Little Bit of Charity

        Yesterday evening, Katie and I represented the UMaine Food Science Club in the community by going to the Ronald McDonald house and cooking a meal for the residents. For those of you who haven't heard of the Ronald McDonald House, it is a house sponsored by McDonalds that gives families who have children in hospital a home away from home, with a comforting, supporting environment, where families can meet others in similar situations, and allow them to be near to the hospitals whilst not having to stay in hotels all the time.

        I originally thought that the whole food science club would be attending, but it turns out that they find it difficult to organise everyone to go, so it was only me and Katie - this didn't bother me at all, and between the two of us we managed to cook the meal, and make some pudding.

        We started off by hitting the grocery store and getting some last minute things including, veggies and cheese ends; if you go to the deli cheese counter and ask for cheese ends they give you a bag of spare or ends of their cheeses for such a good price! We then headed to the house, and set up in the kitchen and began cooking. The dish Katie had chosen to make was called 'hearty chicken casserole' - I'd say it wasn't a traditional casserole, but it was still delicious whatever we want to call it! It consisted of chicken, kidney beans, celery, and onion cooked in a tomato and creamy sauce, with melted cheese on top, all served with white rice and steamed broccoli.

        I think the meal went down well, even if some of the children were very opinionated on various parts of it, and there wasn't much left at all, so we sat down with a portion ourselves and I absolutely loved it and would happily make it at home. For pudding we had already prepared the pretzel bites - we did pretzels dipped in chocolate for any peanut allergy sufferers, and then the main pudding was pretzels with a creamy peanut butter filling dipped in chocolate. Hopefully the kids will like these better, kids always like sweet foods!

        After we had finished eating, washing, drying and generally tidying we said goodbye to some of the residents, and the man who was on duty, and jumped in the car. Katie had been telling me about a Giffords ice cream stand that was only a short drive away, so we decided to treat ourselves to dessert. The stand was surprisingly busy for a Tuesday night at 7 o'clock, but we got served quickly and both absolutely devoured our ice creams! I went for a cup with one scoop of vanilla and one scoop of mint chocolate chip; I'm not really meant to eat dairy as it upsets my tummy, but having a bad stomach anyone I thought it wouldn't make any difference. Both these flavours were incredible, and the ice cream was so smooth and delicious, and all made here in Maine. Katie 'accidentally' ordered a sundae, and it included a scoop of s'mores ice cream, a scoop of muddy boots ice cream (it has pieces of brownie in), caramel sauce, whipped cream, sprinkles and a cherry! Katie was an absolutely cutie and treated me to it, as she wasn't sure whether she would see me again before I leave on Monday - I really hope that I will see her on Thursday or Friday at uni though!

        I really don't know what I'm gonna do without this girl back home, I've got to know her really well and just love hanging out with her!