Winter Nights Manual: General Cooking and Serving Instructions

The efforts of so many members of the Temple Isaiah congregation is making our sponsorship of the Winter Nights Homeless Shelter possible. We greatly appreciate your offering to cook part of a meal, bring it to Temple Isaiah, serve it to our guests, and clean up. Everyone has wanted to know the particulars, so here they are:

We are anticipating 30+ guests (mostly women & children, but single men and dads will also be participating).
All menu plans respect Jewish Kosher laws about not mixing dairy & meat, except those served at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
Meals are planned to be nutritional and tasty.
All food will be prepared and cooked at home and brought to the Temple in disposable containers covered in heavy aluminum foil marked with the name of the dish and the date.
A list of menus and recipes for each night is available on this site.
A “Crew Chief” is assigned for every night. That person will communicate with all volunteers assigned for that night and coordinate what everyone will be cooking.
Arrive at Temple Isaiah by 5:00 p.m. to allow time for setup and to greet our guests as they arrive.
Put on a nametag with your first name ONLY plainly written.
Paper products, beverages, disposable gloves, non-dairy creamer, sugar, sweetener, aluminum foil, table clothes & plastic wrap will be stocked in the Winter Nights section of the kitchen.
Wear disposable gloves when handling food.
Be sure coffee and tea water are turned on in plenty of time.
Carry everything needed for dinner into the serving area – including condiments, tableware, dishes, and napkins.
Serving will take place from the kitchen warming stations. Guests will be invited into the kitchen to get a plate, and Temple volunteers will serve all dishes. (Kitchen will be off-limits to guests at all other times except when preparing lunches.)
When all guests have been served, please serve yourselves and sit down with our guests, mingle, and enjoy dinner.
After guests are finished, please participate in cleanup, putting garbage into cans or other receptacles provided. On Green Nights, there will be more volunteers assigned to wash dishes.
Label all leftovers with a Winter Nights tag and place in the left and middle sections of the refrigerator.
Place all recyclables into appropriate containers.
Wash tables and restock supplies for next meal.
Notify your “crew chief” of any supplies that are low.
Cook/Serve/Clean-up volunteers should be done and free to leave by about 7:30 – 7:45 p.m.
Leave the kitchen as you found it – or better!

More Information on Winter Nights Set-Up, Serve, and Clean-Up

More Information on Winter Nights Set-Up, Serve, and Clean-Up

Important Reminders

It is important to not have more volunteers than guests. Please ask your volunteers to consider not bringing their children if that is going to swell your team’s numbers beyond the # of guests (20-30 most nights). We recognize that this is a delicate issue because there is so much enthusiasm to help and model Tzedakah to our children. The mission of Winter Nights is “to protect homeless families and seniors from winter weather by providing shelter in a clean, safe and warm environment.” We need to keep that mission foremost in our minds.
It is up to the Crew Chief to determine if there are too many volunteers. If there are, please ask people to go home. If you find out the client # from the Crew Chief the day before, you can ask some people to cook and some to serve. Use your discretion in balancing your people’s responsibilities. You can use your discretion in recommending that some people leave after delivering their food. Rule of Thumb: There shouldn’t be more volunteers than guests.
Some of our guests are struggling with alcohol addictions. During Winter Nights, we request that no wine or spirits be consumed in the kitchen or social hall.
The coffee pot is to remain plugged in at all times. It should be turned off, but not unplugged.
Guests are only allowed in kitchen at meal times. At all other times, the kitchen is designed for “Winter Nights Volunteers Only”.
Everyone (guests & volunteers) should be served firsts before anyone is served seconds.
Recommend that your volunteers leave purses and other valuables in their cars. There isn’t a secure place to store valuables in the kitchen area.
Temple Isaiah is to be responsible for providing lunches. There is a substantial supply of peanut butter, jelly, bread, tuna fish, mayonnaise, snack packs available on the WN shelves. Also, there will most certainly be some dinner leftovers that can be put out as lunch fixings. There are plastic sandwich bags and brown paper bags also available.
Please ask your cook/servers to bring aprons, serving utensils, pot holders and dish towels from home. Remind them to do this several times so that you are assured of having enough of these items.

SPECIFIC SET-UP INSTRUCTIONS FOR EACH NIGHT
(Order of priority of tasks)
Put on a nametag with your first name ONLY plainly written. Nametags and felt pens are on the stainless serving counter.

