Life's lessons can be fun

By Mary Alice Garrett

This story originally appeared July 31, 2005 in The News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware.

GREENVILLE — Rene Fellows says that, while her day job of teaching is satisfying, it’s her second job of baking that’s the most fun.

Fellows is a family and consumer science teacher at Hanby Middle School and also owner of Raising the Bar, a pastry and wedding cake business in her Greenville home.

After 16 years of teaching, Fellows has noted major changes in home economics education. No longer do educators focus solely on cooking and sewing. Instead, they explore personality development, values, manners and etiquette, nutrition, dating, teen pregnancy, drugs, alcohol and financial security.

Fellows described it as basic life skills.

"l tell them [seventh and eighth graders] they’re going to remember these things long after the geography and history have ended."

Manners and etiquette followed by teen pregnancy are her students’ most popular subjects.

"When I do manners and etiquette, I have their undivided attention," Fellows said. She also teaches them how to set a table and to cook a dinner. She tells her pupils that someday "they may be judged" by an employer based on their table manners.

Teen pregnancy is brought to life with battery-operated, programmable dolls. Teens of both sexes take the dolls home for an overnight stay. The dolls are programmed for crying, diapering, feeding, burping and sleeping. Students take turns checking out the three $350 dolls.

"They can’t wait to get these babies, and they can’t wait to bring them back," Fellows said. "It’s a real eye-opener for them."

One girl said her "baby" cried all night, and she didn’t get any sleep. She wanted to stay home the next day but her mother wouldnt let her.

“She said to go to school because that’s what mothers do: They keep going," Fellows recalled of the girl’s conversation. At the end of the session on teen pregnancy every student writes a paragraph on what it’s like to be a teen parent.

Fellows stresses nutrition with her students.

“I try to start healthy eating habits now," she said. Eating from the main food groups is encouraged over fast foods. The teens also learn to make heart-healthy muffins.

Early in her teaching career in Rochester, N.Y., Fellows was asked to develop an elective course for high school boys. She called it "Bachelor Know-How," a course in survival tactics for boys. It proved to be so popular, the course was offered for four years. The boys learned to prepare seven—course meals, bake bread, make silk neckties, sew buttons and to launder their own clothes.

"It was a very practical class," said Fellows.

A native of Londonderry, Northern Ireland, Fellows came to Delaware with her parents and two sisters when she was 7. She credits her late mother, Mary Millar Wylie, with encouraging her interest in cooking and baking. Wylie would devote one day a week to baking, sometimes baking four different kinds of bread.

"I sort of inherited that gene for baking," said Fellows, who has been baking and cooking since she was 10. At age 11, she sometimes prepared the family dinner.

"My sisters couldn’t have cared less about cooking," she recalled.

Five years ago, Fellows began baking wedding cakes and fancy pastries for sale. She calls it her "fun job."

"It’s been all word of mouth. I’m taking it more seriously now." Orders for her specialty cakes continue to come in, and many of her sales are to area restaurants. Fellows recently named her business Raising the Bar.

Friend Martha McKenzie of Wilmington described Fellows’ cakes as "just a step above anything except for New York."

"It’s always a labor of love for her. She’s very creative. She puts a lot of thought into everything she does," added McKenzie, whose family has served as"the samplers" for many of the cakes.

"She made the most delicious chocolate cake for an engagement party for me. It was the hit of the party" said client Lisa Frankel of Centreville. "Her cakes taste as good as they look, too."

Fellows’ most requested cake is a chocolate bridegroom’s cake made with European chocolate and butter cream frosting. Each is a work of art and is garnished with fresh flowers of the colors used in the bride’s bouquet. Also popular is Fellows’ almond apricot tart.

She uses lots of eggs, butter and French chocolate in her cakes.

"I use the best ingredients because you can't sacrifice taste," said Fellows.

Fellows has gotten used to being surrounded by mouth-watering baked goods. Even if she does eat an occasional brownie, she burns off the calories with her six-days-a-week exercise regimen. Included are aerobics, walking, weight-lifting and tennis.

"It allows me to indulge my sweet tooth," said Fellows, who wears size 2 clothing.

Her teaching skills also are handy when she teaches pastry courses at the Back Burner Restaurant's Kitchen Sink in Hockessin. After retiring from teaching, Fellows would like to attend a culinary school in Europe or the United States.

She also hopes to freeze her scones and cakes and sell them via mail order.

"I would like to give it a try," Fellows said, looking to the future.