Christian Brothers of the Midwest

Kansas City Brothers and Lasallian Volunteers

Brother Mark and I spent three days in Kansas City and experienced some balmy winter weather. I clearly overpacked for this trip, but considering that last year this time Chicago was shut down because of a blizzard, my motto is, to coin my mom’s favorite phrase: “You just never know.” Our first evening in KC, Brother Chuck prepared a delicious dinner featuring four pastas. We followed dinner with a community meeting.

This is a “three-generations” photo. Flanked by our lively tour guides, Sarah and Cydnee, is John O’Connor, OHS Principal, who was taught by Brother Mark at O’Hara, and Brother Mark was taught in Wichita by George Peter, who is currently a teacher at O’Hara. We spent Monday at O’Hara meeting with several groups as we have done in other schools. Pictured below are two student groups: one of students involved in campus ministry and the other of Lasallian Youth.

You may notice the “Serve the Lord” motto on several shirts; that is the theme for the year at O’Hara and students were allowed to wear the shirts on Monday for the kick-off of Catholic Schools Week. Staff pictured are Campus Minister Mary Pat Storms, (first photo) and Brother Chuck and Mary Haggerty in the second. Mary is also an alum.

Monday evening we were treated to a late dinner at the Paseo Community. Pictured above with Bro. Mark  are Brothers Dale and Jim along with Dave, Karen, and Amy. Dave and Amy are Lasallian Volunteers and Karen is a “Jan-termer” from Saint Mary’s College. The dinner was late because Dave is the basketball coach at Cristo Rey, so we waited for him to get home. Amy was the chef and prepared a great meal after a busy day. Thanks, Amy!

On Tuesday we visited Holy Cross School where Amy volunteers as the first-grade teacher. We happened to stop in on the 100th day of school, so Amy is sporting special “100″ glasses and all the kids have special T-shirts and crowns to celebrate the 100 days. Amy was doing a great job with her first-graders. Our next stop was Cristo Rey, where Bro. Dale and Dave serve. Dale is an Assistant Principal and Dave teaches social studies. We observed his class in American History. He’s also doing a fine job. The Cristo Rey is Kansas City is sponsored by the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, and Bro. Dale has been involved since its opening.

We also had a chance to stop by Brother Louis Rodemann’s community which is a couple blocks from the Catholic Worker House, where he has served for many years. Bro. Louie treated us to a homemade apple pie, which I neglected to take a photo of. We were in such a hurry to try it out. His pies are legendary, and with good reason!

Mark and I arrived back in Chicago Wednesday evening. It was a good visit. Thanks to the O’Hara Brothers for their hospitality and thanks to everyone we visited for keeping the Lasallian charism alive in Kansas City.

February 1, 2012

This entire trip has been tremendous. Feeling so much a part of the spirit and experience of the Brothers and their Lasallian partners in the Philippines was truly grace and blessing. Reflecting on what I observed and experience here is difficult to describe but I will attempt to highlight a few observations below:

• The Brothers are very vibrant and engaged
• The culture is very Catholic, supportive and respectful of authority and particularly of the Brothers
• The Brothers are so very grateful to the American Brothers who taught them well in their early days
• One La Salle makes sense. Every Lasallian School k – University level is clearly identified as Lasallian, the Brothers are the core of the school’s existence, all share the same school song, have the same uniforms, even share resources via development as more affluent schools will assist the less economically blessed.
• Brothers are assigned to a Community. The community Brothers become the animators for each school where one or more Brother in the community ministers.
• A Lasallian education is highly cherished and regarded in the local culture
• Continued education and formation for Brothers and partners is very evident
• Brothers in their early 30’s are put on University Boards where they learn about the dynamics of overseeing a University and of being a Brother President.
• Every Community of Brothers fosters, recruits and mentors Contacts and Aspirants.
• Postulants and Novices are well grounded in the spiritual life
• Mass, meditation and meals (two or three) are a significant part of a Brother’s day
• Multiple communities join together to celebrate birthdays and other occasions
• Hospitality is a marvelous trademark of the Brothers in the Philippines

