I knew they'd "sleigh" you.

It was cold tonight.
School's been out all week
It's 3 days before Christmas .

And yet MAGGIE / MADDIE / MARY WALKER / VIRGINIA / CECELIA / ELAINE / SAVANNAH / KAYLA / NICKI / MERRITT / SAM / CRAIG / PRUDEN / ANNA / BRIEN / STEVE / BLAKE / TYLER / MARK / T.J. / TWIG / KEITH / TREY / CATHERINE / CAMERON / DALLAS /

all came out to help cook and feed tonight. They did a great job.

OVEN FRIED CHICKEN

MADE FROM SCRATCH MAC'n CHEESE
GREEN BEANS
ROLLS
DESSERT
SWEET TEA/WATER

Leg quarters were 49 cents a pound this week so we went the chicken route for this weeks meal.
I always want to do fried chicken but it's not practical. Then I remembered an oven fried chicken recipe this girl I used to date would fix. I went online and found an easier one and we used it.
I also found a recipe for Macaroni and cheese for 100 people. It called for 8 lb of macaroni and 8 lb. of Velveeta. I bought 12 lb. of both and adjusted everything else. For some reason we had twice as much cheese sauce as we needed when we were done pouring it over the macaroni. I have no idea why. But I got about a gallon and a half of cheese sauce that's gonna get used in a recipe in the next couple of weesks.

WHAT DO YOU CALL A REINDEER WEARING EAR MUFFS?
IT DON'T MATTER, HE CAN'T HEAR YOU.

Josh and Chris Armstrong were in town for Christmas break and came down to help. They're twins and Chris goes to UNC and Josh goes to NCSU.
Nice.
It was good to see them. We laughed a lot over the course of the night, which reminded me how much I missed them being around. BLITZ!

WHAT'S THE FIRST THING SANTA'S HELPERS LEARN IN SCHOOL?
THE "ELF-ABET".

We set up all the clothes and miscellaneous stuff we'd collected up to now in Fireside Hall. Before we ate out front we took them downstairs to "shop" and get what they needed.
Then we went back up and served. When everyone had been served, we passed out our Merry Christmas bags. We had a pair of socks in the bottom, then 2 apples, a tangerine(yum!), an orange, a bag of of hard candy, and a candy cane. Then as they were leaving the first stop we gave everybody a blanket.
The blankets came from the kids that attended Celebrate Christmas! a couple of weeks ago.
Gary Wilcox collected some blankets and coats for us, too.
The Merry Christmas bags were a joint effort. Brien bought the bags and put the socks in them, Steve Leger bought the oranges and tangerines, and some friends of mine from the other side of the state helped fund the apples and hard candy.
Thanks go to them for making those things possible.
God is faithful and amazing in the ways he provides resources for us to do the things we do on Tuesday nights.

What's red and white and gives presents to gazelles?
Santa-lope

HERE'S THE DEAL:

If you're reading this I want to you to leave a comment telling me what your all-time favorite Christmas present as a kid was.
Seriously.
Whether I know you or not, tell me.
I'm gonna tell you what mine was.
That's easy: A metallic green 3 speed Schwinn Sting Ray bike. I have no idea what I did to deserve it that year (probably not a darn thing) but I got it.
And. It. Was. SWEET!
I loved that bike.
And to my parents credit, they got my brother a bike that year except his was totally different. I was the only one with that bike.
I don't remember being" cool" as a kid, but I sure thought I was when I was on that bike.
Nothing but Twisted Steel and Sex Appeal. Lean, Mean, The American Dream.

Now it's your turn.
What's the best present you ever got as a kid?

As far as the jokes go........

.....They have low "elf-esteem"!

Told ya, if I don't get to it on Tuesday night. . . . . .

Twig was out of town again this week so I could wait til the last minute again to decide what to fix. After staring at this list:
SPAGHETTI
TACOS
BAKED CHICKEN
HOT DOGS
all afternoon as possible meals, I decided to go with SLOPPY JOES!

Go figure.

We used deer burger to cook it and it turned out great. We used about 30 lbs. to make it. Deer burger is leaner than ground beef so it isn't as greasy but since it doesn't have as much fat, you have to work a little harder to bring out flavor. Garlic salt, chili powder, vinegar, a little sugar, Worcestershire sauce, Texas Pete and pepper take care of that.

TYLER / EBY / CECELIA / MAGGIE / J.BOGGS / ANNA / MITCH / MARK / STEVE / BLAKE / HAMPTON / MO-GAN / CREEEECH! / WADE / SAM / ELAINE / HAYLEY / ELLEN / ALYSSA / were the architects and servers for the night.

The sloppy joes were so good that by the end of the night we ix-nayed the bread and were just putting it on top of the mashed potatoes.

SLOPPY JOES
MASHED POTATOES
MACARONI and CHEESE with HAM
DESSERT
DIET COKES! (how's that for a change?)

Christmas is next week. Gonna try and get some fruit and hard candy and nuts and bag it up to give it out. Why? Because I associate that with Christmas about as much as anything I can think of.
When I was kid, at the last Sunday night church service before Christmas, Santa Claus always showed up and passed out bags with fruit, nuts, and hard candy. I remember being a little concerned about Santa and Baby Jesus being in the same building together but not being able to put my finger on it. My concerns were gone when I got that bag, though. I loved Baby Jesus but Santa brought Tangerines! Santa could show up every week as far as I was concerned, if it meant bags with Tangerines in them!
I didn't like oranges (like orange flavored stuff, just not big on eating the actual fruit), don't like that generic white, red, and green hard candy you see at Christmas, and the nuts in the bag were usually Brazil nuts, Filberts and Pistachios which I didn't particularly like either.
I lived for the tangerines. I'd trade the rest of my bag for somebody else's tangerine. I can eat tangerines like it's a part-time job. ( My favorite Life Saver flavor: Tangerine)
It was almost as big a deal as going through the Halloween bag and checking out the haul.
We did it last year and it just felt good making the bags and it felt right handing them out. So, there.

