As you all know, summer s here and its that time of the year when I plan cooking camps for kids. I had planned for 1 week cooking camp in July and August.
Among all the emails that I received in response to the cooking camp, I received an email from Stephanie, a mom who was interested in the cooking camp for her son Jake whose school closes in June. I was tempted to take up the challenge in June but I needed atleast a minimum of 6 kids for the camp, so I communicated that with Stephanie. A few weeks later, I received an email from her again saying she said she might be able to get about 6 kids for the camp so we decided to give it a shot. Stephanie emailed a bunch of her friends and I was pleasantly surprised. I had emails from about 12 moms who were very interested in my cooking camp and so I was thrilled to plan it out. We picked June 11th and 13th for the camp from 10am- 12:30pm.
We decided to make Chocolate Chip pancakes from scratch on the 11th and Pasta with Sweet Peas, Corn and Broccoli in a Pink sauce on the 13th. I was eagerly awaiting the day when the kids were dropped off at 10 am on the 11th. The kids came running in excited and not knowing what to expect:) The parents were asked to sign in each kid as they entered and each kid was given a name tag. The kids were then asked to pick a spot as I had arranged toddler chairs and table for them. Each kid was asked to give a brief introduction like their name, the school and the things that they love to do the most so they all felt comfortable and at home.
When I asked them what they knew about making pancakes, they all had different things to say which I thought was very cute. One of them said ” I know pancake is made of bread” :))) and I cracked up. Then I had this fun story about how we would make the pancake from scratch and not the mix that you find at the supermarket. We made the batter from scratch and each kid got to whip and mix and get messy. They were wiped down after the mixing and preparation of the batter. Each kid was then asked to form a line and got a chance to make one big Mickey/ Minnie with a bow/ heart shaped pancake topped with milk and white chocolate chips. Then they were given few M and M s for decorating their pancakes, they were a time after the kids emptied their juice boxes so we sang a few songs like” My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean”, the ABC song, Twinkle Twinkle and many more….
We were singing as the moms came in and signed out each kid and picked them up.
On 13th of June, we had planned to make pasta with veggies like corn, sweet peas and broccoli in a pink sauce with fresh basil.
This was a particularly challenging task since some of the kids were picky when I mentioned veggies to them and asked them what their favorite veggies were? I decided to get all the kids involved so we played a game. The kids sat in their spots and one of them was made the “Leader” and was asked to pick and send each kid to perform a task. Every kid got a turn to cook the pasta, sort the veggies, wash and clean them, cook the veggies, wash basil leaves and pat them dry, remove all the basil leaves from the stem, add pasta sauce, mix, add freshly grated cheese to it and so on…
They had so much fun helping me with every step of making the pasta and finally they were all seated at the table. I served the pasta that was cooked by all, and I must say that they all did an excellent job finishing up the pasta and the picky eaters were atleast open to trying the veggies !!! I considered the class a huge success.
I had goody bags packed for each kid which had a collage picture from the cooking class of each child along with some pasta packed in a box, recipe cards and a cooking class completion certificate.
I completely enjoyed cooking with all the adorable little kids and look forward to many more…..