Tip for the Kitchen Control Freak
Life is hard; food doesn't have to be #111 [vol5, 11.1]
If you’ve been following along since September, you know I’ve been helping with Wednesday night suppers at my church. Each week we serve 100-125 people real food, mostly from scratch.
There’s *no* way I could pull this off by myself. Each week several people give hours of their time to provide a nourishing meal to bring the church together.
This week I tried something new. Simple and helpful.
It worked so well, I envision doing something similar with my family for bigger holiday meals at home.
Before volunteers arrived, I looked at my to-do list and broke it into bite sized pieces. Those bite-sized tasks were transferred to post-it notes. When people arrived, I explained each then helped them find a task. Some tasks we pushed to the next day.
Note for Ali’s rolls: I wanted buns that I didn’t have to cut open. Imagine slicing 125 buns! The solution that I worked out was making something like a pull-apart roll. Rolling the dough into a rectangle then slathering half with melted butter. Then I folded the dry half onto the buttered half and used a pizza cutter to make rectangles. Pictured is with butter on top. After they came out of the oven, I remembered I’d used an egg wash the first time. Definitely use the egg wash for prettier presentation.
Chick-fil-A Sauce
Next week’s menu is a fan favorite: cracker chicken. It’s a chicken breast similar to a giant chicken finger. Last year my mother-in-law began to bring the cult favorite Chick-fil-A sauce for our family. Definitely elevated the experience.
Determined to create a real food version of this delicacy for the masses but not wanting to use mayonnaise with industrial oil or spend a million dollars on avocado oil making it, I decided to use sour cream instead.
Go Big or Go Home
A wise woman would have tried this swap on a small scale before making a gallon.
I am not wise but another adventurous friend was in the kitchen to provide feedback. The sauce we made is bangin’. I had to guard the bucket to keep volunteers from eating it by the ladle!
It was actually a fun challenge to make it with a third friend who’d never made it from scratch. I taught her the techniques I talked about when making Maple Bacon Dressing. Basically taste and adjust as necessary.
Below is a recipe I found online (sorry, I can’t remember the original writer) then how we made it for the masses.
Recipe links from our dinners:
Good soup starts with amazing broth. Here’s how.
Creamy Golden Chicken Soup (6 gallons!)
(Bacon) Cheeseburger Soup (4 gallons, will make more next time)
Chicken Noodle (4 gallons)
Ranch Dressing (that post has a ton of linked soup recipes)
no knead brioche, refrigerate overnight or not. We made x20 this week!
Beautycounter Back (for November)
If you follow the Clean Majors substack, you know Beautycounter is having an in-between sale for the month of November. Get free shipping on orders over $125 now through November 18. Holiday sets are 30% off - when these are gone, they’re gone.
When checking out, kindly look for my name or use this link. Reach out with questions or problems.
Making a List
Are there companies you stock up with on Black Friday? The last couple years I’ve made bulk purchases with Just Ingredients and Innersense Organics (hair products) as well as Beautycounter.
I hope to write about my fav kitchen tools but until then, I saw this gem for a steal at a restaurant store. Every kitchen should have a fish spatula. Even if you don’t eat fish.
Louisville Locals
I’m organizing a bulk meat order for local brats deadline Saturday, Nov 2. My family has tasted many styles and this week they declared this one is their all time favorite. It’s an easy dinner for me. Usually with baked potatoes, steamed broccoli and a garnish of sauerkraut. Everyone cleans their plate.
Main reasons I buy local pork:
1/ vitamin D — local pork is raised outdoors. Pork in regular grocery stores never sees the light of day because it’s always in a barn. When pigs are in sunshine, vitamin D is stored in their bodies which nourishes us in winter.
We learned during the pandemic that Americans are deficient in vitamin D which is necessary for immunity and healing. My family eats more pork in winter to get the bioavailabile vitamin D that our bodies recognize. Taking synthetic/supplements is not the same.
2/ Grocery store pork is fed regular antibiotics, whether or not it’s needed. This helps with animal weight gain (I don’t need help with that). And passes along antibiotic resistance to me. I want my body to respond to antibiotics when I need them.
The brats are $6 per one pound package, frozen. There are four links to a package. The pick up will be at Valley View Church in about 2 weeks. Payment expected in advance via Venmo or cash/check. Email me (reply to this) with questions or place your order.
Life is hard; food doesn’t have to be.
Julie
PS - Don’t forget the Beautycounter sale that starts today!
You are amazing, and this is the substack of my dreams! Even though we raise all our meat, have a cow for dairy, etc, our family has slipped into eating more and more ultaprocessed foods (6 kids, many teens on the go!) and especially when feeding crowds. I had already declared the rest of the year to be UP food free at home, but we do feed lots of people and you are helping make it easy! Trying the CFA sauce today!!