Is it August already? Wow 2011 sure is going by fast.



This year sure has been exciting, and I'm sure the rest of the year won't be dull in comparison. This year alone I've gone to two church camps, 4-H camp, and camping in general. Not to mention all the 4-H activities and workshops I've attended this year. My county is so lucky that our local 4-H foundation was provided a grant this year that has made a lot of fun workshops free.

Take the Chef School that I attended through 4-H last week for instance. A two day long, Monday and Wednesday workshop that would have had to have been paid for without that grant. I had a lot of fun attending, even though I was one of the oldest people there. In all, ten people attended.

We kicked off the first day by learning how to properly wash our hands, taking about the different food groups, calorie needs, and food safety. While we did start at nine in the morning, breakfast was not provided that day, instead we got to make some really yummy snacks. We were divided into four teams,with each team assigned to a different snack or beverage. Symphony of Fruit Pizza, Veggies & Dip, Trail Mix, and Bottoms-Up Cherry Limeade was what was on the menu.

While we ate, our Adult Leader, Ms. Jean, along with her daughter Lauren and the Youth Program assistant for Howard County, Lindsay, talked to us about serving sizes, how fruits and veggies are related to color, thinking about what's in our drinks, and how important it is to eat balanced meals. During the break Lauren and I, who have been in 4-H the longest, led the group in singing 4-H songs and some short games to kill time.

For lunch that day we were once again split up into teams, this time making Corner Kick Pita Pockets, Barbecue Bacon Party Spread, Crunchy Munchies, and Lemonade. Once we had cleaned up and done another load of dishes, Ms. Jean told us what was happening on Wednesday. Not only were we cooking our regular meals, but we were throwing a small party for our parents, going shopping for supplies, and having an Iron Chef competition, though not in that order.

Since there were ten of us that day, we were split into two teams of five, given a blank menu and cookbooks, and told we had to plan a meal consisting of a main dish, salad, veggies, dessert, and drinks. We had to have a theme for our meal, so my team decided on Home Cooking, since that is what we are most familiar with. Our meal consisted of Chicken Nuggets (homemade), Garden Salad, Green Bean Casserole, Twice Baked Potatoes, and Peach Cobbler with tea and lemonade to drink.

That concluded Day One.

Day two kicked off with a couple of songs and hand washing routines, which by now all of us were used to. Breakfast was Ready, Set, Go! French Toast, Cheese and Fruit Kabobs, and Frosty Orangeliciousness. Don't worry if you can't pronounce the last one, we couldn't either. After we finished, we loaded up into two vehicles and drove to Walmart. Each team had a shopping list with the ingredients for their meal for the party written down, and $75 to spend. After a brief lesson on how to find the lowest price, we set out to get everything we needed. Since both teams needed some of the same products, we got large containers and only one team bought that items. (Team One bought eggs, team two bought milk.)


Even though my team needed ten pounds of chicken, we still only spent about $56, before tax. Altogether, when we checked out, we had about thirteen dollars left. We went back to the

E-H building to cook lunch, which was Cool Quesa, Summer Salsa, Spanish Rice, Boatloads of Fruit, and Fruit Cooler. We only had about ten minutes to eat lunch, because we were running behind and the judges for the Iron Chef competition were due to arrive soon. Some of us skipped out on half of our food in order to clean the kitchen, I was one of those people. By the time they had arrived, we had the kitchen all cleaned and the dishes were done.

Since there was now nine of us, we were split into three teams of three, and given four items of food in a basket. We were told that we had to use those items, but we could add any items we wished. The things we were given were a raw pie crust, a jar of grape jam, a granny smith apple, and a packet of saltine crackers. My team baled the crust, spread the jam on top, covered it with more crust and served it topped with apples, whipped cream and apples on top with crackers and cheese on the side. All the teams discovered that day that you cannot bake a pie crust in thirty minutes, the amount of time we were allotted. My team didn't win, but we all had fun experimenting.

We cleaned up yet again and set out to make our party food. Everything went smoothly until I started chopping the tomatoes and sliced my finger open. When I was two I broke that same finger and it's always been sensitive, so not only was it bleeding though the towel it hurt like heck. One of the volunteers took me to the first aide station and cleaned me up, but I started to feel queasy and she made me sit down. My friend Sherry's dad came in, and since he's an EMT he checked me out. It wasn't a long cut, but it was deep. Even when I felt a little better, and when I felt up to walking, I sat down for a few minutes, until my mom got there. I offered to help in the kitchen again, but they kicked me out and told me to sit down. According to eye witnesses I was as white as a ghost.

But anyway, everything went smoothly, even if the parents had to wait a while, and the food tasted great. After we were done some of the parents offered to help clean up, and we started to bag up the leftovers. I discovered the one upside I had to cutting my finger, they wouldn't let me do the dishes. After door prizes and certificates of completion, we said goodbye, and thank you and left.

Speaking for myself and my friends, we had a great time. I hope that we get to do something like this again next year.