Kents Hill School Let's Get Cooking Club

Summer Fete Fruit Kebab Stall

2010-07-14T01:43:00.001-07:00

The summer fete was held on Friday 9th July and our Let's Get Cooking Club had their own stall there selling "make your own" fruit kebabs. For £1 per stick the customer could choose 8 things to thread onto their wooden kebab sticks. Eight members of the cooking club took turns to help to chop up the ingredients and to serve customers during the course of the afternoon.

We were fortunate to receive a donation of 2 crates of fruit from Riverford Organic Fruit & Veg, as well as a fresh pineapple from Simon, and with a few extra bits and pieces bought from the shops we had plenty to keep us going. People could choose from strawberries, bananas, apple, clementines, cherries, pineapple, grapes and kiwi as well as marshmallows and pieces of Mars bar.

It was a popular stall and definitely one that will we run again at the next summer fete, and the money taken contributed to the staggering £2500 that was raised on that day.

Now... what shall we do at the Christmas fair...?

Scone based pizza

2010-07-13T14:11:00.000-07:00

For the final session of this block of cooking club the children invited along an adult so they could show off the skills they had been learning in the previous sessions. In session 3 we had made scones and that was going to come in handy for this session because the children were going to make a pizza with a scone base. In addition, they got a chance to show off their knife skills by cutting up some toppings and making carrot and cucumber sticks. And to finish, we retrieved the smoothie lollies from the freezer.

Our celebrity chef this week was Tiffany and here she shows us how to make an easy, inexpensive pizza from scratch.

Scone-based Pizza

(per person)

100g self-raising flour

25g butter

60ml milk

2 tablespoons passata

A pinch of mixed dried herbs

50g strong Cheddar cheese

A selection of topping ingredients such as ham, mushroom, pineapple, red pepper, sweetcorn.

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (gas mark 7) and grease a baking tray.

2. Sieve the flour into a bowl.

3. Weigh out the butter and add it to the flour.

4. Using clean fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.

5. Gradually add the milk to make a soft dough.

6. Sprinkle the rolling pin and a suitable board with a little flour then roll out the dough until it is less than 1 cm thick.

7. Spread the passata onto the base with a spoon.

8. Sprinkle on the herbs.

9. Grate the cheese and add this to the pizza.

10. Now add a selection of suitable toppings.

11. Carefully slide the pizza from the board onto the baking tray then bake for 20 minutes until the cheese is bubbling.

The children had fun deciding what toppings to put on their pizzas and a couple of the boys decided to continue with our football theme and decorated their pizzas to look like the England flag. Whilst the pizzas were in the oven the children chopped carrots and cucumber into sticks and helped tidy away.

And then it was time to eat. Everyone loved their pizzas and even had enough to let their adults have a taste and to take some home with them.

After that, there was just enough time to have a smoothie lolly each before home. These tasted just as nice frozen as they had tasted fresh as drinks last week.

So next time you fancy a pizza and don't have one in your freezer, give this recipe a go. It dead easy and tastes great!

Fruit Smoothies

2010-07-06T09:57:00.000-07:00

This week's cooking club we had a go at making some delicious fruit smoothies. Although England are now out of the World Cup, the football theme continued as smoothies are a great way to boost your energy just before playing a match or for refreshment after a match.

Our celebrity chef this week was Alina and here she shows us how to make a Totally Tropical fruit smoothie.

Totally Tropical Fruit Smoothie

2 very ripe bananas
500 ml pineapple juice
400 ml tin coconut milk

1. Peel the bananas and break or cut them into pieces.
2. Measure out the pineapple juice.
3. Open the tin of coconut milk and pour it into a jug.
4. Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth
5. Pour into small tasting cups to serve.

In the meantime, Morgan and Tiffany were busy making Justy Peachy Fruit Smoothie.

Just Peachy Fruit Smoothie

1 small can of peaches
150g pot peach yoghurt
200 ml milk

1. Open the tin of peaches and drain away the syrup.

2. Measure out the yoghurt and milk.

3. Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.

4. Pour into small tasting cups to serve.

At the same time Sam and Corey were making the smoothie that had been invented by the cooking club from last half term.

Strawberries and Cream Fruit Smoothie

1 very ripe banana
150g pot strawberry yoghurt
100ml milk
2 scoops vanilla ice-cream

1. Peel the banana and cut or break into pieces.

2. Measure out the yoghurt and milk.

3. Add the ice-cream.

4. Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.

