and chocolate chip cookies? I was wonderig if it would make a difference if we just use 1 cup of butter instead. We don't normally have margarine in the house. Has anyone else done this recipe? How did it turn out? How would you describe chango bars? Was it worth the effor tto make? Woudl you make them again?

 Also ds wants to make the Jalapeno bagels. If anyone has made them how spicy would you rate them? Would you reduce the amount of peppers or they were awesome as the recipe is?

In regards to the thunder cake recipe I am wondering how that turned out if anyone made it. It was looking really good until I noticed it called for pureed tomatoes. I like tomatoes but I neve saw anyone use them in a chocolate cake before so I was kind of wondering how that tastes and if one actually notices the tomatoes or not. We are reading that story tomorrow but I don't know if we are daring enough to try this one or not.

When I make chocolate chip cookies, I use half butter and half Crisco. This affects the height and volume of the finished product. We didn't make Chango bars, but I suggest shortening for the margarine.

We didn't try the Thunder Cake, either, but the Ed counselors say it is delicious. I just didn't have the ingredients. I wish I had tried harder to get them. Kids are more likely to enjoy the taste of something they made themselves.

Kathy King

 I used all butter for the chango bars.  They were wonderful.  Never made the Jalapeno bagels. I'm allergic to peppers.  Thunder cake was splendid!  I couldn't tell my older kids about the tomato.  One of my girls found out and you'd think I tried to murder her, she hollered so much.  (She also hollered about the sauteed strawberries I served for dessert last night.  Very conventional kid.)

I have to say that we try all the Calvert recipes.  We are truly sorry they don't suggest any after 4th grade.  The kids love having "their" recipes become part of our lexicon of food.

Jacque,

We are such avid bakers in my house that I totally understand when you say "They are delicious and weill be gone soon and you will not know I ever cooked them." 

We will do the chango bars today and use all butter. I never have margaraine and I thought it odd to see that they would use 1/2 cup of each instead of a whole cup of one or the other. I had thought about using shortenign as another poster suggested if the cup of butter didn't work. So then they are like brownies then...that is also what I wanted to know. I had no idea what a chango bar was but the picture inthe book looked kind of like a brownie.

Here is the Jalapeno Bagel recipe which was right after the chango bars in the houghton mifflin second grade reader "Delights"

Jalapeno Bagels

1 3/4 cups lukewarm water

1/2 teaspoon dry yeast

2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

5 to 6 cups flour

1/3 cup jalapenos

1/4 cup dried red peppers

Mix water, yeast, salt, sugar. Add flour and jalapenos and mix into a ball. Knead for 10-12 minutes, adding more flour if necessary, until the dough is stiff. Add red peppers and knead for 3 minutes. Let the dough reast tenminutes, then cut into twelve peices with a knife.

Roll each piece of dough on a table to form long tube-like shapes. Then, for each of the twelve pieces, connect the two ends by overlapping them about 3/4 of an inch and rolling the ends together to make a ring shpe. Make sure each joint is secure or it will come apart while boiling.

Cover with a damp towel and let rise 1 to 1 1/2 hours in a warm spot. In a large pot, bring 1 to 2 gallons of water to a rolling boil. Place bagels in boiling water and boil until they float (15 to 30 second). Remove with a slotted spoon and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees F for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

We are planning to do these on the weekend and I guess we will try the thunder cake sometime next week...okay we are having guests on Tuesday and maybe we can serve it to them and if they eat it and like it maybe I will get the guts to eat a slice! Well, the tomato is acidic so it will react with the baking soda in the recipe...perhaps if you omit the pureed tomatoes you might try buttermilk.

Hi Marjie,

 Hahaha that is so funny...You know I think I was a lot like your daughter too when I was younger. I am pretty brave now about trying things these days but now and then I am a bit squimish like tomato puree in cake lol but years ago I would have thrown a hissy if I found out their was tomatoes in my cake. Odd really because it is technically a fruit and it is usually sweet too but I guess when you aren't used to something it takes a while to become acqauinted with it and to truly appreciate it. I used to be squimish about soy milk and tofu and now I love the stuff! Actually, I grew up in a home where most of the cooking was boxes and cans so it was more like heat and serve so when I started cooking on my own when I got married and the first tiem I touched hamburger meat was perhaps the grossest thing I think I ever felt lol. I also say that Jacque's advice on the peppers is right on lol because that was another funny incident from my early cooking adventures LOL LOL LOL :) I always use gloves when I work with meat and peppers LOL :)

It is nice to know that there will be no more recipes after 4th. Too bad but we have tons of cookbooks and we do most of our cooking from scratch anyway so the kids will still get a lot of exposure to cooking and bakign in some form or other. WE loved the recipes in the K manual and in the first grade readers. We plan to start again with Calvert for fourth grade. We used K and first, and then bought most of the same materials that calvert uses for second and third but decided to skip on getting calverts LM's because of the costs and that they were too hard to adapt for ds's needs but I think 4th will be appropriate since it takes the fundamentals and applies them rather than focusing on the teaching of reading and math as it was in the younger grades.

Our bars are in the oven now making the house smell just awesome. They do look thicker than the brownies...okay and I just had to taste the batter too lol and so I am not sure we can wait for them to cool! MMMMMM :)

Hi!

 I know this message is older, but I wanted to reply still. My daughter made Thundercake last year, and I wanted to let you know it was so good! Don't be afraid of the unusual ingredients, they just add to the moistness of the cake. She made it for a church picnic and was so proud to say she made it "all by herself". People at church still mention it and tell her she needs to make it again!!