Week 2: June 16-20

Monday, June 16 - Day 1

We started off the first day of camp with some fun games that got us moving! Before we started playing, Miss Carolyn told us about how eating our fruits and veggies is only one part of staying healthy - we also should get plenty of exercise!

We love lunges!

Today was Mexican Monday - we made quesadillas with black beans, mozzarella cheese, bell peppers, mushrooms, and spinach! Here's a sneak peek of the quesadillas before they went into the pressing machine.

While Miss Paige and Miss Sam were pressing our quesadillas, we learned that an important part of dining with other people is to wait for everyone to have their food before we start eating. Politeness is our specialty! :)

Did I say politeness was our specialty? I meant cleanliness!

Tuesday, June 17 - Day 2

Today, we started camp with a lesson about the food pyramid. Miss Paige and Miss Zeynep helped us to think of examples of grains, fruits, vegetables, proteins, and dairy that we eat every day. We also talked about some more exotic fruits, like the fonzy melon. In case you're wondering, a fonzy melon looks like this:

We never thought we'd be able to cut a pineapple! How do you deal with all of those spikes and the hard outer shell?! But not to fear, because Miss Sam came to our rescue with an excellent pineapple cutting demonstration! In addition to pineapple, we also cut up bananas, grapes, and strawberries for our fruit salad.

Here we are enjoying the fruits of our labor... see what I did there? :)

Streeeeeeeeetch! Before playing some fun games to get us moving, Miss Carolyn led us in some stretches to get warmed up.

We split up into two teams, the Fujis and the Granny Smiths, for an apple relay race! The best part about this game was that we all supported our teammates by cheering for them and running to their aid in the case of runaway apples. After an intense competition, the Granny Smiths took the fruitcake!

Next, we headed back inside to start getting lunch ready - pasta with marinara sauce and turkey meatballs! We used turkey for a healthier alternative to traditional beef meatballs. Even though a lot of us had never rolled our own meatballs, we had fun learning a new cooking skill!

Hip, hip, hooray for another great day! :)

Wednesday, June 18 - Day 3

To start off the day, Miss Zeynep took us on a guided tour of the history of New Orleans cuisine! We learned about the vegetable trinity (bell pepper, celery, and onion) and spices often used in traditional dishes and we shared some of our favorite restaurants for enjoying jambalaya, po'boys, and of course beignets! 

Next, we took a field trip to the community garden, where we saw fresh thyme and tomatoes growing - we found out we would use both later to make our own jambalaya, yum!

Look, we found rosemary!

By Day 4, we are expert choppers - the trinity didn't stand a chance!

We also took a break from the kitchen to start assembling our very own recipe books. We will add to these throughout the week so we can keep track of the dishes we've made and hopefully recreate them at home!

What a beautiful day for some exercise! Miss Carolyn led us in a fast-paced game where we pretended to be waiters in a restaurant. 

Run like the wind! We worked so hard outside that we couldn't wait for a heaping helping of creole chicken jambalaya at the end of the day.

Pop quiz: Which ingredient distinguishes creole jambalaya from Cajun jambalaya?
Answer: Tomatoes!

Thursday, June 19 - Day 4

Daily question from the campers: "What are we cooking today? Can you tell me? I won't tell anyone, I promise! Pleeeeeease?"
So, the camp counselors decided that a game of hangman would be the perfect way to reveal the big surprise - today we're making rotisserie chicken salad sandwiches!

But before we got down to business in the kitchen, we had time for an exciting game of Food Groups Bingo!

Fun fact: Did y'all know popcorn was a grain?!

We would like to thank the First Grace staff, our sponsors Domino Foods, Inc. and the New Orleans Rotary Fund, Inc., and the Academy for supporting us on our journeys to chefhood! 

You can't have chicken salad without a little crunch! We chose celery and walnuts to add to our salad. You could also try apples, grapes, tomatoes, avocados, carrots, bell peppers, onions, pecans, almonds, or raisins... but maybe not all at once!

Next we started what will soon become a Kids Culinary Camp classic... Snack Wars! Each pair got a set of ingredients (banana, peanut butter, cheerios, pretzels, and raisins) with which to create their very own snacktastic animal friend! To make sure that our animals would be as awesome as possible, we sketched out a plan before getting started.

Ready, set, create!

One minute warning! We'd better get our banana body on those pretzel legs!

And... TIME'S UP! BANANAS DOWN!
Here is our first group with their animal, Bamboo!

Look out! A wild baneetah!
*Award: Best Planning*

Muzzy the Bananimal!

Maleficent [insert evil laugh here]

Antefant the anteater/elephant
*Award: Best Teamwork*

Adam Sandler would be proud to know that this lovely creature carries his namesake!
*Award: Overall Best Animal*

Looks like King Kong took a tumble!

Introducing Sawome! Is that me, or are those the best banana clouds you've ever seen?
*Award: Best Name*

Meet Drape!

Looking very wise, Mr. Owl!
*Award: Best Presentation*

Here's Chicky Bunelephant (try to say that five times fast)!

After camp, the camp counselors enjoyed a delicious surprise from one of our very own master chefs! Our camper brought us the fruit salad and spaghetti and turkey meatballs he made based on the recipes from Day 2! We were so proud of all he had learned at camp this week :) Thank you!

Friday, June 20 - Day 5

We started off the day decorating the bands for our dual-purpose chef hats/graduation caps!

What are we cooking today, Miss Zeynep? Chinese chicken fried rice, mmm! As it was Foreign Food Friday, we learned some Chinese words for the ingredients we would be using later.

Veggies on veggies on veggies!

Miss Sam explained how we would chop all of those veggies and add them into the rice.

Game time! Look at those game faces!

Why so serious?

First, we played Human Knot! In this game, we chose two of our teammates to be leaders and help us to get untangled. This was a great exercise in learning how to trust our friends!

Next, Miss Carolyn led us in a slightly chaotic game of Elbow Tag! It was a great way to work up an appetite before chowing down on some fried rice!

Chinese chicken fried rice, heavy on the veggies.

Congratulations to our second round of SoFAB Kids Culinary Camp graduates! We are so proud of your willingness to learn and try new things throughout the week. Now, sally forth to begin some awesome culinary adventures! We will miss you!

p.s. When you all run your own fancy restaurants someday, we expect to eat for free :)