Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head

When we were planning the Christmas dinner for two zones of missionaries (50), it became clear that stove and oven space was going to be limited.  After taking an unscientific survey of our district we found that their favorite potato dish was funeral potatoes - except for Sora Wilson who is from Australia and had never heard of them.  So I found a recipe for crockpot cheesy potatoes that looked delicious, easy and didn't take up any oven space. Then I discovered that they don't have bags of frozen grated or cubed potatoes here.  But they do have potatoes so how hard can making frozen grated potatoes be?  Off to the piata to pick out 80 spuds (about 45 lbs.) we go.  We spend hours washing, peeling, grating and putting them in our treasured gallon ziplock bags. We put half the bags in our little freezer and the other half in the freezer across the street at the chapel.  Job well done!  But wait, there's more.  When we check them the next day the potatoes have all turned black or brown.  I guess Birds Eye has a flash freeze process we had not considered.   

On to Plan B........

So now we must solve the "spud" problem......what to do, what to do?   Back to the piata we go for 80 more potatoes.  The morning of the party we wash, peel, slice and put them into buckets of cold salty water.  Then 1 1/2 hours before the dinner is to be served, we race home to start boiling and mashing.

We walked into the serving room with our pans of mashed potatoes at exactly 6:00pm.  However, when we got home that night at 11:00pm we found that angels from on high had not come into our kitchen while we were gone.

The Dinner



                       Remains of the Dinner

The missionaries managed to eat almost everything on the table.  After the dinner they were allowed to take home left overs and the rest disappeared.  Thanks to all the Senior Couples in the Buc zones we served an almost traditional Christmas dinner.  Instead of turkeys, we had chickens and pork roasts in place of ham. There was the traditional red jello (thanks Jennifer!) and corn.  Delicious glaced carrots replaced yams. We even had dressing, green bean casserole and gravy.  We love our missionaries and they let the seniors walk away from the kitchen without looking back.  They had that building spotless by the time the night ended.

And because we just couldn't resist..........

Romanian Gothic

Craciun Fericit!