Winging It

Jeff, serving the very popular rosemary and lemon roasted chicken.

The hardest part of planning and serving the Wednesday Community Meal at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral is that you don't know how many guests you'll have.

The meal is free and everyone is welcome. Our guest range has been anywhere from 180 to 340, so preparing the right amount is always a challenge.

We want to prepare enough food to fully satisfy everyone but we also don't want to waste any food. Wednesday after Wednesday, it just seems to work out.

Our secret to success?  — work hard, be creative, stay positive and really just wing it.

We served 268 meals today and at the end of the day had nothing leftover to refrigerate or freeze.

Our menu today was rosemary and lemon roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, roasted tomatoes, soup, salad and dessert.

The chicken was especially popular thanks to our volunteer Jeff who on the fly created a lemon and rosemary marinade and patiently basted both sides of each and every piece.  One guest came to the kitchen window to tell us it was the best meal he'd had in months.


I hope we can treat him to another great meal next week.

Roasted tomatoes with herbs and Parmesan cheese.

Salad with watermelon and grapes.