Summer-Food-BoomerTech Adventures Guides

You never know where a professional or personal friendship might lead. For many years, BTA colleagues Ed, Chris and I shared a commitment to providing creative, intellectually stimulating, and developmentally appropriate education experiences for young adolescents. During that time, digital learning came of age in the middle level classroom, and each of us came to appreciate its power for academic growth and personal empowerment. Then, it was time, to retire.

Fortunately, Ed had a brainstorm. What about a technology boot camp for Boomers? After all, there are over 75 million of us. Thus BoomerTECH Adventures was born and continues to evolve. We believe that the digital world also has the potential for powerful learning for Boomers and Seniors. Now our mission is to provide expert guidance and personalized resources for Boomers and Seniors to develop their competence and confidence using their Apple devices.

Can you guess the significance of the numbers on the guys’ backs?

Along the way, we have discovered that we have other common interests beyond educating young adolescents. We all love cooking and sharing our results with friends and family. Each of us has a different focus in this endeavor so we are never in competition.

Chris is our professional chef. Since he was a young teacher, he has been sharing his knowledge of Chinese cooking through demonstrations at a variety of emporiums that provided folks with the very best ingredients and cooking utensils available. In recent years, his repertoire has expanded exponentially through his travels and internet research. Even in cooking, technology plays a role! Now in any given week, you might find Chis teaching participants about Indian cooking one night and sushi the next.

This year, Chris has been doing cooking demos via Facebook Live presentations on BoomerTECH Adventures Facebook page. In this video, he prepares fried rice, sharing a family secret that keeps the rice from becoming soggy.

Chris has hit the big leagues this year with the publication of his first cookbook with a second one going into production.

Check out Easy Chinese Cookbook: Restaurant Favorites Made Simple

This cookbook has been very popular. Folks will post to Chris’s Facebook page pictures of the results of their recipes tryouts. All say his directions are easy to follow and the results delicious.

Proof that Jill can cook other things besides chocolate (-:

Jill, that’s me, loves to cook also, with an emphasis on baking—especially if chocolate is involved.

My first endeavors, however, had more to do more with chopping up vegetables and lobsters at 7 am than mixing butter, sugar, flour, and chocolate. Summers in college found me working as the soup and vegetable girl at the Jordan Pond House in Acadia National Park.

From the archives of the Southwest Harbor Library

Cream of asparagus soup, lobster stew, oven roasted potatoes, and peas rounded out the Pond House’s entrees back in the day. Of course there were (and still are) also delicious popovers and homemade ice cream–but those were the responsibilities of others. One spectacular miscalculation on my part was the day I made enough lobster newburg (heavy on the sherry) for 150 people when only 75 were registered. The staff feasted on newburg for several days–management was not overly impressed with my mathematical skills.

Once I started teaching, I found I could get my eighth graders to do anything if I promised them double chocolate brownies. And guess what–when I started presenting to educators, I found they also would do anything for goodies. I worked hard to incorporate activities that included some sort of baked goods during the session. Going to teach compare and contrast writing–practice with comparing chocolate chip cookies and molasses snaps–how are they alike and different?

Now so much of our work is online, I can no longer entice folks to engage by sharing chocolate chip cookies. It’s sad because it makes me happy to see people indulging in a sweet repast. Fortunately there are holidays and my great nieces and nephews look forward to my packages. Did I tell you about my fudge…

Ed is our master event coordinator who can juggle lobster, chicken, and steak orders for large numbers of people. He and his wonderful wife Connie host huge crowds at the the family camp on a stunning lake north of Bangor, Maine. Listen to the loons calling at dawn.

The tables go up and the benches brought out. Ed is in the cookhouse managing huge pots of lobsters steaming while grilling chicken and steak. Something for everyone. Friends husk the corn and gargantuan green salads are assembled in the kitchen. Don’t you wish you were on their deck right now!?!

I think Ed’s secret food vice is barbecue. Every time we have a BoomerTECH Adventures corporate meeting, we somehow end up at a barbecue joint for fine repast. Chris and I never complain; we like barbecue too. Recently Ed and Connie helped coordinate a barbecue event for their church. Of course, it was a drive-by and pick up affair rather than a sit-down picnic in these COVID times. However, 150 boxed meals were assembled and handed out.

It’s great fun working together and sharing the love of good food makes things even more enjoyable. Cooking, however, is not our only common interest; we all love to travel too. Safaris, walking on lava, and snorkeling are just a couple of adventures one or more of us have experienced, but that’s another post!

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