We're gonna pass out blankets on Tuesday, also. I could use some more. If anybody reading this wants to throw some blankets our way, let me know. It would help.

Why are Santa's Helpers depressed?.........


g

........that would be an answer to prayer for some of them.

Upon further review....I might've passed on inaccurate information in my last post. I don't know for sure whether or not Connie and Barbara told me they take the Prayer Shawls(scarves) to the jail. I might have pulled that out of thin air (it's late when I write things).
It hit me when I was reading over it the next day that the jails are pretty strict as to what you can bring in for the people there.
I have this image in my head of a bunch of guys going over the wall using a rope made of 20 brightly colored, hand-made shawls and scarves.
Although.......

g

....... glad I could help!

I just put up last week's post. I wrote it last week and saved it, thinking I would come back and add more. So much for that plan. I swear, if I don't do it Tuesday night after everybody leaves, the likelihood of it even getting done drops below 25%.

So scroll down and read last week's and then come back and finish this one. I'll wait.






Good.


It's like I told everybody before we went to the 2nd stop.
I love the nights when a plan comes together.

Too bad tonight wasn't one of them.


Tonight was FISH FRY. It's a big kind of extravaganza thing. We got hot oil, stand-alone burners roaring, people making cole slaw, people making tartar sauce, hush puppies being dropped in hot grease,......lots of balls in the air at one time. And we don't do it often enough for the youth to remember or get good at it, there's different people helping each time....it's always an adventure even when everything goes right. Then nights like this, when we get thrown curve balls, make it even more adventurous.


We got started and things were going OTAY .... and then it started to sprinkle. We moved the hush puppies under the overhang but kept doing fish out in the open. Then it started to just flat out rain. I left the cooks (more about them later) and went inside to set a new plan for how we were going to serve. Normally we just bring them in to Fireside Hall and serve them at the tables and it's actually easier than serving outside like we normally do. But there was already a group having a function in there. So we switched to the Youth Room where all the couches and easy chairs are. We made the plates in the kitchen and then passed them out to the guys in there. We fixed their drinks and brought them to them.

For the second stop we just made up all the plates and took a few people there to pass them out and pass out sweet tea while the rest stayed behind and cleaned up.

I'm flying through this because I want to tell y'all about how great everybody did tonight.

People like:

WAYNE CURRIE


GREG GARRETT

ANNA TOLAR


TERESA BLAND

BRIEN CAMPBELL

HAMPTON COOK

MITCH COOK

HAYLEY UPTON

MORGAN McKNIGHT

TOM HODGES

BARBARA HODGES

CONNIE ALLEGOOD

TYLER BORDEAUX

DUSTIN EBY

KELSEY CREEEEEEECH! (couldn't resist)

MERRITT HUNT

BLAKE LEGER

STEVE LEGER

HAYDEN

GARY WILCOX



MENU


FRIED FISH

HUSH PUPPIES
CORN ON THE COB
COLE SLAW
ASSORTED DESSERTS
SWEET TEA / WATER

BAG LUNCH TO GO


Everybody did a great job tonight. And I mean a GREAT job. We were cooking in 3 different places at one point. We were feeding in a new room with new challenges. Most of the night I simply told people This is what I need and then left them alone to do it. Without fail they all came through like champs.

This is pretty much how it went tonight:

Teresa and Merritt, Here's 8 heads of cabbage mayo and mix. I need cole slaw.



Hayley. Here's everything you need to make Tartar sauce. Just put it back in the jar.



Mitch. Can you put the corn in the pot and put it on the stove. Start cooking it about 7:10. And put the water for Tea on. Thanks.



Greg and Wayne, here's the breader and fish . Y'all do what you need to.



Tyler, you want to drop hush puppies for me? Greg and Wayne'll show you what to do.



Hayley, I need to serve in the Youth room.Can you make it happen?



Eby, here's peanut butter, there's jelly. Find the bread and make and bag 75 pb&j's for me.



And so on and so on. Plus the infinite number of little things that have to be done throughout the night.

Greg Garrett answered the call for us tonight. To say he is one of my best friends really doesn't explain it well enough, so I won't try. He is the source of our fish on the night we have FISH FRY. He fishes year round and what he doesn't eat for himself he puts up for us. When we have enough...it's time for FISH FRY. He went out over Thanksgiving and killed it, so we cooked that this week. ( About the only time he doesn't catch fish is when I go with him. I take full responsibility for it. I think the fish sense that I'm in it more the boat ride than I am the fishing.) He also came and helped cook the fish tonight, bringing his own burner and tank. We would've been in trouble if he hadn't been there tonight.

Same with Wayne Currie. Between the two of them they got over 100 pieces of fish cooked in bad weather and less than desired conditions. He's an enormous help every week, anyway. Plus, he brought me a jar of pickled shrimp to try. It was good.

Hayley Upton is a phenomenal asset. Why? Because you tell her what you need and she does it. You don't have to go behind her or worry about her finishing it. It'll get done. She proved it all night tonight. (In the business, we call that "pulling a Springsteen".)

