Cooks make yummy Christmas dinner

Cooks and bakers were busy preparing and serving Christmas dinner last Thursday at the Golden Hour Senior Center.

For the cooking staff at GHSC, the day started at 5 or 6 in the morning. Each person was helping prepare the ham with cherry sauce, broccoli, sweet potatoes and rolls. Desert was also homemade and served to those in attendance.

"I made five pans of sweet potatoes," senior cook Lynn Dewailly said.

She figured it was about the equivalent to 40 pounds of sweet potatoes. About 20 hams were also baked to cover both the 11:30 a.m. dinner setting and the 1 p.m. dinner setting.

All of those working in the kitchen seemed to have different jobs, from baking rolls and hams to washing dishes or serving the meals up for residents.

Janice Castillon, GHSC baker, said she made about 210 rolls and she figured they would go through every, single one of them.

"I love to watch people eat and enjoy the food," Dewailly said.

Although Dewailly's favorite thing to make is soup, she doesn't mind making her grandmother's sweet potatoes for people.

"My grandmother called it sweet potato pudding," Dewailly said. "That's just what we called it."

For Dewailly, cooking is just something she has always done. Something her family did since her grandparents owned a cafe while she was growing up.

"I've cooked since I was little -- probably four or five years old," she said.

Both Dewailly and Castillon enjoy watching all the people come and eat at one of these special events.

"Even when it snow on a day like today, they come out," Dewailly said.

The kitchen employees were thankful for city of Green River employees who served the meals and cleaned up tables for them.