jakorte's blog

March 18, 2008

KITCHEN DUTY – Confessions

Dinner Menu:
Lynda’s spinach stuffed shells with marinara sauce (meat or vegetarian)
Salad with dressing
Garlic bread
Banana Pudding

Shopping List:
Foil pans, shells, sauce, parmesan, ricotta, mozzarella, ground beef, spinach, bananas, Cool Whip, pudding, Nilla Wafers, frozen pink lemonade, bread, garlic spread, salad, red onion, tomatoes, cucumber, milk, apples, grapes, pears, tuna fish, orange juice.

Special Requests:
1 liter Pepsi, mini rubber bands, a bandana, Lemon Lift Bigelow tea bags and peanut M&Ms. Sorry, not all were filled but we really did try.

Lunch:
Bologna, Ham or Turkey… or so we thought. About halfway through slapping sandwiches together, we suddenly realized what we thought was bologna was actually turkey. So, every one who asked for bologna accidentally got turkey. There weren’t any complaints though. As a very belated after thought, thank goodness no one was allergic to turkey.

Devotions:
I originally wanted to put one of 13 different verses into each person’s lunch bag as an afternoon prayer gift. I had written out the verses on Monday night, but by the time lunch aerobics were over, there just wasn’t time. So, I flexed! I volunteered for devotions, and passed around the pile asking each person to take one. Then, I asked each person to read theirs aloud. It was cool to hear all the voices as each took their turn, and a bonus to not have to do so much speaking myself.

Dear Future GITC Cook Teams:
For future reference, it really is best if lunches are made before the teams go out. It was a nice idea, but an error in so many ways. The most stressful part of my day was driving up to the roofing site and seeing everyone camped out on the grass, waiting. I thought, “Wow. We really messed this up." Not only were we over an hour late, but because we made everyone’s lunches, there were no snacks at the site to hold them over until we arrived. That was bad. It turns out there were some stale treats hidden away in one of the other vehicles and I understand some of those got eaten out of desperation. What stunned me, besides the embarrassing applause when we did finally show up, was that everyone was gracious. Everyone said thank you. There was laughing and joking, and no hard feelings. You all really moved me with that. If you were reading this in my notebook, you’d be able to see the tears stains.

jak