RMH Meal

Jaron is almost two years old. How did that happen? 🤯 Isn't that always the case though? Time flies by. 

We had appointments in Rochester the past three days- general checkups, all went well- and we served our annual meal at the Ronald McDonald House to celebrate Jaron's birthday and give back to the organization that helped us so much when he was in the hospital. 

Our menu was the same as last year: homemade goulash soup, homemade bread, lettuce salad with tomatoes and cucumbers, homemade applesauce, and cookies. 

This year we used tomatoes from our garden and I made gingersnaps from scratch. 

Last year we made way too much food, so this year we made half as much and it was just the right amount. Six batches of soup, six loaves of bread, one roaster of applesauce (same amount as last year - a 5gal pail of apples), and four batches of gingersnaps. There were a lot of cookies leftover, but we did that on purpose so we could bring them to the NICU nurses. 

We started cooking around 2pm Thursday after a stop up on the NICU floor to visit our nurses. That timed out very well. Last year we paused cooking to visit and cooking got rushed in the end. This year was much more relaxed even with the extra from scratch item. 

Jaron fell asleep on the way back from the hospital and snoozed in the car seat while we cooked. 

I made the bread and cookies. G bought the groceries and made the soup. One of our favorite house volunteers had signed up to be the scheduled host for us (they always have someone familiar with the kitchen/serving help with the meal). She made the salad and helped get our serving line set up. 

Mimi and Papa showed up just in time to entertain Jaron when he woke up from his nap. He had a blast playing with them outside, in the gym, and in the toy room. 

They also helped serve the meal. 

Here we are, ready to go! 

We served about 65 meals, which was our estimate of how many. Lots of positive feedback on the food. Guess we'll keep it the same for next year. 😉