'Don't Know Beans About Rice' cooking class offered this afternoon
(Talk of the Town photo by Jennifer Zartman Romano) Volunteers began meeting in January to plan a cooking class to help local food pantry patrons learn how to cook with beans and rice. Above, from left, are volunteers helping with the project including Linda Scott, Linda Hershman, Tammy Azar and Pat Mossburg.
By Jennifer Zartman Romano
Volunteers with the Salvation Army of Whitley County are offering an interesting cooking class later today for local residents – one surrounding creative ways to cook beans and rice.
Pat Mossburg, director of the Salvation Army of Whitley County, knows that the large bags of pinto beans and rice are often the last things on the shelves of local food pantries. In talking with Salvation Army clients, this is largely because people do not know how to prepare these items or use them in creative meal planning.
Beans are an excellent source of protein and when meat offerings are slim at local food pantries, beans can be a substitute. Mossburg and other believe that if people were informed about how to cook with these items, they might be more likely to take them at local food pantries and introduce them into their diets.
With a donation from the Kiwanis Club, Pat Mossburg and a group of volunteers, including Tammy Azar and Linda Scott, the task became finding tasty recipes that use beans and rice in creative ways. One of the most creative recipes taste-tested was a pecan pie -- which substituted beans for pecans?!
After several weeks of taste-testing, they’ve come up with a few recipes to share with local residents later today. The “You Don’t Know Beans About Rice” cooking class will be offered at 4:30 p.m. in the basement of First Presbyterian Church at the corner of Chauncey and Jackson Streets in Columbia City.
Anyone, regardless of income, is invited to attend and learn at thing or two – and try some tasty cooking options using beans and rice.
According to Mossburg, plans are already underway to offer a second class later this spring surrounding creative noodle recipes.