We Serve by Cooking and Listening

For years we've been making variations of a simple baked chicken dish for the Sunday lunch at the community center. Our clientele finishes everything we prepare, but just because they're easy to please isn't a reason for not improving their sensory experience.

The chicken in the basic recipe is quite bland, so on Saturday I steeped the drumsticks in a marinade of soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, and a dash of whiskey. On Sunday morning I stir-fried some onions and spooned them into the rice and cream-of-mushroom soup. After browning, the chicken was laid on top of the mixture and covered with aluminum foil.

Before entering the oven

et voila

Into the oven went the two trays before I headed off to church. One feature of this recipe is that the chicken can be overcooked without drying out or degrading. It was a good thing that I had the luck or foresight to turn the oven down to 325 degrees, because our minister turned out to be especially loquacious this morning. The chicken had been cooking for over two hours when I returned home.

Our customers consumed all seven trays (each) of chicken and salad that we had prepared. One of them insisted on engaging in an extended theological discussion about the nature of evil, the doom that awaits those who live in the Bay Area, and the messages that are written on rocks (which he proceeded to pick up and show me).

Sure, it would have been a lot easier to write a check and have someone else prepare the food. But then I wouldn't have been able to test whether my modifications were an improvement to the recipe (they were) or learned about the world of mystery in a small pebble.

The act of charity affects those who give and those who receive in ways sometimes unforeseen.