The Children's Culinary Academy

Winter Holidays 2010

I ran three special events classes in December--Cookie Decorating, Sugar and Spice, and 3D Desserts. In Sugar and Spice we made some lovely ginger cookies, chocolate-dipped peanut butter pretzels, and sugar plums. It was the first time I let the kids use the tempering machine and I was a little worried that someone would drip water into the bowl, causing the chocolate to seize, but the kids were great and even though we had to rush to get it done, the pretzel rods looked beautiful and the chocolate was perfectly tempered. Sugar plums, a healthy treat, were a big hit with both the kids and parents, and everyone was happy with the ginger cookies. Of course, in my haste to get 10 kids through three recipes I only got one shot of a plate of sugar plums....

Not so on cookie decorating day, however! I managed to get quite a lot of pictures. Cookie decorating is always fun. I love to give kids a pile of undecorated cookies and watch them go wild with icing and sprinkles. They made fantastic treats for Santa!

 




Some were going to attempt to freeze them in hopes that they'd be able to keep them longer, but I have a feeling the icing probably gave them some trouble as it thawed (colors tend to run).  It's always good to try, though--that's how we learn.

The final day we attempted to do some three-dimensional food art and settled on the gingerbread trees (as seen in Martha Stewart Magazine) and some enormous, but strangely cute, Rudolph cake ball heads. The size of the heads wasn't planned. In fact, I'd originally intended them to be rather small, bite-sized lollipop-style cake balls a la Bakerella, but because we made the frosting and cake that day and had a very small window of opportunity, the cake didn't cool quickly enough, and the cake balls were sliding right off their sticks. We ended up just dunking them without sticks and all was well.

   



After all those classes were over I went home and made piles and piles of chocolate mice and chocolate peanut butter pretzels. And because of the work the kids and I did on the Rudolph cake balls, I was inspired to make chocolate-covered peanut butter pretzel Rudolphs too!

On to winter session now. Happy New Year, everyone!!

Winter Session and February Vacation

Happy New Year everyone! Just a quick post to let you know that classes at the Falmouth Police Athletic League will resume on Sunday, January 23! The winter session will run for five weeks, ending the Sunday before February vacation.

February vacation camp begins Monday, February 21 and runs through Febrary 25th. I hope to see you in the kitchen soon!

Be sure to check out the new website and click on the Schedule/Registration link at the top of the page to view the calendar.

Ghoulishious Grub!

Once again, for the fourth year in a row, the punch was putrid!  On top of that, the eggs were rotten, there were some dastardly dentures, and graveyards full of guacamole!

The kids loved the pure insanity of it, and gummy fingers and worms aside, I was happy to see them getting excited about eggs, apples, guacamole, wheat pitas, and peanut butter.

I wasn't quite as concientious in class the week before when we made haunted gingerbread houses. Over a four hour period, the kids mixed, rolled, cut, and baked their own gingerbread pieces and then assembled and decorated individual houses. Each one was uniquely covered in obscene amounts of candy and royal icing. (Incidentally, so were the kids!)

So the kids wouldn't have to stop and cook their own lunch, Sarah's mom ordered in. We were so busy and were having so much fun the day flew right by!

 

  

A few days later when my son's house spontaneously imploded on the sideboard in my living room, I discovered why gingerbread houses are more often undertaken in the winter when the humidity is low!

Back to good, healthy food in the next session! I'll make an announcement about upcoming classes soon and in the meantime, keep an eye out for a revamped CCA website!

Salsa!

So two Sundays ago I decided to try something a little different with the class. We had been discussing doing a combined event with a local group of foodies--a kid's Iron Chef of sorts--but it didn't all come together in time, so rather than disappoint the kids I decided we'd do a modified version in class  I've had all these kids in my classes for a while now. Several of them have been with me for over three years, and I was anxious to see how they would put all their culinary knowledge to use when left to their own devices.

The subject was salsa. The rules were simple:

1. They could use fruits and/or vegetables.

2. They could use other recipes to get ideas, but the final recipe had to be their own.

3. They had to send me a list of ingredients in advance so I could do the shopping.

4. They were free to use anything in the CCA's pantry and were also allowed to bring their own secret ingredients if they thought I wouldn't be able to find them in the local grocery store.

5. We would make baked tortilla chips in class and I wanted them to come up with a flavor for the chips that would complement their salsa.

Sunday came quickly and I admit, I was a little worried about how things would go in class because I've never just let the kids have free run of the kitchen. As it turned out, I had nothing to worry about--the kids did an incredible job and the other parents and I decided that we could probably produce and sell vast quantities of our own salsas and baked tortilla chips!

Here's the rundown:

Ben's Bold Salsa with Salted Tortilla Chips: A traditional salsa, which showed that Ben had been paying attention during the Mexican cooking classes. He used just the right amounts of traditional herbs and spices and created a salsa that would do any Mexican restaurant proud!

