Cooking Camp

If my stained apron, the bags under my eyes, or the odor of onions emanating from my clothes are any indication, it was a productive week.  It was also a great one.  Really great!

For those of you who are wondering, a while back, I decided to run a summer cooking camp out of my school.  This is, after all, why I enrolled in culinary school- to teach kids how to make and love great, healthy food.  I figured that I'd start with the kids I already know and love so that it would be a good learning experience but fun too!

My theme for this summer (if you know anything about me, you know how I feel about themes!) was "A Trip Around the World."  It was inspired by some vintage travel stickers that I picked up when shopping one day.  Each day, we "visited" a different country to learn about how they eat, the ingredients they use, and we made a complete meal based on that country.  The kids kept their recipes, chef's hat, and aprons in "suitcases" I made from expanding file folders, ribbon, and scans of said travel stickers and each day, I decorated our classroom to represent the country we were studying that day.  Did I mention that I love themes??

The best part of doing this camp, though, was being in the kitchens with those kids.  I had great help- I had to- with the 15 kids in the morning and 15 kids in the afternoon.  We worked in stations that the kids rotated through, meaning that every kid had an opportunity to make every recipe.  I was so impressed with how well the campers did with the recipes, and how they were willing to try things they've never tried before- like hummus.  That didn't mean that every recipe was their favorite, but I had some pretty adventuresome palates in my group. Honestly, the hummus wasn't super popular- but they tried it!

Favorite recipes of the week were sweet and sour chicken from China, Croque Monsieur from France, and kebabs from the Middle East.  The hands-down favorite, though, was definitely making bread.  We did this in honor of France, naturally.  There was something the kids loved about the mixing, kneading, smelling the yeast, watching the dough rise, and tapping the baked bread to see if it was done.  (It should sound hollow.)  I even caught out of the corner of my eye one of the little ones sneaking a taste of yeast (straight) when she thought I wasn't looking.  Too funny!

I'm so grateful to have has this experience.  I learned so much and had a great time doing it.  I'm ready to start work on the curriculum for session 2 of camp, but in the meantime, you can enjoy my session 1 pictures here.