Dangerous Minds in the Kitchen

For the last month, I've been volunteering for Operation Frontline, a nonprofit that puts on cooking and nutrition classes for various disadvantaged populations. I contacted them several months ago because it seemed like something right up my alley, and after talking with the Operation Frontline rep, I agreed to do a six week program teaching teenagers how to cook, and also to host the class in our kitchen at Generous Servings. I was excited about this--I love teaching teens to cook, and it seemed like this volunteer opportunity was exactly the type of thing we've been looking for to put the "generous" in Generous Servings.

The teens for my class were recruited from a group at the local United Way that is composed of kids in foster care who are learning life skills that will help with their imminent emancipation (how bizarre to use that term to refer to getting out of foster care--these kids aren't slaves!). I had a meeting with various people involved with the group to discuss the particular needs of this population, and it became clear that there was some skepticism about whether I could handle working with these kids. In an attempt to impress upon me the severity of the potential behavioral issues of these teens, one person said, "It's going to be like 'Dangerous Minds' in the kitchen," which immediately became a joke around Generous Servings. Jill and I even rented "Dangerous Minds" the night before my first class so that I could get warmed up. Now we refer to the class as Dangerous Minds, as in, "I've got Cooking Basics on Sunday, Herbs and Spices on Tuesday, and Dangerous Minds on Wednesday."

Despite the dire warnings, none of the teens has attempted to stab me with a chef's knife yet. In fact, they are incredibly well-behaved. It actually makes me sad, because I think they've had all the normal teen boundary-pushing tendencies beaten out of them. They raise their hands to talk, even when we're just sitting around the dining table, they call me "Miss", and one of them showed me her hands for my approval after she washed them. A few of them are not really interested in the cooking, but the majority are really into it, which is fun. We're working from a curriculum set by the program, which also incorporates nutrition lessons (there's a volunteer nutrition educator who does that part), so all the recipes are "lite". That part is kind of annoying, since I think fat-free cheese is about the grossest thing on the planet, but I'm surviving. So far we've made pizzas (with whole wheat crust, which doesn't work, in case you're wondering), macaroni and cheese with low-fat everything and whole wheat pasta, fruit smoothies, and vegetable chili and buckwheat pancakes (both my recipes, which came out fantastic). I hope the kids are having fun--it's hard to tell with these kids, but I think they're getting something out of it. If nothing else, they have a darn good pancake recipe.

Another great day at the Food Show

Last week we went to our second Sysco Food Show. We didn't have much time, but luckily we understood the layout since this was our second time, so we were able to efficiently run around to get all the best samples. First we had to check in, where we were given nametags with barcodes on them, and then when we entered the show there were people with barcode scanners who had to scan our breasts. Perhaps not the best way to control access.

We also decided that we have a tradition to uphold in terms of getting a really interesting picture of ourselves taken (last time we got the picture of us in front of the patriotic crown roast of lamb). It wasn't until the very end that we found the perfect backdrop. There was a produce display that inexplicably had a very elaborate tropical landscape set up behind it, complete with waterfall (unfortunately we are standing in front of the waterfall in this picture). We asked one of the produce guys to take our picture, which he did with enthusiasm, although I will note that Jill and I are the only people who treat the Sysco Food Show as a tourist attraction.

Meat and pastries

Jill and I had a great adventure this morning: we went on a tour of a meat packaging plant. We're not really sure why we got invited to go there, but it seemed like an opportunity that shouldn't be missed. It was very educational. This wasn't the slaughterhouse--there were no cattle being shot or bled out or anything--just the place where they take big muscles and cut them into steaks, chops, etc. It was actually quite sanitary--the workers all had a lot of blood on their white coats, but the floors were clean, it didn't smell bad, and of course it was very cold. The whole building was refrigerated. Too bad no one warned us about that.

The guy who showed us around was insane, in the way of anyone who really REALLY likes his job. He takes meat very seriously. He would tell us a fact and then quiz us on it a few minutes later. He also complimented our practical footwear, saying that "some girls show up in flip-flops!" You know how silly girls are.

I was going to take some pictures of the meat cutters, but honestly, it wasn't that exciting, and they didn't look like they really wanted to have their pictures taken. We didn't get to handle any meat ourselves, but we still got to wear some really spiffy duds, and since we were pretending to be tourists, we asked someone to take our picture:


On a different note, I've been lookng forward to making almond croissants for a while now...but the thing is, the traditional preparation requires having leftover croissants to fill with almond paste and re-bake, and it's taken a long time to accumulate enough leftover croissants. I finally made them a couple of days ago, and here's a picture to make you hungry:



I also made my favorite of all our pastries, the chocolate-orange sweet rolls:


We've gotten a lot of compliments on our biscotti, so we've started having it available all the time. The problem is that the batches I now make don't really fit in the little mixers, and we are still awaiting some parts before the big mixer can be repaired. Around 2:00 am I find this kind of scene quite funny:


That's the time of night when everything gets a little surreal, and I start to lose fine motor control and spill stuff, so it seems amusing that chunks of biscotti dough are flying out of the mixer.

The other thing that I've been making a lot of is our new most-popular item: ice cream sandwiches. I'm getting better at it, and I've developed a new recipe for a softer peanut butter cookie and a chocolate chip cookie to go on the outside. Here's a picture we took of some of our classic combinations:


From top to bottom, you've got a plain chocolate sandwich, a peanut butter sandwich with chocolate chips, and a chocolate sandwich with everything (nuts, chips, and toasted coconut). Mmm, good.

Speaking of things that are good, the other day I had a thing that was not good. Here's what happened. One of our customers requested that we make bran muffins, and he told us that Starbucks' bran muffins were really good. I haven't had a pastry from Starbucks in a while, because last time I checked they were gross, but he was so enthusiastic that I figured it was worth a shot. I stopped in a Starbucks last week (which made me feel really guilty--everyone I know says he doesn't approve of Starbucks, but when you own an independent coffee shop, you have to walk the walk), but they were out of bran muffins. In fact, they said they always sold out of bran muffins early, which added to the mystique, so I told Jill to keep her eyes open for a Starbucks bran muffin too. A few days ago, I went to the same Starbucks and they were sold out again, so then I went to the Starbucks half a block away, and they had the elusive bran muffins! I got one in triumph and broke off a piece to try as I was leaving the store. It was really bad. Not just a little bad, but really bad, like you don't even want to swallow it because it's so dry and gritty. I called Jill and told her that I had found the bran muffin, and before I could say anything she said, "Yeah, I bought one too, and it sucks." This is how much of the muffin I choked down, in the service of research:


Why do people buy these things? My irritation has nothing to do with hating Starbucks on principle. I was prepared to be pleasantly surprised. And this is not a question of being a pastry snob. I totally understand why people might buy a not-so-good pastry if they were munchy and didn't have somewhere else convenient to get something better. But this muffin was not in the "not-so-good" category, it was really terrible. You can get better muffins plastic-wrapped in 7-Eleven. Well, maybe. I haven't eaten one of those in a long time either. You know that the plastic is probably the healthiest part of those things.

Anyway, as requested, I've been testing out some bran muffin recipes. I made two recipes and had several people taste-test them, and each of them had their fans. I like one of them much better than the other, and since I'm the baker, I think I know which one is going to win. We're trying to decide whether people really want sticky walnut topping on their bran muffins, and that's why they think the Starbucks version is good, in which case we'll just put walnuts on ours. If you feel strongly about this, let me know.