TYLER / ELAINE / EBY / MO-GAN / ALEX / MARK / KILLER / TREY / KEITH / TWIG / ANNA / BRIEN / TERESA / TERESA / MITCH / HAMPTON / PEYSON / SAM / BAILEY / J.BOGGS / ALYSSA / ERIN /
CHICKEN ALFREDO
GARLIC BREAD
TROPICAL FRUIT COCKTAIL
DESSERT
SWEET TEA/WATER
Whaaaaat? Chicken Alfredo?
Yeah, watch out. Getting upscale.
Not really. It's as easy as spaghetti, we just hadn't done it before. It turned out great. We can make a lot of it fairly cheaply, too.
The youth group from Wrightsville Beach Methodist is going to come and do the meal next week. They had contacted us (more about that in a minute) about coming down one night to do it and we chose next week. It's Spring Break and we have a youth mission trip so several of our kids will be on that and it worked out.
Why Wrightsville Beach Methodist? Like everything else in the world, look for the connection.
Nearly every week in the list of names, you will see STEVE and BLAKE. That's Blake Leger and his dad, Steve. Both are great guys. Blake's mom, Kelly, recently accepted the call to become the Youth Minister for Wrightsville Beach Methodist. Sadly for First Baptist, this means they now attend Wrightsville Beach Methodist. But Steve and Blake still come to help us and Steve still teaches the younger kids in CrossTraining on Wednesdays.
Kelly was looking for a mission project for her group and thought about what we do and....That's why and how.
The Setup
1. I changed out of my school pants into a pair of old khakis before we went up to start serving. I kept my button down on and left it untucked. Went upstairs and never thought twice about it.
2. I had on an old pair of tennis shoes because I like wearing them.
3. I had not shaved the previous Sunday morning so I was rocking about a week's worth of growth on my face.
The story
When kids get picked up after the first stop at 8:30, I always try to walk over to the car and speak to their parent. Say hey, tell them thanks for letting 'em come to help and for driving downtown to get them. It also lets them know I know where their kid is and when they leave.
This week one of the regulars brought a friend (Erin) and they were going to get picked up at 8:30 by Erin's mom.
So....it's 8:30 and I'm sitting with a couple of guys that are finishing up eating and I see a car pull up and park on Market Street in front of where we're serving. I ask Erin Is that your ride? and she says Yes. I've never met her mom so I stand up to walk over and introduce myself and say the usual nice things. Erin is right behind me as I start over.
I walk towards the car, hands in my pocket, no rush.
I expect the passenger window to come down but the closer I get....no opening of the window. Then as I get within about 8 feet of the car ....I see the lock on the passenger door go DOWN!
I just started laughing. She thought I was one of the folks we were feeding!
And you know.....old khakis, old tennis shoes, long sleeve shirt untucked, hadn't shaved in a week....I couldn't blame her.
And when I looked around, Erin was nowhere near me. She hadn't followed me over. She had gone back to speak to some friends. So I'm standing there alone.
From her mom's perspective in the car, she sees street people eating supper and a raggedy looking dude in the middle of them stands up and walks towards her car and stands beside the passenger side.
She should've locked the door!
I wave and she cracks the window and I say I'm Gary Harris blah blah blah glad erin could come blah blah blah. And I see her relax a little and I laughed and told her I didn't blame her for being cautious and she apologized and I told her No, she was right. She didn't know me so she had no reason to do anything other than what she did and we laughed about it.
So for those of you keeping score at home:
2 weeks ago I pick up a hitchhiker and don't get identified as a "church person".
This week someone thinks I'm a homeless person.
Stay tuned.
I wonder what it will be this week.
I'll probably have to convince someone that Yes, I.....
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Friday, March 26, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
.......wrong.
The Beta Club at New Hanover High School made 92 lunch bags and gave them to us to pass out last night. They had a PB&J, chips, granola bar and napkin in each one. What a great thing to do for a service project. We are grateful to them and very glad to get them. We had also been given a large donation of Little Debbie snack cakes this week so we put one of those in each bag, too. We handed the bags out to our friends as they were leaving so they would have it for lunch the next day (or whenever they wanted it.)
