Click on the picture or link under the picture to be able to see all the pictures in the album on Picasso...over 100+ pictures.
Gary and I made everything from scratch (as we usually always do) and there was not a crumb left. We were told to prepare for about 150 and we prepared for 200. Everyone that was supposed to eat did, and sometimes twice and a little for the road!
We had fun, it was a great time. Menu:
Grilled Chicken Salad Sandwiches on Focaccia bread
Marinated & Grilled Sliced Flank Steak Sandwiches made w/soft homemade roll
Red Skin Potato Salad
Chili
Fresh Baked Cookies
Each sandwich individually wrapped and stored in coolers. Potato salad was in 4 inch hotel pans kept in cooling box. Chili was stored in two 10 Gallon coolers used as warmers (does the same whether insulating hot or cold items, same as boxes for storing hotel pan food in). Hot chocolate in a 5 gallon cooler with valve, 10 gallons of coffee in thermal drink containers, and individual bottled water iced down in cooler.
All chili and drinks (besides water) were still scalding hot after the almost 3 hour trip down.
Just a little tip for any of you who are supplying the dinner for Sunday service in the future...there getting tired of soup.
Just a quick blurb to let you know we (Gary and I) signed up (months ago) to supply the food for the 'dinner' at Church Under the Bridge in Waco Texas along with members of Gary's Sunday School class at CCF (church right next to Mercy Ships IOC) and I will be posting pictures ( as soon as I can devise the best way to do that and have time ) shortly along with the menu we used (which held well for the 3 hours it takes to get there) with no cooking facilities on-site, we where literally under a bridge!!! Under I-35 and S. 4th & 5th streets.
It would be easiest (and best) to go to their website to understand what CUB is...but in my paraphrase, it is this:
Church for the poor, unwanted, homeless, addicts, misfits, mentally challenged, physically challenged, outsiders, outcasts, normal people (if there is such a thing), the curious, middle and upper-class people who are ready for a change and venture outside of their own comfort zones to see what life they are missing, and people who are tired of 'church' as they know it...it is, in essence, an unpretentious, non-denominational experiment in love. As Jimmy Dorrell said yesterday at the service, a laboratory of love.
I felt it was only fair that I call this part 1.5 because this episode does not consist of Feeding on Asphalt eating. Although I wish it had, it did not. How about a few pointers?
You may have asked, 'why didn't you go to Dallas?'...been there, did that, quite a few day trips in the last year and a half. Some mandatory some not. And great hotel rooms were horrendous in price. What you need to think about is the area in Shreveport. Bustling city with many a casino and gambling.
We don't particularly care for the Casino's but you can get a great room at a nice hotel for a cheap price because the establishment can afford to make it cheap, they are making money hand over fist with the gambling. Our room was probably twice to three times more expensive in Dallas for the equivalent of what we got in Shreveport.
(a little side note just in case you want to take your dollar and play a penny machine 'just one time for the fun of it' remember Shreveport doesn't have those smoking rules...so if you don't like stuffy, club-like atmospheres...or your a former smoker I would suggest you forgo your 'just for fun one time' trial period)
Unless you want 'all you can eat greasy home style food' or not-so-international International Buffet I would not suggest eating in the actual hotel. We had about 4 or 5 options in the hotel that broke down as follows:
Coffee Place - ok for coffee but not quite equipped as you would think, pastries were good but they failed to change out the crusty displays of everything they sold...so I was actually scared they were going to pull one of the pastries from the glass display case and try to give it to me. Seriously these were baked goods that had been in the window at least 3 days that I know of...not sure they were even changed when I left.
Some kind of restaurant that tried to be a blend of Applebees, Ruby Tuesday's, and TGIF all rolled in one with a cajun injection on the menu to boot. Usually you don't want your cajun food from a national chain, and you don't want your national chain from a local cajun place...personal opinion is - make it one or the other. But food wise it was the usual.
Of course there was the 'International Buffet' that I spoke of previously...in addition to what I said above about 'all you can eat greasy home style food or not-so-international International Buffet' I would like to add that I really can't seem to stuff more than 1 plate (or even a half) of greasy food down my throat at a sitting so I couldn't even attempt to eat enough to make it worth the price $16 a person. Sadly we tried. Overcooked, gravied up, watered down...
