What's for dinner?

French dip for zone conference....a big hit!  

What’s for dinner? is the most oft repeated refrain around our home.  Each week we feed approximately 30 people between two institute classes and the occasional Family Home Evening group.  The week of zone conference we add lunch for 30-55 missionaries  and the week it’s our Stake’s turn to host the country-wide YSA Sunday service we add another meal for 80.  Then we have the occasional potluck at church, the kind neighbors who invited us to “tea” (to which I will bring cookies) and the times we just need a plate of cookies for someone we’re thinking of or need to thank.  It’s not the numbers you would see at an institute in the States but it’s more than enough to stretch our capabilities! 

Emily will shudder at my organization! 

I’ve finally compiled a menu roster of 8-10 dishes.  I keep track of when I have made a particular dish for the missionaries and the institute kids.  If I need to feed both institutes and the missionaries I try to cook the same thing 3 times that week.  It’s easier than 3 different menus!

For these recipes I know how to substitute the ingredients I can’t find here, know the kids like them, and have adapted the cooking method if necessary.  (My microwave/oven is a poor substitute for a real oven!) Utrecht Institute is held at our home which is a huge blessing!  Cooking dinner and serving it at home is soooo nice.  Institute at Den Bosch poses a small problem in that it is an hour and 15 min. drive on Friday night due to heavy traffic and there is no kitchen in the building with an oven to warm anything.  There is a regular microwave but that won’t reheat pans of lasagna, enchiladas, apple crisp, etc.  We work around that : ).

I have solved some of the ingredient and equipment issues.  I have found real sour cream, skim milk, Crisco, a small, silver cookie sheet that fits in the microwave/oven, a pastry blender and a very large stock pot for soup.  I can now bake 12 cookies at a time without burning the cookies closest to the edge of the pan!  (I baked 16 doz. cookies Monday and it took how many hours???)

I made enchiladas this week for District meeting, 10 missionaries and ourselves.  I needed two pans, but can’t cook them both so I asked my favorite neighbor Ineka if I could bake one pan in her oven.  Albert is the cook at their house and he happily agreed.  He did a perfect job and they looked beautiful! (and tasted wonderful, thanks to Emily for bringing me cans of diced green chilies : )

I get tired of the same things, even when I last served it 7 weeks ago!  I am always on the lookout for something new.  I recently tried two new menu options.

 First, strawberry/rhubarb crisp.  Ineka has a very large community garden plot.  She took me to see it.  It’s gorgeous and worthy of inclusion in Better Homes and Gardens!  She left some rhubarb at my doorstep the other day.  I got brave and decided to try strawberry/rhubarb crisp for dessert last week for Franca’s birthday dinner which I offered to host.  It turned out so delicious!  There was enough rhubarb to make it again so I made it the next day and invited Ineka and Albert over for dessert.  Ineka loved it.  She and Joe ate nearly the whole pan!  She offered to keep me supplied with rhubarb.  I’m anxiously awaiting the next batch.  I can already hear the missionary’s sighs of delight when they get hot strawberry/rhubarb crisp with ice cream at the next zone conference!

The second food experiment was Chicken Pot Pie.   They have delicious, pre-cooked, diced chicken here so it’s not as much work.  I made it for institute.  I baked it in my 15 x 12 cake pan, which barely fits in the microwave/oven. The filling was Marie Calendar worthy and the pie crust was light, flaky and perfect!  Turns out, the Dutch kids in Utrecht weren’t impressed!  They all ate a serving and left the rest.  I had made enough filling for Den Bosch institute on Friday….what to do?  I couldn’t make a pot pie anyway since I can’t get it there warm.  So I thinned down the filling, took it warm in a crock pot, served it over rice and they loved it!  Go figure….

We got a call this week asking us if we could take over the Rotterdam Institute which meets on Thursday.  They need a couple to keep it organized.  They have teachers so we don’t need to teach but dinner??!!!!  I honestly don’t think I can take on another dinner to shop for, cook, haul 1 ½ hours through traffic, serve, clean up and haul home! 

It’s time to call in the cavalry!!  Thank heavens for Relief Society sisters….. : )