Kitchen Phanatics 4-H Club

The Kitchen Phanatics 4-H Club has been cooking up tasty treats, meals and memories for local youngsters for years. This year, despite their small size and numbers, has been no different. Group leader Gayle Crookston has been teaching children in the 4-H club how to cook for themselves and their families since her daughters started in 4-H in the late 1990s. Her daughter Adele still helps the group out to this day. Some of the dishes they enjoyed teaching the group to make this year included Rice Krispie Treats, Irish potatoes, pizza, tacos, a delicious taco pizza, taco quiche, a Mexican Ring and even a full turkey dinner. 
Clearly, tacos and any variation thereof were some of the kid’s favorite meals to make, however, they each had a personal favorite dish. Hannah’s favorite kitchen project was making donut muffins while Autumn loved making Rice Krispie Treats. Gianna enjoyed making homemade pizza, Matthew loved making the Mexican Ring, and both Ava and Helen had a blast making a complete turkey dinner.
The Kitchen Phanatics do more than just read ingredients and directions to cook. This year, they sponsored and participated in a 4-H “Chopped” cooking competition. The kids in the club all said that it was not only fun and challenging but also informative since they learned about the endless possibilities of cooking with bacon!
The Kitchen Phanatics will be running the food booth at this year’s 4-H Fair, where you can find their famous homemade chocolate chip cookies. Proceeds from the cookie sales go toward the club’s operating expenses. If you would like to join our club, it is open to 4th graders and older, and meetings are held the first and third Mondays of the month from 6 to 8 p.m. on the 4-H fairgrounds.