FYI: My favorite Little Debbie snack? Oatmeal Cookie. The big one, though. Not the little one. I don't even know why they make that little mini-me version. It just means you have to eat two of them. Duh.
OPEN FACED SANDWICHES
(HAMBURGER STEAK- FIRST STOP VENISON TENDERLOIN AND CUBED STEAK - SECOND STOP)
MASHED POTATOES
DESSERT
SWEET TEA / WATER
How's this for a win/ win situation: We clean out the freezer to create space and fix a seriously delicious meal.
We got all our hamburger, venison tenderloins, and venison cubed steak out of the freezer (which freed up a pretty decent amount of space in the freezer) and cooked it up for open-faced sandwiches. It smelled so good coming down the hall. The mashed potatoes turned out perfect for a meal like this : Nice and stiff so they would hold gravy, but still buttery and smooth. Good job, potato cookers.
While I'm on the subject- Instant Mashed potatoes are overachievers. They should not be able to achieve the level of
goodness you taste . It's water and potato flakes, but....the taste is way beyond that. I can't think of too many things that are that simple and overachieve to that extent.
PAUL / CHELSEA / TWIG / TERESA / BRIEN / DAVE / THERESA / BARBARA / WAYNE / STEVE / ANNA /
MO-GAN / CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH! / ALEXIS / JOSH / LAURA /
ALEX / TYLER / EBY / SAM / DANIELLE / KAITLYN / LONDON / EMILY / BLAKE / BRIANNA / ALEXANDRA / WADE / J.BOGGS
PEYSON / HAMPTON
Red- Adults Green- College students Blue- High School Pink- Middle School
These are the people who turned chaos into service and invested their time to meet the needs of any one who walked up.
It was a little chillier than we were expecting, based on the recent weather, but that just made the open-faced sandwiches hit the spot even more.
Jeff and Jeannie Troutman bought a couple of tables for us and left them at the church Tuesday. That's a big help. We appreciate it very much.
Wrote this Wednesday morning but didn't post because I kept thinking I had something else I wanted to talk about. I was......
FYI: My favorite Little Debbie snack? Oatmeal Cookie. The big one, though. Not the little one. I don't even know why they make that little mini-me version. It just means you have to eat two of them. Duh.
OPEN FACED SANDWICHES
(HAMBURGER STEAK- FIRST STOP VENISON TENDERLOIN AND CUBED STEAK - SECOND STOP)
MASHED POTATOES
DESSERT
SWEET TEA / WATER
How's this for a win/ win situation: We clean out the freezer to create space and fix a seriously delicious meal.
We got all our hamburger, venison tenderloins, and venison cubed steak out of the freezer (which freed up a pretty decent amount of space in the freezer) and cooked it up for open-faced sandwiches. It smelled so good coming down the hall. The mashed potatoes turned out perfect for a meal like this : Nice and stiff so they would hold gravy, but still buttery and smooth. Good job, potato cookers.
While I'm on the subject- Instant Mashed potatoes are overachievers. They should not be able to achieve the level of
goodness you taste . It's water and potato flakes, but....the taste is way beyond that. I can't think of too many things that are that simple and overachieve to that extent.
PAUL / CHELSEA / TWIG / TERESA / BRIEN / DAVE / THERESA / BARBARA / WAYNE / STEVE / ANNA /
MO-GAN / CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH! / ALEXIS / JOSH / LAURA /
ALEX / TYLER / EBY / SAM / DANIELLE / KAITLYN / LONDON / EMILY / BLAKE / BRIANNA / ALEXANDRA / WADE / J.BOGGS
PEYSON / HAMPTON
Red- Adults Green- College students Blue- High School Pink- Middle School
These are the people who turned chaos into service and invested their time to meet the needs of any one who walked up.
It was a little chillier than we were expecting, based on the recent weather, but that just made the open-faced sandwiches hit the spot even more.
Jeff and Jeannie Troutman bought a couple of tables for us and left them at the church Tuesday. That's a big help. We appreciate it very much.
Wrote this Wednesday morning but didn't post because I kept thinking I had something else I wanted to talk about. I was......
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
still working on it.....
The new look is a work in progress. Not in love with it. Like the background, just not very eye-friendly
when it comes to reading on it.
when it comes to reading on it.
Monday, March 15, 2010
All I had to do was look....
