A Hearty Meal

We served 237 meals today at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral's Wednesday Community Meal and even had some extra food that we packaged up for our guests to take with them.

When I asked one guest if he wanted extra food to go he said, "I'm feeling nice and full but I would like to have extra for later." It was a hearty meal today and I'm not surprised it left guests satisfied.

Here's what we served:

Hot soup garnished with bread and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. The soup was donated to us by Good Samaritan Hospital.

Green salad with apples, grapes, nuts and dried fruit. The apples and grapes came from The Oregon Food Bank.

Chicken, rice pilaf, roasted vegetables and cheddar biscuits. The chicken and rice came from Good Samaritan Hospital. The biscuit mix came from The Oregon Food Bank. Trinity Episcopal Cathedral purchased the cheese that we added to the biscuits. We decided to add the cheese because we didn't have any butter to serve with them. The vegetables came from Food Front Cooperative Grocery in Hillsdale and The Oregon Food Bank.

Strawberry shortcake. Trinity Episcopal Cathedral provided the ingredients to make the homemade dessert.

A Variety Of Dishes

Many different dishes were served today at the Wednesday Community Meal at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral and they were all well-received by our guests.

We rely on gleaned food to help us stay within budget and that means we don't have much control over what we get. We are just thankful to have ingredients to use and always try our best to put them together in a way that is tasty and appealing.

Here are a few of the 257 meals that we served today:

Stuffed chicken with gravy, rice, asparagus, foccacia and strawberries.

Barbecue ribs, rice, asparagus, strawberries and garlic toast.

Mexican chicken over Spanish rice, foccacia and strawberries.

Pasta with sausage and onions, foccacia and strawberries.

 The first dish that went out was the pasta. We made eight hotel pans of it and within 40 minutes it was gone and time to move onto the next item. Rapidly changing what we serve keeps us on our toes and keeps things interesting. We have a wonderful volunteer team and we work well together.

Adding the sausage and sauce to hotel pans before adding the pasta.

There would be no community meal without our dishwashers Bill, Brad, Dave, Steve and Jay (not pictured). With good spirits and a sense of humor they work pretty much nonstop. They are simply the best.

Braised Chicken

Braised chicken, rice pilaf and a roasted tomato. We served 240 meals today.

Usually when there is chicken to cook and serve at the Wednesday Community Meal, we go the universally loved crispy route - oven-baked with a crumb coating.

Today, inspired by already sliced mushrooms, containers of minced onion, celery and carrots (donated by Trader Joe's) and a can of Knorr brand white sauce, we decided to braise the chicken.

We seasoned the chicken well with fresh rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper and cooked it in a hotel pan in a 350 degree convection oven for 15 to 20 minutes until the skin began to brown. We then pulled the chicken out of the oven and gave it a few ladles of the creamy white sauce that was flecked with the vegetables.

The chicken after being coated with white sauce. It then went back into the oven to cook uncovered for 15 minutes. Then, covered with foil and cooked until done.

We put the chicken back into the oven for another 15 minutes to darken the sauce and then pulled it out of the oven once again and covered the pan with foil. The pans then went back into the oven until the chicken reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees.

The result was moist and flavorful chicken that was falling off the bone. My friend and fellow volunteer Jeff said it looked like it came from Martha Stewart.  It did look pretty great - delicious and comforting.

The guests gave us lots of compliments on the chicken which always makes us happy. No one wants to eat the same thing over and over again and we want our guests to feel satisfied.
 

Spring Break Volunteers

It's Spring Break week for Portland area schools so we had extra help from some young volunteers today at the Wednesday Community Meal.

The youthful energy was infectious and much needed today since it was the last Wednesday of the month and boy were we busy. We served 372 meals and had a constant line of guests waiting to get into the dining room during the first hour of service.

Our meal changed numerous times throughout the service because we had a little of this and that but not a lot of a single ingredient. We started with chicken, baked potatoes and roasted carrots and then moved on to pulled pork, fish, shepherd's pie, pizza, beef fajitas and ravioli.  We also offered soup, salad and dessert.

Olivia adding a scoop of sour cream to the baked potatoes.

I love seeing the spirit of volunteering and caring for others alive and well amongst the young - it's a joy to witness.

Sierra and Ava peeling carrots. In the back is Zane scrubbing potatoes and Eleanor chopping carrots.

Zane is a longtime and dedicated volunteer and comes to help whenever he is out of school.

Half-Pound Burgers On Homemade Buns

We served the burgers open faced with the condiments on the side so that guest could assemble them as they desired. We also served a side of chips or roasted potatoes.

