ADAPTING

It is what the American soldier does best.

After months of pre-packaged, ready-to-eat meals, U.S. soldiers in Baghdad longed for warm, cooked food.

So when Sgt. April Brown arrived in May and started cooking, the soldiers could hardly believe their luck.

"(A hot meal) helps the morale here. It's the only thing we have to look forward to," the 37-year-old Glen Burnie resident said in a recent telephone interview from Iraq with The Capital.

Sgt. Brown was initially deployed to Iraq as an administrative specialist, but when she was asked in May to cook for her unit, the 352nd Civil Affairs Command, she was happy to oblige. Even though Sgt. Brown works for the U.S. Postal Service in Odenton, she cooks for weddings, receptions and change-of-command ceremonies.

That background has enabled her to adapt well in Iraq, where she prepares dishes like teriyaki chicken, lasagna and steak, in addition to desserts like apple cobbler and rice pudding for 100 to 150 soldiers.

The cooking begins in mid-morning and by 6 p.m. the soldiers are chowing down on a hearty meal. Fried chicken is requested frequently and grilled steaks are another favorite, she said.

"Fried chicken is the most popular because we don't get that that often," Sgt. Brown said.

Cooking in the middle of a war has challenged Sgt. Brown's
creativity. She's been forced to find a variety of substitutes to cooking staples, using biscuit mix for a pie crust and Kool-aid lemonade mix in place of lemon extract in some dishes. Sugar is sparse and only available in packets.