5. Pour into small tasting cups to serve.

Once all the smoothies had been made we swapped them around so that everyone had a chance to taste all three. The clear favourite was the strawberries and cream smoothie, followed by totally tropical but they were all very nice and a great way to get a serving of fruit into you.

Having tasted the smoothies, we then had a go at inventing our own smoothies with the ingredients that were left over and with what we had in the cupboard.

Our first smoothie had one banana, a strawberry yoghurt, 200ml milk, a teaspoon of vanilla extract and 3 teaspoons of strawberry jam and it tasted like strawberry milk shake!

The second one had 150ml mango yogurt, half a tin of peaches, 200ml milk and 3 teaspoons of honey and that was yummy too.

It just goes to show how easy it is to get creative in the kitchen and to make a tasty smoothie. And nothing went to waste as the left overs were poured into lolly moulds ready to have as dessert at our final session next week.

Half Time Tea Break Scones

2010-06-24T02:10:00.001-07:00

On a hot Wednesday afternoon as England played their crucial match against Solvenia in the World Cup we gathered once more for cooking club. And what better way to show our support than a classically English dish of cream scones. By using red strawberry jam and white cream this tea-time treat was even in England's colours... Come on England!

Today our celebrity chef was Corey and here he shows us how to make them.

Half Time Tea Break Scones

200g self raising flour

50g butter

25g caster sugar

125ml milk

1 jar strawberry jam

Whipped cream

1. Turn on the oven to 220°C or gas mark 7. Phew! That's a hot one on a hot day!

2. Brush the baking sheet with a little oil or butter.

3. Weigh out the caster sugar.

4. Weigh out the butter.

5. Sift the flour into the mixing bowl.

6. Using clean, cool finger tips, rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. If your hands are hot and sticky, run them under a cold tap and dry well before trying to do this.

7. Add the caster sugar and stir in.

8. Measure out the milk.

9. Gradually add the milk.

10. Form the mixture into a soft ball of dough.

11. Sprinkle the rolling pin and a clean, dry flat surface with flour and roll out the dough until it is around 2cm thick. Then cut the dough into rounds with a 4cm pastry cutter, brush with milk and place on the baking sheet. Repeat until all the dough is used.

12. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes until the scones have risen and turned golden. In the meantime, whisk the whipping cream until thick.

12. Allow to cool on a wire rack then slice each scone open and spread with jam and cream to serve.

So with England 1-nil up at half-time it was time to relax a little and to tuck into our yummy half-time tea break treat.

And the result... some lovely cream scones to take home... oh yeah, and England won too!

World Cup Sub Sandwiches

2010-06-17T06:15:00.001-07:00

This week we continued our World Cup theme with a handy, filling meal that can be conveniently eaten whilst watching the footie - Sub sandwiches. So whilst England are making their subs, why not make yours!

Our celebrity chef this week was Sam and, with Logan's help, he was making an egg and bacon sandwich filling based on the full English breakfast. Here he shows us how.

Egg and Bacon Sub Sandwich

2 eggs

2 rashers of bacon

3 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 tablespoon ketchup

Black pepper

2 large hot dog rolls

1. Place the eggs whole in a pan of water and boil for 5 minutes until hard.

2. Carefully remove the eggs from the pan and run under a cold tap until cool.

3. Fry or grill the bacon until cooked then set aside to cool.

4. Tap the eggs to break the shells then remove all the shell from the eggs.

5. Chop the eggs into very small pieces with a knife.

6. Snip the bacon into small pieces with a pair of scissors.

7. Put the bacon and egg into a bowl and spoon in the mayonnaise and ketchup. Grind in a little black pepper.

8. Mix well.

9. Carefully cut the bread rolls open lengthwise and spoon in the filling.

In the meantime, Corey and Alina were making Coronation Chicken sub sandwiches, a sandwich filling first invented in 1953 for a banquet to celebrate the Queen's coronation.