Teresa Bland worked her fingers off last night. I'm told that when they were fixing the carryout plates for the second stop, she was putting in the fish, cole slaw, corn, and hush puppies and then one person would put in a dessert and another would do tartar sauce. Made them all look bad.

Brien Campbell simply does any and everything that needs to be done. Doesn't matter where, or what: she just does it and usually because she sees the need, not because she's asked.

Anna Tolar has a gift. In the middle of everything that is going on, where I might tend to get focused on things 3 steps ahead, she doesn't. She sees the opportunity to do something for someone right then. She sees needs that otherwise might get overlooked in the process of "meeting needs". She is probably the most one-on-one relational connector out of all of us. Plus, she never wastes anything.

Tyler Bordeaux, Dustin Eby and Hampton Cook were invaluable last night. If it had to be done right then, or something taken somewhere, or we need this from over there, they were the guys. Tyler got a quick lesson on hush puppy making last night and now has a lifetime to enjoy his new skill.

Merritt Hunt got there early and went hard at it in the kitchen until she left. Thank you, Merritt.

One of the highlights last night was Connie and Barbara coming and sharing their Prayer Shawl(scarf) ministry with us. They and the other ladies in their group make shawls and scarves for groups and write prayers on cards for each one. They take them to the jail and other places where people in need can use them. They made 50+ prayer scarves for our folks. They have about an hour of time invested in each item, not to mention the cards. Our folks were pretty happy to get them and every single one left wearing theirs. It's cool because they are all shapes and colors and materials. None of them are exactly alike. We're very grateful for what they did and they said they would do it again. They were wonderful.

Last story:
Normally on a rainy night where we bring them inside, I make sure we're good-to-go inside, then I go outside and sit by the sidewalk where they come up. I say hey and tell them we're inside and just go to the door and someone will show you in. I do that for a couple of reasons. One I kinda like being outside on cold rainy nights. It's the "Camp Eckerd" in me. Another one is I like to size up who's coming in and speak to them and set the tone for the night. The biggest one, though, is I just hate to ask someone to go sit out in the rain. So I do it.
But last night I couldn't do it. We weren't as close to being ready as we normally were and I needed to stay downstairs. I asked Mitch Cook if he would take care of it. Hated to do it, but had no choice.
At the second stop he came up said I want to thank you for letting me sit outside tonight.
??????
He said I needed that. I just needed to be out there, and saying hey to everybody as they came was good for me.That was good for me.

Well all right........

Trying to avoid the week after Thanksgiving blahs......

Week after Thanksgiving.

High 40's.

Rain on the way.



No way we're doing anything related to turkey or Thanksgiving leftovers.

So, .....which way to go?



Breakfast.

Pancakes and sausage.



Our friends love it when we do Breakfast and they especially like pancakes and sausage. We make sure we cook plenty for seconds.



Ellyn Currie wanted to pick and take charge of one of the meals and at first we talked about a soup or stew. Then we saw it was going to be the week after Thanksgiving when she did it so we made the pancake decision. I looked at what we had and she and her folks went shopping to fill in the rest. I told her we had deer sausage and she scrunched up her face and said I like pork sausage, so I told her she could get pork sausage, too, if she wanted.



A quick aside- Sausage. They love it. I honestly think we could show up with nothing but 3 coolers full of sausage, have it all passed out in 30 minutes and no one would even ask What else are we having?

And I'm right there with them.



ELLYN / ALYSSA / LAURA / WADE / WAYNE / SAM / HAYLEY / LAURA / ANNA / TERESA / TWIG / TYLER / J.BOGGS / EBY / HAMPTON / ELAINE / CECELIA / MADDY / LAURA / all showed up tonight and helped meet other peoples needs.

Next week is a week to get excited about.
Why?
Two words: FISH FRY!

I'm excited. C'mon get excited with me.

g

I'll tell about tonight tomorrow. Because it's Thanksgiving ......

I'm thankful .....
......for a God who provides beyond what I could think to ask for.
......for the strange, random yet orchestrated way God sends people to us on Tuesday nights.
......for MO-GAN / CREEEECH! / HAMPTON / NICK / MITCH / PEYSON / MERRITT / SAM /WADE / ELLYN / HALEY / JACK / BETH / JOSEPH / DIANE / TJ / MARK / EBY / CHRISTIAN / J.BOGGS / TWIG / ANNA / BRIEN / TREY / CATHERINE / KEITH / GARY / SUSAN / BETH / WILL / WAYNE / LAURA / KILLER / JOHANNA / LAUREN / JOY / DERRICK / DEREK / THE GROUP OF YOUTH THAT DEREK BROUGHT TO PLAY MUSIC AND HELP SERVE TONIGHT /