Jenna's Strawberry Salsa with Sesame Salted Paprika Tortilla Chips: A zesty salsa that combined sweet and savory and married the flavors nicely with her secret ingredient--fig and raspberry balsamic vinaigrette! Delicious!

Julia's Roasted Vegetable and Pineapple Salsa with Garlic Powder Tortilla Chips: The group's only cooked salsa combined roasted pineapple, garlic, onions, tomatoes, and jalapenos with fresh chopped tomatoes and a little olive oil. I loved how the caramelized flavors blended together perfectly.

Sarah's Spectacular Fruit Salsa with Toasted Coconut Tortilla Chips: Sarah chose to make her salsa entirely out of fruit, and what I loved, aside from the wonderful flavors, was how much thought Sarah put into the way her salsa should look. She made a special point to choose fruits of all different colors so it would be appealing to the eye as well as the palate. We made a quick last minute change to her recipe by putting the coconut she had originally intended for the salsa right on top of the tortilla chips before we baked them.

Kaia's Five Spice Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon and Agave Tortilla Chips: Kaia combined strawberries, blueberries, and pineapple with a little chinese five spice powder, agave syrup, and a last minute dash of toasted sesame seeds. I was a little worried that she'd gone overboard with the agave, but it turned out to be pretty fantastic. Her tortilla chips were the big hit of the day!

At the end of class we lined all the salsas and chips up and had the parents in for a tasting. Without a doubt this was one of the most fun and fulfilling classes we've ever had. I can't wait to do it again!

Evolution

I’ve been doing this cooking with kids thing long enough now that the nuts and bolts of it all come pretty easily, even in a less familiar space. Setup is easy, clean up is getting easier (although nothing will ever make confectioner’s sugar easier to clean), and all the in-between time seems to go more smoothly than ever. Not having to sweat the details gives me the opportunity to spend more time enjoying the kitchen dynamics. Antics, even.

The biggest shift has come from the kids who have been with me for the past three years. Jenna and Ben have now seamlessly taken on more responsibility in the kitchen, watching out for the other, less experienced students.
They’ll help with knife grips, warn them about safety hazards (“keep your eyes on your knife,” “don’t run in the kitchen,” etc.), and they’ll even offer little tips and tricks for how to do things more easily—smashing garlic with the side of the knife, rolling a lemon on their board before juicing , and rolling up basil leaves to make for an easier chiffonade.  They’re even focusing more on technique, working on a clean station, and, of all things, doing the dishes! And that’s just the 5 to 9 year olds.  

The teens have evolved in ways that delight and surprise me every day. They are realizing that they have actually learned the basic techniques (I can write “Biscuit Method” on the board and they know what to do), and they’ve developed a rapport with each other that is both fascinating and charming (in a teenage sort of way).  What used to present a challenge to them is now executed with ease, and most of the time they’re engaged and interested in what I have to say.

So they’re evolving. And so am I. And I’m enjoying and appreciating the process of it.

One of the most fun developments this week was that Emily made us an enormous (4- by 8-foot) chalkboard and we’re loving it! Saving paper and ink is a breeze now. 
No one has to shuffle paper around their station, and when Jenna approached the board to talk her classmates through the recipe she used the visuals I put up there (pictures of measuring spoons and cups) to help clarify the directions.

What did we make this week?  We started with Breakfast Pizza, which is basically a pizza with scrambled eggs as an added topping, Chicken and Pesto Quesadillas with fresh Basil Pesto, 
Power Bars, Berry Mango Slushes, amazing Pink Lemonade (colored with strawberries, not food coloring!), Lemon Bars, and Vegetarian Chili with Cheddar and Chive Biscuits. The teenagers also got to make their own Graham Crackers and Marshmallows from scratch and we catered a small gathering for Stephen’s mom who has just partnered up with some friends to open the Massage Co-Op in Sandwich. Check it out!

From the Ground Up

I've been busy these past few weeks getting the garden ready for the summer program! Since I moved the CCA to a new location I had to start the garden anew, and at first the task seemed incredibly daunting. It's hard to leave a garden behind after putting so much work into it--even harder to start again from scratch.

PAL had given me a great space to work with, but, as a former preschool playground, it was covered in nearly equal parts grass, wood chips, and sand, so there was a lot of prep work to be done.

My husband and  a mid-sized rototiller made pretty quick work of the grass. While the grass was being shredded and moved, my son, daughter, and I shoveled an enormous amount of wood chips out to the edges of what would eventually be the garden space.

The sand was a little more difficult. We couldn't decide whether to spread it evenly over the entire garden space or dig it out and move it to an entirely new space. 
When we discovered that the earth beneath the grass, wood chips, and sand was clay, I muttered something about drainage and, for better or worse, we decided to spread the sand around and work it in with the tiller. We'll see how that works out for us as the season wears on.