Coronation Chicken Sub Sandwiches

250g cooked chicken

1/2 teaspoon grated lime zest

1 tablespoon lime juice

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

20g mango chutney

1/2 teaspoon curry powder

Pinch of salt

2 large hot dog rolls

1. Cut the cooked chicken into small chunks.

2. Use a grater to carefully grate the zest off the lime.

3. Cut the lime in half and squeeze out the juice.

4. Put the mayonnaise, mango chutney, lime zest, lime juice, curry powder and salt into a bowl.

5. Mix thoroughly.

6. Add the chicken to the sauce and stir well.

7. Cut the bread rolls length ways and spoon in the filling.

At the same time, Morgan and Madison were making Tuna Crunch Sub sandwiches.

Tuna Crunch Sub Sandwich

2 x 185g cans tuna in brine

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

8 lettuce leaves

1 small cucumber

2 tomatoes

2 large hot dog rolls

1. Drain the tuna, place in a mixing bowl and mash with a fork.

2. Add the mayonnaise to the tuna and stir until mixed.

3. Wash the lettuce and cut into thin strips.

4. Wash the cucumber and cut into slices.

5. Wash the tomato and cut into slices

6. Cut each bread roll in half lengthwise then arrange the salad along the base of the rolls. Then spoon the tuna on top.

Once everyone had finished making their sandwiches, each roll was cut into three pieces and shared out so that everyone could taste each of the three sandwich fillings.

It was pleasing that everyone was willing to try something new and a few of the children surprised themselves by liking the fillings. Well, you never know unless you try!

Knickerbocker World Cup Glory

2010-06-09T14:41:00.000-07:00

The start of the second half of the summer term so the arrival of 6 new faces at Let's Get Cooking club and with the World Cup about to start the theme of this block of cooking club is football and England support.

Today the recipe was a knickerbocker glory but with a World Cup twist. The Knickerbocker World Cup Glory is based around the England flag with the ingredients being red and white. Our celebrity chef was Madison and here she shows us how to make it.

Knickerbocker World Cup Glory

For the jelly:

1 tin of strawberries in juice
1 sachet of gelatine

For the sauce:
200g strawberries
125ml apple juice
80g icing sugar

For the Glory:
50ml whipping cream
50ml Greek yoghurt

100g strawberries

70g raspberries
Glace cherries

The jelly was made in advance to be set and ready to use. To make, open the tin of strawberries and pour the contents into a pan. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 2-3 minutes. In the meantime, put 2 tablespoons of water into a small pan and sprinkle the gelatine over then set aside. Drain the strawberries over a bowl then push through a sieve into the bowl. Gently heat the gelatine until melted then pour into the strawberry liquid. Leave to cool for a while then pour into a rectangular container and refrigerate for at least 2 hours until set.

To make the strawberry sauce:

1. Weigh out 200g of fresh strawberries, remove the stalks and chop each in half.

2. Measure out the apple juice.

3. Place the strawberries in a blender with the apple juice and blend until smooth.

4. Pour the puree through a sieve to remove the seeds.

5. Add the icing sugar and mix thoroughly until dissolved.

To make the Glories:

6. Place the cream into a small bowl and whisk until it forms soft peaks.

7. Gently fold in the Greek yoghurt.

8. Chop the remaining strawberries into quarters.

9. Finally cut the jelly into small cubes.

10. Now assemble the kickerbocker glory by layering together the remaining strawberries and raspberries with the jelly, cream and strawberry sauce in England plastic tumblers. Finish with a cherry on top and a mini England flag.

So before the football gets underway, what was today's result? 6 all - 6 fantastic looking desserts and 6 happy children.

Time to eat and for the first time this afternoon this enthusiastic bunch fall silent!

Chicken Nuggets & Potato Wedges

2010-05-20T01:54:00.000-07:00

This was the fifth and final session for our first group of cooking club members and for this special occasion parents were invited. After 4 weeks of learning new cooking skills, today was an opportunity for the children to show their parents what they could do. They had learnt how to use an oven safely, knife skills, reading and following a recipe, combining and mixing, how to use herbs, using a food processor, and cleaning and hygiene. Today they would need all of those skills as well as having an opportunity to handle raw meat safely.

Today our celebrity chef was Chloe and here she shows us how to make a complete meal from scratch - now that's impressive!

Potato Wedges (per person)

1 large potato

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1. Preheat oven to 200°C, gas mark 6 and grease a baking tray.

2. Cut the potato into 4-8 wedge shaped pieces.

3. Place the pieces in a sieve or colander and rinse under a running tap to clean then place on a microwaveable plate or bowl whilst still wet.

