With all the pressures of raising young children and maintaining a household, it takes dedication to complete a 6-week cooking class. That’s just what parents across Arlington and Fairfax are doing, thanks in part to the support of Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) Master Food Volunteers. Area courses are being lead by Jennifer Abel and Katie Strong, VCE Agents, and Ellen Mathis and Hareg Tecklu, VCE Family Nutrition Program Assistants.

Cooking Matters for Adults is a cooking and nutrition course designed to empower families at risk of hunger with the skills, knowledge and confidence to make healthy and affordable meals. During each class, participants learn to make several recipes and receive a bag of groceries to make the recipes for their families. The well-designed curriculum includes student and instructor guides covering practical nutrition, food shopping and food safety along with 65 tasty, healthy and low-cost recipes. Many of the recipes used in our VCE Master Food Volunteers training program came from Cooking Matters.

Leading a program in Reston were two registered dietitians, Katie Strong, VCE Agent, and Yara Saad, Early Childhood Nutritionist with Fairfax County Public School (FCPS) Head Start Program. They were supported by FCPS and VCE staff Jessica Forsty and Patricia Reyes along with Master Food Volunteers Michael Perel and Sue Gonzalez. Many thanks to Reston’s Southgate Community Center for providing an excellent kitchen and classroom for this program.

Participants receive certificates and Cooking Matters shopping bags at the final class on May 22.

Instructors Katie Strong, Patricia Reyes, Jessica Forsty and Yara Saad discuss nutrition while demonstrating food preparation.

Participants help prepare hearty egg burritos.

Fruit salad topped off with fresh mint is a class favorite.

Using bags of black beans, Katie Strong demonstrates how quickly bacteria multiply when food is not kept at safe temperatures.

Jessica Forsty holds up a “blubber burger” filled with Crisco to illustrate the amount of unhealthy fat in one participant’s favorite fast food meal.

Cooking Matters for Adults teaches low-income adults (primarily adults with children) how to prepare and shop sensibly for healthy meals on a limited budget. Founded in 1993 by Share Our Strength and nationally sponsored by the ConAgra Foods® Foundation and Walmart, Cooking Matters now serves 17,000 families each year. To learn more about Cooking Matters, visit www.cookingmatters.org.

–Sue Gonzalez, Master Food Volunteer

Virginia Cooperative Extension’s Family Nutrition Program made the trip down to Concord, NC last week for their Multi-State Conference. The conference was hosted by North Carolina’s Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program and offered a variety of entertaining and informative sessions.

Opening Luncheon and Keynote speaker Jump with Jill, The Rockstar Nutritionist using a rock ‘n roll approach to communicating a healthy message. www.JumpWithJill.com

Haregowin Tecklu, Arlington Adult Program Assistant, claims she learned a great deal about antioxidants, diet and metabolic diseases. She states, “It’s a great idea to talk about how eating more fruits and vegetables could save your health bill in the long run. I plan on sharing this idea with my WIC and Early Head Start parents.”

Megan Mauer, Northern District Nutrition Outreach Instructor, enjoyed her first Multi- State Conference and finally having the chance to meet everybody throughout the state. What was really valuable to Megan was hearing how others approached teaching a healthy lifestyle within their programs. “I got a sense that everybody at the conference was very passionate about their work, but also appreciative and supportive of others.” Overall the conference was a success and Hareg and Megan look forward to applying their new skills to some of their local programming.

Fairfax County administrative professionals picked up new spices and hearty salad ingredients as they shopped for groceries this weekend, inspired by Virginia Cooperative Extension Master Food Volunteers.

Extension Agent Katie Strong answers questions after audience samples a Smoky Black Bean and Corn Salad prepared during Fairfax County Administrative Resource Team Conference workshop.

Held during the last week of April in conjunction with National Administrative Professionals Day, the annual Administrative Resource Team (ART) Conference brings personnel from throughout Fairfax County together for a day of workshops. This year’s conference, held on April 26 at the Government Center, featured two workshops by VCE.

“Healthy Cooking for Busy Families: Hearty and Versatile Salads,” featured a cooking demonstration. VCE Extension Agent Katie Strong prepared Smoky Black Bean and Corn Salad while Master Food Volunteers Sue Lagon, Mike Perel, Julia Schneider and Sue Gonzalez dished up and served samples to nearly 80 participants. Strong recommended that families prepare healthful, filling salads on Sunday evening for lunches and snacks throughout the week.

The highlight of the “Herbs and Spices Master Class” was a spice tasting contest. Using unsalted pretzels dipped in olive oil, more than 70 attendees sampled and tried to guess the names of six spices. Strong then delivered a fast-paced tour of the world of herbs and spices. The goal of the program was to encourage participants to try alternatives to sodium, which is far too prevalent in the typical American diet.

