Yes House Thanksgiving

I entrust the Yes House Thanksgiving outreach into God's Hands, and trust that He has used it for His Plans, even if we may not be able to see all the ways.

It was nice being able to spend Thanksgiving cooking with a couple of my friends from the class; and it was wonderful to see how the outreach was a whole class event, with people praying and making financial contributions, and also dropping by throughout the day to provide food for the pantry.

For Thanksgiving Dinner, we made:

• Roast Turkey (used BBQ sauce marinade with onion and garlic; roasted breast-side down in a bag the first half; flipped and then opened up the bag the last half) - turned out fairly moist and tasty
• Glazed Ham - sliced and dressed with pineapple and glaze - turned out okay (may be better to have left the thicker glaze; since the ham juices really diluted the glaze)
• Stuffing - one of the other ladies made this in the crock pot; it was good, but, utilized a lot of work and ingredients
• Sweet Potato Casserole - boiled, peeled, and mashed; then seasoned (used brown sugar instead of honey) - this is like a "staple" now; but what made it nicer was that the ladies arranged the marshmallows beautifully, which enhanced the presentation
• Mashed Potatoes - peeled, cubed, boiled, mashed, then mixed with milk and garlic.   It turned out really well, creamy and fluffy
• Green Beans - just simply pan fried with olive oil, onion, salt and pepper; for some reason, the green beans wouldn't soften, but was fine
• Corn - canned corn seasoned with butter, paprika, cayenne pepper, onion, garlic, salt, and pepper - this is a simple but tasty dish
• Gravy - used turkey drippings and added flour and corn starch - went well with the mashed potatoes
• Cranberry Sauce - boiled cranberries and added brown sugar - the brown sugar gave it a nice taste that wasn't there with honey
• Hawaiian Rolls, pumpkin, and apple pie

All the food turned out really well.  I hope that it was a blessing to those whom it was cooked for.  One of the things that was neat, was that I could see some of the kids wanting to spend time with us in the kitchen.   A couple of the older boys expressed their appreciation for the food and were fun to interact with.   Also, my mom was able to share with the nurses at the hospital that I would come pick her up after I finished, and many of them commented about how good it is to be able to give back and to help the community.

However, there were also a lot of lessons learned.    It was quite disappointing that only less than half of the women who lived in the house were there.   There was so much food.    If we do this again, here are some things that I would do differently:

• Would only have turkey (didn't need the ham, which was also 3x the cost)
• Would cut the food in half   (even with 5 women and 7 children; plus about 5 workers; next time, I would just plan for 10 people rather than 20 - it seems that 1/2 lb turkey per person would be good enough - and we can just count the adults, since the children wouldn't eat that much)
• If I kept two vegetables, would cut the portions in half; so, if planning for 10 people, with two vegetables, can do 5 servings of each (b/c people would put 1/2 the amount on their plates if they take both)
• I'd go with a simpler stuffing recipe, with less prep work
• Would not make hot apple cider.   The residents seemed only to be happy with the Martinelli's; I hope the kids were able to get the juice boxes.
• We ended up having ham sandwiches for lunch; though I forgot the cheese and vegetables that were in the fridge.    Next time, I could figure out something similar based on what is cooked at the time.

Well, it was a learning experience.   And while there were some disappointments and it was a LOT of work put into what seemed like too much for the circumstance; I just trust that God will use it, for our hearts and motives were right, serving him and loving the needy in the community.