Cooking Camp

This spring I saw a brochure for a kitchen store that does cooking classes. They listed a summer cooking camp for teens that ran for a week. My daughter and I loved the sound of that, but not the price tag. $385. Seriously?? I can cook. I can teach. So I decided to have Cooking Camp in my kitchen for my daughter and a couple of her friends.

Since we have multiple schedules to juggle, we're shooting for once a week, and since I do desserts, the theme of the camp is "Desserts!" Each week we cover a different skill and make a treat that the kids can take home.

The first week we handed out binders for the recipes, went over kitchen rules (I think I broke all but one the first day), and made marshmallows. Teens and marshmallows. What was I thinking?

I walked them through making a sugar syrup, using a candy thermometer, using gelatin, whipping marshmallows, and then, through the magic of television (I made a batch the day before so I could pull out the finished product like they do on cooking shows), I cut a pan of cooled, dried marshmallows for the kids to cut and roll and powdered sugar.

Then, to insure that they were fully sugared up, we roasted marshmallows over the gas stove (note to self: shake the powdered sugar off before putting the marshmallow over the burner), and made s'mores.

First cooking class - I'm not sure how much they learned, but I give it an A+ for fun!