Finally got around to checking into fitted tablecloths. Turns out somebody does make them (I had a hard time believing nobody did).
They're plastic and reusable. I looked at the price and it said $89.95.
$89.95 ?
Then I looked closer and that was for a case of 25.
Whew. That's better.
So... If they're reusable and I can get 4 weeks out of a tablecloth.....2 tablecloths a month...........2 x 12 = 24.
I can get a year's use out of a case.
That's worth it for us.
Probably need to geet some of those. g
P.S. Didn't see anbody that would do custom pictures on them though. Bummer.
They're plastic and reusable. I looked at the price and it said $89.95.
$89.95 ?
Then I looked closer and that was for a case of 25.
Whew. That's better.
So... If they're reusable and I can get 4 weeks out of a tablecloth.....2 tablecloths a month...........2 x 12 = 24.
I can get a year's use out of a case.
That's worth it for us.
Probably need to geet some of those. g
P.S. Didn't see anbody that would do custom pictures on them though. Bummer.
Friday, March 12, 2010
..to listen a little Lyle Lovett and some Avett Brothers.
This is gonna ramble, so get out now if you don't want to invest in the story.
Do you pick up hitchhikers? I do. I don't pick up every hitchhiker I see, but I'll make a judgment call and pull over to give someone a ride if I can. Usually it's on my runs back and forth to Fayetteville. I'll see people on 74/76 or 87 and I'll pull over and tell them to jump in the back of the truck (not because of safety, I just usually have a ton of stuff in the front of the truck with me).
I usually wind up talking to them either in the truck or through the sliding glass. Everybody's got a story. I hear sad ones, "down on their luck" ones, ....... and that figures because, let's face it, if you're hitching rides, you're probably not sitting on top of the world at this particular point in your life.
And that, probably more than any other reason, is why I pick them up. It's helping them at a time when they need it. The ride I give them is probably the only way I will ever interact with them.
I don't really see many people hitchhiking these days. Especially in town. For whatever reason (horror movies, laws against it, etc.), there's less of it. Which is a good thing, I suppose.
So I picked up a hitchhiker in town on the way to church this past Sunday.
But I'm getting ahead of my story.......
For all the things I might be missing out on as a single guy, riding to church with other people in the car isn't one of them. I have never argued with myself on the way to church. I've never accidentally done anything that ticked me off. I've never fought with myself about the radio or what I was doing after church. And I never sit in the truck waiting for somebody else to get a move on. When I roll out and head into the sanctuary, I'm usually in a pretty good mood and ready to worship.
Matter of fact, the biggest problem I've had riding to church lately is we've moved the start of Worship up 10 minutes to 8:50. That means I miss the Will Shortz Word Quiz on NPR.
Tough life, huh?
What I'm saying is, I like my rides to church on Sundays. I pick something I want to listen to and just enjoy the time.
This week on the way to church I saw a person on crutches moving slowly down the sidewalk on 17th street in the same direction I was. They stopped, stuck their thumb out once before I got to them, then started crutching again. They were wearing a toboggan, a big coat and had one of those old school foam and velcro full-leg immobilizers.
I tore a meniscus my senior year of college and spent a lot of time in one of those immobilizers. I hate those things, so there was no way I was passing this person and leaving them to crutch down the road.
When I pulled over, I saw it was a woman. She put her crutches in the back and climbed in.
There was a little "thank you, no problem" small talk and then I asked her where she was going.
CVS.
You got it. What happened to your leg?
Some *!%@#'er stomped my leg and broke my femur.
Your femur?
Yep. Threw me to the ground and stomped on my leg. Broke my femur. What kind of @*;$# does that to a woman?
A sorry one.
Yep. That's right. Hey, you know anything about Finneran? That's what my prescription is for.
Not really. Is it for pain?
Yeah. I think I'm only getting 8. That wouldn't cost too much would it? 4-5 bucks maybe?
I don't know.
........And FREEZE.
This is where I thought she might hit me up for some money. Can you help me out?...Have got a couple of dollars on you?...etc. It wouldn't have surprised or bothered me.
Now back to the ACTION....
Well, drop me off at the CVS and I'll get some money from the church people when they get out of church.
(Church people?)
I've already been to church.
