Welcome to the Table! Where we keep you in the Lou'p

Quote of the Month: “A recipe has no soul. You, as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe.”- Thomas Keller

Why Food as the Medium

Cooking combines history, science and art into a fun and physical activity. The culinary arts are the closest thing we have to alchemy. Just add heat and you can create dishes that we remember for the rest of our lives. The focal point of birthdays, holidays, romantic dates, travel and parties is food and at Table for Lou we have one goal: Being able to come together as a community over food, while also learning skills along the way.

In our cooking class, we watch our students’ confidence grow from week to week after they go from participating in an inclusive team sport to making and then eating something delicious in the kitchen. Everyone pulling together as they work on different tasks and in different areas to feed their fellow chefs, and the other kids at the facility is truly inspiring. And at the Children’s hospital we are able to give families the break they most definitely need and feel like they are at home with a good meal. A good meal can turn a bad week into something just a little bit better.

September Highlights

From The Class:

Menu:

• Mini Pizzas / Meatballs / Cookie Pizza
• Toasted Oven Sandwiches (Buffalo / Philly) – Chocolate Dipped Fruits – Stuffed Peppers

September has been the busiest month we’ve seen so far! The kids asked to bring back some favorites, so we cooked up everything from sushi to mini pizzas to monster-sized sub sandwiches and more.

This month we put more emphasis on decorated desserts. We got to see the kids being challenged, focusing on the task and creating an incredible outcome. The amount of time they spent making their fruit topped pizza look absolutely perfect was touching to see.

Children’s Hospital:

At the Children’s Hospital we cook for bigger crowds. As most know, kids are the hardest customers and after four months of catering for the families at Children’s we’ve learned a few tricks for entertaining large crowds of various ages. Check some of them out below:

• Meatballs can be paired with just about any meal. Pasta, Asian dishes, Party Meatballs- just add a different sauce (marinara, teriyaki or chili sauce and jelly) and you have a different meal. Easy, but simple and comforting.
• When your meal has a starch as the main dish, make sure to build it around a protein and vegetables to give it the balance it needs.
• Always bring a large spread of fruits and salad fixings. People with restricted diets may not be able to eat the main dish, but they can usually find something at the salad bar.

The families at Children’s have a lot on their plate, so we do our best to bring them comfort foods. There have been many times that the parents have told our volunteers that the only thing their kids have eaten all week were the meatballs or a plate of fruit that Table for Lou prepared for them.

Recipe of the Month: Cream Cheese Stuffed Peppers:

Don’t forget to try some of our favorite recipes at home! This one was a huge hit.

1. Take equal parts Cream Cheese and Cheddar Cheese (8ozs) and combine them with your favorite seasonings- like chili powder.
2. Cut two dozen mini-peppers in half and remove the seeds and the stem.
3. Stuff the peppers with the cheese mixture and serve! (For extra flavor, roast in the over or broiler)
4. Garnishes: Chives, Crushed Pepper, Jelly, Honey, Bacon Bits

Tip of the Month:

If you are entertaining and have an “exotic” dish that folks have never tried, have an adventurous friend try the food first in front of others. If they like it, they’ll become an ambassador and convince others to try it. The peppers with cream cheese were a gamble, but one of the kids that assembled the peppers really loved them and got everyone else to try them. After that, the peppers didn’t stand a chance and were the first thing to get eaten!

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!