Hot Time In The Old Town

With temperatures soaring up to 109 yesterday, it turned out to be a pretty hot time at the Elks Lodge.  Thankfully the downstairs AC units purred like kittens the entire morning and kept everyone cool as a cucumber.  I can't say as much for the kitchen.

It was 5:45 when I pulled in to the parking lot to find no one in sight.  My first thought was I probably had the wrong day.  Before I could make the first phone call to double check, trucks started pulling in.

The best part about helping to cook breakfast for Father's Day?  There's not as many people and I get to make as many trips as I want into the walk-in freezer.  I can't find .............. (whatever), became my excuse to cool off.

I moved three big pans of ham to the ovens before two of us threw together six egg casseroles.  Imagine pans twice as big as normal, full of liquid eggs.  It's a balancing act for sure.  I cleaned up the mess "someone" made on the floor.

It starts out slow as the cooking process begins.  Getting close to 8:00, the rush was on.  EXCEPT ... someone forgot to mention the actual people EATING this breakfast would not arrive until 8:30.  Oops!!

The eaters trickled in slowly until 9:00 when we were hit with a big rush that never stopped.  I have to say we serve some of the best biscuits and gravy in the country and the word definitely got out.  It also helped that this was a completely free breakfast for any lodge member and his extended family.

In no time it was a scorching 90 degrees in the kitchen.  I got caught too many times hanging out in the freezer, so they brought in this swamp cooler on wheels.  It would almost blow you over if you walked in front of it, but it cooled down the kitchen quite nicely.  Not really "cool", but not scorching hot either.

There were a few oopsies .... I overcooked two pans of sausage.  I hate that skin on stuff ... and the scrambled egg guy didn't cook his lot enough, so on to the griddle they went.  Boy am I glad I didn't have to clean up THIS mess!!!  

In true Nancy fashion, the last pan of ham almost came out burned.  It spent WAY too much time in the warming ovens.  One guy said I needed to cook those hash browns much more ... they were not brown enough, while the next guy in the kitchen said I was cooking them WAY too crunchy.  Seems there was no middle ground on this day.

We served almost 325 people, not counting the entire kitchen crew.  I think that's a record for Father's Day.  I packaged up all the leftovers which were sent to the Rescue Mission down the street.  Nothing goes to waste.

My thank you for the morning ..... two HUGE pieces of Costco cake.  My all time favorite breakfast food. And for being such a good boy while I was gone, Cooper got a little taste of ham.

Coming up next ... and I can't believe I'm saying this ... I've agreed to a solar panel estimate on my house.  The way things are going, it will make my house even more sellable when the time comes.  I doubt anything will come of it.  You are totally penalized if you are conservative with your power, which of course I am, meaning most likely there will be no income tax benefits.  The good news is I have an IN with a commercial solar company expert who will make sure I don't get a raw deal, if there's a deal at all to be had.