Week 6 Term 2 2014

As per last week we cooked:

Broccoli and Beans with a Lemon Ricotta Dressing
Wholemeal Rolls
Ravioli filled with Pumpkin and served with a Herb Butter Sauce
Soup of the Season
Moroccan Couscous

The second week of our menu proved once again what a great suggestion Tracey B. made that groups cook the same recipe two weeks in a row. It is great to see how confident our students (and staff) are when they arrive to cook something that they have already cooked the previous week. Staff are obviously thinking about the recipe during the intervening week and looking at how they can promote even more participation during the second session.

I am constantly impressed with the way that Red Class staff encourage so much participation. I would love to be able to include a video clip that I took recently of Jayden making pasta dough with Colleen – I will have another attempt! This week Colleen encouraged Jayden even further with the dough making. Instead of using a wireless switch to operate the food processor Jayden was asked to turn on the actual dial, being given instructions about turning it to the left or to the right for on and off. Jayden responded to these instructions really well and it looks like we will no longer need the wireless switch. It is great to see how he actively searches out the sensory inputs when cooking – the vibrations and sounds of the food processor, the texture of the dough and the sound it makes when it is the correct consistency, the feel of a cracked egg …………………….

Similarly it was great to watch Jodie working with Shelby to make the bread dough – Shelby added all the ingredients and even poured the liquid into the breadmaker. All it took was a little support and some great thinking about positioning the equipment so that it was accessible.

Silver Class did some good work in the garden this week – they harvested lots of radishes for the chickens and also did some great work planting seedlings with Michael. It was good to see Pink Class caring for the chooks too – William has made great progress with handling them gently. Pink Class has also been working on mulching – well done to Zac and Jaime for some great work!

There have been some very good examples of students setting our dining tables this week – well done in particular to Jason and to Darcy.

We continue to be very pleased with our aprons – they look very smart and come out of the washing machine completely free of tangles! We will be sending a card and some photos to Woolworths at Shoreline to thank them.

As well as making the bread dough, Shelby also assisted really well with soup making. And Matthew too did an excellent job – his class chose Cauliflower Cheese soup as their Soup of the Season – it was delicious. And on Thursday Ryan and Jaimie made a ‘surprise soup’ and named it Southern Support School Surprise Seasonal Soup! Whatever they put in it I don’t know, but it was wonderful!

We had lots of examples of students assisting with more than one dish this week, Aidan was especially helpful, making bread rolls and the broccoli salad. Well done too to Jayden for his bread roll making. Litiani continues to make excellent progress with cooking; this week she worked on the broccoli and bean salad – she even corrected me on my bean preparation at times! Well done to Zac for making a delicious bean and broccoli salad when we had no beans – the cabbage and carrot addition was perfect!

Litiani and Aidan have already been mentioned, but I must say that Blue Class in general are becoming absolute stars in the kitchen – this week Jacob and Tomas made a delicious couscous dish.

Our students are continuing to increase the range and quantity of food that they eat. This week is was great to see Jaime eating some carrots!

We are sorry to lose Christopher from Gold Class this week – what a star he has been in the kitchen! Actually all of Gold Class are stars – Dominic has become a fantastic ravioli maker (after just two lessons) and Christopher, Harvey and Tom were again so quick with their bread roll making they were able to make a coleslaw too.

 It was great to meet with Josie in Melbourne this week – after telling her that Jack B.’s mum had suggested we use next week’s flatbreads for enchiladas Josie was able to come up with some great suggestions for fillings! The students will be doing the menu planning before we know it!!

And finally, in a week where there was a distinct shortage of volunteers due to exams and sickness, thank you very much to our volunteers Frances, Marilyn, Jacqui, Lisa and Abbie. We welcome Abbie back to Southern Support School – Abbie came to us as a student two years ago and now after completing some study is hoping to work in an environment such as ours.