Inside Extension: Extension Interns: Cooking with Kelsey and 4-H Camp!

My special project and Camp!

Over the past two weeks of my internship, I have been very busy! I had my special project July 8-11. I decided to do a four day cooking camp! Lamar, my supervisor, suggested doing a cooking class because there was a good group of youth in their cooking club. I have been working all summer preparing for my cooking class. I have been copying papers, putting together folders, buying supplies, and much more. Lamar and I really wanted a diverse class for the youth; something that can challenge the children, but something they can also reproduce for their families. I decided to do a theme for each day of the cooking class.

The first day was Dairy Foods. We started out with introducing rule, kitchen supplies, the importance of dairy foods, and getting to know other children in the class. Since it was Dairy themed, we made dairy foods. We made butter and ice cream in a bag. We also had a guest visitor: Princess, the dairy goat. The children got to milk Princess and then, if they wanted, taste the milk.

The second day was Picnic Foods. The food we made was food that could be brought to a picnic or a potluck dinner. We made corn, cucumber and bean salad, sloppy joes, and chocolate pizza. Before we made any food, we talked about food safety: knife safety and how to use a meat thermometer. For the sloppy joes, we use four different types of ground meat (ground beef, lean ground beef, ground pork, and ground chicken) the children had the opportunity to see and taste the differences between all these different meats and then we compared the taste with the cost. The youth decided that when you compare price, health, and taste that the ground pork or lean ground beef was the best choice.

The third day was Jams and Breads. We made grape jelly preserves. We made two jars for each youth, one that they could take home and one that could be entered in the fair. We also made easy biscuits. Most of the youth had never made biscuits before so they learn techniques of cutting and rolling the dough. These biscuits could also be remade and entered in the county fair. We also did a hand washing experiment on this day. Each child had vegetable oil and cinnamon put on their hands. Each child had to wash their hands in: only cold water, cold water and soap, only warm water, and warm water and soap. We compared the differences in how much residue was left on their hands after washings.

On the last day, we made and learned about International Foods. We started out the day with looking at pictures from the book What the World Eats. The pictures from this book show a family from a country and all the food they eat in a week. The countries range from Chine, to Texas, USA, to Chad. I think this was eye opening for the children because some of the countries had large families, but very little food to eat. And some didn’t even have water in their pictures because drinking water is very rare. After we completed what the world eats, we compared the food pyramids from different countries. The food we made for international foods were: Swedish meatballs as our appetizers, ranch chicken tacos for our main dish, and chocolate mousse for dessert. The children really enjoyed getting to try these foods from different countries and also enjoyed that the food was easy to make so they could remake it for their families.

In the midst of my special project, we were also preparing for 4-H camp. So when I wasn’t in teaching my cooking class, I was helping make copies and get supplies together for camp. It was a very busy week, but knowing that I was leaving for camp Monday made it a little better!

So Monday rolled around, and we were ready to leave for North Central 4-H Camp! We camped with Bracken, Carroll, Harrison, Pendleton, and Robertson. The theme for our week at camp was Blast from the Past. Since it was the middle of July when we camped, it was definitely a hot week, but I had a blast. I helped teach a leadership class with Shannon Farell, the Robertson County Agent. We had a great group of youth in our group. The camp delegates also participate in swamp monster- which was canoe games, gold rush- where you found gold rocks all over the camp, water Olympics- which were relay races in the pool, and Sadie field games- which were relay races on a giant field. Sally was my favorite part of camp. Each night of Sally was decade themed. I didn’t dress up most of the nights, but seeing the camp delegates dressing up and having a great time was so much fun! Even though it was a hot week, we had a really great week at camp! I had a great group of girls in my cabin and… thank goodness, we had no home sick girls in my cabin!

LJ's ready for camp!