4. Microwave the potato for 1-2 minutes and set aside.

5. Mix the oil, honey, paprika and thyme together in a bowl.

6. Pour the mixture over the potatoes and stir until the potatoes are coated.

7. Place the potatoes on the baking tray, skin side down.

8. Bake on the top shelf of the oven for about 30 minutes until cooked through and golden.

Chicken Nuggets (per person)

2-3 mini fillets of chicken breast

1 piece of stale bread

1 teaspoon of dried mixed herbs

Black pepper

Salt (optional)

25g melted butter

1. Cut each chicken piece into 2 or 3 nugget sized pieces and set aside. Note: Wash hands after touching raw meat.

2. Put the slice of bread in a food processor and whizz until it turns until breadcrumbs. Place the breadcrumbs in a bowl.

3. Add the herbs and seasoning to the breadcrumbs.

4. Use a pastry brush to brush melted butter onto each piece of chicken.

5. Coat each piece of chicken with breadcrumbs then place it on a baking tray.

6. Move the potato wedges to the bottom shelf of the oven to keep warm then cook the chicken nuggets at the top of the oven for 20 minutes.

After tidying away and washing up all the equipment used for making the chicken nuggets there should be time to make some carrot and cucumber sticks whilst the nuggets are cooking. Remember to wash hands, clean the surfaces and use clean knives and chopping boards for the raw vegetables to avoid contamination from the raw chicken.

Once the potato wedges and chicken nuggets were cooked it was time to serve them up with the vegetable sticks and a dollop of tomato ketchup. What an achievement to cook a complete meal from scratch and it was very tasty too!

Fruit Smoothies

2010-05-12T14:41:00.000-07:00

Today's club session was a chance for the children to experiment in the kitchen by making a variety of fruit smoothies. First the children made three different smoothies, following Let's Get Cooking recipes, then, after tasting all 3, the children had a chance to get creative and to decide which ingredients to use to make two more smoothies. Could they make something even tastier?

Our celebrity chef this week was Charlee and here she shows us how to make "Just Peachy" smoothie.

Just Peachy

6 slices of tinned peaches

125g peach yoghurt

200ml milk

1. Open the can of peaches and chop the pieces of peach into smaller pieces.

2.. Measure out the yoghurt and the milk.

3. Place all the ingredients into a blender and whizz until smooth.

4. Pour into suitable drinking glasses to serve.

In the meantime, Amy and Chloe were busy making Cherry-licious smoothie.

Cherry-licious Smoothie

400g can of pitted cherries in juice

250ml cherry yoghurt

1 banana

1. Peel and chop the banana.

2. Measure out the cherry yoghurt.

3. Open the can of cherries.

4. Put all the ingredients into the blender, including the syrup from the cherries then whizz until smooth.

5. Pour into suitable glasses to serve.

At the same time Sarah and Keelea made Pineapple and Pear Smoothie.

Pineapple and Pear Smoothie

1 pear

220g tin of pineapple in juice

4 ice-cubes or some cold water

1. Open the tin of pineapple.

2. Peel the pear, cut into quarters and remove the core.

3. Place all the ingredients in the blender, including the juice from the pineapple and whizz until smooth.

4. Pour into suitable drinking glasses to serve.

With all the smoothies carefully poured into miniature glasses it was time to have a taste of each of them. There were lots of "Mmmm" and "yummy" muttered and then the children decided which smoothie they liked most. "Just Peachy" was the overall winner, with "Cherry-licious" a close second.

The children had a look at the remaining ingredients then came up with some suggestions for two more smoothies. The first was a mixture of strawberry yoghurt, milk, a banana and a few dollops of vanilla ice-cream. The second was made from a few peaches, some milk and a few drops of vanilla extract. Both were tasty but our strawberry/banana combo was a real hit. The children went home with a boxful of fruit and carton of milk. Can they come up with their own delicious smoothie at home?

Oat & Coconut Biscuits

2010-05-05T14:18:00.001-07:00

After a couple of weeks practising knife skills, this week we focused on using a cooker safely. This week's recipe was oat and coconut biscuits, a simple and tasty recipe that needs both the hob and the oven to make. Our celebrity chef this week was Sarah and here she shows us how to make these yummy biscuits.

