Welcome to the Table! Where we keep you in the Lou'p
Quote of the Month: “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” – John F. Kennedy
Tis the Season:
At Table for Lou it’s typically all about the food and serving the community, but we also like to make sure we remind those around us the importance to pause and take in the simple moments, the fun moments, really all the moments in our lives. And in St. Louis, that's not hard to do. One of the many great things about living in St. Louis and the Midwest for that matter is getting all four seasons. It might not be that big of a deal to life-long-lou’ers, but it’s a good reminder for everyone that most things in life have phases even without the change of seasons. If pumpkin patches, outside skating rinks, or fresh tomatoes were a year round thing, would they be as magical? Maybe not.
It’s important that we recognize the phase that we are in and seize the moments. It’s easy to put them off, waiting for the next phase of your life, or when your kids get older, but delaying life is no way to live. This fall, fire up your oven. Get the young people in your life excited about decorating cookies. Spend a little more time with your older loved ones and bake a pie with them. Feel no shame in drinking a pumpkin spice latte. Take the little moments and phases in your life and turn them into bigger ones.
Table for Lou has a new logo!
That’s right, a brand new logo. For us, the center of every home, school, and community center is the table. It’s where we refuel our bodies, recount the events of our day, have serious conversations, complete our homework and celebrate. So we really wanted our logo to showcase all of that, as well as the hard work we all need to do to support and bring together our St Louis community. We hope you like it.
October Highlights:
When creating dinners for BJC Children’s Hospital, we have three goals that we always want to make sure are included in each dinner: comfort food, kid friendly, and fits a variety of diets.
A few of our favorite dishes from October included many comfort food selections such as a mashed potato bar, butter-noodle / chili night and cheddar broccoli rice casserole. Luckily, comfort foods are easy to think up and create. Making any kind of food kid friendly was difficult at first, but as we’ve mentioned in previous posts, bringing meatballs and a huge selection of fruits tends to satisfy even the pickiest 8 year old.
Something to Keep in Mind: Cooking for Large Groups
At BJC we create dinners for a large number of people and dozens of diets. How do we do it? It’s not that simple, but we’ve learned a few things along the way. Check out a few of them below:
No pork- Keep in mind that not everyone eats pork possibly based on religion or dietary restrictions. We might occasionally have some bacon to add to salads, but otherwise, no pork.
Try avoiding beef as well- While our meatballs do contain beef, we avoid using beef in our main courses.
Get chicken, but put it on the side- Chicken is fairly widely eaten, except by our vegetarian, pescatarian and vegan friends.
With that said, our main courses are always vegetarian with a few options of chicken on the side, to be added by our carnivorous or omnivore guests.
Thanksgiving Tips and Recipes:
Thanksgiving is just a couple of days away and while this Newsletter was giving you the scoop on what we did in October, we didn't want to leave out some very helpful Thanksgiving Tips and delicious recipes as you head into the holiday.
Tip One: Let’s start with the star of the show: The Turkey. Hands down, my favorite way to cook a turkey is using the spatchcock method. While it requires a very good pair of poultry scissors and a strong stomach, it’s worth it.
When cooked in a traditional, non-spatchcock method, the white meat is on top, exposed to more heat than the less fragile dark meat. When you cut your turkey appropriately, you cook the bird flat, with the dark meat on the outer portions of your oven. While other things have gone horribly wrong the last few Thanksgivings, the turkey has not been one of them.
Check out my go-to recipe by clicking the link below:
https://www.seriouseats.com/butterfiled-roast-turkey-with-gravy-recipe
Tip Two: Are you a foodie going to an office potluck or Friendsgiving and have free reign to make what you want? Why not go with something less traditional, like pasta? One of my coworkers brought in a Cajun chicken pasta for our fall feast, and I’m still crowing about it 6 years later. Check out one example of a Cajun Chicken Pasta here and feel free to add in some vegetables to really make the dish more colorful and fun!
Tip Three: Last but not least, how do you keep kids busy for Thanksgiving? Get them involved with some of the food prep! Depending on their age / skills, you can vary their involvement from pre measuring the ingredients to giving them a grocery list and helping you buy everything or even just decorating the desserts. They have to start somewhere. Check out my favorite kid friendly/kid helping recipes below.
Cardinal Numbers
The temperatures are dropping and so we thought we’d have some fun with numbers! Did you know the hottest day in St. Louis reached 115F in 1955 which happens to be the melting point of dark chocolate? It’s true. And the coldest day in St. Louis got down to -22F in 1884 which is 2 degrees colder than when your vodka will freeze! (same with corn oil). Be careful out in those extreme temps.
Last but not least…
Table for Lou gives kids a fun activity to look forward to each week and teaches kids how to support their community. Donate today or learn how you can help volunteer by emailing:Table4Lou@gmail.com . You’ll be amazed how much help just a small amount of money provides to our community.
And don’t forget to to follow us on our social media for more updates! See you there.
Cheers!