Tortellini For Everyone

Guests at today's Wednesday Community Meal enjoyed lots of pasta thanks to a donation of 12 cases of Buitoni Tortellini.

We cooked seven of the cases today and had plenty for everyone and even some leftover that we packaged up for our guests to take with them. One guest hollered out to me when he saw me in the dining room, "Hey Heidi, thanks for lunch and dinner!" I'm just glad that nothing went to waste. We froze the remaining five cases of tortellini and will utilize them in a future meal.

After boiling all of the pasta (Thank you Sam for taking on the tough task!), we tossed it in a homemade sauce filled with tomatoes, ground beef, sauteed onion, zucchini, artichokes, garlic and herbs. It turned out delicious and we received many nice compliments from our guests. Alongside the pasta we served garlic toast, roasted vegetables and melon. The bread for the toast was donated by Grand Central Bakery, the vegetables came from the Oregon Food Bank and the melon was gleaned from the recently opened New Seasons Market in NW Portland. 

It's always a surprise discovering what ingredients we have to work with and I'm grateful for the work of our gleaners and the donations we receive which help offset the cost of feeding hundreds each week.

Trinity Episcopal Cathedral has been so supportive and purchases any additional ingredients and supplies that we need to pull the meal together. It takes a lot of planning and work but everything always comes together thanks to our dedicated volunteers. We served 384 meals today.

Down To The Wire

It took some real frantic scrambling to be ready to serve promptly at 11 a.m. today when the doors of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral were opened for guests of the Wednesday Community Meal.

Mixing the pork, rice, tomatoes, sauce and cilantro for a pan of enchiladas. We layered this mixture along with shredded cheese and flour tortillas in hotel pans and baked them until bubbly.  This method of basically making an "enchilada lasagna" works really well when feeding a crowd.

Today's meal of pork enchiladas was a real hit with our guests but boy were they labor intensive. And, they were designed on the fly this morning while trying to utilize the ingredients we had on hand — rice, onions, tortillas, tomato sauce and cheese. 

To make them also required a major shopping trip to Cash 'n' Carry for pork and additional ingredients like cilantro, fresh tomatoes and extra cheese. Volunteer Dave as usual saved the day by running to the store for the necessary ingredients while we worked hard to get organized to make 10 hotel pans of enchiladas.

At 9:30 a.m, the pork was still cooking and I knew that we were facing crunch time. We had to get at least four pans in the oven by 10 a.m.

All of the volunteers were so great and worked well under the pressure — Tomatoes, onions and cilantro were being chopped, pork was being shredded and enchilada sauce was being mixed. The kitchen was chaotic but we all endured, knowing we were making a delicious dish that would please our guests.

By 11 a.m., I was still making pans of enchiladas but we had enough out of the oven to start the meal. It was down to the wire,  but we did it!

We were very busy today and served 366 meals. There was a long line to get inside up until the last 20 minutes of our two hour service. But most importantly, our guests loved the food.

Valentine Sweet Sale

These mini Valentine cookies will be for sale!

It's time again for the Valentine Sweet Sale to benefit Trinity Episcopal Cathedral's Food Ministries which supports The Wednesday Community Meal. The annual sale is one of Food Ministries' largest fundraisers but last year's sale sadly had to be cancelled because of icy winter weather. We're hoping to make up for it this year and sell out.

I've been busy making cookies and my friends and cohorts Cheryl and Dave Richardson have been busy making Belgian chocolate truffles. All of the sweets will be beautifully packaged and ready to give to your loved ones.

Here are the details:

Valentine Sweet Sale to Benefit Food Ministries
Sunday February 8, 9 a.m. to noon in Kempton Hall at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (147 NW 19th Avenue, Portland, Oregon). Buy Belgian chocolate truffles and cookies for all your loved ones and at the same time support Trinity’s Food Ministries. The sweets are handmade by chocolatiers and bakers from The Wednesday Community Meal and will be beautifully packaged and ready to give.

Trinity Christmas Treats 2014

A box of this year's Trinity Christmas Treats. Each box contains 45 treats.

After weeks and weeks of planning, preparation and work, this year's Trinity Christmas Treats are finally packed and ready to be delivered. The annual fundraiser is a project that takes a tremendous amount of energy but it's for a very good cause. All proceeds go to Trinity Episcopal Cathedral's Food Ministries which supports The Wednesday Community Meal.

