What's Cooking?

Four dozen scrambled eggs, three pounds of bacon, two batches of pancake mix, one seedless watermelon: Tuesday breakfast

Five loaves of garlic bread, four large lasagnas (plus one small vegan), three boxes of brownie mix, two big salads, one blackberry crisp: Tuesday dinner

Fifty-one breakfast burritos and leftover lasagna (by request): Wednesday breakfast

The happy faces of the kayak campers: priceless

When we heard about the need for volunteers from the folks at Wet Planet Whitewater, we recruited a few friends to make meals for First Descents, which was hosting a weeklong whitewater kayaking camp on the Klickitat and White Salmon Rivers. First Descents, a non profit based in Vail, Colorado has been using kayaking and other outdoor adventure sports to promote emotional, psychological, and physical healing for young adults with cancer. This year they had nine programs in six states!

We've lived here two years now, and had no idea that the Columbia River Gorge Hostel in Bingen even existed. The historic Bingen School was built by the Civilian Construction Corps, and has been a hostel since 1988 with both private rooms and hostel beds. You can shoot hoops in the old gym, store your stuff in the hall lockers, write notes to self on the blackboards in the rooms, and make food in the self serve kitchen (in which we were delighted to find a commercial stove with a griddle top for our pancake feast). It's also just a few blocks' walk from the Amtrak station, as any good hostel should be!

The first breakfast went very well and we'd gauged our food pretty much on target. We did have some leftover scrambled eggs. Rather than send my cholesterol levels soaring, I thought we could turn them into breakfast burritos for the next morning, as that meal was still in need of a volunteer. It also solved the problem of what to do with a big bag of potatoes I'd gotten on sale. So in between meals I made up the burritos, wrapped them in foil and stuck them in the fridge for rewarming in the morning. Then it was time to bake the lasagnas for dinner. Lloyd went down early with the the garlic bread, salad fixings and the brownies I'd made for dessert while I waited for the lasagnas (one veggie, one small vegan). Jan and Fred brought a turkey lasagna and blackberry crisp, Janet and Skip brought a veggie lasagna, Lisa and Randy brought a veggie lasagna with white sauce and a salad, and voila, dinner for 30 plus us.

After dinner, we headed back to our house. The sun was down enough to enjoy our deck and some fabulous white sangria that Janet wanted to try from this week's Oregonian. It was a smash hit. I highly recommend it for summer sipping. Here's how to make enough for 8:

In a large bowl or pitcher, combine 1/4 cup brandy and 1/4 cup granulated sugar. Let stand 5 minutes then stir to dissolve sugar. Add fruit- 2 firm ripe peaches (halved, pitted, then thinly sliced), 1/2 honeydew melon (seeded, peeled, cut lengthwise into thrids and sliced thinly crosswise-abt 4 cups). Add one bottle of white wine (sauv blanc or pino gris, well chilled). Stir to combine. Just before serving, add 12 oz can seltzer or club soda and stir again. Serve over ice. You can keep it refrigerated up to 1 day.

It's been a busy start to our week, after surviving Nights in White Salmon (more on that when I track down some photos). I think we'll take a short hiatus from our good deeds and go fishing....we need to recharge our batteries!