5/24/2022 0 Comments Week 12: The last blog!!! This is the final week of Genius Hour and we are both on our A-game. This week nothing no editing was produced and only 2 loaves of bread were produced in the kitchen for a comparison between the qualities of bread. One being zucchini and the other is pumpkin. This week has mainly been a full grind on our presentations and doing tests for various classes.
Bryce: It has been a wild (and very slow) ride. Spencer got a lot done in these few weeks and I am glad I was a part of it. I wish I would have gotten to edit more, but I think what we did have is perfect for talking points whether good or bad. I will try to get those steak videos in at least by the end of the school year. Spencer: I know I have stated many times that “this has been a crazy week”, but I must say that this one has been like no other. This week I have had many tests, volunteering events, and projects to do, and it has almost overwhelmed me. But despite these set backs, I have preserved on making pumpkin bread and finishing my genius hour slides. For the slides, I used a pregenerated template and based the slides off of the design. I included pictures of the products I have produced, videos of the cooking experience by Bryce, and even a loaf of pumpkin bread for everyone to eat in preparation for the presentation and hope that what I have is very presentable to my peers. This project has been a wild ride this year and I hope that everyone has had as much fun as I had on this project. This is Spencer Melton signing off on the final blog of Genius hour 2022!
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5/15/2022 3 Comments Week 11: 1 week to go!!!1 week to go, and this week has been crazy. Along with AP exams and being sick for half the week has really hindered our progress, but that's not to say there was not a lot of planning going into the final week. From editing, to talking to classmates, a lot has been going on this past week and we would like to address that in this blog.
Bryce: 1 more blog!!! This has been a very eventful week. Those ap exams were a real challenge. not only mentally, but as a literal block in our schedule. It really messed with a lot of my video making, so I have just given up on making the other videos. I am going to put my time into making the final video since we probably record Spencer's last cooking session. I’ll be sure to at least get some clips/photos for him. As for the final video, I am probably going to make a video that consists of the things I have learned in the past weeks. I hope everyone has a good time making their final presentations! Spencer: This week has been an especially crazy and challenging week, starting off with coming back mid week. Just recovering from COVID, I had to come back into school on Wednesday this week which immediately threw a wrench into my schedule. Missing both Monday and Tuesday made me miss 2 crucial days that I could have used to make connections with another student for the grand finale. However, when I returned on Wednesday, we talked about the plan and most was resolved. For this weekend, I have begun to plan my schedule for the final project and what to make in it. I have several ideas such as bringing my food to a Birthday party or cooking for people on Sunday. On an off note, my family decided to get a new kitten this weekend, he is orange and is about 6 weeks old! 2 weeks left! We have made our way through almost the whole project and we have learned so much. We will be pleased to talk about all we have learned. We have been working hard (maybe not particularly smart) and are almost through. Bryce: I have taken this week to learn more ways to make the video. I have learned how to better position the camera. The only unfortunate thing this week is that Spencer is sick. He can fill you in better in his portion. I did give him the run-down. I plan to make two last videos. One for a breakdown and one for the final cooking video. This project has been fun, but they haven’t been the most quality videos. I don’t know if I should write a document for people to read or if I should include it in the breakdown. Spencer: It is finally here, the STEAK VIDEO!!! I have seen many comments over the past semester asking for a well cooked steak to make for on the weekends to enjoy with family and boy have I delivered. I have gone all out for this special occasion picking out a well marbled New York strip from the chilled meats section. Always make sure your meat is fresh, never frozen #NotSponseredByWendys™, #WouldLikeToBeSponseredByWendys™, to ensure quality of the meat. I then took it home and seasoned it with Kirkland steak seasoning. Salt and pepper would also go well as a steak seasoning but it doesn´t matter. I then preheated a cast iron skillet that holds heat really well to medium high temperature and added in around a 1/4th of a cup of olive oil. This allowed me to, once putting the steak in, to sear the outside of the steak and seal in the juices. Next, I added in Thyme and Rosemary spices along with butter to the oil. This will add the flavor to the steak and ensure it is savory. After reaching an internal temperature of around 145 degrees, I took out the steak from the pan and rested it on a plate for around 5 minutes. The second I took a bite I discovered that it needed more flavor but was overall very savory. This however could have been due to the Covid, so you never know! Not an overall success for say, but definitely not a failure! 5/1/2022 0 Comments Week 9: The home stretchAnother off week! We have still been working on our project and we have something in special in-store. Since we are almost done we will be compiling what we have learned even if it wasn’t much, you can at least learn from what we should and shouldn’t have done.
