To the Kitchen We Go!

This week is a very exciting week!

JB 51 has entered the kitchen!! The first day is brutal as they are introduced to the science that is baking. They learn how the different ingredients interact and what could go wrong. Day two has them in the action and getting their hands in that dough! This week they made cookies (the first of many) and got to know the kitchen a little bit more. As always they realized quite quickly that the heavy brain work is done and now they are on to the actual labor. Don’t worry class, you will build up those muscles quickly!!

A shout out to Jamisen for passing the ServSafe retake!! In the classroom, it is test time. The students are wrapping up their Nutrition books and getting ready to take that test next week-keep them in your thoughts, Nutrition is tricky!! As the book comes to an end, the Nutrition presentation is approaching. The students have to pick something to research and present to the group. The presentations are always interesting and informative! In addition to the materials so far, they havealso started their final book, Management. As you know, we also teach employment skills and JB 51 are on to the mock interviews and will have their first visit from American Family next week to practice.

As one class enters the kitchen and their second month of the program, we feel bittersweet because we also graduate the previous group, which this time was just Spurge. He rocked it out in the kitchen and was a huge help during the busy pie season. We are so proud of what he has accomplished. Watching him grow the last couple months has been really special. He has talked about coming back and getting a couple more of the certificates, so it may not be the last time we see him. He did his final presentation which involves finding a recipe, changing something in it, and converting it to a commercial batch. Then he actually has to bake it and we get to taste test! Spurge made delicious chocolate cupcakes. His change was adding fruit. He did two different flavors: one with a strawberry on top and a banana filling and the opposite, banana on top with strawberry filling. It was so good-I’m glad I took a pic before digging in or we would have nothing to show our readers!

A huge shout out to all of our supporters out there-we cannot do this without you. We sold 487 pies this year for Thanksgiving, which is amazing!! The last couple years have really impacted us-losing our church and farmer market sales has been really rough. The best way to support the Just Bakery initiative is by purchasing our products! Not only does it give our students and staff purpose in their bakes (it’s a lot more meaningful when it’s for someone!), but every dollar that you spend stays in our program and helps keep us going. We really could not do this without you. Please keep us in mind for your holiday fun this month-we have Cookie Decorating Kits and we brought back the Gingerbread Houses! Gingerbread Houses are available for pre-order to pick up Dec. 22 and the cookie kits are available all month long.