Some of this week's stars

This week we made:

Pear and Parmesan Salad

Pasta with Caramelised Onion Sauce

Pumpkin and Spinach Salad

Zucchini and Onion Pizza

Jewelled Quinoa

Now that we are into our second year, we are beginning to repeat some of last year’s recipes – the jewelled Quinoa and pumpkin and spinach salads were two such repeats and were just as popular as they were before. The pear and parmesan salad took a little adjusting each day, but by Thursday we felt that we had got it just right!! Thank you Eiluned for the beautiful Nashi Pears.

I did realise this week that we hadn’t quite got our menu planning correct as there appeared to be no room to include some of the donations that we are now regularly receiving. This week we were given fantastic beetroots and tomatoes that weren’t actually needed in our recipes. Of course we found ways to compensate for this – well done to Tom and Amelia for making a delicious tomato and mint salad as well as the pear and parmesan salad that they were supposed to make and also to Shannon who made a wonderful beetroot, walnut and parmesan salad that definitely needs to be included in future meals! In future we must remember to have at least one item that can include a variety of vegetables.

For a change I am going to focus on just a few of our students who have done particularly well this week.

First all I must mention Jaime. Jamie was a little reluctant to come to our kitchen class this week, but quickly became enthusiastic when she heard her favourite music being played (on my telephone) – “The Dingle Dangle Scarecrow”. She then enjoyed participating in our weather activity that involves dressing our scarecrows to suit the weather conditions (and dressing herself in the scarecrow clothes too!!). Not content with just that job, Jaime was then a great help with watering and with paper shredding. Jaime’s efforts in the kitchen were exceptional too this week when she assisted with preparing the pumpkin and spinach salad.

Cameron, new to our school this year, has participated really well in both the garden and the kitchen every week.

Stevan continues to be one of our Master Chefs!

It was very pleasing to see Liam participating so well in the garden this week.

And Stephen did a great job with pizza preparation.

Thomaz continues to be a great help in both the kitchen and the garden – great watering this week and the harvesting and carrying of the very heavy pumpkin was much appreciated!

What would we do without Brandon? Brandon was assigned to make the Pear and Parmesan Salad this week, but he was also spotted assisting with the pasta and the pizza!!

It was good to have Aaron back in class this week – great work in the garden.

Ellen joined us for a number of meals this week – always a very welcome guest at our lunch table.

And Jacob did a really good job with the weatherboard this week.

Great work on the pizza from Tom.

And it was really good to witness Tom's participation in preparing the pear and parmesan salad and especially to see him use a communication device to ask for more food and to indicate when he had finished eating.