Oat and Coconut Biscuits (Makes 12)

100g oats

100g plain flour

75g dessicated coconut

75g light muscovado sugar

25g oat bran

125g margarine

1 tablespoon black treacle

1. Preheat the oven to 190 °C, gas mark 5 and grease a large baking tray.

2. Put all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir.

3. Put the margarine and treacle into a small pan.

4. Gently heat the pan and stir to melt the margarine and treacle together.

5. Pour the treacle mixture into the dry mix and stir well.

6. Use your hands to mould lumps of the mixture into biscuits and continue until all the mixture is used up. It should make 12 biscuits.

7. Bake the biscuits for 15 to 20 minutes then cool on a wire rack.

With a delicious smell wafting around the kitchen and whilst we waited for the biscuits to cook and cool it was time to wash up and tidy away. Good job everyone!

Herb dips and vegetable sticks

2010-04-28T14:51:00.000-07:00

For the second cooking club session we were focussing on herbs. After an introduction to herbs and a chance to sniff a few freshly cut ones it was time to makes some herb dips. Today our celebrity chef was Keelea and she made cheese and chive dips with Charlee.

Cheese and Chive dip

250g natural yoghurt

50g grated cheese

Handful of fresh chives

1. Dollop the yoghurt into a bowl.

2. Grate the cheese and add it to the yoghurt

3. Snip the chives up into tiny pieces with a pair of scissors.

4. Add the chives to the yoghurt and give everything a good stir

In the meantime, Chloe and Sarah were busy making cheese, tomato and basil dip.

Cheese, tomato and basil dip

100g cream cheese

2 tablespoon tomato puree

Half a lemon

Several basil leaves

1. Put the cheese in a bowl then add the tomato puree.

2. Squeeze the juice from half a lemon and add this to the yoghurt.

3. Chop some basil leaves up with scissors and add these to the yoghurt too.

4. Give everything a good mix.

And at the same time Amy and Charlie made cucumber raitia.

Cucumber Raitia

A quarter of a cucumber

A quarter of an onion

125g natural yoghurt

1 tablespoon lemon juice

A few mint leaves

1. Cut the cucumber into very small pieces and place in a bowl.

2. Next peel and chop the onion finely and add to the cucumber.

3. Spoon the natural yoghurt into the bowl then add 1 tablespoon lemon juice.

4. Finally add a few mint leaves and give it a good stir.

Now that the dips were made it was time to make something to dip into them. For this the trainee chefs peeled and chopped carrots and cut cucumber into sticks, as well as making pieces of celery and red pepper.

All that was left was to get dipping! And was it yummy? Chloe and Amy certainly thought so and Keelea went back for seconds. Sarah and Charlee weren't so sure. Well, the all got to take some home so maybe their mums and dads will have a taste too.

Chocolate Fruit Sundaes

2010-04-21T14:19:00.000-07:00

Today was the first session of the new cooking club at Kents Hill School. The aim was to learn about kitchen safety and hygiene and to focus on practising some knife skills whilst making some yummy chocolate fruit sundaes.

Each of the six children were given important kitchen jobs and to go with that big badges with chef names - Head chef, sous chef, chef de partie and so on. Today our "Celebrity Chef" was Amy and here she shows you how to make chocolate fruit sundaes

Chocolate Fruit Sundaes

Ingredients

110g chocolate

10g butter

2 tablespoons golden syrup

2 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

A selection of fresh fruit such as strawberries, bananas, grapes, melon, pineapple

A tub of vanilla ice-cream

1) Start by making the chocolate sauce. Get a grown up to boil a kettle of water and pour some into the bottom of a saucepan. Break the chocolate into a bowl and place this over the pan of boiling water.

2) Stir the chocolate until it has melted then add the butter, syrup, water and vanilla extract and stir until it makes a smooth sauce.

3) Put the sauce to one side then using the claw and bridge holds chop up your pieces of fruit.

4) Get a big glass or plastic tumbler and put together your fruit sundae by putting in pieces of fruit, dollops of ice-cream and pouring in some chocolate sauce.

5) Then eat it! Yummy and one of you five a day!

Next time, try threading pieces of fruit onto a wooden skewer to make a fruit kebab.

The end of the first session and a successful afternoon for everyone!

The Big Cookathon

2010-03-17T10:05:00.000-07:00

What a day the Big Cookathon turned out to be - busy but very successful.

