The ingredients for our final class were a bit intimidating, covering most of the prep table in the cafeteria kitchen: four pounds of ground turkey, six pounds of potatoes, two onions, two carrots, four eggs, a box of oatmeal, ketchup, a stick of butter, two apples, two pears, a bag of cranberries, flour, sugar and spices.

“That is a lot of stuff!” said Joel Palillero when he arrived.

“I know,” I said. “We are cooking for 20!”

And in two hours, this team of students that had been learning cooking skills for the previous seven weeks, would attempt to transform those ingredients into a special meal for their families and guests: Turkey Meatloaf, Smashed Potatoes and, for dessert, Apple, Pear and Cranberry Crisp.

Unfortunately, one of our cooks, Leilah Cruz, went home sick that day, so we were short-handed, but these kids, did not flinch. “We can do it!” said Jizelle Santos, perhaps the most confident and experienced of the bunch, this being her second time taking the class.

The kids took charge, with Joel grating the carrots, Jizelle, equipped with goggles, chopping the onion, Margie Hernandez and Gabriella Diaz peeling and chopping the apples and pears.

These kids had made the meal before, so they knew they had to get the meatloaf and the crisp in the oven to bake before they even started on the potatoes.

What a gift it was to see how comfortable they were in the kitchen, Miguel Montenaro and Joel measuring the ingredients for the crisp topping, while Margie and Gabriella laid the fruit in the pan.

“I made this dessert for my family at Thanksgiving!” said Margie proudly.

“So did I!” said Jizelle. “My grandma helped, but I did most of it by myself.”

Gabriella had also made it at home, only without the cranberries, because some in her family don’t like cranberries.

Over the course of the semester, these kids had made so many of our recipes at home: the fritattas, the tortilla soup, the guacamole, the cauliflower fried rice.

“You guys are amazing!” I gushed.

After the chopped fruit was laid in two baking pans, Margie dusted it with sugar. “It’s so pretty,” she said. “It looks like snow!”

Meanwhile, Jizelle and Gabriella were wrist deep in ground turkey, onions, eggs and oatmeal, mixing it all together for the meatloaves.

“It’s freezing!” said Gabrielle, standing on her tip toes to reach the counter because she is so short. “It kind of reminds me of massaging chicken,” she said, something she does at home.

“Okay,” said Jizelle confidently, “Now we are going to shape it into loaves.” She demonstrated for her classmates how to take a hunk of meat mixture, shape it into a ball, then flatten it, and expertly pat it into a rectangle.

Across the table, Miguel and Joel were mashing the soft butter into the flour, oatmeal and sugar for the crisp topping. I remembered back to the first week, when Miguel didn’t want to get his hands dirty. Now here he was smooshing his hands in the butter without a pause.

“It’s kind of fun,” he said. “It sort of feels like slime.”

When the topping was sprinkled on the fruit for the crisp, and the ketchup was brushed on the meatloaf, Gabriella took a moment to appreciate their work.

“Hallelujah, Hallelujah! Look how beautiful they are!” she exclaimed.

Next, we got the potatoes in a pot with water to boil, while the students cleaned up.

One of the teachers from the after school program poked her head into the cafeteria. “You’re making us insane!” she said. “It smells amazing!”

The students laid the tablecloths and set the tables and carried their feast into the party room, while some 20 parents and siblings filtered in.

And as I watched the students serve their meal with such pride, I realized how much they had grown in the last several weeks. They had gained confidence and kitchen skills, learned the value of working together as a team, and most importantly, in the joy of cooking at home with their families.

Our work was done.