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Culinary Class: Our culinary class continues to be a highlight of the week with the residents preparing some of their favorite meals. This week we prepared three dishes and a dessert. Fresh chicken kabobs with chunks of peppers, red onion and marinated in a vinaigrette, Pita Pockets with marinated oregano garlic chicken and topped with tzitki sauce, chocolate walnut brownies and super pork burritos with beans, cheese and avocado. They were quite excited and were trying to decide what item they were having for lunch and which one for dinner. Brownies won out and were the first to be eaten along with the burritos a close second.
They were asking about quick breakfast items and wanted me to purchase instant breakfast packets. We discussed the amounts of sugar listed and the downside to eating that much white sugar. I suggested a real fruit smoothie and did a demo. We prepared frozen tropical fruit with a banana and yogurt and they loved it. Then we whipped mixed berries with a banana and honey. Voila! We had a new breakfast item. I purchased some protein powder to give it a little more bulk. Happy campers with culinary this week.
B2B Garden: On Thursday, Hattie Braun, the instructor for the Master Gardener class at NAU, came to visit our garden. She suggested that we go ahead and use sacks of potting soil in the enclosed area and in our oak barrels. Hattie also recommended to put flowering vegetables in areas with the most sun, tomatoes, squash, peppers. Leafy greens could get filtered sun. Starters could be purchased at one of our local nurseries and planted soon even though the suggested time for our zone is not until mid June. Should we get cooler weather, we could cover them. We are ready to roll! Graciela has given authorization for me to buy soil and starters.
The residents will be out in the field until Thursday and then leaving this Friday for the Four Corners roundup at Lake Powell. I want them to be a part of this project so we will begin after their return next week.
If there are any gardeners out there with suggestions, I welcome them!
— Kathy DuPrez, Director of Food & Nutrition and B2B contributing blog writer