Closed on Mondays opens for RootDown LA at Canalé

[slideshow] Endless thanks to the trio of super women who founded Closed on Mondays, a recurring fund raising dinner designed to support local food initiatives.  Last night, Aliza Miner, Marjory Garrison and Savita Ostendorf rounded up an incredible crew of cooks and waitstaff at Canelé restaurant to throw down an amazing dinner to benefit RootDown LA's youth training and intern programs.

RootDown's own board member, Mark Stambler, baked his famous brick oven bread for the evening, while new RD intern, Andres Chopin, hopped in the kitchen before service to help with last minute prep.   RootDown Youth Leaders had gathered in Canalé's kitchen a week before the event to make a super tasty onion jam to go with the loaves that sold out half way through the night.  Another  board member, Corinna Gebert designed super cool recipe cards that fold and stand up so you can read them more easily while cooking.  If you'd like some for our veggie-heavy recipes, send us a note and we'll mail some to you!

Thanks to everyone who showed up to support last night.  Would you believe our kids are BEGGING for more trainings?!  Your donations make their development as cooks, food growers, young entrepreneurialists and food systems leaders possible.

RootDown with The Braille Institute - Cooking with our senses!

[slideshow]Last month, RootDown LA Youth Coordinator, Warren Calvo, connected with his good friend, Christina Tam of the Braille Institute, to bring our youth together to do what else?  Cook some nasty veggies!

Warren brought in heaps of produce for the kids to touch, smell, cook and taste.  Varieties of veggies whose names we knew and guessed - Black, Red Russian, Common Curly, and Siberian Dwarf Kale (who knew Kale grew in Sibera?)  There were Oyster, Shiitake and Portobello mushrooms, heirloom tomatoes, tomatillos and three kinds of potatoes (one Purple Hawaiian) that got fried, sauteed and mashed.

To top it off, (as if taking RootDown's simple ABCGS² cooking techniques to these seasonal veggies isn't enough?) when we want to get kids really hooked on new flavors and asking for these same fresh foods at home, we break out the herbs, full of smell and flavor - Mint, Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary and Dill - YUM!

Christine wrote back after two such cooking sessions with her youth:

"The cooking skills you impart with the students at Jefferson really shines through as they interact as youth leaders with confidence and comeraderie in this community.  There is a sense of communal responsibility and pride that is reflected in your students as they share the art of cooking with their peers.   It was moving to see the two groups work together to create wholesome and delicious meals together from fresh ingredients, organic vegetables and herbs. Thank you for giving our visually impaired and blind kids from Braille Institute an experience of meeting new friends and learning how to cook in a fun environment! Our students look forward to working on more sustainable community projects with Root Down LA!"

See the full page article here:  Kenny Article4-29

We nearly lost Kenny from our Youth Leader program when we put him on the tuna sandwich station during our Jefferson High Freshman Orientation Sando days last October.  It's nuts!  On four separate days out at Will Rogers State Park, we feed about 150 students and staff, fresh sandwiches and local fruit so they don't have to eat those nasty (and we mean it this time) Smuckers Uncrustables.  This year, the bees were SWARMing around the tuna.  We moved the tuna.  The bees followed.  We covered the tuna with towels, the bees crawled underneath.

Kenny stuck it out but at the end of the day, he came and sat down and shook his head and said, "This wasn't my best day."  I assured him better days were yet to come and this article gives proof - he's not giving up on RootDown LA.  Oh, and we learned a trick - open all the cans of tuna the night before and put it in one bigger tupperware into which you can then just throw in your chopped veggies, mayo and seasonings, stir, then cover again.  Bees be gone!