I owe so much to all the wonderful volunteers who helped this year. Together we filled 100 boxes—That's 4,500 treats! Thank you Cheryl, Dave, Cindy, Mary, Terri, Martha, Leah, Nancy, Tom, Anne, Tiffany, Linda, and Madeline! I am grateful for your hard work, support and friendship.

Here are some pics from our busy week:

One of my first jobs was tackling the gingerbread snowflakes that grace the outside of the box.

After outline and flooding the cookies, I added piped details to every cookie.

After the royal icing dried, I packaged each snowflake in a cellophane bag.

Stacks of peppermint bark ready to be packaged.

I put my new baker's rack to good use cooling trays Dark Chocolate Espresso Almond Sea Salt Bark.

The delicious dark chocolate bark ready to be packaged.

Then it was time to make Russian Tea Cakes. Cheryl, Terri and Mary also helped by making doughs ahead of time so that we could spend one day in the church kitchen just focusing on the baking.

The baking team.

Finished cookies counted and placed in cupcake papers for the boxes.

Walnut Logs cooling after being dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with chopped walnuts.

Chocolate shortbread drizzled with white chocolate and sprinkled with crushed candy canes.

Martha and Cindy filling the boxes.

Madeline and Mary working together to add ruglach to the boxes.

The bottom layer clockwise from top left: Cranberry Chews, Maple Cinnamon Chip Cookies, Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread, Vanilla Shortbread, Ruglach, Ginger Molasses Cookies, Linzer Cookies and Russian Tea Cakes.

The top layer clockwise from top left: Peppermint Bark, Ginger Molasses Cookies, Brownie Biscotti, Walnut Logs, Cranberry Chews, Ruglach and Dark Chocolate Espresso Almond Sea Salt Bark.

Summer Crew

High school students Ava and Sierra helped serve dessert today.

The start of summer is still a few days away but at the Wednesday Community Meal it has officially begun because school's out and our wonderful crew of student volunteers came in today to help, marking the first week of their summer vacation.

We haven't had the help of our student volunteers since Spring Break and it's crazy how fast they are  growing up. They are getting sooo tall!

Sierra started volunteering when she was in the fourth grade, a year before we began offering a sit-down meal and when there was just a small group of us making to-go meals to hand out at the door. It's hard to believe she is now a 10th grader and still a dedicated volunteer who helps whenever she has a break from school.

We served 332 meals today and had a lot of fun catching up with our student volunteers. I know I've said it before but I am so thankful to be able to work with the nicest people every Wednesday. Being with them makes hard work fun.

Thank you Sierra, Ava, Micah, Nicholas and Eleanor for all your help today. It's officially summer at the Wednesday Community Meal!

A to-go meal of turkey, rice, beans and roasted tomatoes for a guest to take home to a sick family member. We served 332 meals today and received this flattering comment from a guest, "I'm going to give this place a good write up! I'm a very influential food critic."

A scene from today's busy kitchen before we began serving. By the time the meal was over, the kitchen cleaned and the dishes washed and put away, there were quite a few volunteers who had put in a solid six hours of work.

Here I am today with two people I look forward to seeing each week - server Frank and guest Louise who is such a kick and fun to visit with.  I loved the shirt she wore today and had to have my daughter Eleanor take a picture.

Valentine Sale Cancelled

Scalloped Heart Cookies

I am sorry to announce that the upcoming Valentine Treat sale to benefit Trinity Episcopal Cathedral's Food Ministries has been cancelled due to bad weather.

Yesterday afternoon a snowstorm hit Portland, Oregon causing a complete collapse of the transit system and a total shutdown of the city, including schools and many businesses. 

The view from my porch this morning.

Yesterday was also the day we were scheduled to make the hand-dipped chocolate truffles for the Sunday Feb. 9th sale.

With the weather forecast not looking good into the weekend, it was decided that it would be best to officially cancel the sale earlier rather than later. We can't have a sale if there are no truffles or customers.

More importantly though, I'm thinking of how cold our homeless Wednesday Community Meal guests must be in this weather. Please keep them in your prayers.