Summertime cooking club keeps Lyle youngsters’ appetites whetted

“We’re trying to make sure the kids have food to eat. But it’s nice to have a chance to learn nutrition and higiene,” said Cindy Bluemel, a member of Lyle Against Substance Abuse Coalition. “We [also] want to be able to focus on local ingredients.”

Supporters of the Youth Cooking Club include OLESS, Klickitat County Health Department, and Klickitat and Lyle Against Sub-stance Abuse Coalition (KLASAC).

“Last week we fixed quesadillas and no bake cookies, because we really don’t have much of a kitchen here,” said Bluemel.

A few parents and children, seven to fifteen years old, sat around a cluster of tables as Budnick and a few assistants helped prepare the space for the afternoon’s cooking session.

Flour, eggs, cinnamon, sugar, baking powder, milk, and two zucchinis were placed in front the afternoon’s guest chefs before Budnick began explaining what the club would be cooking for lunch.

“What is this?” Budnick asked as she held up a large yellow zucchini. Participants confirmed the vegetable before learning that it was picked from the community garden near the high school.

When Budnick asked if anyone liked zucchini a few hands went up but others stayed reserved, “I’ll tell you guys a big secret about vegetables: a lot of times you’ll think you don’t like a vegetable, but maybe you just didn’t like how it was cooked, or how it was prepared,” explained Budnick.

“Our secret special ingredient today is zucchini, that we’ve grown right here in Lyle,” Budnick said, before revealing the afternoon’s recipe: zucchini breakfast bread pancakes.

Budnick then explained the format for the afternoon’s class which would include everyone helping with a portion of the recipe since resources were limited.

After taking a count of those who were cooking the club then participated in a little math to figure out how many times the recipe needed to be increased in order to feed fifteen students.

“This recipe makes five servings that means that it can feed five people, how many times this recipe do we need to add in order to be able to feed everybody?” Budnick asked. A participant raised her hand and answered, “three times.”

The class began by shredding zucchini, and naming the utensils that would be used to prep the ingredients.

“Typically whenever you’re working with bread, like if you’re baking, we do two things separately,” said Budnick as she addressed the table.

“We take our dry ingredients and mix them together. We take our wet ingredients and we mix that stuff together. OK? So what we’re going to do right now is get our dry ingredients,” explained Budnick before listing the ingredients and how much to measure for each one.

The afternoon’s student-chefs were passed dry ingredients and asked to measure out the needed quantity to dump in the bowl. Everyone around the table had a chance to pour flour, measure cinnamon, or count increments of sugar.

While ingredients were distributed to the younger participants, older partakers grated and shredded large chunks of zucchini to be added later.

As the class progressed through the ingredients some were explained as to why they were being added and what their purpose was.

“This stuff right here, is what helps it rise,” explained Budnick as she held up a container of baking powder, “so this is going to help give us nice fluffy pancakes.”

While measurements were being made, math skills were also employed to find the correct amount when tripling the recipe.

To help student chefs remember the difference between a tablespoon and teaspoon, Budnick told them a memory trick, “you set your tea on the table, that’s how you can remember,” Budnick explained as she nested a teaspoon into a tablespoon.

Once the dry ingredients were mixed, milk and eggs were added then incorporated with the dry fixings.

The final batter was passed around the table, each chef taking three turns of the whisk to mix the contents till smooth.

While the zucchini bread pancakes were cooking under the surveillance of an older contributor, the remainder of the cooking club cleaned utensils and bowls until the pancakes were ready to eat.

The final product was well received by everyone, including those who thought they didn’t like zucchini.

“We’re kind-of piloting it,” said Budnick about The Lyle Youth Summer Cooking Club. The club is still in its infancy in terms of planning, and executing, for each cooking session. The club received a 100 dollar donation so far and will use the money to purchase more cooking equipment.

“I think it would be great to do this next year,” said Budnick.

The Youth Cooking Club meets Tuesdays from noon to 1 p.m. till August 4 at the Lyle Community Center. For ways to donate or to learn about what’s cooking contact, Debi Budnick at the Health Department, 509-493-6234 or debib@klickitatcounty.org.