FOOD Makeshift gourmet PHOTO BY PHILLIP SUNKEL Not all food at homeless shelters are like the movie depictions of soup RECIPES Chicken Salad ' 6 oz of Fresh chicken, cooked not canned ' 2 tbs of Sweet relish or diced pickles ' 1 tsp of Dijon mustard ' Half a stock of celery, chopped ' Spiced to taste with oregano, garlic and pepper ' 4 tbs of Mayo Mix all well and serve. Serves 1. Meat loaf Ken Grippo, 60, makes a feast of a lunch for the clients of the COSAC homeless shelter. Hannah Winston University of Florida K en Grippo makes stuffed crab legs, chicken cordon bleu and, his specialty, the Grippo family ziti in his kitchen. X @ < < rant. His kitchen is in the back of the COSAC homeless shelter in Holly< wood, Fla. â€œFor a homeless shelter, weâ€™ve put out some pretty fantastic meals,â€? he said. The shelter serves more than 500 trays for breakfast, lunch and din< ner every day. Itâ€™s open to residents of the shelter and others who are just hungry. The kitchen runs on dona< tions so the meals are free. ÂŒ Â†> $ Â‘>< Â‘Â€< days in the kitchen and never turns anyone away, even after hours. â€œI was meant to feed people,â€? he said. From roasting the chicken for lunch to dicing the onions for din< ner, his mind is always on to the next meal. Will there be fresh vegetables? Are there enough chicken legs? What if we run out of French fries? But thereâ€™s never a shortage of hot< dogs, he explained, laughing, open< ing a freezer full of the frozen meat. Sometimes, he said, the shelter will be treated with donations like lavish cakes. Steady food donations come ev< K <\ hospitals, said Cynthia Waters, do< nations director. But random acts of kindness come as large as excess wedding food and as small as left< overs from individuals, she said. But, donations donâ€™t cover every< thing. Basic needs like mayo, pan< cake mix, syrup and tuna are rare donations but are necessities in the kitchen. So, a weekly budget of $500 is split between the kitchen and housekeeping, but Grippo tries to use as little as possible. Still, he likes to have options, dona< tions willing. He goes as far as hav< ing meals for special dietary needs. From vegetarians to those with reli< gious practices, he tries to please ev< X he knows a few residents are allergic and never cooks with salt because many people at the shelter have high blood pressure. Instead, heâ€™s heavy on the garlic. â€œBeing Italian, itâ€™s inherited that I add garlic to everything,â€? he said. Joanna Butts, a resident of COSAC, said she usually cooks for herself, but Grippoâ€™s food is good for now. Grippo prepares potatoes with the care he learned in his grandmotherâ€™s kitchen as a boy, and throws out the rotten bits that others might use any< way. Things that have gone bad are the only things he will part with. He triesâ€”and usually succeedsâ€”to use everything that is donated. He said all it takes is some imagi< nation. He jokingly brags to have found more uses from the boxes of apple sauce that the shelter get from the food bank than anyone could think of. He adds it to sauces, chicken and sometimes even the pancakes known as Kenny Cakes. He can take lunch meat, without bread, and roll it up with cheese and bake it. â€œIf I wouldnâ€™t want to eat it, Iâ€™m not going to serve it.â€? What he wonâ€™t eat, his human garbage disposal, Glenn Greene, probably will. Greene, who works as Grippoâ€™s assistant in the kitchen, considers himself â€œthe man behind the scenes,â€? chopping the chicken, & food. Heâ€™s never worked in a kitchen before, but heâ€™s learning. He said that he never thought the kitchen would be as busy as it is, but when three people run a kitchen that feeds hundreds of people a week, itâ€™s no small operation. Grippo keeps cooking and cre< ating new foods for the shelter he once called home. Now, he lives in the transitional housing that COSAC offers in the city. He said that even after his long shifts, he used to cook for the whole house when he got home. X < < niversary with Roger Wickham, his partner who he met at the shelter, on Sept. 9. When asked if he plans on cooking a big dinner for the celebra< tion he replied: â€œHell no!â€? He stopped to laugh. â€œHe better be cooking for me.â€? Â„ ' 1 pound of ground turkey ' 2 eggs '1 sleeve of unsalted saltine crackers, crushed ' 8 oz of tomato sauce Mix ground turkey, eggs and crushed saltines. Put in loaf pan. Pour tomato sauce on top. Bake at 350Â° F for 45 minutes. Serves 6-8 Breakfast Scramble ' 12 eggs ' 1 roll of breakfast sausage, loose ' Hash brown potatoes, (amount equal to eggs) ' Pepper ' Any wrap, tortilla, etc ' Cheddar cheese optional Scramble 12 eggs with sausage. Cook hash brown separate. Mix both, add cheese, and pepper to taste and put in wrap. Serves 8 Recipes courtesy of Ken Grippo HOMELESS VOICE OCTOBER, 2011 7