Lots Of Entrees

Dining room volunteers Diana and Mary Ann with the very first meal of the day: Turkey Breast, Stuffing, Freekeh, Green Beans and Cranberry Sauce.

It was a busy day at the Wednesday Community Meal. We served 293 meals and had to change our entree nine different times to utilize the ingredients we had but most importantly everyone who came to our door received a nutritious and well-rounded meal.

Please excuse my poor handwriting. Here is the list of entrees we served today, crossed out once they were gone.

The first few guests in the door got sliced turkey breast with stuffing, freekeh, green beans and cranberry sauce and then we had to change our main dish to chicken strips, chicken breasts, beef and broccoli over rice, sweet and sour chicken, salmon, ground beef and gravy over rice and finally pizza.

The pizza was donated by Pizza Schmizza and is always very popular with our guests. The restaurant generously donates pizza to us each week and slices that aren't served at the Wednesday meal are handed out the next day to guests who come to Trinity Episcopal Cathedral for food bags. 

The third entree we served today was chicken breasts over rice with green beans and pineapple. Diana graciously posed for a quick picture. The dining room was hopping today and kept our servers very busy.

A meal of sweet and sour chicken, brown rice and green beans.

Pizza from Pizza Schmizza

In addition to the entrees,  guests got hot soup, salad and dessert. The latter was homemade vanilla pudding and blueberry cobbler. Needless to say, our guests were very happy.

Today's salad were garnished with 1/2 a mini pizza made by volunteers Cindy, Nancy and John. It was a delicious way to utilize a donation of pepperoni, flat bread and English muffins from Good Samaritan Hospital.

Cheryl testing the homemade vanilla pudding. The decision to make pudding came about because I had 24 egg yolks left over from making French macarons and didn't want them to go to waste. Cheryl and I found an easy pudding recipe and came in extra early today to make it, knowing that it would need a couple hours to cool. Volunteer John also helped by measuring ingredients and constantly stirring the pudding while it cooked. It feels so good to stop food from going to waste. And, it feels extra good to create something delicious from it.

Homemade Blueberry Crisp made with blueberries from The Oregon Food Bank that Cheryl sweetened and topped with biscuits from Good Samaritan Hospital. As an extra touch, she sprinkled the biscuits with a bit of cinnamon sugar, added a few pats of butter and baked the cobbler until it was golden and bubbly. Soooo goooood!

And last but not least, I have to give a special shout to our wonderful dedicated dishwashers who come in each week and work harder than anyone. I snapped this picture mid-service when they all had their noses to the grindstone. From left to right is Jay, Bill, Steve and Dave. Not pictured is Kevin who runs to and from the dining room busing the dirty dishes. They simply are the best!