Cooking class this fall provides each of our elementary students with the opportunity to choose a recipe to make for their classmates and schoolmates.  From the recipe selection (there are so many choices) to the preparation of the ingredients, many challenges are encountered even before the cooking begins!  The many learning challenges continue as these recipes are prepared outdoors, over coals, in a variety of weather conditions.  As we enjoy each carefully chosen and created recipe, our admiration and respect for the work that’s involved in making food deepens.  These experiences provide us with many conversational opportunities about food — trying new things, what humans ate before they were able to control fire, how the development of pots and tools changed cooking and eating, or how challenging making meals must have been for the settlers who moved across our nation, gathering many ingredients along the way, cooking in dutch ovens over fire.

Recipes made so far include:

-a vegan sweet potato and black bean burrito with a tomato, corn, avocado, and zucchini salsa

-lemon cake with orange glaze

-cinnamon and sugar baked apples

-brownies

-peach cobbler

-frazzelberry pie (raspberries and blackberries)

-taco soup made two ways – with meat or without – served with guacamole and cheese