Expensive Restaurant with a wine list that won 2 prior awards...but I suspect it was an award in the casino-restaurant-wine-selection category which probably only runs in casino classifications. But at any rate after looking at the menu and the prices and having prior experience with the others...just couldn't take that chance. I like to cook with wine and occasionally drink a glass but most places I go to I drink water, no lemon. Because I just want something to cleanse the palate between bites or eating especially when trying new places...I like to play the "Critic at Large or the ingredient-technique-flavor-guessing-game" with my food. Sometimes I get real good and detect a recipe change in menu items that I eat frequently at certain places so you know they had to substitute an ingredient in a pinch.
Room Service? Didn't see the use...they want you out of the rooms gambling. And to pay extra for all that I already saw just to have it delivered to the room? No thank you!
Now, all that being said...I don't think this would hold true for the 'BIG BOYS' in Las Vegas. Actually I would hope it would be quite the opposite with all the big names they moved out there. I know down in Biloxi (Mississippi) their is an excellent buffet at the Beau Rivage that my good friend Bill took me to, and we took our time grazing for about 3 hours...hey! It takes time to crack them Alaskan King Crab Legs open!
This was just my (and my wifes) opinion of the food choices at the Hotel, but I still recommend the great rooms at these low prices. (use Expedia or something like that to review them and get the best price). We were close to the River Walk which is a nice place of outlet stores and restaurants with a big movie cinema as well (where we saw 2 good movies!). So there were better food choices for the same price like Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro...which eerily reminded you of what it would look like if Copeland mashed together one of its seafood restaurants with a cheesecake factory, funny huh?
It had good food and it was enough to carry leftovers back to the hotel to put in our refrigerator but it didn't really meet the Feeding on Asphalt criteria did it?
On Sunday the 4th we ventured out on celebrating our wedding anniversary (which was on the 5th). What happened became a version of Feeding on Asphalt meets the Newlyweds...or something of that nature. I being a career cook (or chef if you will) and my wife being a Registered Nurse are very adventuresome in general but also with food exploits.
Our criteria had nothing to do with food per se, Stephanie had 2 days off from work and we didn't want to drive very far to enjoy ourselves. Which left us with Louisiana, which you know can be a food destination of its own caliber.
But right away we never got out of Texas for the first installment of our feeding on asphalt wedding anniversary!
East Texas, Interstate 20, exit 635 will have a few fast food options and a Jim's BBQ & Catfish (locally owned and operated). Big (pizza hut style) cups of sweet tea or soda's, huge heaping helpings of food, and a very 'wanting to serve you' attitude...
Can't say we ever got to the pie or desserts (maybe we should have gotten one to go) but our appetite was bordering on 'no lunch' but to late to get stuffed before supper. We had a fried catfish sandwich and split some spicy curly fries. Catfish was breaded and fried with a big crunch but light in texture and color, moist and juicy inside and the fries were delicious...personal adjustments to the sandwich was hotsauce, but thats to be expected with us.
Menu was great and we got to look at several other peoples heaping plates of fried catfish or bbq...drool factor was in 'full effect'.
Things were looking good and we haven't even got to the destination yet!
There was a large chess tournament held at a hotel, and after the first few games, some of the players gathered in the lobby to talk quite loudly amongst themselves about their various victories. They would boast about their brilliant strategies, sharp tactics, cunning endgame play, each trying to brag of a more impressive victory than the others.
After a while, the manager of the hotel came over and asked them to disperse. “You’re disturbing the other guests”, he told them. The group of chess players seemed unhappy about this, but they left the lobby to find a more private area to continue their conversation.
Once they were gone, one of the other hotel employees asked the manager, “Why did you ask them to leave the lobby? None of the other guests have complained.”
The manager replied, “I just can’t stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer!”
A few things that would be good to understand about recipes:
I personally don’t buy any recipe books unless it is a very unique one. Most recipe/cookbooks are given to me as gifts. Today’s world has just about any recipe or technique at your finger tips thru the internet. I usually buy magazine, technique, how-to, and/or culinary text/educational books.
I have learned many ways of cooking or preparing food just by working with or beside others. Most of my recipes are in my head. and I modify them to the available manpower, ingredients, storage, cooking times, and proper handling that is available. From there I can tweak them and create different tastes, textures, colors, flavors and combinations. I can however produce them (recipes) in bulk format to be written down for others in the galley.
Usually we (I) make it a practice (in the Galley) to not take anyones recipes for several reasons, but here are a few I can think of right now.