That effort was nothing by comparison to what had to be done next. An entire dump truck load of soil had to be moved into the garden. The only catch was that the soil was about 100 yards from the garden space. I will admit that I only moved three wheelbarrows full before I gave up and started shaping beds and creating paths out of wood chips. (Hey, that needed doing too!) My devoted and tireless husband is the one who moved all that soil. Every last speck of it. Without his herculean effort I would still be out there willing the soil to 
move itself. 

The planting was the easy part. 

Now we wait...and weed...and create fun kid-style garden art, the likes of which weren't appropriate for our original location. We've started already by creating some adorable garden signs ("Please stay on the paths,"  and "Welcome to the Children's Kitchen Garden"). One of our first garden art projects during cooking camp will be to make garden markers out of wooden spoons, and we've already got some flowers growing out of rubber boots and watering cans!

In short, we're ready and raring to go!

See you all in a couple of weeks!

Guest Blogger

Just a quick post to let you know that Emily, CCA's first ever guest blogger, will be posting about today's class later in the week. I am interested to read about how she experiences the class as one of my teen helpers. She's been a student in most (maybe all!) of my Young Epicureans classes and has been a wonderful asset over the past three weeks. I'm looking forward to involving her more in future projects.

Stephen has been a great help these last three weeks too--arriving early to help set up, cleaning, helping the kids, staying late to make sure everything is put away, and bringing a new sense of maturity into the kitchen.

I am pleased to have them both in the kitchen with me.

I also wanted to thank Fran and Gina for donating a huge bin of cleaning supplies and paper towels to the kitchen--we've put them to good use over the last two weeks and have plenty more to last through the rest of the spring session. THANK YOU!!

The CCA is extremely fortunate to have so many wonderful people as part of its support network.

Stay tuned for Emily's post!

Little (Wet) Gardeners

Yesterday at about 6am the skies opened, dumping a deluge on our little seaside town. Thunder rumbled in the distance. I thought it couldn't be a good sign for turnout at The Beautification Council's annual plant sale, but...well...I was wrong! Intrepid gardeners--and their kids--came out in spite of the rain, searching for just the right flowers, shrubs, herbs, and vegetable plants for their gardens or for some last minute Mother's Day gifts.

Along the way, they visited the kids' corner (covered, thankfully, by an enormous tent) where everyone made biodegradable seed pots out of strips of newspaper and planted, for the most part, watermelon seeds. Some of them went for beans or peas, but watermelons were without a doubt the most popular.
  

 
 
 
 

Right next to us were some Falmouth High School students who were doing some face painting, which was a big hit with the little ones.

 
And we topped off the day with a gift from Ghelfi's--a basket full of chocolate pansies!

(I heard that my Facebook post of the picture of the chocolates is what got Jenna out of the house)

Hopefully The Beautification Council was able to reach their fundraising goals. We'll see everyone there again next year!

Happy Mother's Day to all the marvelous mamas out there!

And don't forget, classes start again this coming Sunday!

Falmouth Beautification Council's Annual Plant Sale

Every year, the Falmouth Beautification Council hosts a plant sale in Town Hall Square. This year they'll be there on May 8th, and as they did last year, they've invited me to spend some time planting bean seeds with kids.

  We make our own newspaper seed pots, add some rich soil and a few seeds and voila! Beautiful starter pots that go right into the ground--recycling at its best.

It sounds like this year is going to be even more fun because there will be face painting and possibly even some treats!

So, mom and dad, wrangle the kids into the car on Saturday between 10am and 2pm, find some amazing, well-priced plants for your garden (both flowers and veggies!), and get the kids involved in a fun, free activity!

See you there!

Whirlwind

Well, hi! It feels like it's been a long time since I posted here because so much has been happening! First, we had our last week at Highfield Hall. The Young Epicureans requested candy apples and taffy (which they flavored with cinnamon and peppermint oils). Just for fun we threw in some caramel apples too. Tasha colored her taffy blue before she pulled it.

In Kids Cafe we made my Kitchen Sink Chocolate Chip Cookies (because there's a little bit of everything in them!) and Acai Berry Smoothies. I think the smoothies were as big a hit as the cookies! A good time was had by all, and it was a lovely way to end our time on the hill. What could be better than warm cookies on a chilly fall afternoon?

This past Thursday I headed over to the Falmouth Senior Center to talk with the members of the Falmouth Beautification Council about what we're doing at the CCA and to thank them for the generous grant they gave us to use for the kitchen garden this past summer. Their support has meant a great deal to all of us and we hope to help them out again this coming spring during their big plant sale. Last year we made our own seed pots out of newspaper and planted bean seeds.