......for the folks we get to serve every week.
......for the people who call me and say I'm going to Sam's. Is there anything I can get for you?
......for a church and a church staff that has supported and allowed us to do what we do.
......for whoever that lady in the car was that handed me $950 and said Keep feeding these guys.
......for Berkley Stafford and he knows why.
......for the storage space we have under the Harrelson Center.
......for Twig.
......for Brien, Anna, and Teresa and not for just washing dishes, but also because they are wonderful role models for meeting the needs of others as we feed at both stops.
......for Mitch Cook, Wayne Currie and Steve Leger.
......for Jim Morgan and Gary Mcknight and all the nights they devoted to this when we were just starting. Could not have done it without them.
......for the TURKEY WITH DRESSING / MASHED POTATOES AND GRAVY/ SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE / GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE / CRANBERRY SAUCE / MAC 'N CHEESE / DEVILED EGGS / PUMPKIN PIE / SWEET POTATO PIE / PECAN PIE /
SWEET TEA / WATER that we were able to serve tonight. We also gave out 80 lunch bags for tomorrow with 2 ham and cheese sandwiches, an apple and cookie in them.
.....for Gatorade coolers.
......for the way God keeps the rain off us 99% of the time. Seriously.
......for the church truck.
......for the way God puts his arms around us and keeps us safe every week. We're downtown. At night. In some sketchy places. And always under his wing.
......for Greg Garrett, who loves to fish and provides us with most of our fish on the nights we have FISH FRY!
......for the folks who step up in the summer and fill in for me while I'm off traipsing around on youth group trips and mission trips. Thank you.
.....for Butch and Anne, who live on the other end of the state and still send me checks in the mail for this as part of their missions giving.
......for everyone who has ever come and helped.
......for everyone who has ever donated or provided us with resources.
......and lastly, for Skyler Vigus, Drew McEachern, Kolby Rooks, Jonathan Everette, and Mason Huffman, who stuck it out with me that first freezing winter passing out Hot Chocolate to people standing in line at the St. James Homelss Shelter.

......if you don't believe it, just ask me

I'm a genius. Just a total freakin' genius.

Normally we use round plates. Stuff piles on and runs together.......no big deal.
But it's Thanksgiving. It's a meal with a lot of components and some people don't want this touching that.....I can be sensitive to it once a year.

Divided trays and plates cost more.
Then it hit me.
We have a large stockpile of take-out plates with the hinged lids that we use on rainy nights. The plate part of those are all divided. We could simply cut the lids off. We use the plate part for the meal and........the lid for as a dessert plate!

GENIUS !...........

Random stuff the day of........

Tuesday night is the new Thanksgiving........for us anyway.

I don't know exactly how many will show up to help tonight but I'll take a stab and say 40. I'm fairly sure that would be the most we've ever had help in a night.

A night like tonight wouldn't happen without help from a lot of folks, some who won't be anywhere near us tonight when the feeding begins. Thanks to all the folks I won't be able to thank in person tonight.

Gonna do something new tonight...... Deviled eggs! We'll boil them before folks get there and then set them up at a table and show kids how to make them. I foresee a large mess and someone other than me running that operation.

I think I've got some live background music lined up for tonight. They asked me if I had any Thanksgiving music I wanted them to play. I told them they could run through the Beatles catalog and I wouldn't care. Just play.

Later, g

PHOTOS ! PHOTOS ! PHOTOS !

First stop. We try to be ready here by 7:45 and finish by 8:30. That give us time to clean up, pack up, pray and head to the 2nd stop.

A couple of our regular friends

Condiment Row

It's full blown dark when we get out to serve now.

J.BOGGS and NICK

TOM VARNO and BRIEN

This week's "Picture so nice I had to print it twice".

A moment of rest

Killer,Johanna, Sam, and Elaine

Sam, Maggie, Merritt, Killer and Blake

Peyson talking to George, who is new. Thats's why he's the only one in the picture listening to Peyson. Everyone else knows better.

l

Another kitchen photo

LANEY GIRLS- Chelsea, Ashley, Cassie

CHRISTY and JACK

SAM THE BUTCHER

(Notice how Tyler moves so fast he can't be caught on camera.)

Maggie, Ellyn, Alyssa, Merritt and........Sam?

This is a great photo. Look at the symmetry, the texture, the lighting.

Plus......it's cheese sandwiches!

....Thanksgiving ain't one of them.

My bad.

I had good intentions......

I was going to load new pictures and write about last night.......

I meant to get it done and posted by this morning........

DIDN'T HAPPEN!



ELLEN / ALYSSA / WADE / SAM / J.BOGGS / CHRISTIAN / TYLER / MAGGIE / MERRITT / PEYSON / ELAINE / HALEY / LIZ / TJ / MARK / TWIG / JANE / BRIEN / TERESA / ANNA / LAURA / LAURA'S FRIEND / WAYNE / BLAIK / GEORGE / CHRISTY / JACK / CASSIE / ASHLEY / CASSIE / TOM VARNO / EBY / MO-GAN / CREEEECH! / SARAH

Check out that All-Star lineup!

Wayne Currie provided four cooked Boston Butts and a large pork tenderloin for us tonight. We
pulled the slicer and used it to cut them for sandwiches. We served those the first time through and made baloney and ham sandwiches for seconds. We made a couple of big pans of Baked Beans. Throw some dessert on there and it's the perfect meal leading up to next Tuesday, which is our Thanksgiving dinner.

I made the mistake of getting Teresa to take pictures for me. Now she's realized there's other jobs besides washing dishes. I may never get her back over by the sinks now!

TOM VARNO was in town! Yay! TOM works down in Fla. as an engineer on an oil rig. He was in town for a couple of days and came to see and help us. A great, great, guy. (I don't know what he engineers on the oil rig, but I do know you have to be smart and tough to work there. He is.)

BIG OMISSION FROM LAST WEEK
A lot of shoes were collected for the Guatemala mission trip. Some were left behind and Robin Manning (REPEAT AFTER ME: We love Robin Manning) collected them and brought them down to us to pass out to our friends after they ate. Which is just one more item on the already long list titled Things Robin Manning Has Done To Help Us Out.

David Barkley called me last week like he always does and brought us fruit and vegetables from the County Fair. Appreciate him thinking of us and not letting things get wasted.

I meant to mention those things last week and didn't. Apologies to both. They're too good to us for me to forget their contributions.

