Our 10-year-olds cooks were full of energy for cooking class this week. I wanted to think it was enthusiasm for being back in class after two weeks off, or excitement for the pasta recipe on the menu. But I think the warm weather and sunshine after so much rain had a lot to do with it.

The children shared what their families served for Easter dinner: ham and turkey and rice and beans and fried chicken and macaroni and cheese. And several students said they helped, or cooked something else at home, including scrambled eggs, tacos, and as Jason Vargas said sheepishly, “I made myself a sandwich.”

That counts! As Michael Pollen said, anything you make yourself is probably going to be healthier than if you buy it prepared.

These students are now proficient at reading through the recipe and identifying the ingredients. “Meat!” Christopher Velez exclaimed when he saw the turkey sausage.

They were puzzled by only one ingredient, the lemon. “Why would you put lemon in pasta?” said Hermione Gerena.

“Excellent question,” I told her. “I want you all to wait and see when we are done and see if you can taste it.”

They moved quickly through the chopping of the onion and garlic and broccoli, and then onto the grating of the lemon zest and cheese. They are so good at remembering to use the “bear claw” technique when cutting. And they all loved the squishy job of squeezing the sausage of the the casing (all except Hermione, who politely declined).

Sofia Gutierrez took on the job of sauteing the sausage. “It’s kind of like cooking scrambled eggs,” she observed. “You have to break up the lumps and make sure it’s cooked through.” So true!

Hermione helmed the pasta station, watching the timer to add the broccoli after the pasta cooked to al dente. But when she checked the pasta, it was still pretty hard. And we couldn’t figure out why. It turned out our counter top stove had been turned down to low, so the water was not boiling.

“All lessons to learn,” I said. We got the water boiling again and added the pasta and the broccoli “When you’re cooking, you can often fix things that go wrong,” as long as you are checking things along the way, told them.

In spite of that minor delay, we got the meal together and the kitchen cleaned up in record time. And it was probably our most popular dish yet, the overwhelming favorite, so far, to serve to family for our last week. Though the pasta and sausage were gobbled up, there was some broccoli left on the sides of some plates, but they all gave it a try,

All the students remarked that they could taste the lemon. I explained how the acid in the lemon gives a dish a little brightness.

“It’s a little pop!” said Ivan Cortez.

We had enough time for the students to write a poem about cooking class.

I loved them all, but especially the honesty from Christopher:

“Squeezing the turkey is satisfying.

The pasta is good and acid.

It looked attractive, it looked fancy.

I had never tried broccoli and I didn’t like it very well.”