Thursday is Cooking Day!

Our adult participants are learning their way around the kitchen. First the focus was appliance safety and cleanliness – how to load and unload a dishwasher; how to start the microwave; what food needs to be stored in the refrigerator. Now, each week, a group plans the lunch for Thursdays. Next, it is time to make the shopping list and take a trip to the local grocery store. And on Thursdays, the activity in the kitchen is joyful!

The menu for the first lunch was pasta and salad. Ellie proved to be quite the chef as she donned the oven mitts and guarded the stove as she carefully watched the water boil and the pasta cook. Meanwhile at the table, Patrick was chopping carrots and Emily was adding lettuce and tomatoes to the salad. The following week, it was grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. The most difficult lesson of the day was how to wait – each time a sandwich came off the griddle, the ‘cook’ was ready to sit down and eat it – and Miss Sonia gently reminded our chefs that they needed to wait until all the sandwiches were done so we could eat with all of our friends.

So many lessons are learned as we work together to plan and cook a meal. But the best experience of all is sharing the meal together. That is what building a community is all about!