Chicken & Dumplings and "Mom"

In my food service class today I made chicken & dumplings as a demonstration in my chicken unit.  Out of 13 kids I had 3 that had never tasted this dish before.  Granted one had an excuse, she's a foreign exchange student.  But seriously, the other two?!  I believe I have them hooked now.  This class period happens to be right before lunch for my seniors, so lunch was in my room today.  It was silent for a good 2-3 minutes in my room with all of them in there - something that rarely happens, except when they eat.  One of my girls even took care of the dishes for me.  "You cooked.  I'll do the dishes."  It was very sweet.  It was also a very fun day.  It was like getting the whole family together (a family that gets along of course) for a meal.  We talked and laughed and generally enjoyed each other's company. 

In other news, I was paid a very high compliment today.  One of my students looked at me very seriously and said, "Ms. Miller, you should have kids."  I looked back at him rather dumbfounded and replied, "I should?"  "Yes," he says.  "You'd be a really good mom.  You have rules and can be strict, but you also know how to have fun."  I nearly cried.  Things like that don't typically come out of this student's mouth.  I quickly recovered from my shock and gave him a heartfelt thank you.  Some day I'll tell my kids that they should be thankful to have me for a mom.  I'll probably wish I had that recorded so there was proof that someone thought I was fun once!

It's been a good day!  :)

Cookies, Punch Cubes, & Chickens

It’s an odd title, I know, but it hits all the highlights.  Last week our school hosted the annual boys’ basketball tournament for our conference.  Every year we have a hospitality room that has earned quite the reputation.  This year, my food service class is helping prepare food.  Our biggest contribution has been cookies.  For the first night, we had two large platters of cookies.  Every single one of them was eaten the first night and we had so many positive comments.  I was very proud of my kids.  They worked hard on their cookies - having fun at the same time of course!  (I’ve decided that at least for this year, it is impossible to do anything in my room without having fun.)  I have such willing workers.  They’re always ready to cook and some even offered to come last night to help serve.  I am truly blessed with good students this year.  By the end of the week we had served 12 batches of cookies, roughly 36 dozen.

I have a student this year, who has figured out my weakness.  (One of them anyway.)  For one of our Christmas parties, he brought in punch cubes – a kind that happens to be my favorite.  He has now created a monster.  We’ve already had a “punch party” since we’ve been back from Christmas.  I’m sure that there are more such days in our future as a class!

At semester break, I always get new students.  My food service class went from 6 to 13!  All have been in a foods related class with me before so they know the drill as far as clean up and procedures.  But just to be sure I reviewed all my expectations at the beginning of the semester which was met with several looks of “Yes, we know already.  Can we just cook now?”  What’s even better is not that they just know my expectations, they follow them – specifically.  I’m EXTREMELY picky about cleanliness and keeping the kitchens spotless after labs.  And it’s rubbed off on the kids.  They take pride in how clean everything looks and any dirty dishes or leftover messes from when other people come in to use a sink or counter space are met with disgust.  For example – today was the first lab day for my orientation classes.  It’s always an experience when the kids cook for the first time.  But I didn’t realize just how much my upperclassmen had spoiled me.  There were SO many questions over things that I know I covered in class.  Then when it came to clean up – oh my goodness!  As I’m grading 2^nd hour on their kitchens after the bell rang, my food service kids are coming in for class and are seeing what I’m grading.  They were shocked at how messy things were and frankly so was I.  I believe a serious talk will be taking place tomorrow.  Even in my disappointment in the previous hour, my kids still managed to make me smile.  I’ve managed to make them all as OCD as I am about cleanliness J. 

Today was chicken day!  Yesterday I demonstrated how to cut up a chicken.  And I managed to get a few good comments out of it too.  “Oh that’s gross!”  It’s strange, but it makes me smile inside.  Today was their turn and I am so proud!  I didn’t have hardly any disgusted comments.  As they are working on their birds, I’m walking around helping them find the right spots to cut, having them feel bones and joints and such.  They were really excited about getting to do this and really got into cutting up their chickens – so much so that they all named their birds before they started.  I have pictures that I plan to print out to give to the kids.  “Harry,” “Carlos,” “Maria,” “Gregory,” and “Steven” were all great sports today and will make some very tasty fried chicken next week.  I think the whole school probably heard about the chickens at some point today.