Usually smaller recipes are not translated well for larger groups of people.
Multiplying does NOT always work when using smaller recipes.
Lack of or different ingredients.
And, no matter how hard we try, its probably not going to taste like you remember it.
General suggestions -however- do help. Because they stimulate the ‘how to’ process of what exactly we may be able to cook with what we have…and if its feasible for time and preparation.
Below is a widget that display some recipes from allrecipes.com . I chose this for those of you who would like to see some good and ever expanding recipe collections that even I use in the kitchen. Allrecipes.com is not the fancy Michelin 3 star or NYC 4 star rated restaurant food (although I would say some of their recipes probably taste better)…BUT everyday ‘Good Stuff’!
In addition to that allrecipes.com tells how many star rating it is out of 5 stars, and it tells you how many people voted on it. For example I want the simplest, best tasting, pumpkin pie recipe there is on the site. One recipe has 5 stars but only 2 people voted on it, so I go to the next one that has 4.5 stars but 67 people say it was good. I would pick that one. Then to take it a step further, if 3 recipes had about the same rating and people voting…then I would pick the one with the least and easiest ingredients to get and the simplest instructions to put the dish together.
Also, allrecipes.com has user reviews for the recipes so even though you see a 5 star recipe voted by 200 people they may still tell you it was a little bland and to add some hot sauce. So then if you have time, you see if it was an overall consensus that it was bland and then adjust accordingly.
If that wasn’t enough, allrecipes.com has a US and Metric scaling and conversion calculator for making those small recipes feed hundreds of people. So simple, so easy…But yes, you still need to know how to cook.
If you really want to take it a little deeper, Cooks Illustrated (.com) is like the online consumer report magazine for cooks but that will cost you a yearly subscription for access to their site and there is so much more than the magazine at your fingertips.
So I found the perfect club that I would want to check out and possibly consider a membership to (found on 69 right off the loop in Tyler Texas across from Baird's Bread Store)...but I am never in the neighborhood when they are open.
Since I am way behind in competing with Jeremy's 'Signs of a fine establishment, pt.??' (although I could probably catch up with pics from Liberia and Alabama) I will leave you with my title for this picture:
After a few requests for my recipe on refried beans, I decided that maybe someone actually does want the recipe. And this time I actually do remember 'about' what I put in them!
This time around I did not have the time to cook the beans myself so I bought them from the store in 28oz cans already cooked. Pinto beans.
5 cans 28oz Pinto Beans
2 Tablespoons Butter
1 Onion diced
1 Tablespoon Chicken soup base (or maybe 2 or 3 of those bouillon cubes)
1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder
1 Tablespoon Dried Cilantro (although fresh would probably be better)
1 or 2 Tablespoons Roasted Cumin (more about this later)
1 Lime (for juice)
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more if you can take it)
Salt & Pepper to taste if needed (I did not need this after using the chicken bouillon)
Start in a pot on medium to medium-high heat and melt butter. Then add diced onion and cook/saute stirring occasionally until onion is translucent. Add 3 cans of beans, 2 cups of water, and chicken bouillon, stir and heat till boiling, reduce to simmer or slow bubbles. Using a hand potato masher or stick blender bring the beans to a smooth or almost smooth puree consistency. Now add garlic powder, roasted cumin, and dried cilantro to beans and stir.
Add the next 2 cans of beans, and stir. If consistency is too watery then let it simmer for a while and keep checking on it. If it is too thick then just add a little water (or more butter for a creamier taste and consistency). Let simmer for a few more minutes. If you want the texture of the refried beans to all be the same then add all the cans of beans together then use a potato masher or stick blend to desired smoothness. And of course for chunkier beans just add and skip that step. The more you cook them the more they will naturally break down.
Pull from stovetop/eye and cut the lime in half in order to squeeze the juice in, stir then cover till ready to use.
* NOTES ON ROASTED CUMIN: Use whole cumin seeds and roast/saute them in a pan over stovetop/eye till you smell a smoky but not burnt smell and the seeds seem more caramel or toasted in color then grind in a coffee bean grinder. Or if you have powdered cumin you can repeat the same process but with more tosses of the pan so as not to burn the powder because it will 'toast' more quickly. You can also do this in the oven, but using such a small amount that would be overkill unless you already had your oven on for something else. Pan sauteing (roasting) will be quicker. If you don't want to grind the seeds then start them when you start the onions in the pot to get the desired taste (although you may have to pick a cumin seed or two out of your teeth later, usually they soften up sufficiently to not be worried about them).