Fairfax administrators participate in spice tasting contest during workshop aimed at reducing sodium intake by increasing awareness of healthier seasoning alternatives.

Master Food Volunteers Sue Lagon and Mike Perel discuss the outcome of the spice tasting contest. To their surprise, none of the participants were able to identify all six of the spices – basil, cumin, dill, oregano, sage and thyme.

In addition to getting a well-deserved break from their workday routines, conference participants picked up a wealth of healthy cooking ideas to share with their families and friends this weekend.

Sue Gonzalez, Master Food Volunteer

Last spring, Master Food Volunteer and food preservation extraordinaire, Diane Blust, gave me the fermentation bug.

Diane Blust, Master Food Volunteer

I was always awed and a little scared of home fermentation. After all, I’m a registered dietitian and incredibly—sometimes overly—mindful of food safety. The thought of eating food that’s been breeding bacteria at room temperature for days or weeks on end made me prohibitively nervous.

But many of my favorite flavors come from fermented foods: miso, tempeh, kimchi, hot sauce, and of course Virginia wines. Armed with my love of these delicious foods, I was determined to master the art! With Diane as my inspiration and Extension food preservation resources as my food-safety net, I’ve been fermenting non-stop for about a year.

When I saw a display of gorgeous, enormous, bright-green fresh cabbage on sale at my local grocer, I knew it was time for another batch of sauerkraut.

On the first day, the ferment was bright green.

Sauerkraut Day 1

The next morning, the healthful lactobacillus bacteria were noticeably hard at work. The cabbage was laced with pockets of carbon dioxide bubbles reaching for the surface.

Two weeks in, the bright-green colors changed to yellows and olive greens, which was great news. Green pigmentation in plants dulls and softens when exposed to acid. The beneficial bacteria were creating the desired lactic acid, which acts as a preservative and provides the tangy, vinegar-like taste in sauerkraut.  This batch will be done in the next week or two.

Sauerkraut Day 14

How do you make your own sauerkraut? Follow the fermentation best practices from the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension’s National Center for Home Food Preservation.

For extra flavor, I added dried spices like caraway seed, dill, and garlic. Any of your favorite pickling spices will do. Diane’s signature ingredient, juniper berry, adds fantastic complexity. For more inspiration, check out The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz.

Want to learn more? Look for hands-on classes from Extension this summer.

–Katie Strong, MS, RD, FCS Extension Agent

Elementary students spent Spring Break mashing bananas, scraping cucumber seeds, and most importantly having fun!

Less than a week after graduating, five newly-minted Master Food Volunteers sprang into action to help Extension with FAN Camp (Food and Nutrition Camp) at Barcroft Elementary School in Arlington. MFVs Dorothy, Pat, Caroline, Geri and I worked with FCS Agent Katie Strong to teach hands-on cooking and nutrition to more than 40 students from pre-K through 5^th grade.

Over two days, students played nutrition games and made tasty, age-appropriate recipes. Younger students colored MyPlate placemats, which volunteers laminated so the kids could take them home. Then, students learned about food groups and what makes a balanced diet. They guessed at fruit and vegetable riddles and sat down to make some healthy dishes.

On Wednesday, two classes of older students made veggie wraps: radishes, carrots, salad greens, herbs, low-fat cheese, yogurt and avocado wrapped in a whole-wheat tortilla. The wraps were a big hit with the kids; one student made the recipe for her family the very next day! The younger groups of 4- and 5-year-olds had a ball making banana pudding in a bag (lots of squishing of bananas, yogurt, applesauce and granola inside a zip-top plastic bag).

On Thursday, the older students made mango salsa from fresh mango, black beans, green pepper, green onion, cilantro, and lime. While the MFVs prepared some of the more difficult ingredients ahead of time, students pitched in and prepared most of the dish themselves. In small groups under watchful eyes of MFVs, students took turns chopping the green pepper and cilantro and learning safe knife skills. The salsa was devoured with corn chips. The younger students enjoyed making apple wraps: a whole-wheat tortilla with a mashed banana and sunflower seed butter spread, sprinkled with diced apples and then rolled up. They were a big hit!

With just a little supervision, the students could easily make the recipes at home.

One of the challenges facing the volunteers was how to make the activities fun for a large group of kids on their spring break. But they needn’t have worried: the kids had a great time talking about food and chopping, mixing and eating the delicious and nutritious dishes.

We plan to return for more cooking fun in July, and we look forward to spending more time with the young fledgling chefs.

–Lise Metzger, Master Food Volunteer