The main Cookathon event took place at the school and this got under way as soon as the children entered the building at 8.50am. Riverford Organic Veg had kindly donated 150 enormous organic potatoes which they had delivered to school the previous day. Year 1 were the first to get going with these, with each child being given a potato to scrub and prick as soon as they got their coats off. Once cleaned the potatoes were put in a box from where they were counted into bags of 10 spuds to be given to a waiting parent. The parents, armed with cooking instructions, then took the potatoes home to be baked for 2 hours.

The Year 2's were next to get underway with scrubbing potatoes, whilst others got started on chopping vegetables for their vegetable chilli topping. Next the reception children were organised into a long line, ready to start their potato preparations. By 9.30 16 bags of potatoes had left the building to be cooked and the school oven was filled with as many potatoes as could be fitted in!

Next the children set about preparing the toppings. For the reception children this involved opening 15 cans of baked beans, grating 3 kg of cheese and making tuna mayonnaise.

In the meantime, some the Year 1 children were busy grating carrots and beetroot and chopping red cabbage and onion to make red coleslaw. And others got chopping to turn the huge box of donated organic salad items from Riverford Organic Veg into tasty cucumber and pepper sticks and bowls of leaves and tomatoes.

Red Coleslaw

Ingredients

¼ red cabbage

¼ quarter red onion

½ carrot

1 beetroot

Mayonnaise

Equipment

Sharp knifes

Chopping boards

Grater

Bowl

Spoon

Plastic tub with lid

Method

Chop the red cabbage up as finely was possible and put it in the bowl. Peel and chop the piece of red onion and add this to the bowl too. Peel the carrot and grate it before adding it to the bowl. Next grate the beetroot and also add this to the bowl. Mix all the vegetables together then dollop in enough mayonnaise to coat the vegetables thoroughly. The coleslaw is now finished and can be tipped into the plastic tub for storage in the fridge until needed.

At the far end of the building the Year 2's were by now well into the preparation of their vegetable chilli and a few children were busy chopping up butter into portion sizes.

Vegetable Chilli

Ingredients

15 ml vegetable oil

1 onion

1 carrot

3 cloves garlic

1 red pepper

1 yellow pepper

1 stem celery

1 level teaspoon chilli powder

8 fresh mushrooms

1 tin whole peeled tomatoes with liquid

1½ tins kidney beans with liquid

1 tin sweet corn, undrained

1 teaspoon ground cumin

Method

1. Peel and finely chop the onions, carrot and garlic.

2. Cut the peppers into quarters and carefully remove all the seeds. Then chop the rest of the pepper into small pieces.

3. Finely chop the celery and mushrooms.

4. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Fry the onions and carrots until tender. Stir in the garlic, green pepper, red pepper, celery, and chilli powder. Cook until the vegetables are tender - about 6 minutes.

5. Stir in the mushrooms and cook for another 4 minutes.

6. Stir in the tomatoes, kidney beans and sweet corn and add the cumin. Bring to the boil and reduce the heat to medium. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

By break time huge tubs of toppings and salad were safely stored in the fridge whilst the aromas of baking potatoes and vegetable chilli wafted from opposite ends of the school. And for a moment, at least, all was calm.

Of course, it was a different story over in Nursery where by now they were reaching the finishing touches of their morning's cooking session. Here 30 four year olds had been busy baking their own potatoes and making their own toppings ready for snack time.

Back in main school, phase 2 of the cookathon sprung into action at about quarter to twelve with the transformation of the school hall into a dining room. As well as the usual lunchtime tables and benches a special coothathon serving area was set out with hot potatoes at one end, salad in the middle and toppings at the other. Just before 12 o'clock the volunteer parents returned with their bags full of hot potatoes and at 12 o'clock, as the first of the school children came into the hall for their lunch, other parents turned up with their home-cooked potatoes ready to sample the children's toppings.

Over the next hour 130 children, 20 members of staff and 27 parents sat down to eat a baked potato, their favourite topping and some fresh organic salad.

As the children returned to lessons and tidying up got underway in the hall, over in nursery they began their second cooking session of the day with the afternoon children.

But that was far from the end of the cookathon day. Over at the Red Hot World Food Buffet people had been turning up all day to sign up for the cookathon and this continued all afternoon until 120 people had signed up there. After school, a few parents and their children set up a stand outside Tescos and managed to encourage 40 more people to join in with the cookathon by baking a potato for tea. And friends, family and work colleagues of all the school's parents were being persuaded to cook a potato for their dinner. Word spread by phone, email, Twitter and Facebook until even friends in other countries were getting involved.

