Feeding Teens

DINNER IS SERVED: As is the new normal, I'm way behind on blog posts. I blame the pandemic for disrupting our daily routines so drastically.

Anyway, we have been keeping up with some routines, and that includes heading up a Teen Feed dinner service on the fourth Saturday of every month. 

To try to help keep it interesting for the volunteers and the diners, I try to come up with a different dinner service theme every month. For March, we went with "AM//PM," and served breakfast for dinner.

For the meal, bakers made 55 servings of French toast casserole. (I found a good recipe online for a large scale, pecan topped dish, although its instructions were a little wonky.)

We prepped 9-dozen plus scrambled eggs (with tons o' cheese), hundreds of hash brown patties, and 10 pounds of pork sausage. We also provided vegan alternatives to each of the preceding items. 

We had dozens of big ol' sliced oranges, and even some fun breakfast beverages.   

Naturally, we had powdered sugar and real, organic maple syrup to top the French toast.

Fortunately, we had four super capable volunteers helping out in the kitchen this go round. They were so good at prepping and serving, that freed CJ and Annabelle up to do some deep cleaning in the kitchen. Let's just say that it had been a 'good' long time since the floors were thoroughly mopped or the microwaves were cleaned.

Last month, our Teen Feed service fell just a couple of days before Fat Tuesday, so we went with a Mardi Gras theme.

We decked out the tables in purple, gold, and green, the colors of Mardi Gras, and had beaded necklaces and other decorations spread about. 

Our menu embraced traditional Mardi Gras food. Naturally, jambalaya was the main entree. 

I found a great recipe to make an enormous batch of it. Kennedy and I each prepped some of the ingredients ahead of time, and then collaborated and combined on site.

We made Maque Choux, a creamy corn dish, as a side. 

Our take on King Cake was cupcakes covered in Mardi Gras-colored sprinkles. The students who were volunteering with us in February had fun doing that job. 

The "Dollar Store Magic" necklaces and napkins made it all look very festive for our guests. 

We even served mocktails! The hurricane, a fruity punch, is the "official" drink of Mardi Gras. We didn't add the rum to our rendition. 

Shopping for this month's feast, I have to admit to experiencing some sticker shock. According to a recent article from Patch, "Proteins like meat, fish, poultry and eggs are up 21 percent in Washington. Fruits, vegetables, cereals and bakery items are up over 11 percent. Dairy and related products cost over 7 percent more." Given this, it sure makes me grateful we have such a wonderfully generous team that keeps providing for the teens month in and month out.