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| Separating whites and yolks |
On Tuesday I sat in on a
lesson with the girls on how to make a cake and “kone.” Yesterday, I was able to sit in on the actual
cooking lesson in the kitchen! Fun was
had by all.
The girls all had to wear kerchiefs on their heads
(Keloke, the lone boy, had a baseball hat on), and I had to don a hat before I
was allowed in. The girls explained
quite seriously that it was to keep hair from falling into the cake
batter. Makes sense to me.
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| Sherley jumped right in! |
As I watched and listened, I thought back to my childhood
and my mom teaching me to bake, especially chocolate chip cookies. My best friend Leslie Hanson and I would get
set up in our kitchen, and Mom would walk us through making the cookies. I remember how hard it was for me to remember
what to pack down and what to just put in the measuring cup. We sure did have fun. Even today, making chocolate chip cookies
brings back great memories.
If I hadn’t been such a putz as teenager, I probably
would’ve learned a lot more from my mom, a master chef. I’ve matured a lot since then, and I turn to
her regularly to figure out what to cook, how to put meals together, etc. In fact, I can call my mom or any of aunts
for help on cooking and baking. I
remember once calling Aunt Louise when I was in college because I had screwed
up the batter for something, and over the phone she talked me through how to
fix it. I think I was making dough for
sugar cookies; anyway, they turned out great thanks to Aunt Louise!
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| Many hands make light work? |
The girls (and I) learned how to separate egg yolks and
egg whites. Actually, I already know how
to do it; I just learned another way of doing it. The kids weren’t allowed to practice
separating the eggs, but they all took turns beating the crap out of the
butter. Seriously, that took a good
25-30 minutes. Probably doesn’t take
that long with an electric beater, but there is no electricity in the
kitchen. Once the butter was deemed
ready, then went in the eggs and what they call “essence.” I couldn’t smell it, but I’m thinking that
was vanilla? More beating. The kids’ eyes widened when a whole cup of
sugar went in. I don’t think they’ve
ever seen that much sugar at one time.
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| My turn! |
I thought my mom’s flour sifter was old school, but they
just use a colander and their fingers to do what needs to be done to the
flour. Then some baking powder and
salt. That is all then gently mixed
together before going into the batter.
It’s just how my mom taught me—butter and sugar first, then the wet
ingredients, and then the dry stuff. At
this point, we were still beating the crap out of the batter, and I got to join
in. This cake really was a group
effort!
The final step was to fold in the whisked egg
whites. Keloke was ready to starting
beating them in as they did with the butter, but Doreste, the nanny, stopped
him in time. Whew, would not want to
ruin the cake at this point!
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| Keloke really went at it! |
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| Sifting flour |
We get to eat the cake today at the end-of-summer-camp
party. It’s sure to taste yummy. No matter what, though, the process was the
best. I hung out with the girls who were
learning the basics of cooking. I
learned some new words, and I learned how to make a cake! I also got watch the guesthouse and orphanage
cooks prepare their meals. Cooking is
hard. But, cooking in Haiti is really
hard. Everything is ground up in a
mortar and pestle. Beans and rice are
boiled in big, heavy pots over the gas burners.
The kitchen is HOT, which is why it’s in a separate building from the
other rooms (just like “back in the day”).
The girls were learning life skills very much needed to survive in Haiti
where nothing is pre-made or frozen or processed. Most everything is cooked from the raw
ingredients. They would more likely be
able to survive in the U.S. than I would be able to survive on my own in
Haiti.
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| Ready to bake! |
I had another experience today of women coming together
in community that I hadn’t really thought about before. It takes a village of women to get the hair
done, from taking it out of the braids to putting back into braids. I helped undo braids today for the first
time, and it took me forever! Kids help
each other; nannies help. And, the
interns and I helped! And then the
process of braiding hair for about 25 girls begins. And they do this every week. It’s not the same as braiding anglo
hair. Anglo hair is too easy to
braid. Here, they often sit in a circle
or a line with everyone giving and receiving.
I never thought of it as bonding time until I sat and took out braids
for Maryse and Olguie. We chatted. We laughed.
Pretty cool. Nothing competitive
about it . . . just taking care of each other.