I don't think I've seen bigger or better burgers than the ones we served today at the Wednesday Community Meal - a half-pound burger on a homemade bun and topped with cheese, pickles, onion and tomato.

It was so much fun treating our guests today and boy were we busy. We served 354 meals.

Pat, one of our servers said there were lots of happy guests in the dining room. "They just see the burger on the plate and they smile," she said.

When one of the guests was leaving I said "I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you come back."

"Oh man," he said,  "That was a great burger and the bun took it to the next level."

Besides enhancing the meal, the homemade buns helped us utilize the flour that we get from The Oregon Food Bank. Making the buns instead of buying them saved us lots of money.

I began making the buns just after 8 a.m. this morning using my favorite French bread recipe and multiplying it by 24. By 10:30 a.m. we were pulling trays of just-baked buns out of the oven.

Rising dough.

Fresh out of the oven hamburger buns.

There were so many volunteers who were needed to help pull the meal together in the kitchen. Thank you Cheryl, Cindy, Bill, Jay, Steve, Dave, Mary, Leah, Martha, Anne, Kate, Linda, Jeff, Gwen, Ann and Linda B. - you are wonderful!

Super volunteer Anne even smiled as she plated the burgers.

The kitchen was hopping today - we served 354 meals.

Jeff (left) cooked and assembled all the burgers, Gwen managed the ovens added cheese to the burgers and Linda (in back) sliced all the buns.

Here is  the French Bread recipe that I love:

French Bread
(makes 4 loaves)
2 packages yeast
2/3 cup tepid water
1/2 teaspoon sugar
7 cups bread flour (additional may be needed)
2 tablespoons rye or whole wheat flour
4 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups cold water
(cornmeal for sprinkling on sheet pan or parchment paper)

Combine yeast, sugar and tepid water. Let set for 5 minutes.
Combine the remaining ingredients then add yeast mixture. Knead.

Let rise 40 to 60 minutes in a clean, dry bowl. Then deflate and punch into a 14-inch rectangle and fold into thirds.

Return dough to bowl and let rise 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Make loaves and let rise another  1 1/2 hours.

Place loaves on baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal or lined with parchment paper, slash and place in a preheated 450 degree oven tossed with 1/4 cup of water. Bake 20 minutes and then bake an additional 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Sold Out!

Sale Snapshot: We sold boxes of hand-dipped Belgian chocolate truffles, French macarons, decorated sugar cookies and handmade Valentine cards.

Thank you to everyone who shopped at the Valentine Treat sale yesterday at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.

Because of you, we sold every single treat and raised money that will be used to support the Wednesday Community Meal. It was the perfect ending to a busy week of baking and chocolate making.

Volunteers spent a few hours the day before the sale packaging the Belgian chocolate truffles. The flavors were dark chocolate, milk chocolate and raspberry dark chocolate.

Just a few boxes to sell!

A package of cherry macarons.

A package of chocolate hazelnut macarons (the recipe will be on the blog soon).

Thankful

Adding a few spoonfuls of drippings to a roast beef sandwich that is ready to go into a hot oven. The beautiful roast was donated to us by Phil's Meat Market.

We were unexpectedly busy today at the Wednesday Community Meal.

With it being the first of the month when our numbers are typically lower, we were thinking we would serve around 275 meals today — But boy were we wrong.

We served 354 meals and at the end of the day I am so thankful that we didn't have to turn anyone away.

There was just enough for everyone in large part due to the generosity of Phil's Meat Market and Good Samaritan Hospital who donate wonderful food to us each week and help us keep our pantry stocked.

From Good Samaritan today we had soup, rice, pasta, enchiladas, sweet and sour chicken and barbecue ribs. And from Phil's Meat Market we had roasted turkey, chicken breasts, ground beef, chili mac and a beautiful beef roast.

With the latter, we sliced it thin and made hot roast beef and cheese sandwiches which were the hit of the day.

All of the food was delicious and enjoyed by our hungry guests. I am so thankful for our generous donors.

Thanks to Good Samaritan Hospital, we were able to serve steaming hot bowls of hearty soup. The hospital donates wonderful food to us each week.

A Little Extra

Oven roasted chicken, rice and salad ready to be served in the dining room.

Today we served 253 meals of roasted chicken, rice, salad, soup and dessert at the Wednesday Community Meal.

And, we had a little extra food that we were able to wrap up and distribute to our guests as they were leaving.
 

