One of the true joys of returning to the same school for cooking class each year is having our former students stop by to say hello and give a hug. One even said she was teary-eyed when she saw the kids lining up, because she wanted so much to come back to class. How heartwarming that the kids love the class so much, and how sad that we can’t have them all come back year after year! One consolation: We always offer our cooking grads to join us as an expert sub if a student is absent.
But we had a whole new crew to teach to cook, and these new kids were more than enthusiastic.
We started with the basic rules of hand-washing, kitchen safety, trying new foods and respecting each other.
Then the kids offered a few of their own: “Be kind and don’t sabotage the food,” said Milany Rubert. “Don’t run with a knife,” said Ezian Delgado, whose English is limited but whose classmates were quick to translate his Spanish. “Have confidence in yourself,” said Laura Ramos.
“I think we should add those to our list!” I told them. It was clear to me that they all took the kindness rule to heart, especially when translating and explaining everything to Ezian.
We were preparing Yogurt Parfait with Homemade Granola, a simple recipe for our first week that focused on the importance of eating breakfast, and trying to include the basic food groups, protein, grains, fruits and vegetables, and dairy.
As we were reviewing the recipe and identifying the ingredients — yogurt, oats, strawberries, blueberries and bananas — we saw that we included everything but the vegetables!
Our first task was to prepare the granola, which was a lesson in measuring all the ingredients. “Look,” said Angy Reyes. “The butter has the measurement right on it.”
They were introduced to measuring tools, dry and wet measuring cups and measuring spoons, to measure the brown sugar, oats, quinoa, slivered almonds, pumpkin seeds and salt. The butter was melted and brown sugar stirred in, and then everyone wanted a turn stirring all the ingredients together
“It smells so good, said Taylor Rodriguez, taking her turn with the spoon. “I think it smells like popcorn.”
Ezian took great pride in spreading out the granola mixture on the sheet pan, pushing the grains into all the corners before we popped it in the oven.
Next we were cleaning and slicing the fruit, which included a lesson in how to hold the knife, and the most important rule: Concentrate on what you are slicing. Don’t look at anything else or have a side conversation, as that is how injuries happen. Thankfully, we got through our first week with no blood!
“What does bite-sized mean?” one of the students asked. “Just what it sounds like, the size for a small bite in your mouth,” I told them. I learned I had to be more precise when some argued they could pop a whole strawberry into their mouth.
As we were waiting for the granola to bake, Miss Belinda, my fellow teacher, explained the clean-up procedure and how everyone took turns with ALL the jobs. The prep table was cleared and wiped down, and the table was set with our tablecloth and silverware. We arranged all the cut-up fruits in bowls. Next came time for each student to create their own parfait, alternating spoonfuls of yogurt, fruit and granola into a plastic cup.
“I love it,” said Angy. “It’s layers, like making a lasagna!”
The students were so excited about their results, with all of them coming back for seconds and taking home some leftover granola for their families. They also wrote in the journals with great descriptions of the class and the parfaits.
“I love cooking so far!” wrote Taylor. “The food tasted creamy, fluffy, fruity, sweet and crunchy.”
“I thought cooking class was very fun because I learned how to make something new,” wrote Brianna Veletenga.
“It was so good,” wrote Angy. “The food was creamy and crunchy and the fruits were sweet.”
“I had a really great time,” wrote Milany. “I’m sooo glad we got to make Yogurt Fruit Parfait with Granola. It was sooo good and I’m going to make it for my family. All together it was sweet, sour, crunchy, creamy, and of course, delicious!”
And the translation from Ezian’s writing in Spanish: “It felt like a grand experience.”
