They may not have moves like Mick Jagger anymore, but this cooking crew still gets their “Satisfaction” in the kitchen every week.
“I made casseroles constantly, when you have that many little children sitting around the table,” Charleen Kelly, 92, tells TODAY.com, recalling when her five sons and one daughter were “knee-high to a grasshopper.”
Kelly is a member of Chicago-area cooking club, the “Rolling Scones,” at the Sunrise of Crystal Lake retirement community. Though she no longer cooks for her brood — all grown, nearly all married with children and some grandchildren of their own — she still loves to cook.
“I just enjoyed cooking, and I’m surprised to not be able to remember all of the different brands and ideas, but it went,” she says. “There was just nothing to it. You just were able to do it without even thinking.”
“Children today, they have to have a recipe and be told how much to put in,” Barbara Ensalaco, 95, another Rolling Scones member, chimes in. “But every day, we cook, and we just sprinkled the stuff on top until we felt it had enough, and that was our recipe for cookies, no tablespoons or whatever.”
The Rolling Scones Paint It Green
Here, elders like Ensalaco, in plaid aprons, chef’s toques and safety gloves, chop celery, crush garlic and sprinkle shredded cheese on the leaves of fresh lettuce and carrots for that week’s lush salad or hand-stretched pizza.
The Rolling Scones’ punny name reflects the attitude of the five to eight members who joke and reminisce in the kitchen every Saturday afternoon. They’re cooking for themselves again, because, as you can gather, these are home cooks with literal lifetimes of experience.
“In the past, it was always like a demonstration, and we never let the residents actually do the work,” Jamie Murphy, Sunrise’s activity and volunteer coordinator, tells TODAY.com. She pushed for a more hands-on experience, including going to nearby farmers markets.
For most Sunrise residents, meals are often ready-made and catered to their unique dietary restrictions. This club supplements them with the spice of life.
“I get to feel like I’m being creative again, because, well, when my husband got sick, I had to just walk past my sewing room and leave all the projects I had done and cook for him and take care of him before we came here,” Nancy Rieck, 90, tells TODAY.com. “This creative need that I have is being fulfilled by creating salads.”
She’s a Rainbow (That Salad Over There)
These days, they make comfort food like stews, pizza and pasta with a twist. Carrots, celery, onions, tomatoes, zucchini and squash are chopped into vegetable confetti for no-meat soup or to top a festive frittata. Everything the group makes is both scrumptious and nutritious.
March is National Nutrition Month, and Murphy, who leads the group’s meetups and gathers supplies, has been teaching the Scones about superfoods like antioxidant-rich berries and other beneficial fruits and vegetables.
“I have a wonderful recipe from my mother-in-law who was Italian. It’s for zucchini squash, and you cook it with onions until it gets soft,” Enselaco says, adding that the dish is completed with tomato paste, water, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper and oregano.
“It’s a very good recipe compared to what they serve us here because theirs is plain, plain zucchini squash,” Enselaco says to giggles from the other women in the group.
“While many residents love that convenience and come to us so they can have their meals prepared and their dishes done for them, it’s also very common to miss what being in the kitchen means and what preparing food means,” Caitlin Rogers, Sunrise’s vice president of hospitality, tells TODAY.com.
“Food has always been about connection, and it is for our residents, who have spent a lifetime cooking with family and friends and the people that they love,” she adds. “What I love about a club like the Rolling Scones is that it just gives back that sense of agency and personal involvement.”
Thyme Is on My Side
While good nutrition is important at any age, once folks reach their golden years, it becomes critical. Older folks can develop long-term conditions, like heart disease, osteoporosis, glaucoma and diabetes, that demand dietary changes, so that’s a major focus of the club.
“I know what I need for my allergies, but you said raspberries are good for your eyes, if you have dry eyes, glaucoma, any of that,” Rieck says to Murphy. “There’s always something to learn.”
“I found out that orange peppers, which I buy a lot of, are good for your skin,” Murphy adds. They are rich in vitamin C and violaxanthin, the chemical that gives them their orange color, which is being studied for its antioxidant benefits, including skin protection.
Don’t Miss You, Lactose
Rieck, who has dietary restrictions, says the Rolling Scones program has helped her enjoy eating again.
“I’m gluten-free and dairy-free, so I have to tailor or substitute, and I can eat anything pretty much,” Rieck says, “except almonds.”
For instance, she’ll take a salad with a lactose-rich cheese and sub in a lower-lactose one like Pecorino Romano or a dairy-free variety.
“Works just as well as cheddar cheese or Swiss,” she says.
Anybody Seen My Baby? Taking a Nap?
The group says they always have an “overabundance of food” after they’ve done all the cooking, so they pack doggie bags for themselves and loved ones.
“I’m able to bring not only a salad, for example, back to our suite for myself, but also for my husband, who is the reason I’m here because he has some health issues,” Rieck says, explaining that her husband, Carl, has dysphagia, or swallowing issues, and she helps coordinate his care and feed him.
“He has to have it honey-thickened, his liquids,” she says, adding that those with the condition can swallow thicker liquids with less risk of choking or getting fluid caught in their lungs.
She says she chops his salads into small pieces for the same reason, but even with his condition, he still has quite the appetite.
“He loves all the salads and the pastas and everything that I bring back from cooking club to him because he can eat anything,” Rieck says. “And sometimes he comes down and watches and observes, if he’s not taking a nap.”
“And he always has a little smile on his face,” Murphy adds. “Because I think he likes to watch Nancy back in the kitchen.”
