Hot Food on the Cold Plains

Today I provided a meal for the Emergency Shelter in town.  I take a meal in twice a month.  It may sound daunting but it really is not.  I work these meals around my own weekly schedule.  I call them up a day or two in advance of when I want to cook, and find out the number of folks currently at the shelter.  And I go from there.  When I started this project (last summer), that Spouse o' Mine and I discussed it, and decided that for what it might cost the two of us to go out for a nice dinner, a meal could also be thoughtfully provided for whomever was in the shelter on any given evening.  When I say "thoughtfully", I mean it takes some thought to frugally provide a meal for anywhere from 20-45 people.

But!  It is very easy.

I baked a batch of cookies this morning, and threw three pork loins into the crockpots and went about my daily affairs.  The rice & vegetables are cooking as I type.

Tonight I am taking in Asian pulled pork, garlic green beans, and rice with peppers and onions.  And chocolate chip cookies.  Pork: $25.00, Asian sauce: $5.00, green beans: $4.00, rice: pennies, and peppers & onions: $5.20, chocolate chip cookies: whatever I had on hand in the kitchen cabinets.   (I am serving 30 tonight.)

In 45 minutes I will load the food and take it in town.  The Emergency Shelter also has a full kitchen and a large pantry full of donated items, so if there happens to be more diners than my lot allows, they can easily supplement it with shelter food.  (Although I was told that some people simply do not know how to cook.)

On another note, it is 18º outdoors - the high for today.  I looked out my kitchen window this morning (13º and saw this squirrel:

He did not move at all.

AT ALL.

I got so worried about him, I wondered if squirrels ever stuck their tongues out on frozen metal.
I headed outside, with my camera, and he did not move.  AT ALL.  Finally I walked directly under him, and he scampered across four treetops and then he froze again.  What was his problem, I wondered?

Ah.  Then, I saw the greater picture:

Martin the Helper:

 

So the Great Plains, and the Flint Hills of Kansas, are getting the winter weather we expect.  And here is some news from another plain,

Far, Far Away