I Smell Like Waffles!!

While everyone slept, I was up and at 'em by 4:30 in order to get ready for the onslaught of people to the Elks Mother's Day Buffet.  Try as I might to go to bed early, one of my neighbors in the new subdivision held their house warming with a for real band that sounded like they were on MY patio.   At least it was country music!!

I moved to the back bedroom ... not that it helped.  Luckily they quit about 9:30 and I got some rest before working my butt off in the kitchen.  Not a bad thing ... I could use a little less butt!!  I know, I need a purple shirt, but purple really isn't my color!!

There's a lot to get ready, since the menu has expanded so much.  There's Mexican Egg Casserole to make up (6 turkey roaster sized pans) and hash browns to season and pan up for the oven.  We spent Saturday morning panning the sausage, biscuits and waffles ready for baking.  The Dirty Thirty were hard at work.   Along with the waffles there was butter, syrup, strawberries, whipped cream, chocolate sauce and powdered sugar to get ready ... they leave nothing out!!  Not to mention the sausage gravy and scrambled eggs made by the other side of the kitchen.

It all becomes a dance with the clock, since the casseroles take 45 minutes at one temperature while everything else requires another.  The biscuits and waffles are pre-baked, so they just require a good warming before going in the crisper.  I think I baked 8 pans of these (that's 384 biscuits), 8 pans of waffles and 6 pans of sausage, plus the five pans of ham.  Whew!!!

TEN pans of hash browns went in the oven, all coming out crispy and brown after a few stirs.  Yup ... every pan had to be stirred at least three times, including the egg casseroles.

Here's my ovens ... boy do I wish I had these at home!!  There are two more warming ovens on the right just out of view to keep things warm after baking, so this was my workstation for the entire morning.  I only had one minor mishap (okay, maybe two) ... are you amazed?  I certainly am, but the first one wasn't my fault.  Someone came along and upped the temperature to 400 ... thinking they were doing a good deed ... and burned the first batch of waffles I had in.   Not burned black, but way too brown for my taste!!  I switched the dial back and refused to let anyone come near.

The second was a problem ... one lone sausage jumped off the tray.  The sausages expand when you cook them, so if you fill the pans too full, some try to escape.  One did ... all the way in the very back of the oven, on the bottom.  Smoke started to roll out when I opened the door.  RATS!!  I had to remove one rack and brave the screaming hot sides in order to drag it out with the longest spoon I could find.  Success!!

It wasn't all bad however ... when the young kitchen crew came in to do all the cleanup, we got some nice views to recharge our batteries.  You cannot imagine how much work these guys do ... for one, they washed 25 big pans and 28 sheet pans that I dirtied, not to mention all the plates, utensils and that huge meat slicer!!

The quiet before the storm ... we fed almost 500 people.  I finally had one biscuit with gravy, followed up by one small piece of waffle with strawberries, followed up with the biggest piece of Costco cake I think I've ever eaten.  I was miserable, but that's what I get for going off the diet.

The weirdest thing happened when I finally got home ... I kept smelling waffles.  Every time I moved around the house ... there's that sweet smell of toasted goodness wafting on the breeze.  I guess it was that blast of heat every time I opened the oven door.

Today I'm heading off to get my closing documents notarized, as well as send off my hard earned money and close the deal for the Arizona House.  I hope they don't mind that I still smell a little like waffles!!