What a busy few weeks it has been.  One of our favorite things to do here is help non profit organizations raise funds.  It helps us tell people about what we do, and it also helps the non profit organization raise money for their cause. 

Recently, we teamed up with Chef Jon Soileau, Top's Cabinetry and Appliances, and The Down Syndrome Association of Acadiana (DCAA) for "Cool, I Can Cook",  an interactive cooking class for young people with Down Syndrome. Jon and I taught participants with Down Syndrome how to make meatballs and marinara sauce.  At the end of the class, participants got to enjoy the meal they created.  Immediately after the feast, our students began setting up for a fund raising dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, caeser salad, bread, panna cotta, and canoli's.  We served over 100 people, the kids got to serve, entertain and inspire everone who attended.   What a great night!

A special thanks to Shauna Escot, DSSA, Jon & Danielle Soileau, my sister-in-law Karen, my wife Lori, and all of the parents, volunteers and people who purchased tickets.  The event was a huge success!

Food, Fun and Laughter

At Cena, we define happiness as food, fun and laughter. It happened this summer during our eight weeks of cooking camp for kids,  it happened a couple of months ago when we had Big Brothers Big Sisters in for a cooking class, and it happened again Saturday with our kids pie making class.  

Pecan pie, apple pie, and ice cream pie…we made the crusts, crimped the crusts, cut the apples, made the pecan pie filling, the ice cream pie crusts and on, and on…  In fact, the only thing the kids and I did not make was the ice cream for the ice cream pies!

Cooking with kids can be a challenge (and a huge mess), but they contribute energy, enthusiasm, and best of all, they provide lots of laughter!

At the end of the day, what we really do at Cena is create happiness…for our friends that we serve, the kids that we teach, and especially for us!

Cooking Camp & Food Allergies

It's been a great summer.   Last spring, when we started planning our Cooking Camp for Kids, our goal was to have four camps with eight kids per camp.  With 32 kids total, we knew the camp could be profitable, which would allow us to do it again, but the groups would also be small enough to be a hands on experience for each child.  Fortunately, enrollment exceeded our expectations.  We ended the summer having 38 kids attend the camp, and many requests to do some type of classes in the fall.  We are planning that now.

One of the things that surprised me was the number of food allergies that kids have today.  Gluten seemed to be the main allergen of the kids we had enrolled, and we got first hand experience of what parents of children with food allergies face when planning meals.  We do have meals that are gluten free, but Kim (our chef) wanted to try preparing meals with gluten free flour, and rice crackers as breading for some of our breaded dishes.  We aren't a gluten free kitchen, but we can prepare several gluten free meals for our customers that require it.

There is lots of information on the web about gluten free and allergen free foods.  Here is a link to a recipe for gluten free pita bread that we are going to try in the next couple of days.  We will let you know how it turns out.