Cadettes New Cuisine Badge

This past week my Cadettes earned their new cuisine badge.  I knew after reading the description of the badge I wanted to make this badge a field trip.  It is a great opportunity to get the girls out and experience new foods.  Initially I thought a cooking class would be perfect, but as you all know we are on a limited budget and most cooking classes in our area were running $30-$40 and up per a girl!  SAY WHAT?  Then a few months ago I was shopping at William Sonoma and I observed a cooking demonstration.  I asked the manager how often they have cooking demonstrations and she said as often as they can.  I asked her if she would be interested in providing a personal demonstration for my troop and their parents, something with an international flair.  The manager was very excited and put me in touch with her chef coordinator.  Julie, a previous kindergarten teacher, was thrilled at the idea of not only teaching Cadettes about cooking, but the concept of making it educational.  After describing the requirements for the badge, I gave her total leeway in creating a class for the girls. WOW!  Was I impressed!  Julie did a fabulous job and this field trip turned out to be a favorite and something they all will remember.
Julie created a vegetable tofu dish with an Asian Flair.  And the girls made a pear/apple and ginger soda water.  She tied in the cooking lesson with the Chinese New Years.  She explained to the girls that the Chinese New Year dates coincide with the lunar calendar and the date is different every year much like our Easter and Thanksgiving holidays.  She also talked about how the Asian culture believes in a special relationship between humans and the 12 zodiacal animals: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake sheep, monkey, rooster, horse, dog and pig.  For this reason the Chinese represent each new year with one of these animals and believes that children born in this year will possess these animal's traits.  Much like the American zodiac signs related to the month in the year you were born: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius,  and Pisces.  For more easy to read information on the Chinese New Years please click this link:
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/social_customs/zodiac/
Julie was very interactive with the girls and they all got an opportunity to participate in the making of the dish.  The girls got to use a Garlic Peeler to remove the shell off fresh garlic.  Next, they used the Chef Garlic Zoom to chop garlic.  Each girl was able to use the Pademo Spiralizer to spiral cut zucchini. Some girls chose to peel carrots too.  They removed the seeds from several red peppers and clipped off the ends of snap peas.  Then this incredibly healthy dish started to come together.  Julie prepared the dish in an Asian Wok adding the pretty vegetables, tofu and a ginger sauce sold at William Sonoma. Looking at the dish I was thinking the fact it has tofu and it is so healthy, the girls will probably not want to try it.  All I could hear was the girls crooning over the wonderful smell of fresh ginger and garlic.  Surprisingly they all could not wait to try the dish.  I heard "Yum!" and "This is the best dish ever, will you make it Mom?"  Every single girl gave a thumbs up for this new dish.  All of the parents were really surprised.  What a wonderful opportunity to experience new foods and learn a little about another culture.  I give this badge a thumbs up too!
The "icing on the cake" was William Sonoma provided this class free of charge.  However, it was a great business move as nearly every one of my parents purchased a garlic peeler and/or the prepared ginger sauce.  And all of the girls were interested in their free Saturday Classes.  This was more than a cuisine experience it opened the girls up to a career in cooking and sales.  At the Cadette level I like to encourage girls to begin thinking about career opportunities.  What would they like to do beyond High School.  Field trips provide a wonderful opportunity to explore the world of jobs.