6th week, learning curves, and c19

Mystery meat did end up being like steak-um, so we had steak spaghetti- how fancy!-wednesday after the Tuesday ham and cheese sandwiches- potato salad on the side, desserts donated (rice crisps bars and banana bread), then Thursday instead of meatballs we just did steak sandwiches with the meat.

Didn't do the fruited bread pudding, just using the bread for sandwiches and the bread we would normally buy.

Gave some dessert ingredients to volunteer who loves making food for us, and helping us cook things we do not have time to cook under contract.

Steak Spaghetti

5-7 lb steak um-typ meat, pre cook with garlic, onion, salt, pepper

Oil

1 onion, diced

1 package sliced mushrooms

2 yellow bell pepper, diced

Garlic

Basil

Salt

Pepper

Thyme

#10 Tomato Sauce

#10 diced tomatoes

Sautee the best in order while the meat is cooking.

Steak sandwiches

Oil

1 yellow bell pepper, diced

2 onion, diced

1 pack mushrooms

Bbq sauce normal bottle 16-20 oz

Bbq marinade liquid same 16 oz

2 small tomato sauces

Fajita powder seasoning mix

Pot roast seasoning

2 packages brown gravy mix

Thyme

Smoked paprika

Garlic

Peppers

Carne asada seasoning

5-7 steak um-type meat

1 lb ham, sliced in strips

Sautee in order, cook as long as you want after the meat is fully cooked.

Potato Salad (with ham and cheese sandwiches (4-5 pack ham, “ cheese, 4-6 loaves bread, mayo, mustard)

11-15 pounds potatoes, cooked and cooled

1 -1/ 1/2 tsp Salt 

1/2- 1 tsp pepper

1/2-1 tsp Celery powder

1- 1 1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/8-1/4 cup mustard

I think next week will be this:

Minestrone

2-16 oz Frozen Corn

16 oz Frozen spinach

1/2 package Carrot, diced

1 cans Peas

2 cans Green beans

1 can Lima beans

1 lb Red beans

1-3 small can Garbanzos

#10 tomato sauce

(Onion, diced)

The peccerino rind

Thyme

Rosemary

Garlic

Small pasta

A La King

#10 garbanzos, possibly bring 6 more small

(Diced potatoes, pre-cooked)

3 Corn 

1 Carrot

1 Peas

3 green beans

(Onion)

1/2 package carrot, diced

Oil

Flour

Salt

Pepper

Thyme

Garlic

White Chile

2 #10 white beans (use pre-cooked beans in freezer for one of these cans, instead, and 

bone broth)

5 onions, diced

1 package celery

Two cans tomatillos

Cumin

Peppers

Garlic

Salt

Oregano

Other seasoning blends

Green chiles

Part of this depends on what we have, and if we end up with new fresh donations that need to be used up first-and hopefully still getting to shop for fresh vegetables.

Learning curves.
There's been some,
-like getting a bunch of fresh donations right after I've already trucked supplies over to the kitchen for 3 completely different meals that get changed at the last second so I can accommodate donations.
-getting unlabeled stuff from other food banks-they should be labeled people steak ups is not the same as ground meat- but they were fantastic as spaghetti and bbq steak sandwiches!
-being told you have a case of onions, not putting them in the fridge, because they are onions, then come in and see it was two onions on top of a case of lettuce, entire case of lettuce had to be thrown out
-not everything comes in a #10 can, darnit
-our donations are out of control in some respects. I had a melt down because I literally ran out of room for my food donations and didn't want to take up the entire resource area we borrow to do lunch.
-people are all very different and volunteer for different reasons:bored at home, bored alone, wanna donate time while on holiday, want to learn about the organization, what we have I common is that we care about our community, we want them to know they can trust we are working for their benefit, we care about each other, we try to lift each other up.

This also all depends on the pandemic. We probably come in contact with over 100 people a day, between the resource center, diners and the store, so not sure if I will be cooking and transporting alone, if I will even be allowed to work for 3 weeks, or if everything will be normal. 

Its devastating, but it is super interesting to me, better than watching politics every day. And my fantasy brain says :

What if a year from now all the people who got infected and recovered-what if they all become zombies?! What if they start turning 6 months from now. Fantasy worlds can be fun. What if's are a neat way to work through things