At My Place: Two Food Mistakes for Party!

Okay, it wasn't my own party. I'd been invited to our ESL class 25th Anniversary Celebration last Saturday evening. We usually do our socials as a pot-luck but this event was extra special. Our ESL ministry in our church had been up and running for a full 25 years - to the day.

I decided that I would make a pumpkin cheese cake according to a simple recipe I'd found online. First mistake - I had never tried it before. But filled with great confidence I started on it at noon. (I had already pureed the pulp of one of my garden pumpkins so I thought the recipe assemble instructions should be easy.)

I was not all done yet with mixing the filling, when I glanced down to the bottom of the recipe, and saw that it was to be chilled in the fridge for at least 4-6 hours.

"Oh no!" I gasped. "It is going on 3 pm now and I'm suppose to be there by 5 pm!" Obviously this was not going to be ready!

Doing some quick thinking I decided I better get dressed, shop for some store-ready dessert - or anything that would make a quick contribution to the pot-luck supper. (I could finish my pumpkin cheese cake for Sunday or Thanksgiving Monday.)

I wandered in circles around the aisles with the quick n' ready dishes in the Co-op Grocery store. They had trays of meat, salads, cakes slathered with icing.... Now my problem was deciding what to buy and take to the pot-luck Anniversary Celebration.

Finally, I settled on a long tray with BBQ chicken drumsticks. Then I suddenly snatched up also, a bag of garlic bread that smelled great.

I handed my bag of food contributions to some women who were busy arranging and spreading lots of food already there, on two long table rows, covered with white material.

Sandy, a student I had 'helped' or guided for 5-6 years greeted me. She had dropped out and was now attending the Chinese Alliance church where she was training to be a teacher. Her twin teens were present too!

In fact, the large room filled fast! I'm almost sure we had more than 200 present, but many who had helped with this ministry in the early years were present too. Many of them seniors who now were too slow and hardly mobile enough to come.

At one point Hongru, one of the leaders, slipped up beside me and explained my drumsticks had turned out to be raw; they weren't serving them. (My heart dropped! another food Mistake?? I'd thought the label said they were BBQ-ed.)

After the meal there was a program of slides and interviews with Joanne (who with her husband had begun this new idea ministry in 2000), and others who had been "helpers" sitting beside students to help them learn and practice how to pronounce English words and string sentences together.

At the end of that, all the retired "helpers" were handed large bouquets of flowers. Next the women came around with single long-stemmed roses for those who were presently still Helpers with ESL To my astonishment I got one too, with a lovely thank you card attached! WOW!

When Hongru asked me from the mic, how long I had been involved in ESL, I said, "Since 2008."

Doing the math later I realized that I've been in this exciting ministry for 17 years. I really do enjoy it. I have another volunteer duty every 4th Sunday, but always look forward to my ESL Sundays.

When I got home I assessed my food mistakes, and decided that I might as well finish up the dessert and it would be ready for my Sunday & Thanksgiving meals alone at home. So would the drumsticks... which I baked in the oven on Sunday afternoon. I allow myself 2 at a time, but have something else at some meals so I am not eating the same foods all week!

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