Yesterday started our second weekly camp.  A whole new group of wonderful little chefs eager to learn more secrets about gourmet cooking.

We all gathered around to meet and get to know each other.  We went over the week schedule, explained what we were going to do and see.

Kids preparing lunch … yum yum yum!

The teens left to visit Sara’s garden and pick greens and lettuce to bring back for lunch.  In the meantime, kids prepared a wonderful rice salad with fresh shrimp, tomatoes, French string beans, boiled eggs, fresh cilantro, oregano and thyme.  They also learned how to make an authentic French salad dressing.  Then we all set the salads in circles and decorated the plates. 

The teens came back and enjoyed the lunch the kids had prepared.  Then they stayed in the kitchen to prepare two kinds of sorbet:  lime, and coconut, as well as cinnamon-walnut cookies.  In the afternoon the kids went on a field trip to Ingles to learn how to shop effectively and recognize healthy foods, read labels, understand what’s fresh, bagged, frozen, canned or boxed.   Lydia says:” We enjoyed learning how to choose good foods wisely.  I learned that the longer the list of ingredients is, the unhealthier the food is.  If you can’t read some of the ingredients, they are probably not good for us.”

Then we did a short tour of the Edible Garden downtown Asheville.  Back at Ma Belle France, we enjoyed the wonderful sorbets and cookies prepared by the teens.

We will add photos of the teens later on.

Thursday, the teens had a morning outing to the Bountiful Cities Project edible garden. They parked the van at Pack Square, and hiked through the park by the Asheville City Hall, down the steps and over a footbridge to a public garden full of small fruit. It was lovely! There were blueberries, elderberries, wineberries, apples, peaches, kiwi, strawberries, mulberries and more!

Next, they enjoyed a tour of Marco’s Pizzeria in North Asheville. David (the manager) showed them the pizza assembly and cooking station, the prep kitchen, the walk in cooler, and the whole production.  They were mixing 50 lb batches of pizza dough, weighing and shaping the dough balls to be tomorrow’s pies.

In the meantime, the kids prepared a meatloaf with fresh herbs and spices, a zucchini casserole everyone loved (yes, they loved zucchini!), and a side of fresh pasta the teens had made and dried the day before.  Everyone gathered around the lunch table to enjoy all these goodies.

In the afternoon, the kids went to visit a private garden in Leicester, owned and operated by one of Ghislaine’s regular cooking students.  Everyone really enjoyed the tour, seeing all the vegetables, and forty different kinds of tomato plants! We also spent a short time pulling weeds out of one of the garden areas, just in time before a storm came and rain started pouring.  We took refuge under the large veranda, in front of the house, and enjoyed tasting several kinds of honey produced by Kevin.  Delicious!

We then came back to Ma Belle France to enjoy a sweet corn souffle and tomato garlic ragout prepared by the teens.

Friday, last day of camp, started on a bit of a sad note, but everyone decided to enjoy the day fully.  After all, today was the parents dinner day!

In the morning, the teens went to visit the Hickory Gap Nut Farm, while kids prepared a lunch for everyone (a very special quinoa salad with avocado, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, fresh herbs and much more).  At the same time, kids all learned the secrets of making an authentic French Boeuf Bourguignon, including how to thicken a sauce, making a roux – a true tradition and a great fundamental cooking skill to learn.

After our communal lunch, kids went to a short field trip to the downtown edible garden the teens had visited the day before, and came back in time to prepare for the parents dinner.  Kids and teens alike really enjoyed serving the wonderful food they had prepared, and it was amazing to watch how everyone had their specific duties to do and the whole event was a total hit!  Parents, we would love your comments on this, please! 🙂

We ended the day (and the camp) with a graduation ceremony that got me (Ghislaine) rather chocked up.  What a special moment for me to see all the children, getting ready to go home with more cooking knowledge and skills, which I hope will serve them for many many years to come!

Thank you all for a fabulous first camp!

Yesterday, again, went by so fast, we didn’t have time to write anything on the blog. We have some catching up to do!

Making pasta!

The teens baked baguettes and made fresh pasta. Then they made French baguette sandwiches and Italian Panini sandwiches for lunch.

In the meantime, the kids went to Ingles.  Dominique, Hailey, Riley and Hannah say: “Yesterday, we went to Ingles and we learned about what is good for you and what is not, what has chemicals on it and what is fresh.  We learned that the fresh produce is on the perimeter of the store.  We learned that if you buy tuna cans, you want to make sure they have the stamp saying ‘Dolphin Safe’.

Joyce says: “I had never seen a celery root before.  I had heard about it, but now I know what it looks like and I will try it.”

Riley: “I never saw a purple cabbage or celery root before.”

Learning about foods at the supermarket

We went around the store for about one hour, looking at all kinds of groceries, canned foods, frozen foods, boxed foods and discussed what’s the best for you, not so good, or really bad for your health.  We learned how to read food  labels and discovered how much sugar there is in everything.

Dominique: “Before you buy something, you should read the label to see what’s in it.”

