Friday, March 27, 2015

Cooking Together: Bek Hlavach & Black Bean Sliders



We are so pleased to have such an amazing neighbor and friend in Bek Hlavach.  Bek runs an amazing restaurant called Sweet Peaches which offers brunch and lunch options on top of amazing catering services.  Allentown has enjoyed having her a part of our community and has greatly benefited from her presence here.



I asked Bek to kick off our first Cooking Together class with our ALEC attendees. Bek has guest taught a few other times with Brashear Kids. She shared a mini pesto pizza last summer with our summer campers and she also hosted our after school students last spring at Sweet Peaches for a field trip. Both times our students have enjoyed being with her and especially enjoyed her food!


Bek started off by introducing herself and sharing a bit about Sweet Peaches then introduced her assistants, her two twin daughters and a friend. She shared with the attendees what ingredients she would be using that day and how easy they can make this at home as a family. 



Her "assistants" were in charge of various duties, such as mashing the beans, mixing the ingredients together, collecting scraps for compost and making patties. These actions portrayed how easy it is to cook at home with your kids and although they may not be old enough to use the stove or even cut vegetables there are plenty of opportunities to engage them in the kitchen. For smaller helpers you could ask for their assistance in simple tasks like having them hand you various ingredients or tools to help identify what different things are or to collect scraps for compost or refuse.  As I have seen first hand our after school programs children will leap at the opportunity to help. Many days I have too many helpers and have to break up the tasks for the day or pair students off to work together on a task like take the compost out or passing our the snack.



Our attendees were very excited and had lots of questions for Bek, often times talking over one another to ask a question or shout an answer to something.  Bek was very patient with our attendees and was able to answer each of their questions, being a mother might have something to do with her ability to handle a million questions at once.  Every experience we have had with Bek has been an extremely pleasant and informative experience. 



Sliders were served buffet style and they were received well by both students and adults.  A couple students had an aversion to black beans but were willing to try it and claimed it was good. We had a lot of fun and look forward to Bek returning again in the future.  Our first Cooking Together class went extremely well and I am pleased we can continue to offer this program in Allentown on a monthly basis.

Would you like to make Black bean sliders at home with your family? Follow this simple and easy to make recipe created by Bek Hlavach.



Thank you Bek, for sharing your time, energy, resources and heart with our students and their families!  We greatly appreciate it your assistance in growing Allentown and making Pittsburgh a healthier community.

Did you catch this great article on Sweet Peaches and Bek?  Feel free to contact her for catering or stop by Allentown for brunch one day.

To learn more about the Cooking Together series and why we think it is important, check out this blog post here.  

Family  .  Community  .  Cooking Together

-Amber

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