On Friday we took time to sample the foods made from our menu and have a quesadilla party. Needless to say, I think we had a good time and full stomachs were achieved!

Henry making a triple quesadilla.

Osmin, Alicia and Elmer waiting with their plates of ingredients.

Arlyn was the pro!

Happy faces all around! Henry, Cristian, Franklin and Jesus P

Round two of Delights Latin was a success! Despite a few setbacks we were able to produce a great meal for our faculty and staff. Plenty of positive reviews of the food and service the students provided yesterday at pick-up. :)

The appetizer of fresh guacamole salad with avocado, three types of tomatoes, corn from the cob and red onions. Also, lime wedges if customers chose.

Chicken enchiladas with fresh made mole sauce...from scratch, and queso fresco. Personally, I thought they were amazing!

My little munchkins! Our 6th graders after we finished a few batches of arroz con leche.

Alright, today was much smoother, but shorter as our Wednesdays end early, so staff can complete two hours of professional development.

We made three double batches of arroz con leche and they turned out great! More veggies were prepped and the burnt pots and stoves from yesterday were successfully cleaned. :)

Osmin using his muscles :)

Our veggie crew - Alicia, Arlyn, Henry, Jesus P (although I think he's just hanging out lol) and Elmer

Some time for selfies - Dayani and Jazmin

Jesus R

Olga

Well it's time for another culinary lab for the Beginner ESL students. Our menu, which the students selected, is:

* fresh avocado, tomato and corn salad with tostada chips

* cilantro lime rice with black beans

* chicken enchiladas with mole sauce

* arroz con leche

Yesterday, we began our prep work for our major cooking days. The students cleaned, boiled and shredded the chicken as well as made four batches of arroz con leche. Unfortunately the arroz con leche did not quite taste how it was supposed to or did not have the consistency it needed...soooooooo we will be making new batches today. LOL

We always begin with a full scrub down of our cooking surfaces and dishes. There are a number of items in this picture that we have purchased with our donations from PledgeCents such as the color coded cutting boards, scrub brushes, measuring cups and spoons, spatulas, hair nets, etc.

Franklin and Elmer took care of boiling the chicken. The boys then joined Arlyn and Alicia for shredding the chicken.

Cristian and Jesus P working on the first attempt of arroz con leche.

We have been working diligently on learning how to scale up and down as well as find equivalents using ratios. This math work will come in handy for Round 2 of Delights Latin when we are working on our recipe quantities.

Our culminating activity was splitting the math students into two teams and having them complete a large scale ratio table for three different problems. Winners of the challenges are being rewarded with "props" on their LiveSchool accounts which will provide them with "dollars" to put towards school activities of their choice.

Problem #1 Winning Team hard at work - Jesus P, Jeyssel, Franklin, Osmin, Henry and Alicia

Well, after three days of prepping, cooking and packaging, Round 1 of Delights Latin ended on Friday, February 24th.

The restaurant was a success! The students worked incredibly hard and did a great job of staying on task.

Day 1 - prepping the chicken and a few veggies.

Day 2 - making the chicken tortilla soup and continuing prep work of veggies.

Day 3 - a full 2.5 hours of hard work. We not only continued working on the soup, but also made six trays of sweet cornbread, over five dozen cookies and 50 side salads.

Yes, we made too much food, but that's okay. It allowed the students to be able to enjoy their work (each took a goody bag home to enjoy). :)

Alicia and Olga learning the recipe for Mexican chocolate snickerdoodle cookies. They, along with Henry, had to create six batches of the mixture.

Henry working on combining the cookie ingredients together.

The salad assembly line - Arlyn, Jazmin, Elmer and Jesus.

Franklin doing an excellent job packaging all of the side salads and Cristian making sure all veggies were of quality before sealing.

Our cornbread crew of Deysi, Dayani and Jesus working on stiffening the egg whites to mix into the batter. They were responsible for making six batches of the mixture.

Our cookie and cornbread groups hard at work and Osmin cleaning the area for salad prep.

Juan Pablo, the expert soup maker! His responsibility, along with dishes, was to constantly walk around the kitchen and make sure each pot of soup was stirred and at a proper temperature.

Last, but not least, the hand written "Thank You" notes that were placed into each order. There was also a coupon for $2.00 off the next purchase from our restaurant. :)

https://twitter.com/northbrookms/status/834473913367351297

Today we prepped and baked 25 chicken breasts, several pounds of red and yellow onions, carrots and fresh corn on the cob.

It takes an immense amount of work to make a vision happen. Next week will be THE week! 

It's time! We are very excited to officially be opening "Delights Latin." This month's menu will consist of the following dinner offering for one or a couple:

* side salad

* 14 oz chicken tortilla soup

* cornbread

* Mexican chocolate snickerdoodle cookies

We would like to send a BIG THANK YOU to all of our investors! Plenty of pictures to come. :)

My Beginner ESL students learned poetry over the past two weeks. Their culminating activity was to write a "Selfie Poem" about who else...themselves! Here are a few samples. Enjoy!

After several donations the past few days, we are officially over our second goal amount of $1,000. Due to the continued response and interest in this project a new goal of $1,400 has been established. To all investors thus far: THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!

Students work in partner pairs taking turns being the "teacher and student." Ability levels are mixed in order to have the strong students take on more of a teaching role with the low students. The teacher will complete sentence stems about the math work and then complete the numerical functions. After each step the teacher must read all statements and explain the numerical work. The student is responsible for listening and watching the teacher and then repeating all verbal instructions the teacher provides. Today's activities were flashcards, bingo and an exit ticket.

I'm so excited to report that our initial fundraising goal has been met in less than one month! Due to the amount of positive feedback and more people wanting to invest, I have decided to increase the goal amount. By doing so, others can have a positive impact on the education of these students and more supplies for the classroom and restaurant can be purchased which will help drive maximum achievement.