Had three new people this week courtesy of Sara Frank. Sara Frank was one of my students at Laney. She has come down and helped at different times ever since. She's a freshman at the Dub now. Some of her friends at Laney needed some service hours and Frank called me about it, to see if they could come join us.
And,what's my answer to just about everything?...........Sure.
So they came and helped - ASHLEY< CASSIE< CHELSEA. I put them in charge of getting sandwiches made and they handled it like champs, along with neverything else they did.
They knew CHRISTIAN, TYLER,and J.BOGGS, who also go to Laney. I was glad to see this. I was starting to think those guys didn't know girls existed, based on the time they spend with each other.

Next week is THANKSGIVING. We go traditional all the way down the line. Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, pumpkin pie, ......
There are times in life when you should experiment and try new things. You should expand your boundaries and shake things up a little. Get a little crazy, maybe. There are times for that. However........

Love Warren Vigus, Hate the Cowpunks!

This is a nice shot. It's got kids, pretty women, guys in ball caps....

Gary, Christy, Catherine, and Benjamin. Nice smiles.

This picture was so nice,

I decided to print it twice.

All right, all right, ......where were we.....

Kids got a night off tonight. Austin Aley contacted me awhile back and asked about his men's group coming and doing it one night. We love when people ask that. The single best way to let people know what we do is to get them down here doing it. So, I said sure, come on.

They came and cooked Chili. Nice, thick, tomatoey red, chili with beans. We had the mandatory toppings-grated cheese, sour cream and (mandatory for us anyway) Texas Pete. Elizabeth Henshaw cooked a bunch of corn bread to go with it. They were good. (If you see her, ask her about why the fire dept. had to come out to the house during the corn bread baking!)

AUSTIN/CHRISTY ALEY TODD/ELIZABETH HENSHAW KEITH/CATHERINE MILLER GARY WINSTEAD
I also had some of the regulars come to help out and show them the ropes:

BRIEN / TERESA / LAURA / ANNA / CHRISTIAN / J.BOGGS / TYLER
and a new person -BO

Christian, J.Boggs, and Tyler are seniors. I asked them to come and help tonight for a couple of reasons.

They really are a huge help every week.

They know what's going on and can explain it.

Most importantly, I've noticed on Mission trips the benefit of having the older High School guys interact and work alongside men of the church. They get great feedback, they make new friends and connections in the church and it lets the men in our church see how great some of our youth group guys are.

Another great thing about new people coming in tonight was it gave me a chance to introduce them to Brien, Teresa, and Anna. They all knew Laura. It was an opportunity to brag on those 4 and tell the others in front of them how much they do, how much they are appreciated and how much I love them. They are Angels. They work and clean and do all the little things I would miss. They are the best. I could fall off the map and nothing would change. If they fell off the map........I don't even like thinking about that.

CHILI CORN BREAD DESSERTS SWEET TEA /WATER

It was a great meal for the weather we had. It had rained all day and looked like it still might so we just transitioned indoors and fed in Fireside Hall for the first stop. Our first stop is right in front of the church and there's a low brick wall encircling the courtyard to sit on. But when it rains, it's not good, so we come indoors. The 2nd stop is standup all the way so a little rain doesn't affect that too much.

The group that came tonight was a lot of fun. They did a great job in the kitchen. We'll take them back anytime.

I just put some photos on here. I accidentally put one of Warren Vigus in the new Cowboys Stadium. I'm gonna leave it, but let me make this perfectly clear......

RANDOM THINGS FROM THE SPRINGSTEEN SHOW:

I can't stand Circus Peanuts and I don't like Orange Slices, but Jeff Tanner does, so I always buy a bag of each for him when we hit the road to see Springsteen. I'm a roasted peanut guy.

We broke our recent tradition of eating at FUEL Pizza before the show and we ate across the street from the arena at a Wild Wing Cafe.

Jeff and I sat almost directly across the arena from Greg and Bruce. We were in 103 and they were in 113. Donald was in 113 off to the left of them. We all had great seats.

Springsteen works harder in his first 2 songs than others do in their whole concert. It's a fact. Look it up.

The couple in front of us almost needed to get a room. It wasn't the guy so much as it was the woman, but she was kinda hot, so what's he gonna do? He just went with it and watched as much of the show as her gyrations and body rubs would allow.

He did the album Born To Run all the way through. hearing those songs in that order made it better than standing alone in a set list.

Started at 8:20 and finished at 11:12. That's 2 hours and 52 minutes of hard work on his part.

I would like to have Max Weinberg's cardio. He gets no break between songs and he's drumming the whole time. I'll bet he he could kill a stress test.
One of the amazing things to do is watch Max when he drums. He never takes his eyes off The Boss. Never. Nothing is set in stone so he has to be ready for a signal. a shout, a glance, whatever.....he's got to be prepared. His gig with Conan has got to be a piece of cake compared to concerts.

Everybody can do a "Greg Garrett at a Springsteen concert" impersonation. Just do this: Put your hands in your pockets, lean forward slightly and squint. Hold that position for 2 hrs. and 52 minutes. Slightly nod your head every 8 minutes or so and you've nailed it.

The lady beside me had 3 dance moves and they were all variations of having her arms out in front of her. FIRST MOVE: "Climbing the tree"- Start with one arm high, one arm low then start alternating back and forth while leaning from side to side at the waist.

SECOND MOVE: "Milking a tall cow" -Looks like it sounds, like she was standing up milking a tall cow.