Where do you go?
I eat at St. Peters and then I go The Upper Room.
My boyfriend sings in the choir.
We roll into the parking lot and....
CVS isn't open yet. You gonna be all right?
Yeah, I'm good. I'll hang out and get a little cash from the church people and I'll be good to go.
Church people?
You sure I can't do anything else? I got a a fiver on me. Why don't you take it?
No man, I appreciate the ride. It would took me forever if you hadn't stopped. I'll be all right.
So I dropped her off and headed to church, all the while processing what had just happened.
Why didn't she peg me as "church people"?
I was wearing khakis and a button down. It was Sunday Morning. I was heading downtown where everything is closed except churches.
Why didn't she want my money?
Dude, cash is cash.
5 days later, still no real answers. I thought about going to St. Peter's and helping out this Sunday and checking to see how she's doing. See if she got her prescription. Maybe just flat out ask her why she didn't see me as "church people". I stopped and did something nice for her on Sunday morning. If that doesn't tilt the scale towards the "church people" tag, why not?
I don't even care about being seen as "church people". Never have. Especially if it depends on what I wear, what I drive, or what I have to do. I just wonder what she thinks "church people" are.
That's where labeling falls short, I guess. Christian, believer, disciple, follower, "church people".......different connotations to different people.
Being nice to someone on the way to church made me think harder before church started than I did during church itself. What's up with that?
I just wanted....
Do you pick up hitchhikers? I do. I don't pick up every hitchhiker I see, but I'll make a judgment call and pull over to give someone a ride if I can. Usually it's on my runs back and forth to Fayetteville. I'll see people on 74/76 or 87 and I'll pull over and tell them to jump in the back of the truck (not because of safety, I just usually have a ton of stuff in the front of the truck with me).
I usually wind up talking to them either in the truck or through the sliding glass. Everybody's got a story. I hear sad ones, "down on their luck" ones, ....... and that figures because, let's face it, if you're hitching rides, you're probably not sitting on top of the world at this particular point in your life.
And that, probably more than any other reason, is why I pick them up. It's helping them at a time when they need it. The ride I give them is probably the only way I will ever interact with them.
I don't really see many people hitchhiking these days. Especially in town. For whatever reason (horror movies, laws against it, etc.), there's less of it. Which is a good thing, I suppose.
So I picked up a hitchhiker in town on the way to church this past Sunday.
But I'm getting ahead of my story.......
For all the things I might be missing out on as a single guy, riding to church with other people in the car isn't one of them. I have never argued with myself on the way to church. I've never accidentally done anything that ticked me off. I've never fought with myself about the radio or what I was doing after church. And I never sit in the truck waiting for somebody else to get a move on. When I roll out and head into the sanctuary, I'm usually in a pretty good mood and ready to worship.
Matter of fact, the biggest problem I've had riding to church lately is we've moved the start of Worship up 10 minutes to 8:50. That means I miss the Will Shortz Word Quiz on NPR.
Tough life, huh?
What I'm saying is, I like my rides to church on Sundays. I pick something I want to listen to and just enjoy the time.
This week on the way to church I saw a person on crutches moving slowly down the sidewalk on 17th street in the same direction I was. They stopped, stuck their thumb out once before I got to them, then started crutching again. They were wearing a toboggan, a big coat and had one of those old school foam and velcro full-leg immobilizers.
I tore a meniscus my senior year of college and spent a lot of time in one of those immobilizers. I hate those things, so there was no way I was passing this person and leaving them to crutch down the road.
When I pulled over, I saw it was a woman. She put her crutches in the back and climbed in.
There was a little "thank you, no problem" small talk and then I asked her where she was going.
CVS.
You got it. What happened to your leg?
Some *!%@#'er stomped my leg and broke my femur.
Your femur?
Yep. Threw me to the ground and stomped on my leg. Broke my femur. What kind of @*;$# does that to a woman?
A sorry one.
Yep. That's right. Hey, you know anything about Finneran? That's what my prescription is for.
Not really. Is it for pain?
Yeah. I think I'm only getting 8. That wouldn't cost too much would it? 4-5 bucks maybe?
I don't know.
........And FREEZE.