I am so grateful to:

• Brother Rey Mejias for his attentiveness to every detail of the Summit and of seeing to it that my extended stay here was exceptional.
• Brother Benildo Feliciano and the Community at De La Salle University, Manila for their wonderful hospitality.
• Brother Rory Higgins, novices and novitiate staff for their wonderful hospitality and fun-loving spirit shared with us while in Lipa
• Brother Bong and community at De La Salle, Lipa for their many kindnesses shown us while we were in Lipa. A special thanks to Brothers Kenneth and Carl for the time they spent with us traveling through the villages and mountains in the area
• Brother Gus Boquer for his attentive care and kindnesses extended while at De La Salle University, Desmarinas for the summit and following.
• Brother Dennis Magbanua and the community at Desmarinas for their wonderful hospitality. A special thanks to Brother Dennis for his companionship and generous time spent together on Monday.

Saint John Baptist de La Salle. Pray for us.

Live Jesus in our hearts. Forever!

January 30, 2012

Saturday morning Mass was 6:30 a.m. Immediately following breakfast Brother Kenneth (Joaquin) Martinez took us up the mountain to visit a Training Center with a fifty bed capacity recently donated to the Brothers and De La Salle Villa, the Brothers’ beautiful vacation house overlooking the mountains and Lake Taal. We traveled through the countryside visiting De La Salle, Canlubang, an impressive k – University campus of some 9,000 students. There is one Brother stationed at Canlubang plus Brother June who is President in addition to his duties as President of De La Salle, Manila with roughly 14,000 students and of La Salle College, Antipolo City, a school of about 6,000 students.  What does he do in his spare time?  We also visited De La Salle, Zobel, an integrated grade and high school with 9,000 students. Brother Dennis Magbanua is President and Brother Lazaro is Campus Minister at Zobel. Both live at De La Salle, Dasmarinas. The Lasallian Spirit and the presence of the Brothers are very evident at each of these schools.

On the way back we enjoyed an American type lunch at a local coffee shop and supported the local merchants by buying pineapples for the novices. We returned in time to rest a bit and go to Mass at the University in Lipa. They have two Masses a day in the University Chapel, both are well attended by all ages of students. Saturday night the ten novices, Brother Rory Higgins, Director, Jim Dries and I played Uno. The thirteen of us represented eight different countries.

Brother Rey Majias arrived at 6:30 a.m. Sunday to take Jim Dries to the airport. Rey and I went on to Green Hills where we visited the Formation Center for Postulants and post novices. Brother Victor Franco is the Director of the Brothers’ community in Green Hills. He commutes into Manila each day where he is the President of St. Benilde University, roughly 12,000 students. There is no grade school or High School part of St. Benilde. Victor is the only Brother assigned to the University.

Saturday afternoon, Brother Rey drove me to Desmarinas where I would spend the next couple of days. There are four Brothers at Residencia, Desmarinas and they are responsible for four schools, two universities, a k – 10 integrated school and a Medical School. In all they serve roughly 24, 000 students.

Monday morning Brother Dennis  and I traveled to Kampo Terxo, a wooded camp with lots of trails and activities for young people. The seniors from Zobel were to meet us there but since they were delayed Brother Dennis and I hiked the trails and then visited a beach in the area and then back to the camp in time to greet the students before returning to Desmarinas.

Brother Rey returned on Tuesday, January 31 to take me to Manila where I would stay with the Brothers at De La Salle University for a day while preparing for the trip back to the US and visiting St. Benilde University. It is directly across the street from De La Salle accounting for the large number of young people in the area. There are roughly 24,000 students attending University coming and going at the intersection on Taft street in Manila.

