...but I doubt it.

All right, let's do this before I forget:


EMILY / JULIEANNE / LONDON / PAUL / SOPHIE / DANIEL / ROBERT / JACOB / BRIE / MARY BETH / MERRITT / MADELYNE / PEYSON / HAMPTON / MITCH / BRIEN / DAVE / JENNA / ALAINA / MGAN / ASH / ANNA / CONNOR / KYLE / MEREDITH / MARK / ELAINE / SAVANNAH / ASHLEY / BAILEY / SAM / CHRISTIAN / EBY / TYLER / LANE / LIZ / MORGZILLA / RYAN / CHARLES / CHUCK /JONATHAN / LAUREN / LINDSAY / KILLER / JOHANNA /....make a total of 45 people serving others last night without expecting anything in return.


Looking back, tonight was B_A_N_A_N_A_S !


46 people total and 37 of them were there in the kitchen by 6:30. Twig was still out of town so I was very glad Mitch, Dave, and Brien were there to help me when I was already in 3 places at one time and needed to be in a 4th and 5th. 
Tonight's meal was stovetop-centric. At the start, all 6 burners were being used with 2 more things still needing to be done when room opened up. Big pot of water for pasta (2 burners), sauce, green beans, water for corn on the cob, water for tea, and a burner for asparagus.


There's a word you're seeing for the first time on this blog.  Asparagus?"shudder"
I've never eaten it and for several reasons:
1. Mom didn't cook it. She was straight off the farm and they didn't grow asparagus on the one she grew up on. Beans, corn, tomatoes, squash, okra, potatoes,- That's what Cleo was all about. 
2. The smell
3. The texture. My theory: Feels like rubber before you cook it, probably gonna taste like it after you cook it. 
4. You steam it to cook it. The only thing I want to eat steamed? A hot dog bun.


BUT.......somebody gave us a large amount of Asparagus yesterday. Didn't want to waste it, so about 6:30 I stopped everything and asked if anyone knew how to cook asparagus. I got 4 or 5 muttered responses that didn't inspire confidence in me and then MARYBETH came to the rescue. She said I'll call my mom and see how she does it. A couple of minutes later she came back and said I got it. So I let her take it and run with it. She and a partner got the sauce pan and went to work! 30 minutes later we had a huge pan of asparagus. Good job!*


And then, as if the sheer number of people wasn't enough to deal with, we had door prizes!
I had several bags of gummy bears, 5 leather jackets (LEATHER JACKETS? Yep.) and 3 camp chairs. Not enough for everyone, but I needed to get them in the hands of someone, so we drew #'s out of a bowl and left it to God to put everything in the hands of the ones who could use it.


The coloring on the names tonight is easy. Kids from New Hanover are in black and orange, and college kids are written in white on a blue background. 


Regular readers know ELAINE is the our SWEET TEA maker. She nails it every week. The only thing I do is taste it when she's done. Tonight, she had to wait for space on the stove and we got to a point where a critical decision had to be made. Would the tea be made in time for the first stop or should we throw some instant cold water mix like lemonade in the cooler for the first stop and use the brewed tea for the second?
I showed ELAINE what we had and what we could do and let her make the call. She thought about it and said Let's just do what we're doing. I think it'll be done in time. I said OK. I went back to what was going on and eventually went up top to get things set up. We said grace and the tea still had not come out. I told the kids to tell everybody when they came by that we would bring them their drinks when they came out. As the first person in line got near, they brought the tea out and had cups ready to go before the first person got to them. Way to come through in the clutch, ELAINE!


Penne Pasta with Italian Sausage
Corn on the cob
Green Beans
Asparagus
Carrots and Cucumbers w/Ranch
Dessert
Sweet Tea / Water


MaryBeth was quick to remind me that when she won "Prettiest Christmas Sweater" at the FCA Christmas party, I failed to include it in the announcements at School the next day. So.....
" MaryBeth Sullivan won the "Prettiest Christmas sweater " contest last December at the FCA Christmas Party. Tyler Antonelli won the "Ugliest Christmas Sweater" contest."
Hope that makes up for it.......

...taste sensation that's sweeping the nation.

Tonight was such a good night!
I know I say that a lot, but ....truth must be spoke!