The extra food was appreciated by our guests, many who are living outside and struggling to keep warm. In the to-go meals were rice and vegetables and chicken or salmon.

A chicken to-go meal ready to be wrapped.

Another chicken to-go meal but with crispy wings and legs.

Sending out the extra food means we need to use some packaging supplies and work a little harder but it's worth it because it's a treat for our guests and we're preventing good food from going to waste.

Volunteers Kate, Linda, Gwen and Jeff working hard in the kitchen.

A Sweet New Year

We served 251 meals today at the Wednesday Community Meal and lots of wonderful desserts thanks to the generosity of local bakery Baker & Spice (6330 Southwest Capitol Highway, Portland, OR 97239).

There were so many treats to choose from that we decided to cut them in half so our guests could have a taste of more than one. It was a very sweet way to start the New Year at the Wednesday Meal.

Here's a list of the desserts from Baker & Spice that we served today. How could you choose just one?!

Cheesecake with Candied Cranberries

Bright Lemon Tarts with White Chocolate

Apple Hand Pie

Pear Raspberry Pie

Apple Blackberry Lattice Pie (made with juicy with berries from West Union Garden)

Devil's Food Cupcakes with Pretty Pink Raspberry Buttercream

Butterscotch Cream Mini Pies (butterscotch pastry cream topped with whipped cream and  toasted hazelnuts)

Gingerbread Bundt Cake

Fruit Danish (a spiral of pastry crowned with a base of cream cheese filling and topped with ruby red cranberry-raspberry filling)

Cranberry Crumble Cake

Crumb Coffee Cake

Gourmet Treats

At the Wednesday Community Meal today we enjoyed surprising our guests with some real gourmet treats - smoked salmon and smoked oyster chowder, just baked apple crisp, grass-fed Angus beef and a homemade lasagna inspired pasta dish. And, it was a busy day - we served 325 meals.

The smoked salmon and oyster chowder came courtesy of Fishpeople Seafood, a local company that has released a whole line of seafood entrees.

The company was so nice to donate to us and the chowder was a welcome change from our usual soup options.

The Fishpeople entrees which include Thai Coconut Lemongrass Tuna, Salmon in Chardonnay Dill Cream Sauce and Coconut Yellow Curry Tuna are available online and in local stores including New Seasons and Whole Foods.

A pouch of Smoked Salmon and Oyster Chowder.

The chowder in the warming pot.

A hearty serving topped with a few homemade croutons.

The apple crisp was made by our dessert expert Cheryl who amazingly assembled them and baked them in just over an hour. She is so well organized - she had the apples sliced and the topping mixed and ready to go when she entered the kitchen and voila, just out of the oven apple crisp which made the kitchen smell amazing.

Servings of just baked apple crisp.

The grass-fed Angus beef was donated to us by Trader Joe's. We sliced the thick steaks in half so more guests could have a taste. All the volunteers were excited about serving the steaks and were anxious to see the response.

Alongside the steak, we served a homemade pasta dish and garlic bread. Volunteer Steve who works the front table told me that he heard the guests raving about the food as they left. Yeah! Mission accomplished.

Our lasagna inspired pasta dish made with ground beef donated by Phil's Meat Market and whole milk cottage cheese from The Oregon Foodbank. And, a tender treat — a petite Angus steak.

Pie Day

Pear Raspberry Pie from Baker & Spice Bakery.

Beautiful whole pies ready for slicing.

Thanks to the generosity of Baker & Spice Bakery (6330 Southwest Capitol Highway, Portland, Oregon) our guests at the Wednesday Community Meal got an extra special treat for dessert today - fresh pear raspberry pie.

The independently owned bakery is so kind to donate to our program and the pie couldn't have been better. The filling was made with local pears and raspberries and the all butter crust was flaky and light. What a treat!

In addition to the pie, we served pigs 'n' a blanket. Instead of the usual crescent dough wrapping, we made a homemade cheesy focaccia dough which turned out great. The focaccia was so cheesy and delicious that no condiments were needed.

We also served bowls of steaming hot soup, a Waldorf inspired salad made with apples, celery and grapes and crispy roasted potatoes.

In the end we served 235 meals and made a lot of hungry people happy.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from the Wednesday Community Meal!


We had a lot of fun dressing up and serving our guests today.

Fred

Linda 

Rieko 

Cheryl

Lydia

We served 278 servings of super nachos today which the guests loved. We made the nachos to order and topped them with sour cream and a side of salsa.

Super nachos ready for the hot oven.

Volunteer Diane with two plates ready to be served.