Chopping, stir frying, and tasting with some of our neighbors

On Wednesday, April 24, we partnered with the leadership of the Men’s Second Chance Living (MSCL) organization to offer a cooking class to the residents from their two homes in Hailey.

The mission of MSCL House is to help men living with addiction succeed in their recovery and achieve sustained sobriety by providing them with safe, affordable sober housing and numerous support services while serving their needs and treating them with respect, compassion and a belief in the value of each individual.

Abe Davis and Juli Miller organized the demonstration of preparing a stir fry meal with a mix of seasonal vegetables, proteins and 12 different sauces to sample, accompanied by different varieties of steamed rice. “We chose stir fry because it is an affordable, colorful, healthy, and quick meal to put together and can easily be modified in so many ways,” explained Juli.

Abe appreciates the simplicity of tools needed—knife, cutting board, cooking pan, and spatula—and the ease of improvising once one learns the basic techniques of slicing the fresh ingredients, cooking with high heat while stirring often or continually, and then adding a sauce, seasonings, or garnishes like sesame seeds, ginger, or sliced green onion tops.

Abe also decided to show everyone how to use any leftover rice to make a yummy rice pudding in about 20 minutes with just a few ingredients. The pudding pot was emptied in a flash.

Some of the twelve men who attended joined in the slicing of ingredients or cooking them in a hot wok pan. Everyone then arranged the ingredients as they wished on their plates and topped everything with sauces of their choice.

As we ate together around a big table, we shared stories related to food and cooking and laughed a lot.