THIRD MOVE: "Ooh,ooh, I know the answer" Put your head down and shoot your right in the air in front of you, reverse and repeat with left hand. Repeat over and over.

more later.............. g

"Mister, I ain't a boy, no, I'm a man and I believe in a Promised Land"

Look busy. The Boss is coming!

The menu for tonight is:

HAMBURGER STEAK

MASHED POTATOES

GREEN BEANS

DINNER ROLLS

DESSERT

SWEET TEA/WATER



That's a good meal on a lot of levels.
Nutritionally it covers the bases.
There are lots of things for people to do in the kitchen
It's also comfort food top to bottom. It's warm and it fills.

I'm not going to be there tonight.
I'm leaving for a spiritual retreat of silence and fasting to prepare ........ man. I couldn't even type that with a straight face!

I'm going to Charlotte to see Springsteen!

I know how how much he looks forward to seeing me when he's in NC so I try to catch him when he comes around. Going up there with the regulars-Greg, Bruce, Jeff, and Donald. Think we're folding Vic into the mix this year.

Bolting from school about 11:30 so we can get on the road about 12. We want to get up there and get together in time to hang out for a couple of hours before we hit the arena. Donald's coming in from Ashebore and we're in two separate rides leaving at different times. There's not a lot of chance to talk and cut up during the show so you got to get in before and after.

We're probably gonna roll back tonight and as tough as that seems, sometimes it's almost the best part. You play all the songs he didn't and just talk about the show and whatever else comes up. Some pretty serious things get discussed at 2 in the morning on HWY 74. Some times when I've laughed the hardest have been on the return drive, also. (SEE- Bruce Lennon and COOKOUT, Jeff Tanner and women, Greg Garrett and me talking about Bruce and Jeff).

I'm exited. Not outwardly, because that ain't me, but I'm ready.

I'll let you know how it goes.

g

"Cause tramps like us , baby we were born to run."

...they were nice enough not to mention it!

We had such a good night tonight. I came away with just a great feeling about what we'd done tonight and it seemed like everyone else did, too. There's any number of tangible, physical factors you could point to for it.
Good weather.
Great food and plenty of it.
The folks that came tonight were pleasant and very complimentary.
The people that help cook and serve are amazing and fun to work beside.
But.......
....I gotta believe the reason tonight (and all the other nights too) was so good is because on a conscious and subconscious level we knew that God with us. He was in the kitchen. He was beside everyone serving. He went with everyone who took a plate.
It's impossible to work side by side with Unconditional Love and not be affected.
I need to do a better job pointing this out to the kids that come.

Speaking of the kids that come:
ELLEN / WADE / BLAKE / CAMERON / DALLAS / LAUREN / JOHANNA / KILLER / HAYDEN / CHRISTIAN / TYLER / and the adults tonight were:
BRIEN / TERESA / WAYNE HILL / WAYNE CURRIE / STEVE /JOY / DERRICK /and the in -betweens : CREEEECH! / MO-GAN and me.

Beth Grace called me up Sunday and said her husband Jess had made a big pot of Spaghetti Jambalaya and had plenty left over. Did we want it for Tuesday night?
You know me. I said Sure.
She said there was enough for about 30 if it was the main serving and 60 if we used it as a side.
She brought it down tonight in a huge pot.
I'll be honest with you- Spaghetti? Check. Jambalaya. Check.
Spaghetti Jambalaya? Hmmm...never had that. Didn't really know what to expect. Beth said it was spicy and had a little kick.
Y'all, it was straight up gooooood. We served it as a side so everyone could get some. I told them if they liked it to come up and let me know and we'd do it as the main meal one night. Everybody tried it and liked it.
Big thanks to Jess and Beth for helping us out. She also gave us a large bowl of cut up fruit that was a hit. If you see them, tell them I bragged about them on the blog.

HOT DOGS
SPAGHETTI JAMBALAYA
MIXED FRUIT
PEACHES AND SHORTCAKE
SWEET TEA / WATER

So last week.... with all the stuff going on and the busyness of getting everything out, we forgot to make Tea.
I say "we" -I didn't tell anyone to do it.
Not a problem. We had enough drinks to cover the first stop. I'd just send someone down to the kitchen to make some while we served the first stop.
I look around- who to send, who to send......I know I'll send CREEECH! and Mo-gan.
I call 'em over and tell them I got a special project for you. Can you go make about 5 gallons of tea for me real quick? They turn and look at each other in a way that brings me absolutely no hope that they can.
Now the reason I ask them to do it is because they're freshmen at UNC-W and they helped me when they were in high school and I guarantee you I've showed them and helped them make it dozens of times.
I go through it real quick, call me if you need me, blah, blah, ....go make it.
Over the next 20 minutes I call down there on the phone 4 times-How's it going?-Water boiling yet?- Got the bags in?- Did you find the sugar? - and so on.
Always getting assurances - Yep. -Yeah. -We're good.

CREEEECH! comes walking out holding a clear plastic cup. Taste this she says and see if it's ok.
I don't have to taste it to know it's not.
I've seen Ginger Ale darker than the contents of that cup.
I take a sip- Whoooo! All the sugar is in there anyway.
I say CREEEECH! why is it so light? She says I don't know. We did everything you said.
How many tea bags did you put in?
6. Just like said.
6 of the big ones?
The big ones?
Ahhhh....I take my finger and draw a gallon sized tea bag in the air. ?
She shakes her head no and draws a very small tea bag in the air - the size you'd use for individual cups of tea.
We had a box of those up in the pantry someone bought by accident . They literally had to reach over the big ones to get their hands on the little ones.
It wound up ok. Wayne Currie went down there and brewed some more to mix in. Nobody at the 2nd stop noticed it -or if they did......