Bryce: This week has been a pretty slow week. I have been pretty busy this weekend but hopefully, the third vid will be coming out tomorrow. I haven’t really spent this week much on the genius hour project, but I have been planning. We have acknowledged that you guys want a steak video. I have also been worried about Spencer's knife skills, so he has been looking into some so we don’t have to edit a video of him getting stitches in the hospital. Imagine this title, ¨WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT, THE ACCIDENT¨. Spencer: Hello fellow humans. We are now in the home stretch of not only genius hour but in school as well. Knowing this I am looking forward a great end to this project. After last time making the spaghetti sauce and Bryce suggesting knife skills so I don´t die from blood loss in a video, ¨aka, a great way to get views¨” I have taken the liberty to search up tutorials to learn these skills. The main thing I have taken away from this is to make sure to always sharpen your knife first, which was most likely the problem last time. Also, always point the tip out to where you want to cut and slice forward in a U like fashion. On response for your calls for a steak video, I have found a suitable piece of meat for the job that models a New York strip and plan to pan roast it with garlic butter. I can´t wait to make this DELICIOUS CREATION!!! 5/1/2022 0 Comments Week 8: Back to work . . .Welcome back, everyone! I know that everyone is really excited to be back in school! YEAH GO TO SCHOOL! Anyway, after taking a long rest, we both knew it was time to get back to work. So, we decided to take it easy this week by showing you how to make a homemade spaghetti sauce recipe that is from my dad.
Bryce: This week was a blessing and a curse for me. First off, there won’t be a video of the recipe this week. I am sure I and Spencer will probably make a recipe (possibly modified to keep it secret). The reason for this missing video is that someone's camera died mid-recording and we lost the footage. I will find something else to edit or learn though. I am currently learning how to use each individual type of cut for a video and I will try to implement that into a different video. I still need to finish the third video. That one has been postponed for too long and it is honestly driving me insane. In other news, I did see that someone wanted to do a steak video so that might be coming up soon depending on how much I can manipulate sway Spencer into doing it. Spencer: Hello everyone and welcome back to cooking/baking with Spencer. This week has been pretty stressful and a rude awakening to my Spring Break oriented brain. So, in order to not be overwhelmed and to collaborate with my parents schedule, I decided to make my dads homemade, original spaghetti sauce. I started with browning lean, ground beef. This is just up to personal preference buy you can use any fat ratio you want. Next I diced us peppers and onions into medium fine pieces and set them aside to wait while I poured in already pre-made tomato sauce into the now browned meat. Finally, I put in the peppers and onions into the now boiling pot of tomato sauce and beef. From there I turned down the heat and let it simmer for around 45 minutes. Its a pretty simple recipe really but it is absolutely amazing on any type of pasta. 5/1/2022 0 Comments Week 7: SPRING BREAK!!!Spring Break is finally here and so is the mind set of break as well. We didn’t really do much this week due to the amount of tests coming up for us. Bryce has just been finishing up the editing from last week and Spencer has been preparing recipes for after spring break. I think its about time for a rest.
Bryce: I am still working on the third video. I probably won’t be able to work on it over the break but I am still finding the time for it. I will be learning more stuff about the video production aspect, even if I don’t get to put that into practice. I will have some sort of document typed up for the stuff I learned and also the struggles. I will probably be putting that on the website for everyone to use for future reference in case you guys plan on doing something like this in the future. Hey everyone, I know everyone is excited for spring break and so am I. This week I have very busy tying up the final bits of my work including preparing for tests so I have been pretty busy. This is not to say I don´t look at the comments asking for suggestions. Recently, I have seen many requests for a steak video and I am here to say that it is a priority of mine. I have been wanting to do that video for a long time but due to the wide variety of options and the unavailability of good meat to cook with has left me empty handed. However, my dad recently bought part of a cow, and the fresh meat should be coming in over the break. Hopefully, I can find a New York strip among the batch. I hope everyone has a good break! |
CategoriesSpencer Melton and Bryce EllisSophomores at Davie County High School Archives
May 2022
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