We had our first outreach event this
Saturday in PJ’s Restaurant on campus! We paired up with the Big Brothers/Big
Sisters group in Guelph for an afternoon filled with lots of cooking, eating
and learning! There was a group of 5 “Bigs” and 5 “Littles” who arrived at
10am. We started by going through a tour of what a professional kitchen looks
like and how things run. After a short presentation on hand washing and safe
knife skills, we broke off into two teams to start working through a jam-packed
list of recipes.
Everyone started out by making the rosemary
focaccia bread- the famous recipe of PJ’s restaurant. We talked about how yeast
is actually alive, and that’s what makes the bread rise. While the focaccia
dough was rising in the proofer, we got started on creating the homemade sauce
for the vegetable lasagne. It was learning experience for most the group in
learning to use a scale to measure ingredients instead of the traditional
measuring cups and spoons. We even got the children to help with the dishwasher
“assembly line” and show them how a restaurant kitchen can get all their dishes
done so quickly!
Once the sauce was simmering on the stove everyone helped out to stretch out the focaccia dough and had fun poking little holes all over it before it went in the oven to bake. Next was the broccoli salad, which involved chopping up all the vegetables and making a homemade dressing. While half of the group worked on the salad, the remaining children helped measure all the ingredients for the black bean brownies. Everything was measured into a food processor, another new tool the children learned how it worked. This was the first time most of the group (including volunteers!) had tried brownies made with black beans instead of flour. I guess this is what happens when you let nutrition students plan the dessert menu!
The timing worked out perfectly so that we
started with the salad for our first course while everything was finishing
baking. We got seated for lunch around 12:45 and had an excellent family-style
meal of homemade lasagne and focaccia- it was a huge hit! Even the black bean
brownies were enjoyed by everyone, a few children even said they would try
making them again at home! By 1:30 we were started to clean up and say our
goodbyes. The group left with full bellies and a recipe book of everything we
made. We can’t wait to hopefully cook with them again sometime this winter!
