You may or may not know that I am a Culinary Instructor for Sur la Table here in Houston, TX. We offer two weeks of cooking and baking camps for kids and teens during the months of June, July and August. I taught the kids camp both weeks in June. This month I taught the first week of kids camp and the second week of teens camp. This week has already given my sanity a run for it's money. Let me tell you all about it.
The class of 11 is comprised of 10 girls and 1 lone guy. The group is actually pretty well behaved. Of course, I have to stop occasionally and stare at a couple of girls until they get the hint that I am talking and they need to listen. This is to be expected. We are blessed to have a real live "Hermione" in the class who actually speaks French. Her name is Catherine and she is a very smart young lady whose enthusiasm makes me chuckle. Her hand shoots into the sky like a rocket with every question or request for help. We even have a tiny strawberry blonde girl named Amanda (just like me) who I wish I could carry around in my pocket. She is too cute for words. I thought perhaps that the two oldest girls who are best friends might be a problem but they work well together and apart. So, as far as teens go, this is good group. Sanity still in tact.
We have two hours to complete a minimum of 4 recipes. Often times the recipe has several components so, it's more like 6-9 recipes in two hours. What's a teacher to do? Now add in the fact that this week I have only one assistant (I can hear my sanity start to fracture and feel my left eye begin to twitch). I really need one person to be on the dishes nearly all the time. The second assistant needs to be either helping one of the two groups or listening to me. I need support to tend to needs like checking the ovens and stove tops, finding equipment, cleaning sudden messes or tending to boo-boos. I was really lucky for the last 3 weeks of camp. I had the dream team of Mrs. Terry and Miss Danielle. They rock and make my life so much easier. They are both the definition of team players.
Yesterday was...well to put it bluntly...a disaster. I am not opposed to recipe failure. It's an excellent teaching moment. I tell my students that if they did it perfectly the first time then they didn't really learn anything. I also encourage them by letting them know that the skills are difficult even I make them seem easy. It should look simple when I do it because I've done it 1,000's of times (yeah I am that old). In addition, true learning should be slightly frustrating. It means your brain is building new grooves and that is a very good thing. However, when you are one woman down and the only assistant you have really doesn't want to be there, it frazzles my nerves.
Day two of camp, I broke the kids up into three groups to ensure all the recipes were complete in the time allotted. Two teams of two worked on making the vanilla custard for our frozen pudding pops. Another group of two girls worked on making cinnamon lollipops. The last group of five worked on the 4-step nectarine wontons. In spite of my best efforts, things went terribly wrong. I didn't want 11 kids standing around watching a pot boil. Bored kids equals mayhem. However, that left me feeling like a woman with a split personality as I tried to give three groups with the different recipes the attention they needed. Insert mild chaos here. To the kids credit, no body freaked out or lost control. Everyone, including me, remained calm as the crash and burn of recipes ensued! I think I actually felt grey hairs sprouting from my scalp.
In the first group, both teams of two scorched the milk before tempering the eggs for the vanilla pudding. One duo then made some seriously scrambled eggs and it had to trashed. The second duo was much more careful and I was able to assist them with the tempering and we saved at least one batch. Mind you this, I slowly detailed the steps. I had them repeat them back to me to check for understanding. I gave them a copy of the recipe to refer to if they had questions. I also told them I was right here if they got in trouble or couldn't find the answer on the recipe. They all shook their heads in the affirmative when asked if they felt confident. Obviously something went wrong. Poor Justin asked me how do you know if the bubbles in the pot are from boiling or from stirring? Aha, here was the crux of the problem.
At the exact same time that all this going on, I begin to smell something burning and look up to find black billowing smoke coming from the pot where the cinnamon lollipops are supposed to be cooking. One more minute and we would've had a fire on our hands. At this point, I see my sanity make a run for the door but snatch the back of her neck and drag her back to class kicking and screaming. I ask the girls what happened. Their response was, "The thermometer never reached 300 degrees." REALLY? REALLY? REALLY? I blame the digital world we live in. Kids don't know how to read a mercury thermometer (even though I pointed to the place where the red line should reach) and most can't read an analog watch or for heaven's sake tie their shoes! I digress.
With a deep breath, I gather the students back around the tables to discuss where they went wrong, how they can be more successful in the future, what they learned and tell them not to worry. We take a short break and play around of scavenger hunt in the store for kitchen tools we have used thus far. Inside, I am laughing and thinking what more is going to go wrong? "Shhhhhhhhh you are going to jinx it", whispers my sanity.
The answer was revealed to me the second hour of class. You would think telling a teenager to simply melt some milk chocolate in the microwave would be easy enough, right? NOT! There was chocolate all over her, the microwave and three towels. She kept bringing it to me telling me it was done. The only problem was that there were still chunks of solid chocolate in the bowl. Her apparently inability to stir effectively caused some of the chocolate around the edges to start burning. My assistant tries to help out and thinks that tossing it would be a good idea. NOOOOOOOO! We don't have time or the money to waste here. I decide to go old school and place the bowl on top of pot of simmering water. Amazing! Chocolate melted.
Giving credit where credit is due, the toffee turned out perfectly for the caramel apples rolled in peanuts. The kids and adults loved it. The taste was buttery and sweet and the texture was marvelously chewy. The peanut butter rice crispy balls were positively addictive once they took a swim in the melted milk chocolate. I loved the fancy nectarine wontons pan fried in butter and drizzled with a fresh nectarine sauce. I am crossing my fingers that the vanilla pudding pops turn out nicely today. As for the cinnamon lollipops, well we may or may not get to those before the week is done.
I can't wait to discover what challenges will arise today. At least today I have a fellow instructor to help me. The kids will be doing the dishes, much to there dismay. Today will be entertaining at the least. I am sure some tasty treats will be enjoyed and if nothing else, we will have a good laugh. I love teaching!
Just in case you are concerned. My sanity calmed down briefly on the way home until I got to my exit on the freeway and discovered the parking lot. The cause was a 4-car pile up coupled by an exploding 18-wheeler. FOR REAL? I thought that sort of stuff only happened in the movies. I also got a text on the way home from Trina informing me that she has strep throat. NICE!!!!!!! Thank heaven for a the new porch, comfy chairs, ceiling fans and sweet puppies to pet. I woke up today sanity in tact (mostly) and ready for another adventurous day of teen baking camp! Honest.
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