Bloody school cookery!!!

[mrsshears]

DD has just announced that she needs all the ingredients for this for tomorrow,as i think is standard with most teenagers.
so we have just rushed to the supermarket to get everything,dd then produces the booklet from school which lists everything in ounces and pints etc erm i thought we were now working in mls and grammes ?? and then tells me i have to send a dish into school to cook it in and weigh out all the ingredients at home before hand! why the hell don't we just cook the thing at home!!! AIBU?

I also loved my basket with a frilly cover.

The cover is long gone, but the basket is still going strong.

I take it down to Waitrose with me when I'm having an MN day!

folkgirl another one here with the basket! I keep veg in it!

My mum used to substitute cheaper alternative ingredients. I shall never forget my sense of injustice when I was marked down for using breadcrumbs made from actual bread instead of bright yellow packet crumbs for my Scotch eggs.

My son is taking gcse food tech and he knows to give me advanced warning on what he needs as I only shop once a week he has to weigh it all out at home which is fine but I really get fed up when the recipe needs 1tbsp of oil or 3tbsp of milk and we have to faff about finding something to put it in. This I think the school could make easier by providing for a small charge.

My friends son made apple crumble but made the crumble on the mon and apples on fri, she wasn't rushing to taste it after it being left all week! Am dreading my ds getting to secondary school!

DS1 is in Y7. The last time he cooked, I didn't have to provide anything. The school provided ingredients and even a take-away container to bring it home. I was delighted.

When I was at school you took in 50p on home ec days. They used to issue us with 1 egg between 2 for cake making. Dividing an egg in half is not easy.

You can't have everything people, it's in the curriculum so that children get the chance to learn to cook because many don't do it at home.
If the school provided the ingredients, half of the parents wouldn't pay up.
WTF is to stop children in the same class co-operating out of hours and sharing ingredients, or even shopping together?
You know when she's got cooking surely, it's on her timetable. So you know that there are ingredients needed. Up to you and her to get organised.
But I agree that the recipe should have used grammes.

Shirrup your moaning.

John, My son recently was asked to bring in the following:

chicken breast pieces
olive oil
tortillas
spices
salad
sour cream
chives

The whole lot cost nearly five quid. Is this normal?

On the plus side it fed him and his mate at lunchtime so saved on lunch money.

fairycake our son's upsidedown cake used tinned pineapple. Your kids must go to a posh school

LineRunner - my DS had to make chicken and pepper kebabs. It cost us a similar amount. It is quite expensive, but I agree it's a necessary part of the curriculum.

He cooks at home with us, but not all children are that lucky.

I always had to take weighed ingredients back in the 70s but my Mum would not have dreamed of getting them ready for me - that was my job.

Another one with a basket to take it home in. Apart from the day when we learned how to make cooked breakfasts and that had to be eaten during the lesson - and the washing uo done.

So my cookery was last lesson of the day, I had already eaten a school lunch, then at approx 3:45pm I had to wolf down orange juice and cereals, followed by bacon, sausage, egg, beans etc and toast and mamalade. There was a certain amount of urgency because I then had to run to catch my school bus to go home where my Mum had my tea ready for me [bleugh][vomit emoticon]

I remember making chicken casserole in Home Ec at school. When it cam to putting the dish in the basket we discovered it didn't quite fit. No matter, thought my teenage (and therefore a bit clueless) self- I'll wedge it in, a bit tilted. No worries.

Forty minutes and a train journey later- ta da! Chicken casserole with no gravy. There was, however, gravy all over my raincoat, the train floor, the path from school etc etc... Like a chickeny version of Hansel and Gretel, it was.

When ds was doing cookery, I had to find the recipe, buy the ingredients (I shop when my dc are at school, so not practical for ds to do it himself), help him weigh it all out and find containers and take ds through step by step instructions of what to do (this does not come naturally to ds - he is the least practical kid on the planet). I'm not sure what the teacher was doing.

I might as well have supervised him actually cooking it, because I did all the actual teaching.

Would be much better for school to provide ingredients. Then they could make sure the kids are doing the work themselves. Even if some parents never contribute, these would be the same parents who fail to buy ingredients. These kids shouldn't have to miss out and just watch the lesson - it's not their fault if their parents are a bit useless.

DD had to make a vegetable stirfry a couple of weeks ago. She had to take in a tablespoon of soy sauce! What the hell is she supposed to store that in? Why can't the school have a large bottle and they pay a few pence for a spoonful. Much easier for us

'These kids shouldn't have to miss out and just watch the lesson - it's not their fault if their parents are a bit useless.'

So the school could charge a flat rate at the beginning of term and build in a margin for defaulters? Then parents could complain about the school always demanding money. Easier to make the child responsible, it covers a number of life skills from money, budgeting, shopping in addition to the cooking.
The majority of 11+ yo should be able to go to the shops and buy a few bits without a parent.

karma the buying/ weighing is homework.
I think that it's ok to help DC with their homework if they are stuck but not ok to do it for them.

LOL at shodan. I did that the other day with a lemon merringue pie! All over dh's jeans, trainers, a trail from the house to the car, and then all in the car boot. Really not sure where all the sticky liquid was coming from, since the pie was set!

'He cooks at home with us, but not all children are that lucky.'
I think all children should really learn to cook at home rather than school. Shame it should be considered 'lucky'. dd is 11, she was making crab tortolleni today whilst i made whoopie pies. She loves cooking, especially pasta making.

My DD used to go for a picnic with her mates after cookery, and DS usually ate whatever he'd made or gave it to friends.
I'm trying to remember if I ever actually saw any of the finished product.

See, I don't get this at all. Obesity and lack of cooking skills are a national problem. Why aren't all schools offering decent cookery courses and providing ingredients? Not a big expense nationally for the potential to influence the cooking skills of the next generation. The kids whose parents won't buy the stuff may well be the ones who need the lessons the most. Out of season pineapple cake = madness. Homemade cottage pie, spag bol or even pizza (all with veg included) would be a good start. Sometimes I think the curriculum really is decades behind the real world. Is touch typing compulsary yet? Another real world skill that gets overlooked IME.

Ohhh, my cookery basket and frilly cover, I just got transported back in time to the early 60's. I loved that basket :) Wonder where it went.

Motea Schools are blamed for everything.
DC are fat because schools arn't teaching them how to cook?
I was taught really well at school, we gutted fish, made all types of food from scratch, casseroles, stews, healthy meals as well as cakes, sauces etc.
All made from raw ingredients, no cheating and I can cook most things.
So, who should I blame for the fact that I am overweight?

The obesity debate pisses me off (sorry).

Even if some of the cost came out of the school budget, I think it would be preferable to having some children excluded because their parents don't bother.