St Patricks Day at Community Kitchen
by Nicola Cleary
Last week, we enjoyed another wonderful gathering at Community Kitchen! Thank you to everyone involved for making such a lovely afternoon.
We had planned a menu with an Irish twist as it was St Patrick's Day. I had asked everyone to wear something green on and I think everyone remembered and obliged which was great to see. Bizarrely, a couple of new volunteers who had just popped in to see the CK in action were also both wearing green. Apparently it was a complete fluke!
The cooks this time (Clare, Clare and Gillian) had made Irish stews in advance at home because of the limitations of the AVH kitchen. On site they baked fresh loaves of soda bread having never done it before which looked brilliant and tasted amazing.
I had made a vegetable stew at home with pearl barley which was served with a jacket potato and grated cheese and was well received by the vegetarians.
The youngsters rolled out green icing and cut out shamrocks to decorate the pudding: home-made brownies. Various people helped to make these including 2 of our Link friends, Ernie and Dorrie.
We then enjoyed a brilliant demonstration by about 8 youngsters from the Maguire O'Shea Academy of Irish Dance. They jigged with incredible energy to a really high standard and used the AVH stage which worked perfectly.
Lunch went down particularly well with our Link friends this time. They enjoyed the stew very, very much, one lady commenting that she doesn't buy lamb for herself at home as it is too expensive. They all tucked into the brownies served with a green shamrock on top, a dollop of Baileys infused double cream and fresh raspberries and blueberries.
All in all it was a terrific few hours. One of our Link friends, Betty W, said she thought it was the best CK ever.
We had another raffle this time and tickets were sold by 2 of our Link friends, Karen and Betty I which raised over £50 as well as our usual donation box which also had over £50 in it.
Thank you to everyone involved: drivers, helpers, cooks and multitaskers. You all bring something special and unique to the day and a ray of sunshine into the lives of our Link friends.
Welcome to our two newest CK volunteers, Kathryn and Tony, who drove some of our Link friends on Sunday. Tony's dog, Cassie, who was very serene, also attended.
If you’re interested in getting involved in our Community Kitchen project, we’d love to hear from you. Find out more here.
