Saturday, April 27, 2013

Mac 'n Cheese with lots of Ham & a new Dishwasher

Today Hilde & I cooked 40 boxes of Mac 'n Cheese & loaded it all with 15 pounds of diced ham.  :)   We also, as usual, made a huge salad & Hilde had baked some incredible peanut butter cookies for dessert.  :)   Thank you Alvin for donating a whole bunch of small pretzel bags.  We handed those out, along with water, some Mountain Dew & V8 Juice, which were also donated by others. 

I had to restrain Marilyn from the cookies.  ;)  Just kidding Marilyn !!  :)   She loved them so much & I have to say I can't blame her, they were really good, Hilde !!  :)

The homeless at the second park were exceptionally nice & grateful today & it made our hearts feel good.  :)   We fed 54 people tonight, the numbers are climbing & word is getting around.  :)  We are so glad, especially since we have been cooking too much since we started up again.  The left-overs I bring home afterwards are shrinking & that is wonderful !!  :)   It makes us happy when we feed a lot of people that need comfort food in their bellies.  :) 

It was so fun to see you Cristina & my lil' Kiersten (age 5) at the park helping with handing out water, sodas & juice.  :)  It is never too early to teach the lil' ones to give & share & to show them how good they have it at home.  Kiersten has a lot of compassion already, she always wants her Mom to take an older homeless woman home with 'em.  :) 

Thank you so much Judy E. for donating one of the hams & lots of cheese, along with some macaroni.  :)   Your donation was the inspiration for tonight meal.   :)  

Thank you also once more Dave & Linda for all your kind help with the food !!  I am always & forever grateful to you both !!  :)  :)

And thank you dearest Frank D., my Cookie Family, J.J., Bill & Iris, who all donated funds so we can continue to do this !!  :)  The prices of the items & food needed to do this are going up continuously & I feel that too of course.  :o   I am so grateful for all your help & I hope the Blessings come right back to you !!   :) 

This next story made me cry because I was touched very deeply by two incredible human beings.  :)  My dishwasher had been 28 years old & I haven't been able to use it for quite some time, since it had seen better days.  Marilyn & I always cleaned up the big pots, bowls & utensils by hand & that was a lot after a long day of cooking & being on my feet. 

My dear neighbor Lee D. found out about this & he decided to buy me a brand new dishwasher. Lee took me to Tucson Appliance Company, because I wanted to support Chris, the owner, since he had been so incredibly supportive of my feeding the homeless.  So it wasn't enough that Chris very recently had given me an almost new stove, he then gave us the dishwasher at his cost, which saved us quite a bit. I didn't expect that at all, I just wanted to support Chris for his Kindness & for being so very generous to me before.  :)  I am crying again, tears of Gratitude, as I write this.  Thank you so much Lee & Chris, you both are incredible role models to humanity for kindness in action !!   :)   :)

Another successful meal served & now it's time to rest.  :) 
Everyone reading this be blessed always & in all ways.  :)    

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Pork Tacos, Beans, Spanish Rice - and Chris from Tucson Appliance Co.

Some of you know that Hilde & I have been cooking all this time on a stove with just one big burner & three small ones.  :o   It made things considerably harder, especially with those great big pots we are cooking in.  One pot was almost done & the other one wasn't even warm yet.  So our friend Mark Irvin contacted Chris Edwards, the owner of Tucson Appliance Co., & asked him for a stove for us.   :)
Chris was as gracious as ever & gave us a reconditioned flat top stove that is a major improvement over the 28 year old one we had.   :)   Chris, thank you once more for your kind & loving support & for always being there for us !!   May you always be blessed for your generosity !!  :)  

Everyone who reads my blog, please support Chris & his business whenever you are in the market for appliances.  :)  Thank you Mark for your kind support also !!   :)

So today we used the new stove for the first time & what an incredible difference it made to be able to use two big burners & once we figured out the oven it worked great also !!   :)  

Thank you Sue for helping us chop, dice, & pull pork all afternoon !!  :)  You are so much appreciated !!  :)  We couldn't have done this without you !!  :)

We fed 45 people today & the meal consisted of pulled pork tacos, beans & Spanish rice.  It was a big success, the homeless loved it & many got seconds.  :)  Hilde makes the best Spanish rice & I make some pretty good pinto beans, if I could brag a little bit for a second.  :)   We served shredded lettuce with lots of cilantro in it, diced tomatoes, Mexican cheese mix, sour cream, salsa, cookies, some V8 Juice & some sodas, along with cookies. 

Thank you Lee D. for donating all those sodas, especially when it is so hot outside !!  :) 

My whole house still smells like tacos, rice & beans.  :)  Makes me feel hungry.  ;)

J.J. & Mark B., thank you so much for bailing us out by helping serve, since I was short two helpers today & we had so many different things to serve !!   It was really nice to see you both, & to stand in the serving line with you again, J.J., after all this time.  Brought back many memories of days gone by & the meals we served then.  :)  The only thing missing were the cupcakes.  ;)   Thank you also J.J. for the pizza money help !!  :) 

At Estevan Park we made a big Spirit Plate for Mike & everyone shared a little of their food with him.  :)  We then set the plate on a branch of one of his favorite trees & made a circle around it, holding hands.  :)  J.J. said a dear prayer for Mike & we all followed with our own words for him.  It was a sweet good bye to Mike & it felt a little more like closure in a small way.  We all miss him & his always happy face & attitude !!  :) 

Marilyn, thank you for helping serve & then afterwards for helping me clean up the food, dishes & the kitchen !!  :)  You can have all the cookies you want, whenever you want them.  :)   You are such a dear Friend & I am very grateful for you !!   :) 

And I can never thank Dave & Linda enough for donating some of the food we serve & their unconditional support of this endeavor !!  :)

Hilde deserves a great big trophy for being such trooper everytime we cook & serve.  I hope I am as strong & alert as she is when I'm going on 89 !!  :)   Hilde your Angel wings are huge !!  :)

Time to get some rest now !!  :)  It has been a long, happy & fullfilling day !!   :)