This is where I thought she might hit me up for some money. Can you help me out?...Have got a couple of dollars on you?...etc. It wouldn't have surprised or bothered me.
Now back to the ACTION....
Well, drop me off at the CVS and I'll get some money from the church people when they get out of church.
(Church people?)
I've already been to church.
Where do you go?
I eat at St. Peters and then I go The Upper Room.
My boyfriend sings in the choir.
We roll into the parking lot and....
CVS isn't open yet. You gonna be all right?
Yeah, I'm good. I'll hang out and get a little cash from the church people and I'll be good to go.
Church people?
You sure I can't do anything else? I got a a fiver on me. Why don't you take it?
No man, I appreciate the ride. It would took me forever if you hadn't stopped. I'll be all right.
So I dropped her off and headed to church, all the while processing what had just happened.
Why didn't she peg me as "church people"?
I was wearing khakis and a button down. It was Sunday Morning. I was heading downtown where everything is closed except churches.
Why didn't she want my money?
Dude, cash is cash.
5 days later, still no real answers. I thought about going to St. Peter's and helping out this Sunday and checking to see how she's doing. See if she got her prescription. Maybe just flat out ask her why she didn't see me as "church people". I stopped and did something nice for her on Sunday morning. If that doesn't tilt the scale towards the "church people" tag, why not?
I don't even care about being seen as "church people". Never have. Especially if it depends on what I wear, what I drive, or what I have to do. I just wonder what she thinks "church people" are.
That's where labeling falls short, I guess. Christian, believer, disciple, follower, "church people".......different connotations to different people.
Being nice to someone on the way to church made me think harder before church started than I did during church itself. What's up with that?
I just wanted....
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
....how bad Carolina is this year.
Nice weather last night. 'Bout doggone time.
PANCAKES
SAUSAGE
DESSERT
SWEET TEA/WATER
A nice basic meal. Breakfast for supper. Good stuff.
It was a light crowd at both stops, especially Mercy House. When we said grace, there was probably 16 people in line, which is half of what we've gotten used to. More came out later, but we never really saw the neighborhood crowd come through the line.
Which just meant more pancakes and sausage for everybody that was there and to go plates if people asked.
I walked in at 6 but stopped to change clothes. By the time I got to the kitchen, there were 5 adults helping Twig that I'd never laid eyes on before in my life. Which was cool because there were a ton of regulars who weren't there last night, so they got more hands on time than they might have normally and helped pick up the slack of the ones not there.
CHUCK / THERESA / KELLY / CHELSEA / PAUL / TWIG / TYLER / J.BOGGS / HAMPTON / PAYTON / EMILY / ANNA / MO-GAN / CREEEECH! / MITCH / JOHANNA / CAITLYN / CHRIS / LONDON
purple means new people
Had a visit at the first stop from two ladies with the Census Bureau. They are trying to count the homeless in Wilmington. They said New Hanover County was the most under-counted county in the state. One of the reasons they gave was lack of trust and fear of law enforcement. I would like to hear them elaborate on that some point. They're going to come back in the future and do a count.
I'm going to let our crowd know that they're coming so it won't be a surprise. If they don't want to participate, they can skip that week.
The purpose of getting an accurate count of the homeless is to insure that the appropriate amount of funding is received for them. Being an undercounted county results in less funding available for programs and resources for the homeless.
Chris Armstrong is on spring break and came out with us. He's a freshman at Carolina. What a great guy. Could've been taking it easy on his break, but he was lugging coolers and tables at both stops with us. He may be away but he'll always be one of us and we were glad to see him. Plus, being with us last night meant he wouldn't be near a TV or Radio talking about.....
PANCAKES
SAUSAGE
DESSERT
SWEET TEA/WATER
A nice basic meal. Breakfast for supper. Good stuff.
It was a light crowd at both stops, especially Mercy House. When we said grace, there was probably 16 people in line, which is half of what we've gotten used to. More came out later, but we never really saw the neighborhood crowd come through the line.
Which just meant more pancakes and sausage for everybody that was there and to go plates if people asked.
I walked in at 6 but stopped to change clothes. By the time I got to the kitchen, there were 5 adults helping Twig that I'd never laid eyes on before in my life. Which was cool because there were a ton of regulars who weren't there last night, so they got more hands on time than they might have normally and helped pick up the slack of the ones not there.