Louis Wiaux, the third of six children, was born in a small village in French-speaking Belgium where almost everyone was a devout practicing Catholic. His father was a blacksmith, while his mother helped to run a small cafe in part of the family home, where no rough language was allowed and where the evening of Belgian beer and card playing always concluded with the recitation of the rosary.

Louis proved neither physically nor emotionally suited to his father’s trade; he was convinced that the Lord was calling him to a different kind of forge. No sooner had he met the Brothers in a nearby school than he determined to enter the novitiate at Namur. After two years, teaching elementary classes, Brother Mutien was assigned to the boarding school at Malonne where he would spend the next fifty-eight years. He had difficulties at first coping with the demands of both teaching and prefecting. He was rescued by the Brother in charge of the courses in music and art, at the time an important feature of the curriculum. From then on Brother Mutien was not only an effective teacher of those subjects, a vigilant prefect in the school yard, and a catechist in the nearby parish, but a tremendous influence on the students by his patience and evident piety.

He was known to spend whatever time he could before the tabernacle or at the grotto of Our Lady. Among the Brothers, it was said that he had never been seen violating even the smallest points in their Rule. After his death at Malonne, his fame began to spread through Belgium, where many miracles were attributed to him. His relics may be venerated in Malonne at the shrine built in his honor after his canonization.

Born at Mellet, Belgium March 20, 1841
Entered the novitiate April 7, 1856
Died January 30, 1917
Beatified October 30, 1977 Canonized December 10, 1989

January 28, 2012

Brothers Rory Higgins, Harry Reynolds, Michael Broughton and the ten novices could not have been more gracious or welcoming to us while we stayed with them for three days.  The Novitiate is next to the University but one would never guess that beyond the trees and through the gate there are ten thousand students. The Novitiate is housed in a lovely home surrounded by acres of trees. In addition to the house there is a beautiful chapel and mausoleum where the Brothers (many American Brothers) are buried. There are concrete walking paths all the way around the property. There are a few recreation areas for the novices and you might come across a young bull and a cow grazing but beyond that the walking path simply winds through a forest of trees and brush.

The Novitiate schedule is similar to what we Jubilarians experienced 50 years ago. The day begins with Morning Prayer, Mass and meditation followed by a silent breakfast and a brief housekeeping period after which time the great silence period is ended. Novices have classes, manual labor and/or recreation (soccer) until time for spiritual reading, vespers and meditation. Dinner is at 7:00 p.m., followed by a brief time called “self-structured” and at 9:00 p.m. is night prayer and the start of the great silence.

On Thursday morning Brother Carl Clayton, a Brother from DENA who is volunteering at De La Salle, Lipa showed us around campus and treated us to a lunch put on by the culinary students. It was billed as “Experience America, Lunch to go.” We had Salisbury steak with Carolina BBQ, Cheesy Smashed Potato, and Key Line Pie. It was very good.

In the afternoon Brother Waseem, a novice from Pakistan took Brothers James Dries, Chris Soosai from India and myself around town. Given the relations between our countries he joked we might want to avoid any media attention as they would wonder what a Pakistan man is doing with two Americans and an Indian. We rode a Jeepney to the Cathedral and wondered through the back streets and shops.

Thursday night the University Community (Brother Bong, Rubin, Kenneth, Aikee and Carl Clayton) took us to a pizza place along with five young men staying with them for a couple of days as they consider the Contact program. Each community in the Philippines has a program to foster vocations. It is common for young men to spend time in the communities and it is impressive to see that each community has multiple numbers of Contacts, mentored by the local community. After dinner we returned to the community house for cake and drinks.

On Saturday, Brother Chris left for India. Spending time with him again was a real grace and reminded me of how small our world actually is, as I did not expect to see him again once he left Winona a couple of years ago.  This experience has certainly renewed my sense of how global our Lasallian family is. When I left for the Philippines I noted that I only knew two Brothers there (Benildo and Victor) and I hoped I would see them. I did and I met several others as well with whom I had previously connected.

