New skills, New foods: Week 3 Recap

Brainfood’s Summer Institute students had a busy third week, full of new skills and foods! 

Monday’s focus was on the most important meal of the day: breakfast!  Students made chocolate chip coconut pancakes, working on a griddle for the first time, as well as asparagus and spinach quiche, and turkey sausage patties.  Students also learned about cross contamination, since they were working with raw turkey, and how to prevent food borne illness when working with such items.

Tuesday, students participated in a workshop that emphasized the social value of food! Brainfood students compared their eating habits when they eat alone to their eating habits when they eat with others.  They discovered that eating with others is a more engaged process that encourages conversation, laughter, and a sense of community.  Plus it also involves trying a variety of foods and eating slower.  To celebrate social eating, students prepared seven different home-style dishes (cornbread, coleslaw, baked apples, cheesecake, and more), which they ate leisurely together, sitting down at a table.

Wednesday spiced things up even more with vegetarian chili, quesadillas, pico de gallo, and homemade tortilla chips!  Students put their knife skills into action, chopping up the vegetables for pico de gallo, and were impressed by how easy it was to make baked tortilla chips.  Students also worked to make their meal complete by chopping up some green onions, and putting out shredded cheese and sour cream to top their chili and quesadillas.

Thursday, students got some more experience with meats when they made their own oven-baked chicken tenders.  These were served with some oven baked fries, and an array of sauces.  Students made their own honey mustard, buffalo, blue cheese, and southwestern dipping sauces.  Many students were new to the taste of blue cheese and the horseradish that went in the southwestern sauce, but they tried them excitedly, and even mixed some sauces together to make it their own.

Friday’s recipes required a variety of skills, which Brainfood students executed brilliantly.  Students practiced their knife skills in making potato salad, and they also learned to make a perfect hard-boiled egg, which they incorporated into the salad’s sauce.  Students were also introduced to parsnips, which were tossed with carrots in a maple and brown sugar glaze.  To top things off, students dabbled in candy-making when they made their own caramel sauce for some layered banana caramel cupcakes.

- Lanie Kruszewski, Brainfood Summer Staff

Lanie is a student at James Madison University and is living in DC for the summer.