Cooking Camp

The Christmas break can be long and boring for our kids so over the week of December 31st through January 3rd, LYN House held a cooking camp. This week was all about different types of comfort food.

On Day 1 a guest, Debbie Stephens, was brought in to help teach really easy ways of making different types of candy. The group was divided as they rotated around to each of the 4 stations that were set up. The first station was Peanut Butter Balls. The students got to mix ingredients together then roller the mixture into balls with their hands. They then proceeded to dip the balls into chocolate to coat them, making something similar to a Reese's. The second station was a gummy station. The kids got to mix ingredients together and then pour their mixture into molds with different shapes. After this candy was refrigerated you could take it out of the mold and it would be a candy much like gummy bears. We however but a little zing in our recipe to almost make sour gummies. Some were tended to be more tangy than others and many different faces were made when the kids tried the different flavors. Even director Heidi's face scrunched up when she tried the sour lemon lime gummies. The other two stations dealt with using melted chocolate. The kids made chocolate covered pretzels and made candy using fun shaped molds and colored chocolates to decorate. 

On Day 2 we had a healthy comfort food day as we made smoothies. There was discussion about the different ingredients and additives that can make smoothies healthy. The kids then were broken up into groups of 2 and were given a basic recipe for a smoothie and a list of items they could put in it. Each pair then created their own smoothie. Some had multiple fruits in their smoothie where others had chocolate and peanut butter. Everyone blended their smoothie and then got to try everyone else's concoction.

On Day 3 another guest was brought in to help. Joy Myers talked to the kids about making gourmet cupcakes as that is current trend right now. Joy passed around a booklet that had a bunch of different cupcakes in it which is where she has gotten some of her inspiration. The kids were then intrigued when they got to start making their cupcakes. They got to make s'mores cupcakes which had a piece of chocolate in the batter and had a marshmallow frosting and graham cracker crumbs on top. The second type was an applesauce cupcake in which they decorated with red frosting and stuck a piece of a pretzel in the top for a stem and hung a gummy worm out of the top to make it look like an apple. The s'mores cupcakes were decorated using a decorating bag and tips in which every child got to decorate the cupcakes using the bag. 

On Day 4 of camp pancakes were done, but not just any ordinary pancakes. The kids were broken into two groups and each group made 2 different types of pancakes. The kids were then blindfolded and Miss Hiedi and Miss Nicole brought around a piece of pancake to ever child to try. They then had to write in their journal about what they thought it was and rank them from 1-5. They got to try all 4 types: Banana, Pumpkin, Apple Cinnamon, and Veggie. YES a veggie pancake and surprisingly it was not the least liked. In making the pumpkin there was a measuring error made so the pumpkin was a little bitter. Oops! The kids learned a lesson in double checking and making the right measurements or your going to get something that's not quite so tasty.  

LYN House tries to incorporate multiple aspects to their camps and foster growth in numerous areas, so every day at some point in the day the children had to journal and/or draw about their thoughts, and use their creativity and imagination. There was also a lesson done each day in which Kwanza was introduced. The holiday its self was not what was highlighted but the principles that Kwanza revolves around. Th principles are unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, co-operative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.