• Benildo Feliciano is Director of the Community in Manila where I stayed the first two days
• Victor Franco is president of Benilde University, which is right across the street from De La Salle University.
• Chris Soosai from India participated in the Summit and traveled with us after it
• Gus Boquer is President of De la Salle University, Desmarinas where the Summit was held. He and I were at the International meeting for College/University Administrators in Mexico many years ago.
• Rey Mejias, Director of Vocation Ministry for the Philippine Sector, and I were both at World Youth Day this past August in Madrid
• Rory Higgins, Novice Master, a native of Australia, and I were at Buttimer together in 1991
• Mark Murphy, former Visitor of SF, is now in Myanmar and participated in the Summit
• Carl Clayton from DENA is here as a volunteer
• Pat Bradley, whom I lived with at St. Raymond’s in New York, was visiting in Manila while I was there
• Joseph Fernando and Claude Reinhardt from Rome, both of whom I had met when they visited in the US, attended the Summit

January 26

Perhaps I should report on the Vocation Summit as that was the excuse, I mean reason, for this trip. One hundred and eight delegates participated.  Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand make up the Lasallian East Asia District. There were also Brothers from Pakistan, India, James Dries and myself from the United States as well as Brother David Hawke, Claude Reinhardt, and Joseph Fernando from Rome, Italy. It was a young and spirited group with over half of the delegates being contacts, aspirants, postulants or novices. The majority of the Brothers participating were young and the rest of us were young in spirit. Together and by association, we prayed, listened, shared, played and celebrated from 800 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. each day, after which time the young in spirit retired while the others sang, danced, and played games into the night.

Each day consisted of:

• Welcoming messages from Br. Gus Boquer, Br. Ricky Laguda or Rey Mejias
• An inspirational message from Brothers David Hawke, Claude Rinehart or Joseph Fernando
• Prayer and worship sessions lead by Br. Alex Diaz, Br. Richie Yap, Br. Aikee Esmeli or Br. Inigo Riola
• Presentations given by Br. Mark Murphy, Br. Vincent Fernadez, Dr. Kuku Lopez, Br. Michael Broughton, Br. Rory Higgins, Br. JJ Jimenex, Mr. Jose Ritche Bongcaron or Br. Dennis Magbanua
• Group sharing and activities lead by Br. Rey Mejias, Br. Alex Diaz, Br. Jerico Blanquisco or Br. Mickey Cua
• Synthesis and closing remarks presented by Br. Sockie Dela Rosa, Br. Tom Lavin or Br. Kenneth Martinez

Some significant themes or messages emphasized:

• The Brothers are defined and redefined every seven years by our General Chapters
• Our most recent focus is on our interior life, our community life and the power of our being a witness to the Gospel both individually and collectively
• Presence and visibility both individually and collectively requires our efforts and attention ever bit as much as our concern for running programs and institutions
• The significance of our religious garb, wearing the robe and the power of our invocation, “Let us remember we are in the holy presence of God,” as well as our salutation, “Live Jesus in our Hearts. Forever.”
• The significance of young men joining our communities for prayer, social and sharing sessions
• The importance of presenting ourselves as consecrated religious, ministers of God’s love in the service of others through education, particularly for the poor and marginalized
• The importance of accompaniment for our young men in formation as well as our Lasallian partners.
• Seeing all Lasallians as ministers of God’s love and, together and by association, growing with and in support of one another
• The effective use of technology to allow young men to find us but never to replace or limit the personal contact necessary to foster vocations.

Day two ended with a beautiful liturgy celebrated in the Chapel at De La Salle, Dasmarinas including a very moving ritual accepting six new Contacts for the Philippine sector.

The Summit ended on Wednesday with a Vocation Novena and Pilgrimage. It began at the University Chapel in Dasmarinas, traveled to Lipa City with a prayer service at San Sebastian Cathedral and another at Carmel Monastery. The Pilgrimage ended with a Mass celebrated at De La Salle Lipa Chapel and a visit to the Novitiate. After a wonderful lunch hosted by Brother Joaquin (Kenneth) President of De La Salle University, Lipa the buses took the delegates, less Brothers. James Dries, Chris Soosai and myself, to an Asia/Pasalubong Shopping Mall.  Jim, Chris and I stayed at the Novitiate where we would spend the next three days.

