Bean Supper

We had another successful bean supper today at church.  Served 47 people with many new faces joining our regular attendees.  I don’t think we had enough volunteers but it is the 4th of July weekend and many of our workers had plans.  One of our regular volunteers, one of the guys who does the dish washing, was going to celebrate his great-grandchild’s first birthday. I figured that was a valid excuse for not helping out.

As usual I was in charge of making the beans so I was at church by around 10:00 this morning starting the beans.  10 pounds of beans.  (What is with my making 10 pounds of things…potato salad…beans….???).  Then, after they were cooking, I made three pies.  Apple, coconut cream and chocolate cream.  I even made my own pie crusts which is unusual because a lot of months I am lazy about it and by the Pillsbury crusts. But making my own is easy enough and I find the store bought crusts don’t pre-bake very well and I had to pre-bake the crust for the coconut cream pie.  About the time I finished all of that, some other people arrived to help with set up, making the cole slaw and do all the other tasks.  I think everyone had a good time and people seemed to enjoy the food.

We had no deserts left except part of a blueberry cake, a few whoopie pies and one piece of lemon meringue pie.  That isn’t bad!  There isn’t any rhyme or reason around how many pies/deserts to make.  We average around 47 people every month.  Each month we make around nine pies with a couple of extra things like a cake, whoopie pies or cookies.  Some months we have two or three pies left over and other months we run out.  Same number of people. Same number of pies.  Same kinds of pies.  Just really no rhyme or reason why it happens like it does. I have stopped trying to figure it out.  Just provide the nine pies and see what happens.

At the end of the evening, I found a bag of hot dog buns on the counter.  I asked someone where they had come from and was told that one of our regular groups (a group home of adults with Down’s Syndrome) had brought them.  Apparently they bring hot dog buns every month.  You see, when we started the bean supper, we decided to serve a variety of breads (Italian bread, cornbread, Irish Soda bread and biscuits) but no hot dog buns even though we were serving hot dogs along with the beans and cole slaw (and pies).  But this group of people really want hot dog buns and, instead of asking us for them, they bring their own.  Kind of made me feel bad because we should be providing what they want. If they want hot dog buns,we can provide hot dog buns.    I wish they had said something.  If they hadn’t left the package behind tonight, I would have never known.  The servers knew but never mentioned it to me.  Oh well. Next month, I’m going to get a couple of packages and include them in the bread baskets and see what happens.

Anyway, I’m utterly and completely exhausted but in a good way. The kind of tired from working hard at something really worth while. But I need to head to bed so I can go to church in the morning.

If you are around the first of next month, you ought to check out the bean supper, if you haven’t already been to one. I’ll even give you a hot dog bun for your hot dog!! See, I’m learning. Adapting. Growing. And need to stop and go to bed. Good night!!