Hi there, come on in and join me in some small talk and enjoy the wonderful aromas while I prepare today’s soup. Since I created a new soup recipe last week from the leftovers of my St. Patrick’s dinner of corned beef, potatoes, carrots, onion, and cabbage, which I called “St. Paddy’s Stew.” I decided to continue creating this week, by making an “Alaskan Halibut Chowder”. As I have told you before, I receive a box of Alaskan seafood every other month. I just happen to have 12 ounces of Alaskan halibut that is just crying to by made into something. I think that I pretty much have the rest of the ingredients in the fridge to put together a wonderful chowder.
Reviewing last week’s soup, “St. Paddy’s Stew”, it turned out fantastic, if I say so myself. The tablespoon of horseradish that I threw in was just enough to change the flavor from really good, to fantastic. Basically, it was just throwing together the leftovers from the St. Patrick's Day dinner and adding a broth. Well, it just so happens that I saved the broth that it simmered in while getting happy in my slow cooker. The “broth” was a lager beer and enough water to cover the corned beef and vegies. I saved it just in case I might want to make this stew. Thinking ahead sometimes pays off.
I will be wrapping up the editing of our cookbook this week and send it off to the publisher. The finished product should be back to us by the first week of May. We hope to receive the cookbooks before Mother’s Day. One of those will make a terrific Mother’s Day gift. We have also decided to extend the Advance Book Order discount of $5 until April 25th. The proceeds from the sales of the cookbook will be used to offset our material, operating costs and expenses of Empty Bowls, so that we may continue passing on 100% of the money raised from the sale of our bowls.
Back to today’s adventure in culinary trials. After looking in the fridge there was a couple of items that I had to get at the store, so I went yesterday afternoon to get them. While at the store, of course I purchased other items too, including cat and dog food, plus a few items on sale. So instead of spending less than $10 for what I needed, I ended up spending $135 total. As I was getting into my car to drive back home, the thought came to me that, I spent that much without a worry whatsoever. I also recalled that back in 1967, when I was working my way through college, with a wife and baby, we struggled and bought groceries once a week on a strict budget. Then I thought about the people that our charity, Empty Bowls, helps by making and selling our bowls and then passing that money on to food banks and pantries. I am very grateful that I no longer have to watch every single penny like many people do now. During this pandemic, there are even more people that need our help. This realization spurs me to work even harder to do whatever I can to help those in need, especially the children and the elderly.
We are going to be needing many volunteers to help us in our upcoming events, besides producing our handcrafted ceramic bowls. We need volunteers to coordinate events, so if you have those kind of skills, we need you. Besides our 4th of July ice-cream event, in October, we will be at the Arts and Crafts Festivals and we will need 4 to 5 people to be at the booths that we will have at two different fairs, for a total of 8 to 10 people. The fairs are scheduled for October 14th through 16th, which is Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Then on November 11th, we will have our Soup Event, where purchaser's of a bowl would get a bowl of soup from a variety that we will have for them to choose from. We will need volunteers to assist at the event, besides preparing some of the soups. I forgot to mention that anyone purchasing a bowl outside of the event are allowed to attend the event. We will be keeping track of those purchases and have a checklist for the attendees.
With these events, that we are planning, we hope to sell 1,000 bowls this year, which would give us around $25,000 to pass on to the food banks and pantries in our six-county region. These people need our help, especially this year, due to this terrible pandemic that we have had to endure for more than a year now.
As always. I invite your comments and questions, even criticism is accepted.
See y’all next Sunday, until then, do not be afraid to try something new and different.
Enjoy life!