Now all that is left to do is gather together all the lists and count up the grand total of everyone that joined in with Kents Hill Schools Big Cookathon!

The final Cookathon preparations

2010-03-12T12:51:00.000-08:00

It has been a busy week behind the scenes, preparing for the Cookathon. With the survey results back it was time to compile the results and write a fact sheet based on the findings. The fact sheet now contains interesting information about baked potato nutrition as well as cooking tips and some of the suggested topping ideas. Also included are a few of the lovely potato characters drawn by the children. Look to your left and you'll see them all scrolling past in a slide show. All of these also made it onto the Cookathon posters which have now gone up at school as well as other noticeboards around the area.

Also from the survey results we have been able to see which toppings are the most popular. No surprises that cheese beat butter to poll position (only just), with baked beans not far behind. So it should also be no surprise that butter, cheese and baked beans will be on offer on at school on the Cookathon day itself. Joining them will be tuna (another popular) choice, and coleslaw and chilli (because they will be fun to make... well, it is all about cooking after all!). We are very grateful to Riverford Organic Veg for promising to donate 150 potatoes for our event, as well as salad items that will go nicely with the spuds. Red Hot World Food Buffet will be signing people up when they visit the restaurant on Tuesday and we have sixty 15% off Red Hot keyrings to give away to parents turning up to help out or join in at school. Tesco were also generous enough to give us £20 towards our shopping as well as allowing us to stand in their foyer on Tuesday to pester their customers into cooking a baked potato that day too. Other generous offers have come from 35 parents volunteering to help out. With 200 potatoes to cook and only one oven we are sure going to need help!

On Tuesday, with only a week to go, a photographer for the Citizen newspaper turned up at school to take a picture of the children with their potatoes then on Thursday an article promoting the event appeared in the Citizen.

By Thursday all the children had decided which topping they fancied on their potatoes, leaving a rather big shopping list. So Friday afternoon, a trip to Tescos was needed to stock up on 12 blocks of butter, 6 wedges of Cheddar, 15 tins of baked beans... well, you get the picture. There are 200 children to feed!

But 200 isn't enough... we need more! If you are know someone from Kents Hill School make sure you put your name down on their sign up sheet. Otherwise, email the address at the top of the page to tell us that you too will be cooking an spud on Tuesday. We need you!

Cookathon Launch Day

2010-03-03T14:07:00.000-08:00

This Monday morning Hazel and Sarah went into assembly at school in order to launch the Cookathon with the children. The children were very enthusiastic about cooking in general and they all seemed to like baked potatoes - well, what's not to like! Mrs Anderson asked them what they liked on their baked potatoes and along with the usual answers of cheese and baked beans were a few more unusual replies such as gravy. Sounds yummy!

After assembly Hazel and Sarah, along with Amy, Ros, Callum and Bailey from Year 2 went along to Reception with some pieces of baked potato and four different topping to try. A few brave Reception children came along to have a taste. The cream cheese and pineapple topping was popular, as was the chicken and sweetcorn. One lad loved it so much he went back to finish the other pieces in the bowl!

Next it was time to head to Year 1 where 8 pupils were allowed out of class to taste the 4 toppings. This time it was the tuna that proved most popular. One girl was brave enough to try coleslaw on her baked potatoes despite admitting she didn't like coleslaw or baked potato! Let's hope she changes her mind before the Cookathon.

Finally it was down to Year 2 - first stop Willow! They were a very keen bunch, all putting their hands up to want to have a taste and all promising to get their whole families involved in the Cookathon on 16th March.

By now it was break time so the tastier session moved outside where a huge bunch of Year 2 children gathered around to have a taste, many children coming back for seconds and thirds!

So by 10.30am the whole school was buzzing with talk of the Cookathon and all the children were primed to go home and tell their mums and dads all about it. To help, a letter in the bookbag explained the finer details. Now the children have 5 days to design a potato man (or lady!) character for the posters and stickers, and to fill in the potato survey so we can gather together some tasty topping recipes. Can't wait to see the results!

Announcing the Big Cookathon!