CHUCK / THERESA / KELLY / CHELSEA / PAUL / TWIG / TYLER / J.BOGGS / HAMPTON / PAYTON / EMILY / ANNA / MO-GAN / CREEEECH! / MITCH / JOHANNA / CAITLYN / CHRIS / LONDON
purple means new people
Had a visit at the first stop from two ladies with the Census Bureau. They are trying to count the homeless in Wilmington. They said New Hanover County was the most under-counted county in the state. One of the reasons they gave was lack of trust and fear of law enforcement. I would like to hear them elaborate on that some point. They're going to come back in the future and do a count.
I'm going to let our crowd know that they're coming so it won't be a surprise. If they don't want to participate, they can skip that week.
The purpose of getting an accurate count of the homeless is to insure that the appropriate amount of funding is received for them. Being an undercounted county results in less funding available for programs and resources for the homeless.
Chris Armstrong is on spring break and came out with us. He's a freshman at Carolina. What a great guy. Could've been taking it easy on his break, but he was lugging coolers and tables at both stops with us. He may be away but he'll always be one of us and we were glad to see him. Plus, being with us last night meant he wouldn't be near a TV or Radio talking about.....
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
I never thought of a title for this post
LASAGNA
SALAD
BREADSTICKS
CHOCOLATE or LEMON CAKE
SWEET TEA/WATER
Most kids that come on Tuesday are fairly clueless about cooking and a kitchen in general. There's all kinds of things you could talk about in terms of culture and society about why that is, but that's not important here. The fact is we do a lot of teaching on Tuesday about cooking and things they can use later, which is cool.
Tonight it was making Lasagna. All of them had eaten or seen one, but tonight thay saw how to assemble and cook one from scratch. Nice.
The best meals are the ones with lots of "hands on time" for the kids.
We ate inside again tonight because it was so cold. It had rained earlier but dried up pretty well by 7. We've eaten inside more this winter than in ones past. The combination of cold and rain and the fact that it was the first of the month made for a fairly light turnout at the first stop - probably 20-25 in all.
I was outside bringing people in until about 8:10. No rain at any time, just cold, biting wind. Twig and I talked and decided we'd serve like regular at the 2nd stop since it wasn't wet, just cold. We started out to load up the truck about 8:40 and it was raining like crazy! No way we could set up in the parking lot at the Mercy House and serve!
So we set up 2 tables in the hall and started putting together the meal in to-go plates. We assembled 60 and loaded them up in about 15 minutes. Not bad at all. They did a great job putting them together. We took a skeleton crew over to the Mercy House and the others stayed behind to clean up after the to-go plate whirlwind.
When we got to the Mercy House, they were outside already and huddled under their little porch. They made some room for us and we put a table at one end and backed the van up to it and lifted the back door and passed out plates from there to the table we had set the drinks on. That left most of the room for them to stand and eat. It rained the whole time we were there, so space was tight.
Coolest thing about the night? One of the guys at Mercy House came up and said When it started raining someone wondered if y'all were coming. I knew you would. Y'all always do.
BAILEY / SAM / TWIG / TERESA / ANN / BRIEN / JADE / JASON / BLAKE / KELLY / WAYNE / ELLYN / ELAINE / TYLER / PEYSON / CLAY / PAYTON / MO-GAN / CREEEECH! / ALEXANDRA / ALEXIS / JAMIE / DEE / and KILLER /
put a lot of effort and love into tonight's meal and serving it to our friends.
SALAD
BREADSTICKS
CHOCOLATE or LEMON CAKE
SWEET TEA/WATER
Most kids that come on Tuesday are fairly clueless about cooking and a kitchen in general. There's all kinds of things you could talk about in terms of culture and society about why that is, but that's not important here. The fact is we do a lot of teaching on Tuesday about cooking and things they can use later, which is cool.
Tonight it was making Lasagna. All of them had eaten or seen one, but tonight thay saw how to assemble and cook one from scratch. Nice.
The best meals are the ones with lots of "hands on time" for the kids.
We ate inside again tonight because it was so cold. It had rained earlier but dried up pretty well by 7. We've eaten inside more this winter than in ones past. The combination of cold and rain and the fact that it was the first of the month made for a fairly light turnout at the first stop - probably 20-25 in all.