.......FISH FRY!

So about halfway through the day I got calls from two different people with food they wanted to give us to use tonight. Between them they had enough to feed about 40. Well that's about how many we've been seeing at the first stop. So that left the second stop for me to come up with something to cook.

I went ahead and pushed on with my Tomato, Meatball, and Rice soup idea. I butchered it but, I'll tell you about that later.



CREEEECH! / SARA / ELLEN / MADDY / ALYSSA / WADE / BLAKE / WAYNE / MICHAEL / STEPHEN / HAYDEN / JANE / GARY MCKNIGHT / MORGAN / HALEY / STEVE / MERRITT / MAGGIE / J.BOGGS / TYLER / JOHANNA / and me were ready for cold weather tonight but it actually was very nice. I thought so, anyway.



At the first stop we had Turkey, Mashed potatoes, Mac'n Cheese, Potato Salad, Peaches and Energy Drinks.

Energy Drinks?

Yeah, I got involved with trying to to do everything all at once and forgot to assign Tea duty to anyone. Around 7:30 someone goes Where's the Tea? I'll carry it out.

Whoops.

I had planned to pass out an energy drink to every one as they left, so instead we just gave them a cup of ice and a can of SLAP FROST! with their meal. They're out there running all over downtown right now, jacked up on their SLAP FROST!



When the turkey ran out, Plan B was Ham. When the ham ran out, Plan C was Barbecue. When the barbecue ran out, Plan D was subs. We finished the first stop with about 5 subs left. That's good, because Plan E was gonna be shake their hand and tell them God loves you, hope you enjoy your energy drink!
We saw 51 people at the first stop. That's easily double from a year ago.



So....the Tomato, Meatball, and Rice soup. That's what we had at the 2nd stop.

We wound up with too much rice in it. (Right now Gary McKnight is laughing at me as he reads this,) It was not the savory concoction I was envisioning. Y'all, that rice soaked up a lot of liquid. I also let it sit in the serving cooler too long. It was thick sticky tomato rice with meatballs. It was still pretty good, just not what I was seeing in my head.

Next time I'm gonna make the rice separate and keep it separate. We'll put it into a bowl and pour the Tomato Meatball soup over it.

And it's gonna gnaw at me 'til we do it again and I get it right.



Laura Johnson, Anna Tolar, and Twig Rollins are on the Guatemala Mission trip. Brien was sick and couldn't make it. Teresa was out of town. Randy is in Baltimore.

At one point I was looking at being the only adult there for a good part of the night. I don't have a problem with that except it's not the smartest way to to do it. We're downtown, we're separated at times....it helps to have more than one adult. I could do it, but I knew I shouldn't . I called Gary McKnight to see if he would come give me another set of eyes and ears. He said sure. Gary was a large part of making this ministry a success when it started. He was there every week and he brought his daughters. There were many nights he and I were the only adults there, and a couple of times when we were the only ones there. I will always be grateful for his support and help.

So I knew I had one and Steve always comes to the 2nd stop. It's cool,I thought, I can do this.

But I didn't have to.

About 6:10 Jane showed up with her son Hayden, and a few moments later Wayne Currie walked in and said Do you need me to stay and help?
I try to tell y'all how good God is to us. He provides food, resources, strength, miracles, etc....
He also provides help.
He did it tonight with Jane and Wayne. I didn't know they'd be there to help on the night I needed it. And he brought Gary Mcknight.
And they weren't just bodies. These are people that will get busy and stay busy. Large doses of help from God on a night when I needed it.
No surprise there. God has his Hand on this ministry and will continue to bless and provide for it. We need to make sure we're ready to receive it and be His hands and feet.

You might think I'm kidding, but how my soup turned out is gonna bug me. At least until I make up for it.

Hhhmmmm.....let's see...what would make up for tonight?

What would put me in a good mood?

What would get me excited about the meal we were gonna cook?

I know. You should know. It's the only meal that always gets CAPITAL LETTERS. We don't do it often so it's a big deal. It's the most requested meat on the street.

C'mon, let's all say it together.......

g

p.s. you can check out the folks in Guatemala on the trip blog.

http://fbcguatemalatrip.blogspot.com

I think I'm leaning towards a soup tonight. It's gonna be around 45 degrees tonight.

How does Tomato Rice and Meatball with a slice of cheese on top sound? With a bottle of Texas Pete standing by?
And if I can get some Sausage, deer or otherwise, it's going in there, too.
A little bread, piece of dessert, and some sweet tea.....suddenly, it's a wonderful day in the neighborhood.

We'll see.
Remember, right now this is my plan.
I might get hit by God's somewhere between here and 6:00.

g

P.S.

Pretty wide open as far as what we're gonna cook this week. Can't think of anything I'm dying to try that we haven't done yet. It is supposed to get down into the 40's tomorrow night so that's going to play a factor in what we cook, I guess.

Wonder how they'd react if we did CHEESE GRITS two weeks in a row?



If anybody reading this has any ideas for meals and recipes, feel free to post and share them. Anyone with experience cooking for large groups (lunch ladies, mess cooks, Octomom), share your knowledge.



These are some things I'd like to try sometime though:

Porcupine Meatballs

Burritos

Tomato Meatball soup

Corn Chowder

Baked Potato soup

Anything else with Meatballs in it

Later.

g

....The Miami Giants!

