Working our way towards Applesauce

I have 3 grade 6/7 foods classes. Two of them will be cooking applesauce tomorrow, the last class will have their lab next week. I managed to make the same mistake AGAIN in the demo, of not halving the water and sugar. Tasted good anyway. Must have been my assistant chef... she was very careful and competent.

Today's obstacle: saucepans. Not enough saucepans. Each unit in the foods room should have two. With lids. Lids that fit. Stainless steel would be nice. You see how the devil is in the details here?

(Those are CLEAN pots, by the way)

So, not enough saucepans to go around, because they're too small to cook up a 4-apple batch of sauce. Plus, a lot of them are aluminum. The "extras" in the cupboard - um... turns out they're the top part of double boilers. Some of them might do... but others are far too thin... and aluminum.

Looks like we're missing the pyrex liquid measures too. And wooden spoons... Don't get me started on the condition of the aprons. No wonder the kids are fighting over the green one.

Stay tuned for the first cooking sessions of the younger students.

Applesauce - Part 2

Okay! Two classes down, and one to go. Maybe applesauce should be a two day lab. Both classes ran late; one into lunch and one after school. The remaining class is sandwiched in the middle of the day, and cannot run overtime.

I'm thinking that they could peel, core and chop, then store the apples until the next day, then cook, consume and clean again. Today's classes were pretty wiped out after washing their cooking dishes, then washing their eating dishes.

I had no idea that so many children could not use a vegetable peeler. One lad used the chef's knife to remove a small bruise from his apple... and had to go to the office for a couple of bandages.

I'm pretty happy that I had six boiling pots of sugary apples going in a room of 25 preteens without any burns, and the way they handle knives it's amazing that there was only one self-inflicted wound.

Applesauce - Part 3


The third and final applesauce lab for this term was broken into two days. One day to peel, and cut the apples; the next to cook and eat. There was more awkward down time over the two days, but it was a huge improvement over trying to rush and do everything. Unit 2 still didn't get cleaned up before the end of the class, so I shudder to think what the results would have been if I'd tried to condense.

The hidden benefit is that the students perceive that they're cooking more in a two day lab. And they WANT to be cooking more! A few ask each time they enter the room - "Are we cooking today?" "Do we have a demo today?" and the slightly more surly, "Why is this a cooking class if we don't cook more often?" (I have GOT to come up with a new name for the course)

The challenge this weekend is to find more recipes that I can use, and to plan a more challenging curriculum for the next terms.