Set out Healthy Snacks – cut up apples, raisin boxes, graham crackers, juice boxes, homemade cookies. Put snacks on rectangular table in the Social Hall so that it is ready before the guests arrive which is usually about 5:00 – 5:30 p.m.
Set up warmers – Follow specific directions for Warmers on pages 21-22 of printed manual.
Set-up Coffee Maker (in Oneg Area) – Follow specific directions for Coffee Maker on page 20 of printed manual.
Put hot water in the large coffee urn for tea. Make sure that there are tea bags, sugar, artificial sweetener, creamer, spoons, and napkins on the table.
Set tables (for 35 - 40 people) with napkins, plastic forks, spoons, knives, paper cups for cold drinks. Put a water pitcher with ice & water on each table before dinner is served. There is a large ice maker in the kitchen.
Prepare lunch food: Tuna, hard-boiled eggs, celery, onions, and mayonnaise are available to make tuna and egg salad.
Set out paper plates or Temple dishes (on Green Nights on the rolling cart near the door. Select one person to distribute plates (this job can usually be well-handled by a teenager or older child).
Have the food in the warming bins no later than 6:00 p.m.
Cut desserts and place in small bowls or plates to be put out after the main meal is completed.
Gather ALL volunteers to the Social Hall and with the guests and sing the Hamotzi before asking people to come to the kitchen for dinner.

Before Dinner Checklist

☐ Everyone put on nametags w/ first name only

☐ Set out healthy snacks

☐ Set-up warmers

☐ Set-Up Coffee Maker

☐ Put hot water in large coffee urn for tea

☐ Set tables – water, cups, forks, knives, spoons

☐ Set out paper plates

☐ Begin lunch preparation – make tuna or egg salad or dishes or choice

☐ Have food in warming bins (no later than 6:00 p.m.)

☐ Cut desserts & put on small paper plates

☐ Start to make food for lunch (tuna or egg salad)

☐ Gather volunteers with guests to sing Hamotzi (6:30 p.m.)

After Dinner Checklist

☐ Guests, clear own dishes and silverware
☐ Unplug coffee urn that has hot water in it
☐ Empty coffee filter and wipe down coffee table (DO NOT UNPLUG)
☐ Wipe down tables. (Tablecloths should be reused for 4-5 nights)
☐ Wash serving pieces (return to volunteers)
☐ Wash stainless steel warming bins
☐ Drain water from warming apparatus (VERY CAREFULLY)
☐ Wipe down kitchen counters
☐ Layout lunch items – pack everything in plastic bags and organize as assembly line; put out brown paper bags and felt markers
☐ Invite client-guests in to kitchen to fix lunches
☐ Empty trash and recycling
☐ Sweep kitchen floor
☐ Label all leftovers
☐ E-mail Sandy about any supplies that are running low.
☐ Close-up the kitchen and shut doors

SERVING

All servers must wear hairnets and gloves.
The plate distributor will meet the guests at the door to the kitchen, say “hello” or “welcome” and hand each guest a heavy plate.
The Winter Nights rules say that the volunteers are supposed to serve the plates rather than having people take their own food. There is flexibility on this one. If your team would prefer to have them take the food and have the volunteers just supervising, that is fine too. Temple Isaiah’s serving spoons are marginal at bests. That is why we are asking cook/servers to bring serving utensils from home.
After everyone has had firsts, guests & volunteers can come back for seconds.
Volunteers should join guests for dinner. Leave 1-2 people in the kitchen as servers and the rest of the volunteers adjourn to the Social Hall. Remember to rotate so that the serving volunteers get to sit down and eat too.
Put out the desserts on the rectangular table in the Social Hall when it looks like most people are finished with dinner.

CLEAN-UP

Guests should clear own dishes and silverware into trash bin by table with coffee & tea.
Unplug coffee urn that has hot water in it.
Empty coffee filter and wipe down coffee maker. DO NOT UNPLUG the machine.
Wipe down all tables. The tablecloths are plastic and should be able to be used for 4-5 nights. We have extra round & rectangular tablecloths on the WN storage shelves.
Wash serving pieces and make sure that everyone gets their own to take home.
Wash stainless steel warming bins. If these are not washed out well, they can harbor germs.
Drain water from warming apparatus (VERY CAREFULLY) and make sure that it goes down the drain. Otherwise, there will be an additional annoying mop-up job.
Wipe down kitchen counter.
Empty trash and recycling.
Sweep kitchen floor.
Label all leftovers with Winter Nights sticky labels.
E-mail Sandy about any supplies that are running low.
Close up the kitchen.

