Service with a smile

I made dinner for a friend tonight. She’s exhausted and run down and emotionally spent after a difficult ordeal, so when I heard about it, I volunteered to bring in dinner. Usually when I take in dinner for someone in the ward, we do it in pairs, as a visiting teaching companionship. But my companion has been sick and is pregnant herself, so I didn’t try too hard to get ahold of her, I just figured I would do it myself.

Last night, while I was preparing dinner, I was watching Food Network (big mistake, I know) and we watched this recipe for Bacon wrapped Turkey Breast stuffed with pear hash. My children all sat with wide eyes glued to the television. “Bacon” they sighed. I had to admit it DID look good, so when I got the phone call later that night from this friend and told her I would bring her dinner, I thought of this recipe. After all, is there anybody out there who doesn’t love bacon?

This morning I went to the grocery store to buy turkey breasts so I could make that recipe. Did you know you can buy a WHOLE turkey for less money than you can buy two turkey breasts? Oh no I’m NOT going to pay $15 for two organic turkey breasts. I bought chicken instead. I came home, put away my groceries, and started on some rolls.

While I was mulling over what to do for dinner, the afternoon kind of got away from me. I was driving carpool pick up from both the high school and the junior high, as well as taking three kids to two different piano lesson locations, and each trip in the car seemed to take longer than it was supposed to. Megan also had her first footsall game, and I had to make sure she could get to that.

But I managed to pull off a pretty amazing dinner, even with all the LIFE that happens.

Bacon wrapped chicken breasts
Brown rice with veggies
Fresh hot homemade rolls
Apple bacon Green beans
Fruit salad

Luckily, I had made a big pan of mint brownies on Sunday, and had a little more than half of them already packaged up, so I took those to them for dessert.

(In all honesty, that’s not MY picture of mint brownies, I just found it on the internet, but really, they were that good.)

As I was trying to get everything done at the same time and package it all into disposable containers (or containers that I don’t really care if I get back), the kids started whining about how nobody ever brings US dinner, and why are we giving them ALL the rest of the mint brownies? I had to remind them that when we give service, we should always give the BEST to the person that we are serving. And I had to remind them that TWO of my friends brought in dinner just over a month ago when I had surgery, and that they were both very good meals, and included dessert. One of my daughters went so far as to suggest that her sister should break her leg again just so that people would bring us meals. Can you believe these kids?

I was quite proud of myself for a)making such a delicious dinner, and b) getting it all done and delivered while it was still hot. I made TONS of food, since they have a big family, and I had to have enough for us to eat, too. We sat down and ate dinner, and I must say it was delicious. Sure, I would have liked a nice mint brownie after the meal, but I can live without it.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think that I may have used every single pan in the house, and I have to go and start doing the dishes. But I’ll do it with a warm heart, knowing that I made someone else’s day a little easier, and hopefully taught my family a tiny bit about service.