Summer Camps

I know it's been awhile since my last post but let's just forget about that. Moving on ..

Since it is summer vacation, the little children are out of school! But since this is Taiwan, their parents think they should be studying so they put them in summer camps. There are three different summer camps where we work, a cooking camp, a sports camp, and a combo camp. Seeing as me and sports tend to clash, I wasn't interested in the combo or the sports camp. Cooking camp it is! I went to the workshop, seemed pretty easy. And then I had my first cooking camp! I was given another one after that but I haven't been given one since..... maybe the kids didn't like my omelettes the second time around haha

Day One: Breakfast - Omelettes and French Toast
The first omelette was really bad. The school gave me one egg per student and they were all so picky about what they wanted in it. I thought I would be doing one egg at a time. But the first omelette was a disaster, it tasted good so it wasn't too bad but it definitely was not an omelette. More like scrambled eggs with ham and onions. After that, I told them to find someone who wants some of the same things as you and mix your eggs together. In my first week, I was really lucky with the kids I had in the camp. Their English was pretty good and they were a lot of fun to joke around with. My second camp was at a more high end school so the kids were a little more... picky. 
All of them were super hesitant about the french toast. I swore it was amazing but they just didn't believe me. Lucky for me, French Toast is simple and fast. They all loved it and now I can make it in record time.

Day Two: Salmon Pasta with a White Sauce
I can't decide which week this went worse in. The first week, the pot they gave me to boil the pasta was too small and we ended up burning a lot of the pasta. The second week, cooking cream was apparently not available in all of Taiwan so we had to improvise. The kids said it tasted good but the sauce was very watery. Still not a master chef at this dish. Which I thought was ironic because when I saw day two was pasta, I thought it would be super easy. Not the case.

Day Three: Chicken Curry
I was expecting this day to be the hardest but it actually ended up being relatively easy. Who knew that chicken curry was easy to make? Not me. It was so good to eat too! While it was easy to do, this was probably the most stressful day. Most of the recipe requires cutting vegetables, or meat. Watching kids use a knife makes me cringe, a lot. Especially the younger ones. But we got through it and no one cut themselves. Success!

Day Four: Hamburgers and a Blueberry Smoothie
This day was definitely a lot of fun. Who doesn't love hamburgers? The only thing that sucked was the school gave us HUGE hamburgers buns and only enough hamburger meat to cover less than half the bun. Kind of embarrassing but whatever, the kids loved the hamburgers. The blueberry smoothies were just fun to make. The recipe we were given had NO measurements whatsoever so we just kept adding ingredients until the students said it tasted good.

Day Five: Field Trip!
On the last day of the camp, we get a field trip! We get to go to a cake factory and the kids get to decorate the smallest cake I have ever seen. This day was a lot of fun, very laid back. And consisted of me counting heads a lot. I felt very old, like one of my teachers in elementary school who was constantly counting heads on the bus.

The cooking camp was definitely a learning experience for me. For those of you who know me, I am not a cook. Baking is my thing, specifically, cupcakes. Cooking, not so much. That is Rick's job. I get to clean. But now I can safely say that I have mastered the art of omelettes, french toast, chicken curry, and hamburgers. Go me!