Set-up Coffee Maker (in Oneg Area)

Put a clean filter in the basket and fill with 1C of coffee. The coffee scoop is in the Decaf Coffee on the WN shelf.
Insert the filter basket in the slot in the coffee maker (left side).
Fill the receptacle (right side) with a pot of clean water.
DO NOT TURN MACHINE ON until AFTER you pour in the water. It will drip quickly. During the evening make sure that someone checks the coffee maker to make sure that there is fresh coffee.
Recommendation: Make decaf coffee in the evening.

Let the morning crew make Regular Coffee. If there is a request in the evening for Regular Coffee make it, but make sure that you put it in a glass carafe with a black rim.

Perpetually Perfect and Peelable Hard-Boiled Eggs

The wisest way to hard-boil eggs is to put all the raw whole eggs (as many eggs as you like as the number of eggs you will be boiling has nothing to do with this cooking method) into a pot that has a tightly, snugly fitting cover of its own—then cover all the eggs, filling the pot, with cool or lukewarm tap water until there is more than one-inch of water covering the top egg.

Then, on a high-flame, bring the water to a full, rolling boil. The minute the eggs reach that full, rolling boil, remove the pot from the stovetop to a nearby waiting trivet and IMMEDIATELY put the cover on the pot completely covering the pot TIGHTLY and allow the eggs to continue to cook in the hot water (right on your tabletop, without any flame underneath it) for 18 minutes.

After the 18 minutes, remove the cover and bring the pot to the kitchen sink, gently and carefully pour out the still very hot water and refill the pot with the coldest water you can get from your tap. Let the eggs sit in the very cold water for a minute or two and then refill the pot again with more of the coldest water you’ve got. And you will have perfectly hard boiled eggs (which will also be remarkably easy to peel—THAT is the secret to easy egg-peeling, immediately rinsing the cooked eggs with the very coldest water you can).

The best way to peel a hard-boiled egg is to tap both ends on a hard surface, breaking the shell on both ends and then laying the egg on its side on the hard surface, simply and quickly rolling it gently but firmly against the hard surface which causes many, many tiny and larger cracks to form through the shell and then it’s ready for easy peeling.
This egg-boiling method is the old Betty Crocker cookbook and it really works—PERFECT hard-boiled eggs EVERY single time—and NEVER any soft uncooked spots inside the eggs either.

SETTING UP & MANAGING THE STEAM TABLE

Parts –

Heating compartments or heating baths.
Temperature knobs.
Plugged in electrical line.
Trays – for containing the prepared food, which fit into the heating baths. Do not substitute.
Drain valve underneath the table.

Important!

Keep your equipment clean. Any doubt? Clean it!
Steam trays are used to keep prepared food hot. Prepare your food and then place it into the trays that sit in the baths. Try to minimize the time between keeping your prepared food hot and the start of your event.
Only water goes into the baths.
Clean, clean, clean all surfaces!

In a pinch

Fill the baths with HOT water. Heat the trays by rinsing with hot water. Place the trays immediately in the baths and cover. Cycle preheat for 15 minutes, and then adjust the temperature.

Countdown:

1 hour before dinner (5:15 pm)

Turn off the drain valve at the bottom of the table.
Fill each bath with about 1-2 quarts (2-3 inches) of warm tap water.
Turn the temperature knob to “preheat”.

45 Minutes before dinner (5:30 pm)

Change the temperature knob to “hot”.
Check the water level.

30 Minutes before dinner (5:45 pm)

Place the serving trays into each bath.
Make sure the trays are spotlessly clean. No reason to take a risk.
Cover the trays.

15 Minutes before dinner (6:00 pm)

Check the temperature of the trays. Adjust the knob accordingly.
Place the prepared food into the tray and cover.

At the event

Remove the covers and place them in a safe place. The food remains uniformly warmer with the cover on.
Make sure the areas next to the trays remain clean.
Check the water level every ½ hour.

NO more food served 15 minutes prior to dinner ending (6:45 pm)

Turn the temperature knobs to OFF. It will take some time for the steam table to lose its heat.
If a tray is empty, remove it from the steam table and clean. Take extra care to thoroughly clean.
Check for and remove any food that may have fallen into the bath.

At the end of dinner

Verify the temperature knobs are on OFF.
Remove the remaining trays from the steam table and clean. Take extra care to thoroughly clean.
Check for and remove any food that may have fallen into the bath.
Open the drain valve and drain each of the baths. Make sure water goes directly into drain or you will have a messy mopping clean-up job.
Make sure each bath is spotlessly clean.

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