Summer time is quickly approaching, which means kids’ camp season is almost here. The Tukwila Community Center for the first time will offer specialty camps for kids, including a Cooking Camp in August.
This month’s “Local Flavor” recipe comes from a cookbook the center uses for such adventures with kids in the kitchen. The Cooking Camp is designed to give kids, in third through fifth grades, a hands-on experience, working in the kitchen. They will learn basic cooking skills, interesting facts about ingredients and nutritional information.
“Usually during our Camp Tukwilly, they do a cooking project once a week,” said Kirstin May, youth and teen coordinator at TCC. “So we’re going to try and expand on that.”
The community center gets about 100 youth and 40 teens a week in their regular summer camp programs.
“The first day of camp, we’ll decide what they’re going to make, kind of what they want to learn,” said May of the Cooking Camp. “Then we’ll go to the store and buy the ingredients and kind of make it as much hands-on as we can.”
When cooking with kids, May offers this advice: “I would make sure they know the rules of the kitchen and keep them engaged. The more they can do, the more successful the cooking project will be.”
The fun will be in letting the kids be a part of selecting the food in the store and showing them how many ingredients are called for in the recipes, she said.
The class has a limit of 20 participants and will be offered from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., August 12-16. The cost is $185 for non-Tukwila residents and $140 for residents.
For more information, check the summer recreation guide on the Tukwila Community Center’s web site.