Boot Camp Day 5

Today we finished Boot Camp-Basic Training, and it was a good ending! Two of our members left early, so eleven of us produced an impressive menu in just over three hours. Listen to what we made: ossobuco alla Milanese, poached salmon, smoky peanut mole with quail, and 40-clove chicken. We also made polenta, red chile tamales, braised artichokes, and potato gnocchi, with braised greens, salsa, and steamed broccoli as sides.

I worked on the peanut mole. It smelled and tasted so good, so that’s a recipe I will use in the future. Deboning the quails almost did me in (they’re so small!), but Chef Rebecca helped and coached me and, for the sauce, Assistant Brad both encouraged me and took on some of the important aspects of preparation. Yesterday I talked about not liking the pressure of competition when I cook, but today the reality of the internal pressure to do well and to get things done in a timely manner caused a little anxiety. In the end, producing a very tasty mole and hearing the compliments of the Chef and fellow students really helped.

Our Boot Camp group in front of Greystone, former Christian Brothers Winery.

Knife skills, proper names of ingredients and utensils, organizing myself to be more efficient, knowing which cooking method best suits the ingredients, nutrition, improving on what I already know, and using what I learned in the course of the week are some of what I want to remember, as well as preparing healthy foods along with “French Chef” cuisine. I know I still have a lot to learn about cooking, but I think the week at CIA will help me to enjoy preparing food even more. Of course I hope that those who eat what I prepare enjoy it too. I can imagine the first one to say “what in the world did you do to this? I thought you learned something at cooking school.” Oops. That could happen.

We had a wonderful group of people, from Canada, Southern Illinois, St. Louis, Phoenix, China, California, Houston and a couple other places I’m not remembering as I write. I enjoyed working alongside them and learning from watching them in the kitchen. I appreciated our instructor’s lectures and am glad we have the notes in our binders as well as copies of her power points. All will come in handy as I try to apply what we covered this week.

Thanks to those who helped to make this possible. I appreciate the opportunity to “work” at something I enjoy and want to improve on. And someday, maybe I will have an opportunity to prepare something for you, although I may not feel comfortable wearing my chef’s jacket, pants, and toque in the kitchen when I return home – it will take more than a week to deserve to wear the uniform of a chef. If you need a reason to smile and/or want to take a picture, maybe. We’ll see.

Our instructor, Chef Rebecca Peizer, and her Assistant, Brad Scholten.

I’m driving to Moraga today since it’s closer to the Oakland airport for the trip home on Sunday.  Again, I thank the Brothers of the Provincialate community in Napa and the Alemany Community in Moraga for their hospitality while I was in California. And to all those who read this blog, thanks and God bless!

Here’s Boot Camper Brother Francis (Frank) Carr signing off after a good week at the Culinary Institute of America – St.Helena.

Boot Camp Day 4

I have told people that I would not want to face the pressure of Food Network participants in “Chopped” or other competitive programs like that. However, I have come to realize that there is an internal pressure present each time one prepares a meal. Our experience at Boot Camp provides us marvelous opportunities to try different cooking methods, use foods we might not normally work with, be disciplined in how we approach food preparation, stress the value of and need for teamwork, and work under pressure to get food on the table in a timely manner. We don’t always succeed, and it’s those times that create the tension that chefs and “pretend-chefs” can feel whether they are on TV or in the CIA kitchen or at home.