2010-02-13T03:46:00.000-08:00

Kents Hill School's Let's Get Cooking Club are excited to announce that this year we will be taking part in the Big Cookathon! On Tuesday 16th March 2010 schools across the country will be competing in the nationwide Big Cookathon. Up for grabs are £3000 of prize money, with the overall winning school receiving £1000 of this prize fund. But there is more to it than winning. This is the opportunity to launch the Let's Get Cooking club at Kents Hill School in a big way. One of the club's main aims is to encourage everyone to cook and what better way to start than by a Big Cookathon where as many people as possible will join in and cook the same recipe on the same day.

To keep it simple and to make it possible for anyone to join in we have chosen baked potatoes as our recipe. In Kents Hill School every child will cook and eat a baked potato on that day, preparing and eating a variety of delicious toppings, but we need as many people as possible to join in with this event. Last year's overall winner had 900 people cooking on the same day but we can beat this! All you have to do is cook a baked potato - either at home, at work or in one of our other locations. Red Hot World Food Buffet have already joined us and said that anyone turning up there on the day can cook a potato. If you are a member of a club, church group or organisation why don't you get everyone involved. We are also grateful to Riverford Organic Food for agreeing to donate potatoes, topping ingredients and man-power for our event. If you or anyone you know would like to sponsor our event by making donations of food or offering manpower then please get in contact with us and we will be sure to give you a mention at every possible opportunity!

Keep checking back here for the last updates and whilst you are here why not fill in our baked potato survey.

So put the date in your dairy - Tuesday 16th March 2010 - and cook a baked potato with us!

Let's Get Cooking Start Up Day

2010-02-06T09:32:00.000-08:00

On 28th January 4 Year 2 pupils and the two club demonstrators attended a start up day at Loughton's Heron's Lodge Guide Centre, along with about 20 other schools from the region. After a brief introduction to the club and a "match the ingredients to the recipe" exercise it was time to make the first recipe. Every school was given a smoothie recipe to make and we were lucky enough to be given the task of making the mystery smoothie. This one included 3 ingredients that all the other schools would have to try to guess later at the tasting session. Because it was to be a secret we had to work in the centre's kitchen rather than in the hall with the rest of the school, which was exciting!

The 3 ingredients in our smoothie were to be 2 large tins of apricots, some orange juice and some grated root ginger. In fact, we didn't have a recipe to follow, just instructions to try to make sure that no one flavour over-powered the others. The children gathered together the equipment that we needed and all had a go at using the blender and grating some ginger. We also had to set out 90 plastic shot glasses ready to fill with our smoothie. It didn't take us long to make the smoothie and soon we were back in the hall making a poster to advertise our smoothie, which we had decided to name "The Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine Smoothie".

Then it was time to taste the smoothies that the other schools had made and to decide on our favourite. One school had been given the task of making up their own smoothie but all the others followed recipes from the Let's Get Cooking recipes. The pineapple and pear one was very nice, as was the one we had made but in the end the made up one was voted the overall winner. And did people manage to guess the 3 ingredients in our smoothie? No, a lot of people recognised the orange juice and the root ginger but no one guessed the apricots.

After this it was time to start making our own lunch. Each school was given a different recipe to make. We had the task of making a cheese and chive dip with carrot sticks and some pots of fruit with yoghurt and granola. So lots of chopping involved in this one and a good chance to practice the new knife skills we had been taught - the claw and the bridge grips.

Lunch was served at 1 o'clock by which time with all this food around us and lovely smells we were definitely ready to eat. Now we had chance to sample the recipes that the other groups had made. It was like a tasty party buffet with soup, baked potato, vegetable sticks, dips and tomato tarts to eat to name but a few. Then fruit kebabs and our granola pots for afters.

After lunch we were straight into a food tasting session. A selection of exotic dried fruit were placed in front of us and we had to think about the best words to describe how they tasted. Many of the children certainly had a surprise when they bit into stem ginger!

The final activity of the day was to make an apple crumble to take home to cook. Again we got busy collecting ingredients and equipment and we all had a small foil tray to make our individual crumble in. There was a recipe to follow but we were encouraged to experiment with other ingredients such as cinnamon, frozen soft fruit and honey. Again there was a chance to practice knife skills as the children took turns to peel and chop the apples, and they all had a go at rubbing in to make the crumble topping.

It certainly was a busy day but a very enjoyable one for everyone. We all went home with a crumble but also a lot of new skills and enthusiasm. We are all looking forward to the club starting up after the Easter holidays now.