By: Sarah Crown 😄😜😇

In January, I woke up at 4.a.m to drive three hours

all the way to Abilene, TX. You might be wondering

“Sarah, Why in the world would you be driving to

Abilene at four in the morning?” 🙄 And the answer

to that question is 4H. Now you’re wondering “What

in the world is 4H?” The four H’s stand for, my Head

to clearer thinking, my Heart to greater loyalty, my

Hands to larger service, and my Health to better living,

and  The four-leaf clover 🍀 is a symbol of growth for

5 million members and more than 36 million 4-H alumni

in the USA.  Now you think... “So, what is it?” 4H is

America’s largest youth development

organization—empowering nearly six million young

people across the U.S.👧🧒👩🧑 with the skills to

lead for a lifetime. There are so many different things

you can learn in 4H. You can sign up for rocket science,

raising different animals, 🐷🐑🐏🐮🐔computer

programing, engineering ect. “Well what did you sign

up for?” I’ve signed up for junior master gardening🌷🌹

and cooking challenge, but I went to Abilene for cooking
challenge.👩‍🍳 In cooking challenge, or food competition,

many teams of children up to 6 kids each compete

against each other to cook a dish with the supplies given

in a limited amount of time.⏳ Every challenge has

different ingredients but they all have the same utensils

that we are allowed to use. Items such as bowls, a

presenting plate, paper towels, Hand sanitizer wet

wipes, tasting spoons,🥄 spatula, hot plate, pan,

knife, strainer etc. We have to write our presentation

on note cards. “What do you write?” I had two girls

on my team with me. Cici wrote substitutions such

as “instead of almonds we could have used walnuts,

cashews, peanuts etc. She also did Myplate such

as “Bread is a grain. You need 2 cups of grain a day.”

Kylie did food nutrition such as “The oranges I our

dish have vitamin C. Vitamin C is an antioxidant

which helps protect cells in our body.” Finally, I did

food safety such as “We wiped down the table before

and after cooking, we pulled back our hair, we kept

all flammable🔥 items away from the hotplate, and

we sanitize our hands and made sure that there was

no cross contamination 🙅between foods.” I also

did food prep such as “First, we diced 🔪 this. Then,

we cooked that.”   “Sooo, what were your ingredients?”

My team had pork chops, oranges, apples, apple

juice, brussel sprouts, and leeks. 🐷🍊🍎🥛☘️

“What did you make?” We cooked the leeks, brussel

sprouts, and apples together, cooked the pork with

apple juice on the hotplate, and we arrange the dish

to make it look like a smiley face. We called it the

“smiley pork chops.😀🐷” “What did you do after

you finished?” We touched up the plate and worked

on our presentation until the very last second. After

the adults said the time was up all teams stopped

what they were doing and put their hands in the air.

Then, my least favorite part came… waiting.☹️ All

the teams sat with their backs to the table waiting for

the judges to point at them so that they could present

their dishes. My team was an intermediate team which

meant only 9 other teams would be presenting before

us. All the intermediates, juniors, and seniors have

different judges. 9 teams presented before us because

of the 10 intermediate teams we were 10th. (our team

number was 310 remember that because it will be

important later.)It took about 10 minutes for each

team to presents so in the meanwhile my team sat

staring at our notecards 📜until they called up our

team. When we finally stood up my legs felt like

jelly as my team marched🚶🚶🚶 to the judges table.

“What happened next??” 😀😀We said our names,

that we were from williamson county, our dish name,

(smiley pork chops 😁🐷) and we were number 310.

I could see all the seniors presenting in the room

next to us as Cici started presenting. Then, Kylie,

then me. After we finished we brought our dish back

to our table and began whispering until the judges

announced that everyone had presented and we

could leave. My team walked outside to see the

smiling faces of our parents.😊 We all walked d

own to a big building with bleachers surrounding a

man with a 🎤 microphone. “Annnnndd?” After

my family and teammates, and my teammates family

all sat down at the bleachers… the man started to

announce the winners. “305 Hays county,

308 Hardin county, 304 DeWitt County, 302

Glasscock County,” We began to lose hope until…

“310 Williamson County!” We stood up as

everyone clapped. 😁😁😁 That's the story of

my experience at 4H cooking competition.