With 13 people working on four teams to prepare foods we might not be familiar with, you can imagine how we race around the kitchen trying to find ingredients and to secure the necessary bowls and pots and utensils. Today the focus was on “Grill, Broil, Roast, Emulsion Sauces and Grain Cookery.” Each group’s tasks today included a variety of methods that Chef Rebecca covered in our morning lecture before moving to the kitchen to work on our assignments. It’s a lot to absorb in a short time, but that’s the value of working in teams and of building on the knowledge and “hands on” experience of previous days.

Our demonstrations today included getting a perfect fillet of salmon from the whole fish, getting started with preparing grains for our recipes, and some of the emulsion sauces we would use to finish off our dishes. I was impressed with Chef Rececca’s result with the salmon. I’m not sure I will tackle a whole fish myself but watching her do it made me more comfortable if I do.

Today we prepared roast sirloin of beef with Jus Lie, Grilled Pork Chops, Grilled Salmon with bearnaise sauce, and Persian roast chicken for the “grill, broil and roast, and emulsion sauces” section; barley pilaf, risotto Milanese, brown rice pilaf, and quinoa pilaf with roasted peppers for the grain assignments; and oven-roasted vegetables, glazed beets, and grilled seasonal vegetables for accompaniments. In addition, each group was assigned a cream soup. Our group worked on marinating and grilling pork chops, risotto, and cream of cauliflower soup. I’ve grilled a lot but have never really thought about placement of the meat on the grill to end up with “attractive,” appetizing grill marks. Yesterday I mentioned “mise en place”  (put in place – getting everything needed for a recipe together and in order to facilitate preparation). It’s a discipline that makes the production process so much easier, which I learned (again) while working on our soup.

You might wonder why there are no photos of me actually working. That’s because everybody is busy all the time, and nobody can stand around waiting for a “photo op” that makes me look like I know what I’m doing. Today you see the pork chops with their diamond grill marks (ooh, ahh), me posing with another Camper as others fill their plates for lunch, and a group of my fellow campers at the table in the lunch room. By the way, between the big pillar in the middle of that picture and the windows in the back is the bread-making, pastry and candy preparation area. Boy, do they offer us a beautiful dessert selection each day! Although I always want to taste as much of the food that we prepare as I can, I always try to save room for some dessert.

I promised yesterday to show the large buffet table set up for students, staff and others. There’s a crew assigned to prepare this meal, and they do a great job. We ate from that table only on Monday because we have prepared our own foods since, but they feed a lot of people each day. Some of those people eyeball our preparations and move to our line as soon as they are welcome. As I said earlier, it’s a nice compliment to our staff and class.

We had our class photo in front of Greystone today, did a brief summary and evaluation of the day, and look forward to our final day together. In looking over the work for tomorrow, I see lots of interesting menu items and ways to prepare the food. I’ll tell you about that next time. Thanks for reading.

Boot Camp Day 3

This place (Culinary Institute of America – St. Helena) is amazing. So much is happening all the time. We’re just one small group here. Other classes are going on simultaneously and most work areas are busy much of the time. Today one of the groups had a mac’n’cheese “Smackdown.” I love macaroni and cheese but we had so much food prepared by our group that I tasted only one version of the mac’n’cheese. CIA also provides breakfast and lunch (and dinner) for students and staff. I will try to get a photo tomorrow of the huge buffet set out for lunch.

Team member breading the pork loin, later to be pan fried. Chef Rebecca at the sink.

Today we spent our time on “pan-frying and deep-frying and potato cookery.” We prepared some really tasty food and, once again, others at lunch were asking if they could taste what we had made. Chef Rebecca held them off till we all had a chance to eat (taste, really, since there is so much!) and by the time we finished cleaning up, all of our platters were empty.

I had a relatively easy assignment today: cauliflower and cheddar fritters. I had to mix the batter, blanch and then shock the cauliflower (I forgot to prepare the ice bath), add it and the cheese to the batter, and then deep fry spoonfuls. (Slap wrist for incomplete mise en place.) In the evaluation, Chef Rebecca started with “the fritters were the bomb!” I wondered for a minute if that was good or bad – but it was good, and the fritters really were good. The other two on our team prepared pan-fried pork loin and French fries (each fry cut by hand, uniformly for even frying and for appearance). That was another part of today’s lesson: plating our food. I’ll try to be better in the future to present the food I prepare attractively – realizing that most people I cook for just want to eat something that tastes good. Now you’ll have to admire how lovely the plate looks, too.