We did our shopping for the elderly people meal and arrived at the self-serve checkout.
Penn: “The employee at the counter was very rude to us. We had to get the manager to help us.  When we came back to the school, we wrote a petition to have the employee retrained so that she can be nicer to other customers.”

In the afternoon, the kids prepared a nice lunch to deliver to the elderly people while the teens went to have a picnic lunch at Beaver Lake.  The kids prepared a wonderful chicken soup and a fruit salad and then went to bring the meals to two nice ladies who were so appreciative.

The teens made a scrumptious chocolate cake for Celia’s birthday.  We all celebrated her and her special day!

Well, yesterday went by so fast, we didn’t have time to attend to our blog.  So, here we are back at Ma Belle France with the kids and teens.  Time to share!

We took the kids on a wonderful field trip to Three Graces Dairy in Marshall, on Tuesday morning.  We met with the goats, sheep, ducks and chickens, saw the pigs and cows from a distance.  We were very lucky to happen to be there the day the sheep were getting sheared!  Totally unplanned, since the farm people got a call yesterday afternoon from the shear people that they’d come today.  This is done only once a year, so we all felt really lucky to be there on that day.

“Look what they are doing to our sisters! Our turn is next!

Penn: “We each got to name a goat and I named mine ‘knuckles’. We got to taste honey and walnut goat cheese, which was kind of strong for my taste.”

Hailey and her finger!

Hailey: “I got to name a goat, mine was ‘Nibbles’ and it actually bit my finger!  It was a fun day.  I got to see goats get milked and I just had a good day!”

Seeing the goats get milked  was so interesting to the kids, that they did not want to leave!  🙂  Bill, one of the family members of the owners, gave us the tour with his wonderful smile and warmth.  He explained to us how the cheese was made and gave us some wonderful samples to taste.

We then came home to a wonderful lunch prepared by the teens.  Real homemade bagels and fritata with lots of yummy veggies.

The teens prepared the bagel dough and shaped the bagels.  Then they boiled them for one minute on each side, then baked them for ten minutes.  They went to the local farm stand, got fresh eggs and veggies for the fritatas, and then came back to prepare the lunch for everyone.

In the afternoon, the teens went off on their field trip to West Asheville, with Sarah.  They went to the Sunnypoint Cafe-Garden to meet  Melissa, the gardener, who talked about all the veggies she grows and uses at the cafe.

Mushroomland!

Then, off to Fungi Asheville to learn all about how to grow mushrooms.  Celia says: “I don’t think I ever saw so many mushrooms before!”  The owner sells the mushrooms and teaches people how to grow their own.  After that, the teens went to the West Asheville Tailgate market.  There were many different vendors sampling lots of different foods.    Kyah: “One guy was really wanted to sell his healing crystals and told us to go home and do our research.  We kind of said … okay, have a nice day, thank you!”

During that time, the kids prepared wonderful Peach- and Pear-Almond tarts, as well as mini goat cheese puff pastries with fresh thyme.  Yumm!!

Making French tarts is fun!

Penn:”Making the tarts was difficult but when they were done, it paid off.  The goat cheese puff pastry was great and the herbs and cheese made it easier to make.”

Hailey: “The pastries were great! There were two different kinds, one with pears, one with peaches.  I tried the peach and it was delicious!”

Here are a few photos from day 1.  Enjoy!

Fresh Salmon and Rice Salad – Photo taken by Penn

Kids learn how to use food circles to set the plates beautifully.

Teens learn how to make profiteroles.

“Day one is awesome” says Ruby!
“It’s fun, we got to learn cooking” says Hailey.
“Day one was really fun to get to know each other and learn new recipes.” says Dominique.
“Today was really fun and I like that we got to learn new recipes and that French cooking is awesome!” says Esther.
“Day one was really fun and it was hard for me because I didn’t know anyone at first – but now it’s better, because we cooked together.” says Archer”It was really fun and I am excited about coming back.” says Hannah.

The kids prepared a scrumptious lunch made of a rice-salad with fresh salmon, tomatoes and herbs, formed into circles on top of a bed of lettuce form Sarah’s garden.  Teens went to Sarah’s garden to pick the lettuce and explore the herb garden.

After eating lunch, the kids went for a refreshing walk around Beaver Lake while the teens did the lunch cleanup.  Then kids prepared a beautiful lemon sorbet while the teens made Chocolate Profiteroles with Cardamon Ice Cream.

Nicholas and Allison:  “We went up a steep driveway and saw Sarah’s home and garden, in Woodfin.  There were many types of herbs and snap peas, potatoes, carrots.  We smelled and tasted many different kinds of herbs, thyme, oregano, pineapple sage, cilantro, tarragon.  We picked lettuce there, for our lunch.  We also experimented with different scents to choose from for the ice-cream.  We chose coffee and cinnamon for one kind of ice cream, and cardamon for the other one.  It was fun.  I enjoyed trying new things.”

(Note from Ghislaine:  children also made amazing drawings and took great photos in the kitchen, which we will publish tonight or tomorrow.)