I was outside bringing people in until about 8:10. No rain at any time, just cold, biting wind. Twig and I talked and decided we'd serve like regular at the 2nd stop since it wasn't wet, just cold. We started out to load up the truck about 8:40 and it was raining like crazy! No way we could set up in the parking lot at the Mercy House and serve!
So we set up 2 tables in the hall and started putting together the meal in to-go plates. We assembled 60 and loaded them up in about 15 minutes. Not bad at all. They did a great job putting them together. We took a skeleton crew over to the Mercy House and the others stayed behind to clean up after the to-go plate whirlwind.
When we got to the Mercy House, they were outside already and huddled under their little porch. They made some room for us and we put a table at one end and backed the van up to it and lifted the back door and passed out plates from there to the table we had set the drinks on. That left most of the room for them to stand and eat. It rained the whole time we were there, so space was tight.
Coolest thing about the night? One of the guys at Mercy House came up and said When it started raining someone wondered if y'all were coming. I knew you would. Y'all always do.
BAILEY / SAM / TWIG / TERESA / ANN / BRIEN / JADE / JASON / BLAKE / KELLY / WAYNE / ELLYN / ELAINE / TYLER / PEYSON / CLAY / PAYTON / MO-GAN / CREEEECH! / ALEXANDRA / ALEXIS / JAMIE / DEE / and KILLER /
put a lot of effort and love into tonight's meal and serving it to our friends.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
....doesn't seem like a bad idea at all.
So..... What did you do last night?
There was a spaghetti dinner at church Sunday night, and the unused noodles and sauce fell to us, for which we are extremely grateful. Freezer space at the A.C. is tight this time of year so Tyler, J.Boggs and I went to the A.C. last night and took it downtown to the kitchen at the church so we could use it tonight.
During the day I was thinking about the fact that we had spaghetti two weeks ago. We try not to repeat meals too often, but the reality I come back to is this: to me, two weeks ago is just "two meals ago", while to our friends it's 14 days with lots of other things in-between.
But.....nonetheless, I was thinking of other things we could do with the noodles and sauce. I didn't think of anything new, but I did make a list of things we could incorporate them into. So when I called J.Boggs and Tyler to help carry it downtown, I also floated the prospect of some food experimentation. Who could resist experimenting in the kitchen with nothing to lose and projects you can eat? Not Tyler and J.Boggs, anyway.
After loading it up and taking off, we stopped at the store for some supplies, then went downtown.
First Experiment
Grilled Cheese/Spaghetti Sandwich (Griddle)
Nothing fancy. Butter the bread, slice of cheese,nice spoonful of spagetti and grill it. Tyler left it on long enough for the bread to get good and brown on both sides. We made two the first time. We could tell they were going to be awesome when we cut them in half. They were pretty darn good! We looked at each other kind of surprised at the fact we made something that good. Warm and gooey with cheese and buttered bread....the only thing we missed was garlic and then it would've been an Italian meal on a sandwich.
Grade- Solid "A". Home run first time up.
Second Experiment
Grilled Cheese/Spaghetti Sandwich (In the oven)
Heated the ovens and assembled the sandwiches. 6 minutes on each side. I had more love for it this way than the other 2 guys did. They liked it but liked the stovetop method better. I was a little closer to putting them as equal in my taste for them. The oven method does have one drawback. The middle of the sandwich is softer and doesn't hold the spaghetti as well as the stovetop method, which makes it a little messier. While I don't hold that against the sandwich, it is a consideration when deciding if we would use that method to fix them on Tuesday nights, which was the purpose of the experimenting.
Grade- "B+"(that's an A- from me and B's from the other 2) Good eating. This method gives you an outer crust on the bread. mmmmmm
Third Experiment
Spaghetti Cheeseburger
Easy enough. Tyler grilled the burgers, we put a slice of cheese on them and topped with spaghetti. Put the buns facedown on the grill for about 20 seconds.
I put A-1, Texas Pete, and a little mustard on mine. J.Boggs and Tyler went A-1 and Old Bay. The grilled cheeses had gotten us pretty excited so we were ready for this. We did 1-2-3 "Bite" and started moaning. It was soooo good. I know I say that about a lot of things but this was. The A-1 was a great call.
