Serving Supper For A Slew

Last year Hubby Tony and I headed up the kitchen at our church's Sausage Supper. When it was finished the chair asked us if we would consider doing the job again this year with an eye to finding and mentoring someone to take the job over in 2025. We agreed.

There were multiple planning meetings over the summer and early fall, and the event was yesterday. Some things (like the menu) were the same. Some things were quite different. The biggest change was the assistance of a new church employee. He's the head janitor, but also a caterer with years of experience who operates out of the school kitchen. Early on Tony and I met with him and got some great ideas for simplifying the cooking process. Based on our conversation I typed up recipes, and made copies to tape to a shelf over the kitchen countertop.

Last year our kitchen crew prepared the sauerkraut and green beans. A group of volunteers grilled the sausage. The chicken, mashed potatoes, and gravy were outsourced to a restaurant. Over the course of the 2023 event there were some issues keeping the serving trays filled with outsourced dishes, so this year we cooked the mashed potatoes and gravy in house.

There was nothing gourmet or fancy about the food. The sauerkraut and green beans came from a can. The potatoes and gravy started off dried, but each dish was enhanced with extra ingredients. We heard several compliments from diners, and no complaints.

The final numbers won't come in for a couple of weeks, but it will be interesting to see how many people ate. The caterer did all the purchasing, so I don't know how many commercial sized cans and containers we went through, but we cooked more than last year when we used 56 cans of green beans and 27 cans of sauerkraut.

And most interestingly, one of the kitchen workers indicated he might be interested in heading up the kitchen team next year. If he commits, Tony and I will take a step back and act as consultants.

Five years ago: Come See It!