Mini Martha Camp

So I am back and I am ready to share what all has been going on around here.  I will start with one of the best.  Pretty much any moveable piece of in this small space went on a little field trip.  I taught a week long cooking and crafting camp at the school I work at.  In my other life, I work at a school, but I am not a teacher... I work in the development office.  There is a reason I emphasize this... While it was one of the most fun things I have ever done, it was also one of the most exhausting.  Partly my fault for trying to cover everything from freshly pureed strawberry lemonade to homemade pasta in one week, but partly because I am not a teacher and while my class started at 9, I popped up everyday around 6 a.m. begging Mr. Hungry to help me haul my supplies up for the day to school because I was just sure I was not going to be prepared (once again, whole new appreciation for teachers).  So a quick and very big thank you for your help Mr. Hungry... I would still be toting around that blasted mixer and food processor if it wasn't for you.

After I pulled myself together each morning and the girls arrived, it was a wonderful 3 hours each day.  So you might be wondering about the Mini Martha?  Well, it was a cooking and crafting camp so I thought what better than to get straight to the source of all cooking and crafting things... Martha Stewart.  Out of all the new experiences I had with these girls, the one thing I had not imagined from this week, was the amount of defending I would have to do of Ms. Martha herself.  Almost daily, I would have a conversation that went something like this:
Camper: Mrs. Taylor, did Martha Stewart go to jail?
Me: um, well.... yes.
Camper: Is she a bad person?
Me: um, well, no.  She didn't necessarily hurt anyone.  um, well, she made a business mistake and got punished. But, she sure has rebounded!

This seemed to be good enough of an answer to satisfy their curiosity and we could move back to cooking.  Note to self: you can be cooking and crafting mogul, but one short stint in the slammer and it will be hard to get that off the top of the list when people hear your name.

Okay, back to the point...


I wanted to share all of our fun cooking adventures with you.  I had 6 fifth graders and 6 sixth graders and they were all amazing little chefs!

Day 1
First things first, we had to make aprons. We took a field trip to the computer lab and learned how to create our monogram in Power Point and then ironed them on to our apron.

We learned how to make crepes (yes, that is a bunson burner... you have to get creative when you are teaching a cooking camp in a science lab without a kitchen!)

And then we stuff them with all sorts of goodies and ate them up. (and apparently had our first flour throwing frenzy)

Day 2
We put together our serious looking chef hats so we good get down to business with different doughs.

Then, it was on to making fresh pizza dough (and apparently having our 2nd flour throwing frenzy). We mixed and kneaded and waited for it to rise.  Everyone went home with their dough to make a pizza for their families.

Next up, was homemade pasta.  This ended up being almost everyone's favorite recipe.

After making the pasta, we ate it all up.  Missed this picture opportunity because I too was enjoying some pasta.

Day 3
It was time to learn how to make royal icing and perfectly iced sugar cookies. I simplified things by picking up cookies from a local bakery and we worked on icing most of the morning.

We worked on making tissue paper poms poms to decorate our room.  Friday, we had plans for an end of camp party so we had to get the room looking good for our parents to come and sample.

We also went back to the computer lab and learned how to make cupcake toppers to adorn cupcakes for upcoming events like Father's Day and Fourth of July.

Day 4
Today was called "hocolate everything!"  We literally dipped everything from fresh fruit and pretzels to fortune cookies and potato chips in chocolate.

Day 5
We squeezed out fresh lemon juice and pureed strawberries for our fresh strawberry lemonade.

Followed by a pineapple fruit tree.

We continued to get ready for our party and get the table set.

We made a picture wall of all the things we had made that week so our sweet moms and dads could see that we actually did more than throw flour on each other for 3 hours everyday.

And finally, we were set for everyone to come in and see our hard work.

To sum things up, it was one of the most fun things I have ever done. I hope you girls enjoyed it half as much as I did!