Wednesday's "spread": the fritters are on the second platter, right next to the pork loin and in front of the French fries.

Some of the other food our group prepared included buttermilk fried chicken with whipped potatoes and country gravy, coleslaw, deep-fried beer batter fish, new potato salad, red cabbage slaw, Vietnamese fried chicken and shrimp and vegetable tempura. All very good!

One of the campers, celebrated her birthday today. Chef Rebecca’s assistant, Brad Scholten, is a CIA student in the pastry class this cycle and he made a beautiful torte. To give you an idea of some of the full-time students at CIA, Brad is a graduate of Purdue University in Hospitality Management and a died-in-the-wool Cubs fan. (I think his license plate reads “Go Cubs.”) He is now in an accelerated course in cookery, the whole range of food preparation offered by CIA. His role with our group is assisting Chef Rebecca with preparation for each day, being available to help us when we have questions, locating equipment and various food needs as we do our work, and general jack-of-all-trades. He is patient and knowledgeable and communicates well. I ask him (and Rebecca) a lot of questions.

Boot Camp Assistant Brad Scholten with team member who celebrated her birthday Wednesday with cake prepared and decorated by Brad.

I had mentioned in the classroom that I had been asked if we would be learning about healthy cooking. Wrong day to ask that question.  Cooking in olive oil would be healthier (but more expensive), but this method of cooking (pan-frying and deep-frying) doesn’t lend itself very well to dieting. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. Time is flying. Tomorrow is day 4 of 5 of CIA Boot Camp Basic Training. I hope I remember most of what we’re learning this week.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Chef Francois!

Well, I did better today. I didn’t stab myself, and I had to use that boning knife to “fabricate” ten half-chickens to get the breasts for Chicken Breast Provencal. There might be a photo of my dish here, and I doubt that you will figure out the ingredient that I forgot to add when we plated the chicken and vegetable mixture. Nobody in Boot Camp did either!

Our focus today was on “sauté and stir-fry; green vegetables and pasta cookery.” We had three teams again, and we divided the work among team members. As I said, I did the chicken (with help from the team members). Others on our Team did home-made, fresh spaetzle, broccoli and zucchini. Other groups prepared veal saltimbocca, stir-fried beef with green beans and carrots over homemade, fresh egg noodles, and a variety of veggies. And each group made onion soup gratinee.  Yum! It was quite the spread when we set it out for lunch. Each of us campers got to try everything. The Culinary Institute provides a substantial lunch for its students and staff each noon, but some of them sneaked over to our buffet to try some of our dishes. We felt pretty good about that.

After clean-up (which is on-going throughout the day but specially attended to when we finish), we went back to the classroom for a critique by our instructor and ourselves. The chicken was credited with being tasty but not salted enough and also a little overcooked. It was that same oven that did me in with the over-roasted vegetables yesterday.  I’ll keep trying to get it right.

After class, Chef Rebecca  gave us a tour of Greystone, which included numerous kitchens and classrooms, gardens, and the history of the property. Brother Timothy’s collection of corkscrews was a highlight.

Last night, our Boot Camp class had dinner together at The Wine Spectator Restaurant, a CIA entity. I invited Bro. Stan Sobczyk to join me as a guest. It’s the only evening meal we have together. Most of the others are visiting restaurants in the Napa Valley area; I am happy to join the Brothers of the Provincialate community for dinner. Thanks again for their hospitality.

Homework assignment: Be familiar with all the recipes our group will use tomorrow. We don’t know until morning which ones we will be assigned to prepare.

Did you guess what I forgot to add? Of course, the basil, chiffonade.