I personally like a few dashes of Cholula hot sauce or Chipotle Tabasco right before serving.
Alright, all you international foodies...can you tell me what country this is in? Better yet, to double the prize can you tell me what city? And for all you Mercy Ship'rs for the grand prize of getting public recognition on my world-renowned blog...tell me who has been there?
On a recent trip to Durham I taped an interview with the NPR affiliate WUNC during which I suggested that one of five things you should eat before you die is the meat of a freshly slaughtered animal, preferably having witnessed the slaughter. Verlyn Kinkenborg says something very much the same in "Two Pigs" on the Times editorial page today, but with considerably more eloquence
I vaguely keep up with the culinary world at large since I am in the food service industry and felt compelled to share the above post clipped from another site I frequent.
There were many comments that ranged from mild to ludicrous but I wanted to weigh in with my own thoughts on that matter and maybe bring up something to think about when you sit down for your next meal. The following was my comment I left there:
Couple of comments...
I have witnessed a few slaughters, both in this country and in others...
It may give you more respect for the process, but not for the animal per se...the animal doesn't care what respect it gets once its dead and whats the point in having respect for an animal because you saw it slaughtered?
What makes it 'noble' to see a slaughter? Or double points?
Come on, what Ruhlman said was "I suggested that one of five things you should eat before you die is the meat of a freshly slaughtered animal, preferably having witnessed the slaughter."
Witnessing the slaughter came second to eating the meat in his statement.
The education, process, and knowledge behind the slaughter is whats beneficial towards appreciating food...isn't that why we shout, wine, and cry over the outrageous facts we find out about processed food and soy product substitutes being mixed in with our 'Big Burger' at the fast food restaurants? Or the additives, preservatives, handling, and/or lack of taste from buying our meat at the grocery store?
Of course you can feel a sense of pride, accomplishment, and/or achievement over catching, killing, and preparing your own food; MEAT or VEGETABLE. Because you have brought it full circle. It should taste better because you have been there for every step of the process, the finished meal was your creation, you do not have any questions about the practices of how it got to your plate...you have replaced the uncertainty of the dish with complete knowledge of what it takes to get it to the table.
This is a basic principle that you have been taught and practiced since childhood (no, not slaughter) when you tell everyone else to back off and let you do or experience it all. Sometimes you regret it, sometimes you love it, sometimes it changes your life whether positively or negatively.
Ever had Iguana? I wish I had left it alive...its better as a pet, or free running lizard.
From time to time I find an interesting blog that really gets my attention and then I usually find a post or two that gets me interested. The following post was copied from THE HOMELESS GUY in Nashville TN. Kevin is a Christian and homeless...And posts are/come from his knowledge of being chronically homeless. Check out his site sometime and catch a few articles of his...you might be surprised what 'grabs' you!
Someone recently asked about religious tracts for the homeless. For those who don’t know, tracts are small pamphlets some Christians use as a way to promote the faith. Personally, I’ve never known tracts to be an effective means of ministry, especially to non-Christians. And they often have the opposite effect - instead of bringing people closer to god, they often turn people away from Him.
Faith is a personal thing, and can only be properly dealt with on a person to person basis. Personal interaction is needed, and tracts are not personal. If anything, tracts are about as impersonal as you can get - and are often used so to avoid personal contact with people. Handing a person a piece of paper and then walking away from them is not how Jesus teaches how to minister to people.
Throw those tracts into the trash, and go out and meet people, and talk to people, and get to know them, and their needs, and help those people you encounter to meet their needs because that’s what God wants you to do. Then these people, so effected by your act of kindness, will be converted and they will begin doing as you do - going out and meeting people and meeting their needs, with the help of God.
And that brings up another subject.
What a weak and selfish people Christians have become. Even the well intentioned Christians get it wrong and make mess of things. When a Christian encounters a person with a problem, they will introduce Jesus, and tell the person with the problem that Jesus will help. And then the Christian leaves the person with the problem alone with Jesus, for them to work out the problem between themselves.
As Christians we are called to help people, and to be the problem solvers. We are supposed to be involved in the solutions. It is not our calling to point people in the direction of help, we are supposed to be the help. Passing out Bibles, or tracts, or inviting people to Church, is a way of avoiding our calling. We serve no one when we pass the buck, not our fellow citizens, not our God.