ELAINE / ELLEN / ALYSSA / CECELIA / MAGGIE / MADDY / WAYNE / STEVE / BLAKE / LAURA / TERESA / ANNA / RANDY / J.BOGGS / CHRISTIAN / MIKE / MERRITT / CREEEEECH! / ALEXIS / MARK / TYLER / MEREDITH / and me had a blast in the kitchen and out on the street tonight being God's hands and feet.
Twig and Brien were out of town. Twig, Anna and Laura will all be gone next week on the mission trip to Guatemala.

You know me. Without anyone to answer to about what we're cooking, I hold out and make a 4:30 (and sometimes later) decision. Today I actually made it about 2:30 when Mr. Taylor told me somebody had given us 25 lbs. of deer sausage. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I've been wanting to do it for a long time and just hadn't pulled the trigger.
wait for it......wait for it.... here it comes...almost there..... CHEESE GRITS !
I already had two 5lb. bags of grits in the pantry, so all i needed now was some eggs and cheese. a quick little run to Sam's and we were good to go.
The sausage was not ground bulk but in long casings. It was pretty funny watching Maddy and Maggie cutting it up. I'm pretty sure they weren't even aware of deer sausage as a concept, never mind having seen or eaten it before.

Things in the kitchen could not have gone much better tonight. One of the reasons why is J. Boggs. He has become my right hand guy for things that need to be done outside of the kitchen.
We have storage space under the Harrelson Center next door and that's where we keep our tables, coolers, paper goods, etc. J. Boggs make that run for me and anything else that needs to be gotten out of there. That freed me up tonight to stay in the kitchen and keep things moving in there, especially with Twig not there.
Another reason is because all the kids were great. Every one of them did a great job at the tasks we had tonight. Mark and Christian manned the griddle to get the sausage cooked. Maggie was in charge of getting the grit water to a boil and stirring them in. Elaine, Alyssa, Merritt and Ellen cracked 180 eggs to go into the grits. Cecelia washed cutting boards and worked the eggs for me. Everybody was outstanding tonight.

And poor Teresa and Anna. Cooking grits is messy. Even when you try not be (and we don't), it just is. Bless their hearts, they soaked pots, wiped tables, and just generally cleaned up behind us the whole time. Love 'em to death. If roles were switched I'm pretty sure they could do what I do, but I'm not sure I could do their job as well as they do.

We used 25 lbs. of deer sausage, 10 lbs. of grits, 180 eggs, and a huge can of cheese sauce to make 14 gallons of cheese grits. That's right -14 gallons! And we served out almost every bit of it. We had just a little left and I sent that home with somebody. I love not having leftovers!

Tonight was really fun. I wasn't here last week. I was at an FCA banquet. It was great to be back in the kitchen with everybody tonight.

You've heard people say you can't out-give God. It's true. It has been amazing and humbling the way he has met our needs and beyond the past few weeks since our freezer died and we lost most of our meat. We've gotten hamburgers, hot dogs, deer burger, barbeque, deer sausage, and other meats to fill the need.
Somebody gave me 6 cans of refried beans yesterday. I don't know if we can wait 'til Cinco de Mayo to use those.
I also know you can't over-praise God , either. He is so good and so faithful, the praise we give and reflect doesn't do Him justice.
I mentioned Randy a couple of weeks ago, about how God was providing for him. In the two weeks since I'd seen him, God had done even greater things in his life. He has done so well at his job at the cabinet shop, they are going out of their way to compensate him beyond the paycheck he receives. He moves into an apartment on Wednesday and gets a company truck to drive outside of work, also. God is doing great things in his life and he readily admits it's God at work and not him.

We see some really off the wall stuff. We get people wearing all kinds of stuff, we get people that look as unkempt as you can imagine, we get it all. We also get our share of folks who are "under an influence".
Lubed.
Think it's Beer-Thirty.
And I can handle that. I'm not naive or simple enough to think that's not gonna come around out there.
But ....there's one thing that absolutely irks me like nothing else. And a couple of the folks that help have picked up on it and I think they enjoy watching me when it happens.
It just grates all over me when people clearly under the influence start acting "spiritual". Talking about how good God is, and God bless this and psalms this and I go to this church and on and on and on, like nobody can tell they've been drinking. That just rubs me like sandpaper. To me it's just profane and blasphemous and I literally have to get far away or...else. But it's a lot of fun for the ones who see it coming because I don't do well when they're around. I start cutting my eyes at everything, giving one word answers to everything, wanting nothing more than for them to just get their food and GO. But their the ones who want to stop and "preach" and "give glory", even while everyone can see they're in the bag.
Those times are not my finest reflection of Christ. Lord, help me in those times.

And then there's the goofy and the funny.
There was a guy at the first stop tonight with a big ol' drum-like bongo sorta thing. I think they're called jombays or something. And he looked like he'd be carrying one - dreadlocks, tie-dye shirt, a pair of Jerusalem cruisers. Anyway, I'm welcoming everybody and getting ready to say grace, when he goes to beating on it . The old -timers started jumping on him and telling him to quit. Then while we're serving, he starts beating on it again. I slid over and just kind of quietly said how bout holding off on that til you get your bowl and have eaten. He said ok and then asked how'd you like it though? Did it sound good?
I said yeah man, not bad. What I really wanted to say was you're stoned and beating on one bongo with one hand. How do YOU THINK it sounds? But I didn't. Yay for me.

Then at the next stop, Steve sees a guy with a jacket sporting a team logo on it. Steve says something to the effect of is that your team? The guy goes NO, here's my team and throws the jacket open to reveal a Washington Redskins jersey. Steve messes with him a little bit about the 'skins and the guy says Guess who my real team is? Steve says who? The guy puffs out his chest and says......