You Can Call Me Chefsir!

That's my new name. So sayeth the Tots, anyway. I never asked them to call me chef, and sir definitely wasn't on the agenda, but somehow along the way they decided to combine the two and throughout last week's class that's who I was. Of course I expect them to forget all about it by the next time I see them, but I did get a good giggle out of Chefsir. "Um, excuse me, Chefsir?" "Chefsir, can you help me mix this?" "Is mine okay, Chefsir?"

These little ones didn't get a chance to make pasta the first week because their start class was postponed. Pasta-making isn't difficult, but it's labor-intensive and I wanted to get to know this group a little better before attempting something that required them to wait off and on in line. I have to say, these little guys did a great job with their pasta. They mixed and kneaded it themselves,

And then they let it rest while they made a pear and banana salad with Five Spice Powder and honey.

My favorite part of the class came during the cutting up phase of the fruit salad, when some visitors came in for a peek and Reilly enthusiastically told them, "We can touch EVERYTHING here!" And they can!

After the fruit salad it was time to roll the pasta. They were absolutely exuberant. And insistent upon turning the hand crank by themselves, which was an enormous feat considering the fact that the dough went through the rollers no less than eight times.

Tots n' Pans Making Pasta from Highfield Chef on Vimeo.

They waited extremely patiently between turns and took a great deal of pride in their pasta sheets. Perhaps the best moment of all for them was when they saw their pasta sheets turn into noodles right before their eyes. We took the noodles, stirred them into a pot of boiling water, and a couple of minutes later we saw this:

And this:

Reilly and Sean didn't want to leave and stood at the table shoveling in forkfuls of noodles with parmesan and olive oil (or butter, depending on their preference), for a good half hour after class ended! I think it's safe to say that a fantastic time was had by all!