...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......