There was a lot of chopping for this week’s recipe — sweet potatoes to be cut in wedges and onions, celery and peppers to be diced for the Salmon Cakes — so each student found something to chop on their cutting board upon arrival. The sweet potatoes were the most challenging for some as they were hard to cut in half. But once halved, and the flat surface faced down, the kids sliced them into half moons pretty expertly, with only a few reminders to use the “bear claw” technique to prevent cut fingers.

“The sweet potatoes almost made me cut myself,” said Cassandra Callazo.

Almost, but we made it through six students cutting six potatoes with no cut fingers! What a joy to see how well these students were handling knives and how much they have learned in only three classes!

Sofia Gutierez thought the hardest part was chopping the onions: “My eyes were constantly burning!” she said. Yes, but she persisted, producing a beautiful diced pile.

We had a new student join us, Okee Ekeabu, who proved to be quite adept at sautéing those chopped veggies.

Sometimes young cooks have an aversion to getting their hands into the cooking process, but not these kids! Kevin Peralte dug his hands into the chopped sweet potatoes, and loved tossing them with olive oil, while his classmate Magic Mora sprinkled them with salt and paprika.

After the veggies were sauteed, they were mixed with the canned salmon, bread crumbs, eggs, mayonnaise and spice. Again, there was no hesitation to plunging hands into the fishy mix and shaping the mixture into beautiful patties. “It’s like hamburgers, except with tuna,” Cassandra said. Our team produced 17 salmon cakes!

After the salmon cakes and sweet potato wedges were put in the oven to roast, these students worked efficiently cleaning up and writing in their journals before the meal was served.

And it was perhaps the most popular yet, as the students raved about the results. “Really really good,” said Kevin. “Yummy” said Sofia.

“Can I bring some home to my Mom?”, asked Cassandra.

In the end, even when the kids had seconds there were some left to take home.

These students worked together quite well, preparing the meal, setting the table, serving the food and cleaning up, taking turns with all the jobs (even employing “Rock, Paper, Scissors” to decide who got to crack the eggs).

When asked what they learned about teamwork, they each had their own take:

“Helping set the table helps all of us,” wrote Cassandra.

“We can help each other,” wrote Kevin.

“Teamwork makes the dream work,” wrote Magic.

“When you’re working on a team, it’s much quicker and better,” wrote Sofia.

What wonderful lessons to learn at the age of 10!