Week 7 at UConn

Hi everyone, things are winding down for us!

Strawberry Maple Cream Cheese Stuffing

We spent the majority of the week helping Ron Swiller with the UCann Cook 101 Camp in Gelfenbien. On Monday, we helped chefs Gary, Hannah and Matt G. prep for the recipes the kids would be making later that week. We explored the kitchen in search of ingredients for recipes like strawberry cheese cake french toast and apple turnovers. We measured out the ingredients and set them on racks for the chefs to use the next few days.

Tuesday was the first day for the 101 campers! The camp set out to visit the Spring Valley Farm, which is the student farm we've worked with before. Here, the campers learned about the different produce the farm has, picked some peas to be used later in the week, and learned about bees from Julia - the farm manager. The campers even got their own plant to take home! We also got to see a herd of cows cross into another pasture while we were touring the farm.

Matt Sroka says the cows were actually saying "MOOooove!"

Back at Gelfenbien, the kids spent time at stations making various items. We worked with different chefs during the day so we each helped out with something different.

Mariel - "I helped Chef Hannah and Steve Sharkis in the fusion station. Hannah taught the kids how to make omelets and popcorn balls. I was really excited about the omelet part since I've never made an omelet before! My second attempt turned out better than the first one, and I think it may have been because I flipped the omelet up in the air with encouragement from Steve and Abby. Hannah was a great chef to work with and teacher to learn from!"

A camper's popcorn ball - looks tasty!

Abby - "I got to work with chefs Jen and Keith. We made apple turnovers and breakfast hand pies with the kids. I had never worked with puff pastry before so I learned right along with the kids. I had a lot of fun helping the kids cut and fill the pastry. The kids really enjoyed making the turnovers and couldn't wait to eat the finished product. The pastries may not have looked all that appetizing but they were delicious! I had fun learning from Jen and Keith and being able to spend time with the campers."

On Wednesday we walked with the kids to the bakery. They decorated cookies and cupcakes, made bread rolls, and made personal pizzas. The campers made better braids with their bread than we did when we worked at the bakery! Since the campers were in good hands with the bakery staff, we were able to take a break, which involved coffee for one of us (Abby) and a ServSafe test for the other (Mariel). Both of us are now ServSafe certified!

Pokemon GO at the Dairy Bar

After the bakery, the campers played culinary games with Ron before Cheryl Lebeau came to visit. She gave a presentation on food safety, discussing temperatures and cross-contamination. She brought some dye and proved that the 5-second rule is not a thing. Amy Dunham also came and talked to the kids about healthy, balanced diets. Ironically, we visited the Dairy Bar earlier that day and everyone at the camp enjoyed ice cream! We really enjoyed our time working with everyone at the camp, especially teasing Ron and bonding over Pokemon GO with Chef Gary.

Abby's a bookworm now!

The Old Man and the Sea

 We worked with catering on Thursday for the Confratute banquet. Confratute is a conference for Gifted & Talented teachers from all around the nation. Before the event started, we met with Helen from the sales department of catering and Megan Morley, who is one of the catering coordinators at UConn. Helen taught us about how catering orders are processed and Megan talked to us about their clientele and operations. For the banquet, we manned stations and were kept busy the whole night replenishing food and clearing tables. The catering team was really creative with their stations, from an Edgar Allan Poe station to a To Kill a Mockingbird station. It was a fun night!

On Friday we spent the day with Steve Sharkis at McMahon, Burton, and South dining hall. We went with him to take some inventory at Burton and we saw just how much the football players like juice and yogurt. He walked through add-ons with us and we were actually able to email some add-ons to the bakery and dining services ourselves. We ended our shift at South, where we shadowed Steve as he took care of business. He's a great manager and all of his workers enjoy working with him!

One of Connecticut's K-9 teams

Our weekend was filled with milkshakes, German Shepherds, sand, produce, puppets, inflatable art and crispy cheese. On Friday we went to Aero Diner in North Windham where we indulged on chocolate chip pancakes and milkshakes. On Saturday, we went to the 25th annual Connecticut K-9 Olympics, where we cheered as K-9 teams went through various obstacle courses. It was a sight to see!

After the olympics, we drove to Misquamicut Beach in Rhode Island for a final splash in the Atlantic Ocean before our internship ends and we head back to the Midwest. The traffic was worth it (it was the middle of the day and a weekend so we expected it) as we had a great time jumping over waves and basking in the warm sun. We're very happy that we got successful tans and nobody was sunburnt! After some beach time, we went to Foxwoods - but not to gamble. We actually got lost and it took longer than we thought it would, but now we can always tell people about our long journey at Foxwoods - all for a Panera.

What "not counting calories" looks like.

On Saturday we went to the Coventry farmers market where we had delicious smoothies for breakfast. It's really a huge farmers market with a lot to offer. We even learned about Nathan Hale, the first spy during the American Revolutionary War. We then headed over to the Benton where we walked through their exhibits and paused to study their inflatable art. Afterwards, we headed to the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry. They had a light exhibit there that fascinated us! From the recommendation of Chef Gary, we went to Shady Glen in Manchester for dinner where we enjoyed burgers with crispy cheese (it's really delicious!) and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. All in all, it was another great week in Connecticut!

An elephant inflatable at the Benton

A large robot inflatable at the Benton

Some marionettes at the Ballard Museum of Puppetry

More to come soon,

Mariel and Abby