MEGAN / MCKENZIE / EMILY / ELAINE /KILLER / JOHANNA / ELLYN / SAVANNAH / KATHLYNN / CONNOR / CLIFF / KYLE / TOM / ED / CHUCK / CHARLES / JERRY / WAYNE / JERRY / TJ / J.BOGGS / MARK / BLAKE / STEVE / ASHLEY / SCOTT /  .....had things in the kitchen running at full speed !

Twig has been out of town the past 3 weeks (more on that later) and as I have mentioned more than once in these posts, if I don't have to confirm or get anyone else involved in the pickup of food, I tend to make my decision on what we're cooking somewhere around 4:00 on Tuesday. So, when someone called me at 2:30 on Tuesday and said they were at Costco and did I need anything, I had to say  I don't know, because I haven't decided what the meal is yet.
We brainstormed over the phone, finally deciding they would check ground beef prices and call me back. They called back back 10 minutes later and said What about Italian sausage? It's cheaper than hamburger.
I said That works, but last week we fed over 100 people and it would take a lot to cover us this week.
They said No problem, let me help out and pick up the sausage and pay for it.
!!!!!!
Sooooo......

ITALIAN SAUSAGE SUBS with  PEPPERS AND ONIONS
HOMEMADE MAC'n CHEESE
OVEN FRIES
DESSERT
SWEET TEA / WATER

I didn't have time to get the pig cooker out and throw them on that so we put some on the griddle in the kitchen and put the rest in the oven and when they were done we pulled them out and threw them on the griddle to brown them up a little. Delicioso!

We used sub rolls but that's almost too much bread for a lot of our friends so next time I'll probably just use hot dog buns or no buns at all.

Twig has been in Florida the past couple of weeks. He was already heading to see an ailing grandmother when his aunt, who was visiting the grandmother in the hospital, had a brain aneurysm.  She was on life support for a while and now is in Hospice and Twig is still down there. Keep him and the family in your prayers.

BEST IDEA I'VE HAD IN A WEEK WHERE I'VE HAD A LOT OF THEM:
You know the big Pilsbury brownie you can buy at Sam's? The one that you can cut into 42 pieces?
I had one of those in the freezer. I saw it in there and then walked into my pantry and guess what I saw?
A can of chocolate icing.
BOOM goes the dynamite !
Chocolate Iced Brownies.
It's the .......

......Gift certificate to came eat with us free any Tuesday he wants!

SHAUN / LONDON / CHUCK / CHARLES / DAVE / BLAKE / STEVE / DON / TYLER / CONNOR / DENNIS / MARK / BRIEN / KATHLYNN / ALAINA / JENNA / LANE /

Some things you just can't explain

•  Didn't have a single middle school, high school, or college age girl helping last night and only 4 total. Alaina and Yenna are young girls who come with their dad, and Brien and Kathlynn are grown women.
• The first Tuesday of a month is usually a smaller crowd to come eat, mainly because some of our crowd get gov't checks and they get off the street for a little while. This means we might not see them during the first week of the month. Tonight however, we had at least 55 at the first stop. Go figure.

PORCUPINE MEATBALLS
BAKED ZITI
ORZO
PASTA SALAD
VEGGIE TRAY
FRUIT TRAY
CRAB DIP
DESSERT
FREEZE POPS
SWEET TEA / WATER

We also made lunch bags to go with CHICKEN SALAD SANDWICHES , chips and sweets.

What's a PORCUPINE MEATBALL? Well, you take 20 pounds of porcupine meat, add some rice.........
My bad. Couldn't help it.
It's hamburger, rice, a little onion, salt, pepper, and some water mixed up and rolled into 1 1/2 inch balls. Put them in a pan with a tomato sauce mixture that almost covers them, cook them covered at 350 for 45 minutes, then uncovered for 20.
My mom used to make them and it was one of my favorites. I think I've had them once in the last 30 years. My sister made them for me a couple of years ago, which I greatly appreciate. I figured even if i messed it up, it would still be decent, so I rolled the dice and we cooked them. Turned out very nice. We wound up running out at the end of the 2nd stop and started dishing out the BAKED ZITI. Made somewhere in the neighborhood of 280 meatballs.

Did a little detective work and discovered who the 10,000th visitor to the blog was. It was a Mr. Harold DeBoever of Hickory NC.        (Writing it like that was purely for my benefit, because it makes me laugh. He's my college roommate, we talk on the phone 2 or three times a week and he goes by "Butch". NOBODY calls him Harold.)
He called me last night and wanted to know what he'd won. I'm thinking about sending him a ........