The 4-H Cooking Class in Robertson County is evolving!  It has changed from a simple after school activity, something for the kids to do till the parents got off work, to a place that encourages confidence for novice young cooks as well as teaching new skills to those with more experience.

After working with the group as they learned about breads in the Fall 2018 semester, I decided for the Spring of 2019 I would introduce them to recipes from the 4-H Cooking 101-401 Cookbook.  Principally, I was concerned with Fair competition for the upcoming County and State Fairs.  In my first two years as an FCS Agent, numbers of entries submitted for fair competition has not been to my liking and I wanted to create more interest as well as raise confidence levels.  So I chose recipes for items that could possibly be submitted for the fairs as competition items as our subjects for 4-H Cooking Class.

This class meets once monthly, and my challenge was to choose recipes that could be completed and sampled within the allotted time scheduled for the class.  Thankfully I have several skilled volunteers as well as a Master Homemaker at my disposal to rely on as we group class members into teams that will prepare their items in the Cooking Lab at the Robertson County School.  This semester we made Snickerdoodles, Rich Chocolate Cake and Coffeecake with Topping.

While the recipes were baking, I presented class members with State Fair Score Sheets to give them the judges' point of view, and we talked about the possible pros and cons of their results as a Fair Entry. Once their items were ready to sample, they of course were more than ready to do so and pronounce a final verdict.  Even though every attempt did not turn out perfectly, this also worked right into my plan, as we discussed what could be done to ensure a better result the next time.

After all this I asked them how they felt about preparing each recipe as well as working in the kitchen with the oven, mixer and other items.  They felt like it was something they could repeat at home with success.  At the last session, in which the Coffeecake was made, I brought several bags containing dry ingredients to make the Coffeecake recipe and had a raffle(guess the number I am thinking) and the guessing was heated!  Everyone wanted to try this recipe at home and this turned out to be a great incentive I may try again.

At the end of each class I had those attending add their parents name and phone numbers in addition to their own on the sign in sheet for the class, and explained to them I would be calling families this summer to see if they would like their son/daughter/etc. to submit a fair entry. Hopefully I will have a larger number of entries in 2019 because of this program, and I plan to repeat it for the next few Spring Semesters.