Girl Scouts: Lost and Found and Meeting Recap

Hi everyone!

First a quick lost and found:  Is anyone that was at the meeting today missing a dark blue sweatshirt?  I have one...

Second, the recap of the last couple meetings: (It's a lot like the recap of the College Park meeting.)

As usual, we started out by helping someone else.  We've moved from making Placemats for Meals on Wheels to making lucky origami stars for Make a Wish.  For their gala in spring they have to make 4500 origami stars, and they've asked for our help!  Our troop goal will be just 500 little stars. I told the girls these last two weeks that if we make 500 stars, we'll have a party for our meeting in March.

Here's what we're talking about; if your scout wants to practice at home, that would also be fantastic.

Video of making the stars.

Instruction sheet for making the stars.

After we learned how to make the lucky stars, and got some practice, we moved on to our two last Girl Scout Cooking Badge activities:

1)  One of a chef's hardest jobs is to try to assemble flavors that other people will like.  So our girls created a tea for you to try by combining 3 differently-flavored tea ingredients out of 15 different choices.  I suggested they let you try the tea (add sweetener or cream, however you like it) and see if you can figure out what flavors they added, and also tell them how you like their choices.  (Being able to figure out flavors is another important chef skill!)

2)  The girls also created a menu for a meal they can make for their families.  (And it would be great if you could help them actually do it!) The key here was to use another chef skill--using their words to make their meals sound enticing.  We talked a little bit about how a menu that just said:  "Mac and Cheese" doesn't sound as enticing as "Tender elbow pasta, cooked to perfection, and covered in a rich buttery cheese sauce."  So the girls got to use their writing skills just like a chef would!  The rules were that the girls had to write a menu based around things they knew how to actually prepare, and that they would ask you if they could prepare that meal for their families some time. 

I've already heard back from a couple of scouts who made their meals at home for their families, and it sounds like it was a great experience for everyone.  I hope your scout has fun cooking for you.   I look forward to hearing how all this learning about cooking turns out and if the girls can handle the heat in a real kitchen!

Next month, we'll be moving on to a whole new badge!

Aleks