Home Management

Thursday, August 18

3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

That’s right, this rodeo isn’t over yet!

If you missed the fun on Monday evening, you still have another shot tomorrow. Nearly 70 of our Littleton neighbors (and some who happened to be visiting from out of town) stopped by the Colorado Center for the Blind to find out what we’re up to at 2233 W. Shepperd Avenue. They talked with staff and students in the kitchens, the technology labs, the Braille classrooms and the Woodshop. They discussed techniques of traveling with a white cane and checked out some live goal ball action.

And they heard about our programs for youth and seniors.

Farhan came to the center from Pakistan because he believed that the confidence and self-reliance in our tag line mean greater independence and opportunity for him. Here he is, a little past the mid-point in his training, making really amazing (and crunchy) samosas for 15 guests, and you can feel his new confidence!

Every Tuesday morning a different group of Center students heads out back to our Legacy Garden to meet the Colorado Master Gardeners from Arapahoe County, and to see just what’s happening out there. Students work with the Master Gardeners to plant, cultivate and harvest the bounty. In these hot, hot days of August the lilies are done blooming, but the vegetable garden comes into its own, and it really is a bounty!

On recent Tuesdays students have begun bringing in eggplant, zucchini (quite large), tomatoes, tomatillos, various peppers, kale, cucumbers, celery, basil and peaches! The produce is used in the kitchen in Home Management class or taken home for personal cooking by the students at the McGeorge Mountain Terrace Apartments. If there’s any leavings, staff gather it up for their own kitchens.

What could be better than freshly picked, home grown (organic) produce? Hmmm, maybe only the confidence and satisfaction that comes from knowing that you helped grow it!

Sometimes we get a chance to measure how far we’ve come in life, in school, in athletics or in a blindness training program. Matt found such a moment in his Home Management class.as he worked on and ssucessfully cooked and served his mini-meal.

The culmination of the Summer Program each year is of course the awarding of certificates and the talent show. Before that can happen, however, the masses must be fed. The summer students and their instructors draw on their collective learning in the kitchen over the summer and cook a meal for as many as 120 guests. All ITP staff and students, summer staff and students, parents and summer employers are invited.

If you didn’t get to test the meal for yourself, you can get an idea how it turned out watching the video:

It was a true taste of Philly when Warren served his Mini-meal for fifteen last month.

HIGHLIGHTING the menu were Amorosa Kaiser Rolls flown direct from the bakery in Philly and iced Wawa coffee. And there were other touches, despite the No-choice ‘menu … we'll let Warren and his guests tell you all about it:

Saturday, July 16 was our Summer Science Seminar. With 24 summer youth we divided into three groups and rotated between three science activities. Martin strapped on the Go Pro and followed all three groups through their water rocket activity with Jamie Principato, a blind physics student who just finished her Associate’s degree at Arapahoe Community...

Skills and confidence in the kitchen are the twin goals our Home Management instructors have for their students. So a while back they ratcheted up the expectations – and the fun – with CCB’s own version of the Food Network’s reality cooking show Chopped. The four combined classes were each divided into two teams of two or three members that competed against each other.

Like the TV show that pits chefs against one another, each team got a basket of selected ingredients that they were required to incorporate into their three-course meal. They had two hours to create and then to present their creation to the three judges.

Here’s a taste of the excitement… Enjoy!

If you didn’t know it already, Maureen is diva of the Breaking Blind YouTube channel. Teaching Home Management at the Colorado Center for the Blind is just her day job. This video was shot late last summer, and is timely now that the weather’s finally turned hot again …

Alyssa recently finished her mini-meal. Let her tell you about it.