Sofia Rivera was the first to arrive for cooking class and immediately assured us that her beautifully sparkling nails would not interfere: “I can cook with nails — trust me.” she said. “My mom is a nail tech.”
As the other students arrived, we reviewed the rules of the kitchen, first off: tying back hair and washing hands.
“We are going to have fun,” I told them, “And we are going to make really good, healthy food, But we are working with sharp knives and hot pans. So we need to be so careful, we need to work together as a team, and we all need to pitch in for clean up.”
These students were all in and so eager to start on our first recipe, Breakfast Burritos. They had no trouble identifying the onions, peppers, garlic, spinach, black beans, eggs, tortillas, cheese and avocado we’d be using. And they quickly grasped the steps of the recipe: chop and then cook the vegetables, then spoon them onto a tortilla, top with scrambled eggs and grated cheese, fold them up and put them in the oven to melt the cheese.
Genesis Bautista and Sofia Rivera were so careful with their knives, each of them stepping away from the table to wipe their eyes with a wet towel as they chopped the onions. Yet they weren’t giving up. They were having so much fun, those onions were diced down to perfection. Amelia Barragan took care to remove the papery skin on the garlic, before mincing.
Christopher Ramirez took on the job of dicing the pepper, while Hugo Marcelino volunteered to grate the cheese. Hugo has never grated cheese before, certainly not a whole block of cheddar, and we showed him how to apply enough pressure to create nice thin strips. After he was done, he lifted up the grater — to see a mountain of cheese collapse on the cutting board. “Whoa, that’s a lot of cheese,” he said proudly.
Genesis was ready at the skillet, carefully sautéing the onions and peppers, while Amelia measured and spooned in just the right amount of paprika. “This smells like my mom’s food,” Christopher said, as the aroma wafted through the kitchen. “I don’t like junk food. It can give you stuff like diabetes. That’s why my Mom gives me healthy good.”
The boys each added two cups of spinach to the skillet and then took a turn stirring, also adding the can of black beans.
“I think I like cooking now,” said Hugo.
Sofia and Amelia were so happy to crack the eggs, and had such smiles on their faces as they cracked them into the bowl. Each carefully picked out a shell. They wanted this perfect. Eight perfect yolks in the bowl. The kids were so hungry and so many teachers could smell the sautéed onions and came by asking if they could have whatever we were cooking that we decided we better cook all dozen eggs. We’d need all the burritos we could make!
Sofia scrambled the eggs and mastered the technique of stirring the eggs around the skillet, keeping them moving to scramble, but also giving them a few seconds between stirring to cook.
And now it was time to assemble the burritos. A spoon of vegetables, a spoon of scrambled eggs, a healthy topping of cheese, and then fold up the burrito and wrap it in foil. Everyone pitched in. “Teamwork makes the dream work,” said Hugo, sprinkling cheese. “We’re good at cooking!” said Amelia, as she deftly wrapped a burrito in foil. As Hugo loaded the tray of burritos into the oven, he didn’t try to contain himself. “I’m excited!!!!”
After five minutes, Christopher pulled the warm burritos out of the oven, and both the sight and the smell overwhelmed him with glee. “Woah!!!” he said. Then to the others as he’s carrying it to the table, “Hot pan. Hot pan!”
We had three extra burritos, which the children distributed to some teachers, giving their foil package a moment to cool. And then, after a quick blessing, they dug in.
“Oh, cheesy,” said one on first bite.
“Oh, it’s sooo good,” said Christopher.
“Oh, yeah. 10 out of 10!!!!” said Sofia, and then confessed, “I normally don’t like scrambled eggs.”
“And that is the whole point,” I said. “You loved this. You like scrambled eggs with onions and peppers and cheese and black beans in a tortilla… That is why it is so important to be open to trying new things!”
These children were so proud of themselves. They worked together so well. Sofia was a superhero of dishwashing, Amelia and Hugo helped dry dishes and wiped down the prep table, Genesis and Christopher, who are cousins, were sweeping the floor together at the end, one with the broom, the other with the dust pan. A couple of the children only ate a few bites of their burritos and wrapped them back in the foil because they wanted to take them home and share with their families, to show them what they had cooked.
As good as this food tasted, and as much fun as it was to prepare, there was also a great sense of accomplishment. They had prepared this meal. They had cooked something so good, so healthy and so fun to do.
