Living
Email
Print
Club Cooks for Charity: High-school students practice their skills in the kitchen and help Ronald McDonald House at the same time
Journal Photo by Bruce Chapman
Carrie Logan (left), Kristen Orr and Ruby Qi check on Cheesy Baked Chicken during a monthly meeting of their cooking club.
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: November 4, 2009
Once a month, Kristen Orr and a bunch of her friends get together on a Sunday afternoon and cook.
They make dinner, including dessert, for 30 people.
Then they give it away.
Kristen is a co-president of the cooking club of Forsyth Country Day School. The club was started by Molly Mae Wall, who has graduated. Wall said she got the idea because she loved to cook and wanted to do something to give back to the community.
Kristen, a founding member, said that the club is mostly girls, but it has a few boys, including her 16-year-old brother, Steph.
The club has been meeting, with a changing membership, since 2006.
Since then, the club members have been cooking during the school year to help the Ronald McDonald House.
"It's a really great way to get together. It's fun while helping the community," Kristen said.
The Ronald McDonald House, 419 S. Hawthorne Road, offers free lodging to out-of-town families who have sick children in one of the local hospitals.
In addition to lodging, the Ronald McDonald House also feeds its guests, all to help reduce the burden of what can be a difficult time for families.
Abby Bowman, the director of volunteer services for Ronald McDonald House, said that the house is lucky to have devoted regulars who donate food, but the Forsyth Country Day group is by far the youngest.
"We have some individuals who have been doing this every month for years," Bowman said. "We also get a lot of church groups, South Fork Church of Christ, and civic groups, like Davie Civitan Club. Some people just like to order pizza for us. And McDonald's on Robinhood Road brings food every Monday."
Others donate shelf-stable items, such as single-serving cereals or snacks. The house always needs more of those items, Bowman said.
The house strives to provide dinner to its families every night. "When I started here 10 years ago, we maybe had three meals a week. Now we pretty much have one every night."
Though the house has plenty of food donors now, that is expected to change next summer when the house more than doubles in size -- from 17 to 35 rooms.
Some people use the house's kitchen to cook, but most, like the Forsyth Country Day club, deliver the food.
The students always meet at Orr's house to cook, spreading out through the kitchen and dining room in teams, each tackling a dish or particular task.
The club has gotten some money from the Winston-Salem Foundation to cover its grocery expenses, which usually are about $100 a month, Kristen said.
Kristen said that the club hopes to apply for another grant to help buy more groceries. The other week, it sold cookies and brownies at the school's "Haunted Trail" for Halloween. The club is also considering a bake sale and pancake breakfast to raise money for groceries.
At the club's last meeting on Oct. 25, five girls met at Orr's house for three hours to make double, triple and quadruple batches of cheesy baked chicken, sautéed vegetables, bowtie pasta salad and apple crisp.
Co-president Carrie Logan, a 17-year-old senior, put together the recipes and led the effort. She moved back and forth between several stations in the kitchen and dining room, showing or explaining how to coat the chicken with cracker crumbs, how big to cut tomatoes, or when to add the dressing to the salad.
"Carrie is the one of us who really does a lot of cooking," Kristen said.
Everyone chipped in, though. Sydney Shaw, 17, kept busy dredging the chicken. Kate Cavenaugh, 16, cut up cherry tomatoes. Steph tossed the pasta salad. And Ruby Qi, a 17-year-old exchange student from China, sautéed a wok full of squash, onions and other vegetables.
They also got some help from math teacher Sara Fischer, who coaches some of the girls on the cross-country team.
Kristen and Carrie said they feel a lot more organized this year, simply because they have had more practice.
"There was this casserole last year. We just kind of improvised, and we weren't sure how it was going to taste," Kristen said.
Though the casserole somehow turned out great, Carrie is now developing a repertoire of tested recipes.
Some of those she brought back from her cooking job this summer at Soaring Treetop Adventures, a resort in Durango, Colo.
"I think I actually got that job because of this club," Carrie said. "It helped me prepare for it."
And after spending two months working in a professional kitchen, Carrie is even more prepared to turn out tasty dishes to send to the Ronald McDonald House.
"I'm definitely more confident now," she said.
Bowtie Pasta Salad
1 12-ounce box of any bowtie pasta
1½ cups baby spinach leaves, torn or shredded
10 to 15 kalamata olives, pitted (optional)
¼ cup sundried tomatoes in oil, drained and cut into small pieces
15 cherry tomatoes, quartered
6 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
3 to 6 ounces balsamic vinaigrette, such as Newman's Own, to taste
1. Cook pasta according to instructions given on the box. After it is finished cooking, rinse pasta with cool water. Drain well.
2. Place pasta in bowl and add all other ingredients except the vinaigrette.
3. Add enough vinaigrette to taste. Toss well. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.
Cheesy Baked Chicken
1½ sleeves Ritz crackers (6 ounces total)
1 to 2 teaspoons poppy seeds
Salt to taste
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon parsley flakes
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided use
1 cup shredded cheese such as cheddar, Monterey Jack, mozzarella or a combination
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Crush crackers in a large bowl and add poppy seeds, salt, pepper and parsley flakes.
3. Cut chicken breasts in half horizontally. Dredge pieces in cracker mixture to coat.
4. Coat a 9-by-13-inch pan with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Place chicken in pan in one layer.
5. Add cheese and remaining crumb mixture on top. Drizzle remaining tablespoon of olive oil over chicken.
6. Bake 25 to 30 minutes.
Makes 4 to 8 servings.
Apple Crisp
4 to 5 large Granny Smith apples
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Topping:
1¼ cups brown sugar
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
4 to 5 tablespoons salted, melted butter
Caramel sauce or sundae topping, optional
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-9-inch square pan.
2. Peel and core the apples. Thinly slice them. In a bowl, combine apples, 1 cup of sugar, 3 tablespoons flour, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the topping ingredients (except the caramel sauce) until the mixture has a crumb-like consistency.
3. If necessary, drain off any excess liquid in the bowl of apples. Press apple mixture into the bottom of the pan. Crumble the topping generously over the apples.
4. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until topping is a deep golden brown. If desired, drizzle caramel sauce over the top.
Email
Print
