In the midst of a busy academic semester, the Periclean class of 2016 took time out to enjoy what really matters – great food, and even better company. We all clambered into vans and headed on over to our mentor, April Post’s, charming home just a few miles from Elon’s campus. Two giant Great Danes greeted us warmly upon arrival, and Steiner, the more mischievous of the two even gave a few of us some special hugs. From there, we were thrilled to find an impressive spread of home cooked treats and coffee – all with various pumpkin flavors of course, who could resist fall’s best flavor? Entirely sated, we then sat back to chat about our fall breaks, take turns on the rope swing, pose for silly pictures, and generally just have a great time enjoying each other’s company.

It was an amazing opportunity for our class to spend time together beyond the classroom. So much of this program relies on teamwork and strong relationships, and without time to nurture those bonds, it can be almost impossible to accomplish those. I personally loved wandering around to visit the much anticipated chickens or traipsing through Professor Posts’ impressive grape vines with my fellow Pericleans. Despite our differences in major, or hometown, or dream jobs, we were all drawn to this program because of a shared interest and a common goal. The more we know about each other, the better we will work together in the future. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I know my affection and respect for my class grew tremendously just with this small outing. I think this field trip reminded many of us that we still have a long ways to go before we’re a perfect team, but I know that we’re enjoying every step of this journey so far. 

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A couple of weeks ago, a group of girls in the Class of 2016 held a fundraiser that some of you probably heard of- Cookies to Go Go!  Our group built off of the Class of 2015’s idea of grilled cheese delivery and decided that delivering fresh baked cookies to students’ doors would be a lucrative fundraiser.  There were several things we had to figure out, with the first being what recipe to use!  For a bit of fun, we had people bake and bring different chocolate chip cookies to class one day, and then we had a taste contest to decide which recipe to use.  The class decided that Lexie Melanson’s cookies were the best, so we used her recipe!  As Directors of Public Relations, Isabel and Renna kept up the Facebook page and Twitter account, and these were GREAT avenues for spreading the word about Cookies to Go-Go and ramping up the number of preorders.

Libby with some of our fresh baked cookies!

For the two nights of delivery, each of us had a different job, including Director of Operations, Director of Transportation, Director of Baking, etc.  Other classmates took a night off from studying to lend a hand, which really helped!  The first night of delivery was hectic to say the least.  We had over 50 preorders, and with the orders we received that night, we ended up with 94 orders (570 cookies) to deliver!  Several classmates had made and dropped off cookie dough for us to bake, but we ran through that dough relatively quickly.  Sydney, Dawson, Libby, and I kept making double batches of cookie dough from scratch for two hours straight!  Christine, as Head of Operations, was keeping track of the orders coming in and distributing them to the drivers.  Even with four teams of drivers and passengers out delivering cookies, we still fell behind schedule on promised delivery times.  We delivered the last cookies at 1:00 AM.  The second night of delivery ran much smoother.  We knew the process, and the number of orders wasn’t as heavy.  The whole Cookies to Go Go event was a success- we made over $300 profit!  We are going to continue this fundraiser (with some tweaks) next semester, and hopefully we can make it a monthly event.  Thanks to everyone who helped us behind the scenes and all of you who bought cookies!

Special thanks to Isabel who made this video that gives a great overview of Cookies to Go-Go!

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On Monday November 18th, we held a Honduran Food Fiesta, and here’s how!

First our group was thinking of doing a cliché Moseley table bake sale, but with some suggestions from the class this idea evolved. Though the Honduran Food Fiesta took a lot more planning than the bake sale would have, it was immensely better because it raised awareness of the Periclean program, and of Honduras.

To begin, we went to the international grocery store to buy ingredients (a few other things were picked up at Dollar General and Lowe’s Foods). The international grocery store was amazing, there was such a vast selection, and there was even a pile of live crabs in the seafood section. We mostly followed the recipes from Suyapa, a woman native to Honduras who had previously taught us how to prepare Honduran food. We bought plantains, chicken, chayotes, carrots, onions, rice, eggs, and other spices and little things necessary for the recipes we were hoping to complete.

We came together the night before and began preparation of some of the food, knowing that this would be a big undertaking and the sooner we began preparing for it, the better.  We started cutting plantains, chayotes, and the carrots. After all the plantains were cut we began frying them, and the kitchen became a sauna. We also prepared buñelos beforehand, hoping that we were doing it right because we found this recipe on our own.

The next day after class let out at 3:20, everything got crazy. We were running around from the Oaks and back to Moseley trying to think of every little detail. We began cooking, only to find out that the burners wouldn’t turn on, and seemed to run into many similar obstacles throughout the rest of the preparation. We began making the rice at 4:45, and got extremely stressed once we realized that our food was not going to be completely ready by the time we finished preparing. We were vigorously chopping onions, cutting chicken, and throwing the recipes together. The vegetables just simply refused to cook, and we were doing everything we could to get all of our dishes (chicken and rice, the rice by itself, plantain chips, and the vegetables together. Luckily the desserts (brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and buñelos were already done, I don’t know how we could have juggled those too. Finally around 5:10, ten minutes after our event had officially begun, all of the rice was put out, music was turned on, and a PowerPoint of Honduras played in the background.

Many of our first customers were our fellow Pericleans; we felt so fortunate to have classmates that are willing to support our event and our overall program.  In the initial half hour of the Fiesta, we discovered how helpful it was to have a Phoenix card reader.  This allowed people to use Phoenix cash to pay for the meal; seldom do college students carry a lot of cash on them on a regular Monday, so this accessory added an extra convenience factor.  Another decision we made turned out to be a very good one: making vegetarian rice and rice with chicken in it.  Many of the people who came to our event were concerned with what had meat in it.  Having a no meat option increased the number of potential students this event appeals to, which means that more people were able to come.

The most popular dishes we made were the rice dish and the desserts.  Around 6:30 we found ourselves refilling the tins filled with rice and getting more vegetables to add.  The traditional Honduran desserts were also a hit.  They are somewhat simple: fried dough covered in powered sugar, but they were a great way to end the meal and added an aspect of Honduras’s culture.  The music was also very popular among the people that came.  Many Spanish-speaking students found themselves singing along to the music playing in the background of our informational PowerPoint.  It was great to see people having fun while also enjoying learning about the country of Honduras.

After the peak around 7, we started cleaning up our supplies around 7:30.  At the end, we didn’t have any desserts left and only had three boxes of juice left over.  The plantain chips were also scarce.  When comparing this to the amount of food we transported to the kitchen from the Oaks, it could be said that the event was a success.  We ended up making around $100 in cash and $50 in Phoenix cash.  Our group is excited to present these funds to the leaders of the Hogares Sanos group to use however they see fit.  We decided to donate the money to this cause because the amount was not significant enough to be influential in our class fund, but it is enough for the group to do something fun with the women.

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