Grade- "A+ " Hands down the best thing we did all night.
However, it wasn't all dancing bears and lollipops. Experiments 4 (Fried spaghetti) and 5 (Noodle Pancakes) were not successful on any level and best left undescribed.
So our thinking is, Grilled Cheese/spaghetti sandwiches and Spaghetti Cheeseburgers are valid options for meals on Tuesday nights (especially Spag. CB's). The plan is to make about 10 GC/S sandwiches tonight and take them out as testers to our friends and see what they think. After all, it's what they like that matters.
If we served based on what I liked, we'd be rolling out Peanut Butter, Banana, and Cheese sandwiches and Chocolate Milkshakes every week...... which, now that I see it written down......
There was a spaghetti dinner at church Sunday night, and the unused noodles and sauce fell to us, for which we are extremely grateful. Freezer space at the A.C. is tight this time of year so Tyler, J.Boggs and I went to the A.C. last night and took it downtown to the kitchen at the church so we could use it tonight.
During the day I was thinking about the fact that we had spaghetti two weeks ago. We try not to repeat meals too often, but the reality I come back to is this: to me, two weeks ago is just "two meals ago", while to our friends it's 14 days with lots of other things in-between.
But.....nonetheless, I was thinking of other things we could do with the noodles and sauce. I didn't think of anything new, but I did make a list of things we could incorporate them into. So when I called J.Boggs and Tyler to help carry it downtown, I also floated the prospect of some food experimentation. Who could resist experimenting in the kitchen with nothing to lose and projects you can eat? Not Tyler and J.Boggs, anyway.
After loading it up and taking off, we stopped at the store for some supplies, then went downtown.
First Experiment
Grilled Cheese/Spaghetti Sandwich (Griddle)
Nothing fancy. Butter the bread, slice of cheese,nice spoonful of spagetti and grill it. Tyler left it on long enough for the bread to get good and brown on both sides. We made two the first time. We could tell they were going to be awesome when we cut them in half. They were pretty darn good! We looked at each other kind of surprised at the fact we made something that good. Warm and gooey with cheese and buttered bread....the only thing we missed was garlic and then it would've been an Italian meal on a sandwich.
Grade- Solid "A". Home run first time up.
Second Experiment
Grilled Cheese/Spaghetti Sandwich (In the oven)
Heated the ovens and assembled the sandwiches. 6 minutes on each side. I had more love for it this way than the other 2 guys did. They liked it but liked the stovetop method better. I was a little closer to putting them as equal in my taste for them. The oven method does have one drawback. The middle of the sandwich is softer and doesn't hold the spaghetti as well as the stovetop method, which makes it a little messier. While I don't hold that against the sandwich, it is a consideration when deciding if we would use that method to fix them on Tuesday nights, which was the purpose of the experimenting.
Grade- "B+"(that's an A- from me and B's from the other 2) Good eating. This method gives you an outer crust on the bread. mmmmmm
Third Experiment
Spaghetti Cheeseburger
Easy enough. Tyler grilled the burgers, we put a slice of cheese on them and topped with spaghetti. Put the buns facedown on the grill for about 20 seconds.
I put A-1, Texas Pete, and a little mustard on mine. J.Boggs and Tyler went A-1 and Old Bay. The grilled cheeses had gotten us pretty excited so we were ready for this. We did 1-2-3 "Bite" and started moaning. It was soooo good. I know I say that about a lot of things but this was. The A-1 was a great call.
Grade- "A+ " Hands down the best thing we did all night.
However, it wasn't all dancing bears and lollipops. Experiments 4 (Fried spaghetti) and 5 (Noodle Pancakes) were not successful on any level and best left undescribed.
So our thinking is, Grilled Cheese/spaghetti sandwiches and Spaghetti Cheeseburgers are valid options for meals on Tuesday nights (especially Spag. CB's). The plan is to make about 10 GC/S sandwiches tonight and take them out as testers to our friends and see what they think. After all, it's what they like that matters.
If we served based on what I liked, we'd be rolling out Peanut Butter, Banana, and Cheese sandwiches and Chocolate Milkshakes every week...... which, now that I see it written down......
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