Cooking for Out of the Rain

By Soleil Watterson ’20 Last week, Social Justice 12 students made a Chinese Style Beef Stew for the Out of the Rain Youth Shelter. This is the second time we have made a meal for the shelter, the only difference with this time is one of the students came up with the recipe we ended up using. This came with freedom and flexibility when creating the recipe, along with the stress of how much food and measurements would be needed. The class was divided into separate groups: the onion and garlic group, the cleaning group, the mixing group, and the radish group. Within these, there was pealing, chopping, slicing, dicing and mixing to be done. Once all of the vegetables were all diced and sliced (and no one had cut themselves) David threw them into a bubbling pot with the cooking meat. Somehow throughout the whole process, no one was rushed, unlike the first time where we were all running around the kitchen and dining hall in a panic to finish our meal. By the time everyone had cleaned up and the dining hall smell with the aromas of green onion, garlic, beef, and the various spices it was just about three o’clock and we were all done!