Volunteer caterer for the Girl Guides: Cheryl Osborne
By Belle Hann

Volunteer Life spoke with Cheryl Osbourne, caterer extraordinaire – and got some tasty recipes and cooking tips in the mix!

If the thought of organising a dinner party gets you stressed, just imagine catering for 230 people!!! There's the amount of food, the timing of the different courses, not to mention different food allergies and tastes these days. It's enough to make you want to throw in the towel.

Unless, of course, you are Cheryl Osborne.

Cheryl recently took care of the kitchen for a weekend camp celebrating 100 years of the Girl Guides. This involved feeding hundreds of hungry kids away at camp and managing a busy kitchen. Although she kept her cool, Cheryl admitted: "I kept thinking all these girls do is eat!"

Cheryl's life-long involvement with the Girl Guide movement began when her mother enrolled her in Brownies (now known as Junior Guides) and now she has risen to the rank of District Leader with West Epping Guides. She has strong family ties to the Scout and Guide movement since her dad and her husband have both volunteered as Scout Leaders and her son is a Rover (a senior division of Scouts).

While the traditionally male Scout movement now accepts enrolment from girls, Cheryl is really enthused about the Girl Guide movement.

"(Guide) is just for girls, so there's not the same competiveness or looking over the shoulder for boys," said Cheryl. "You also get to go outdoors and meet likeminded people with similar values."

This busy community volunteer encourages parents and interested community members to get involved as Girl Guide leaders. "There's a lot of people out there just doing zippo and, if someone doesn't volunteer, it's not going to happen."

"Being a Guide leader means you are able to learn skills that you never would have learnt," she said. "You've played a little part in a girl's life and helped grow a responsible community member."

More information

For more information, visit the Guides Australia website.

Cheryl's catering tips

Be prepared: Make lots of lists to help you get organised.

Simplify: Try not to do anything too complicated.

Think ahead: If you are doing dinner for four, try and make 1 or 2 courses the night before.

Live and learn: Write down notes such as 'not having enough X or Y at breakfast' and refer to those notes next time round.
 

Chicken, Garlic and Sundried Tomato Pasta Ingredients (Serves 5) ½ packet penne or other pasta ½ cup butter 3 cloves minced garlic 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup ½ cup milk 1 tablespoon dried parsley ½ tsp salt ¼ tsp ground black pepper 3 cooked chicken breasts cut into bite-sized pieces 1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes 2 tablespoons grated Romano cheese or parmesan cheese Method Boil a large pot of water, add salt, cook the pasta and then drain. Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the garlic and cook until brown. Add the cream of chicken soup and milk stirring until smooth. Stir in the dried parsley, salt and ground black pepper. Let simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the chopped chicken and sun-dried tomatoes. Simmer for 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in grated cheese. Toss chicken sauce through the pasta.   Carrot and Pineapple Muffins Ingredients 1½ cups plain flour 1 cup sugar 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp nutmeg ½ tsp salt 2/3 cup oil 2 eggs 1 cup grated carrot ½ cup crushed pineapple with juice 1 tsp vanilla Method Sift dry ingredients and mix in a bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Bake in a 12 muffin pan or 2 x 6 muffin pan at 200° C oven for about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove pan from oven, leave 10 minutes and then remove muffins from pan.

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