Newsfeed
Printer-Friendly ModeFuture educator plans to bring cooking into the classroom
March 19, 2007 —
Jen Crnkovic has a small greenhouse box on her back porch where she grows the herbs called for by her family-inspired cooking creations.
"I guess I should have brought the box in before it snowed," she said, pausing a moment from cutting up chicken to glance out her kitchen window. "I really need to get serious about buying a sunlamp."
Originally from Ohio, the 21-year-old junior came to the Saginaw area during high school to live with her aunt and uncle who own an organic produce farm. She says that if she had an endless meal budget, she would buy all organic food products. Why? "They're just better for you," she claims.
As an elementary education major, Crnkovic's career goals include helping to improve the nutritional content of cafeteria meals. She wants to work to restructure school meal plans so that fewer carbohydrates and more vegetables will be found on the lunch trays of her future students. She might even get local farmers in on the nutrition revolution.
"A lot of the time school cafeterias will serve a roll, something noodly, and canned peaches," she said, while simultaneously rolling her eyes and slicing a green pepper. "And I think, 'How is that brain food?' I know schools have hardly any money, but food is very important to education."
Crnkovic doesn't just want to improve cafeteria content, she also wants to incorporate cooking into her future social studies classes. She describes how there are many students who live in low socio economic situations that never get the opportunity to taste cuisines from other cultures. By including ethnic dishes in her lectures, she hopes to give each of her students a little taste of the world.
She says her own culinary education is courtesy of her family. Her half-Italian, food-loving lineage comprises individuals who have owned their own bakeries, maintained their own gardens, and compiled their own cookbooks.
Learning to appreciate different foods early on got Crnkovic excited to start preparing various meals on her own. By the time she was in junior high school, she was cooking full dinners for her brothers while her mother worked late.
Today some of Crnkovic's favorite meals to prepare are lasagna, pork chops, burritos, and Cajun shrimp - she admittedly never stays in one food genre for very long. Instead of maintaining a theme of ingredients, she maintains a theme of music.
"I always have to listen to music when I cook," she says. "Lately it's been The Hard Lessons - ya know, the MSU grads who quit their day jobs."
But whatever she decides to cook or listen to, this fan of Food Network's "30 Minute Meals with Rachael Ray" doesn't like to take too long with the preparation process. She is, after all, a full-time college student on the executive board of the Student Michigan Education Association.
And soon the multitasking Crnkovic will be planning a reception meal for her own wedding.
"I'm getting married in August and I want to wow Josh with my cooking skills," she says, jokingly. "But he's picky."
"I am picky, but she's a great cook," fiance Josh Prusha says. "She gets me to try things. We went to Chicago and she got me to try an oyster and eat mushrooms - and I hate mushrooms."
Crnkovic's entire approach to cooking is based on the idea of experimentation. She believes cooking is something that takes practice, new ideas, and an open mind to be successful.
"I think what's great about cooking is that it gives you a sense of accomplishment," she says. "You take what you learn from other people, but then you work at it and make it your own."