About once a month, I volunteer to be the coffee hour host at church. You just have to bring some snacks and orange juice for the socializing in the narthex after the service. The church custodian takes care of the coffee. Last month, I decided to make a marbled chocolate cake from a recipe I found in Food and Wine magazine a couple of years ago. The unique thing about this cake is that it calls for olive oil instead of butter. Because of the high acid levels in olive oil, you can't use regular, Dutch process cocoa. The alkali in the cocoa will react with the acid in the olive oil and leave a soapy aftertaste.
Natural, unprocessed cocoa isn't easy to find, so I had to make the trek up to Whole Foods to get a can. It isn't cheap, either. That little can set me back $7.00. But I strive for the best results, so I didn't mind making the effort. That Saturday night, I made the cake and wrapped it up for the trip to church the next day.
When I got to church, I left the cake on the table in the narthex as I always do. However, when the service was over and I went back to get everything set up, the cake was gone, along with my serving plate (which was old, cheap, and plastic, so I don't regret losing it), my cake server (which was part of a cutlery set, so I do regret losing it), and my knife. I looked all around, thinking that perhaps someone had moved it for some reason. I even went down into the basement to see if someone had put it down there. But it was gone. Someone walked in off the street and swiped it.
The church is in a not-so-great neighborhood, and there was a man in the church before services begging congregants for money, so I suspect he was the culprit. I was really angry at first, partly because of the time, effort, and money wasted, but also because my name is printed in the bulletin as the coffee hour host, and if people come back there and don't find something, they assume that you forgot. I was mortified.
I told the pastor what happened and advised that future coffee hour hosts be warned to keep the food with them or locked in the church office. Some of the other folks there tried to console me with jokes, such as "Well that takes the cake!" and "Was it stollen?" but I was steamed up. I said, "I hope that guy chokes on it!"
Later, after I calmed down, I decided that I needed to have a more Christian attitude about it. If that guy was hungry and felt that he needed that cake, then he's welcome to it. It's probably the most nutritious thing that crackhead had eaten in weeks. I have learned my lesson, though. I took cookies to church today, and I kept them close by my side the whole time.
Natural, unprocessed cocoa isn't easy to find, so I had to make the trek up to Whole Foods to get a can. It isn't cheap, either. That little can set me back $7.00. But I strive for the best results, so I didn't mind making the effort. That Saturday night, I made the cake and wrapped it up for the trip to church the next day.
When I got to church, I left the cake on the table in the narthex as I always do. However, when the service was over and I went back to get everything set up, the cake was gone, along with my serving plate (which was old, cheap, and plastic, so I don't regret losing it), my cake server (which was part of a cutlery set, so I do regret losing it), and my knife. I looked all around, thinking that perhaps someone had moved it for some reason. I even went down into the basement to see if someone had put it down there. But it was gone. Someone walked in off the street and swiped it.
The church is in a not-so-great neighborhood, and there was a man in the church before services begging congregants for money, so I suspect he was the culprit. I was really angry at first, partly because of the time, effort, and money wasted, but also because my name is printed in the bulletin as the coffee hour host, and if people come back there and don't find something, they assume that you forgot. I was mortified.
I told the pastor what happened and advised that future coffee hour hosts be warned to keep the food with them or locked in the church office. Some of the other folks there tried to console me with jokes, such as "Well that takes the cake!" and "Was it stollen?" but I was steamed up. I said, "I hope that guy chokes on it!"
Later, after I calmed down, I decided that I needed to have a more Christian attitude about it. If that guy was hungry and felt that he needed that cake, then he's welcome to it. It's probably the most nutritious thing that crackhead had eaten in weeks. I have learned my lesson, though. I took cookies to church today, and I kept them close by my side the whole time.
Comments
Anyway, sad that that happened to you. I hope you take some solace in the pulled pork sandwich recipe I posted on my blog -- it's very good.
I've made an olive oil cake before, myself. Several years ago. An interesting spin.