Mark it with a "T"

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time for sharing; though between it and Christmas, perhaps too many of our charitable activities are scrunched up here in a 4+ week period, when organizations and the people whom they serve need help all year round.

Still, it's a good teachable moment and I'm grateful for the opportunities the kiddos have to serve, from making fringed fleece blankets for hospice patients to collecting bags of cookie-making supplies for the food pantry.    I give some thought to the projects they do, not wanting projects which in my mind reinforce notions of privilege, like upper middle-class children alighting on a soup kitchen for an hour or so to serve the "deserving poor."  This puts poverty on parade and makes service a spectacle, while also reinforcing "us" and "them," at least without some context and discussion of socio-economic privilege.  And since that can easily go over the head of a third grader, I find other projects perhaps work better.  But, I also don't want the project just to be money Mommy used to buy something, with the kiddo only carrying the cans of food to school.  Food drives are great, and we bought lots of cans of green beans and corn this year, but I want more than that.  

Like today, when our church's youth service team (now isn't that a great idea?) made more than a dozen pies for a local shelter.  Apple, pumpkin, and enticing apple butter pumpkin, all with from-scratch pie crusts!  The adult team advisors had it all down to a science--a table for making dough, a table for measuring out spices in little paper cups, a table for opening all the cans, a table for cracking eggs into waiting bowls, a Cuisinart table for mixing the custard fillings together. a table for filling the pies.  They even used the extra dough trimmings, slathered with butter, sugar, and cinnamon, for their snack, baking them in pinwheel shapes in muffin tins.  Yum!

Sis and Bud had a good time and were apparently pretty helpful--Bud can crack eggs like a pro and Sis can handle any baking task besides actually using the oven.  So I know who will be helping with our pumpkin and pecan pies this Thanksgiving!

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Church Pie Crust
Makes 2 crusts

2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup or 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
1/3 + 1 tablespoon ice water

from Joy of Cooking


Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie
1 cup apple butter
1 cup fresh or canned pumpkin
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
3 eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell
Sweetened whipped cream, for garnish

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Combine apple butter, pumpkin, sugar, salt and spices in a bowl. Stir in eggs. Gradually add milk and mix well. Pour into pie shell. Bake for about 40 minutes or until set.

Paula Deen

It's Cookie Time!

No, not quite cookie-baking or swapping time.

It's Cookie-Time Bag donation time.

Yes, my Brownie troop is collecting self-contained bags of cookie-baking materials to donate to the local food pantries to sweeten the holidays of the people they serve.  It's similar to our Birthday-in-a-Bag donations in celebration of Juliette Gordon Low's birthday.

Here are the details, in case you'd like to try it with your service organization (but note that I'm not soliciting or collecting bags from people online):

We’re collecting

COOKIE-TIME BAGS

for local food pantries

What is a Cookie-Time Bag?  A Cookie-Time Bag is a self-contained bag with everything someone needs to make and decorate cookies during the holidays.

Who needs a Cookie-Time Bag?  Everyone likes to bake cookies, especially during the holidays!  However, sometimes circumstances occur that prevent this from happening.  A Cookie-Time Bag can sweeten the holidays.

Where will the Cookie-Time Bags go?  Each Cookie-Time Bag collected will be delivered to local food pantries, by December 13, to be distributed to the families they serve.

                                                                 

What goes in a Cookie Time Bag?

·         Dry mix for cut-out cookies, such as sugar cookie or gingerbread cookie mix  (no chocolate chip or peanut butter, refrigerated,  or frozen dough please)

·         Can or tubes of frosting

·         Sprinkles or other decorations

·         Cookie cutters (for example:  snowflake, snowman, gingerbread people, stars)

·         Disposable aluminum sheet for baking

·         Decorative bag to hold all the items

·         Optional:  napkins and plates for cookie party; cookie tin for storage

Be sure to include a note!  Suggested Text:

Happy Holidays from Girl Scout Troop #

Girl Scouts love cookies and we want to share them with you.  Inside you will find everything you need to make your own cookies for the holidays.  We wish you a happy new year!

Contact details:  If you would like to participate, e-mail your troop number, contact person and number of bags.  Bags must either be brought to the Adult Volunteer Meeting  or delivered to ____ by December 11.  Thank you!

Good Deeds

I'm proud of the kids on three accounts today.

First, they donated 11.4 lbs of candy to a local group collecting for soldiers on the USS Truman.  11.4 lbs! That's about a quarter of Sis's body weight.  It was their Halloween haul, plus our leftover candy for giving out (of which there was a lot), some leftover full-sized bars we bought from the Boy Scouts (I know, I supported them this year, just a bit, in recognition of their partial acceptance of LGBT), and then leftover candy from who-knows-what-else (probably Gommie!).  And now it's out of the house for a good cause.

Secondly, we talked about the typhoon in the Philippines this evening and voted to send some of our savings jar money as a donation.  This basically entails giving up our week's restaurant meal--and we all agreed.  We looked at the various charities and chose the Red Cross, mainly because they liked that the Red Cross had helped Ma and Gong after Hurricane Sandy.

Lastly, and connected to the above, they remembered that our church's CYRE (children and youth religious education) supports a UU girl in the Philippines, sending her money for school fees and other needs.  And they wondered if she were okay.  She lives on Negros Island, which is west of Leyte Island and Tacloban, one of the hardest hit regions.  We will keep her and her country in our thoughts and prayers.