Too Many Cooks!!

Too many cooks spoil the broth they say.  Luckily my strong kitchen personality won out ... this time.  Goodness gracious!  I now fully understand Gordon Ramsey's personality in Hells Kitchen.  Okay, it wasn't that bad, but voices did get loud.

So here I am contemplating how to get a completely new menu going to feed the Seniors .... 75 or more of them, down from our usual 100.  No pictures since there was not one second to spare.

We all have the OLD menu down pat, but this year they wanted to change it up.  Do you cook the ham BEFORE you slice it or AFTER?   And so the discussions began!  With the help of our Chef who was there (thank goodness), it was decided to cook them in brown sugar and pineapple juice, then slice.  No problem, the ham went in the oven.  

The next one caused most of the ruckus.  We have several kinds of potatoes in stock.  How you fix them is completely determined by which kind they are.  I had the box, I read the instructions and was told by the Chef exactly how to do it.  Everyone wanted to intervene.  Four people said I was doing it wrong.  Oh my gosh!!!  

Thankfully my sweet personality won out, even as voices got pretty loud!!  An hour later, they all came back and apologized when they discovered the directions they wanted to use were for a completely different type of dish.  It was nice of them to say so!!

Next up honey glazed carrots.  Who eats those anyway???  They were boiled in a pan, then smothered in brown sugar and butter.  I don't know what happened to the honey part.  I never saw any honey.  They really needed two more cups of brown sugar, but what do I know!!

Corn .... that's easy!  Out of the can and into the pot with MORE butter.  No one said this was a fat free dinner.  The rolls were covered with Saran Wrap (not foil) and placed in a warmer.  That was news to me, but they came out perfectly soft and not soggy.

We sliced up all the ham (two huge pans full), four pans of scalloped potatoes, two pans of corn, two pans of carrots and two pans of rolls.  Off we went.  The apple pie (their request) had already been delivered.  No one knows why whipped cream is on the list for apple pie ... maybe ice cream next time?

Just as we went out the door to load up the trucks for transport, it began to pour.  That caused a five foot wide river flowing along the curb where we needed to UNLOAD.  My open mesh top running shoes let the river run right through top to bottom.  

We set up quickly, but Mrs. I'm Running The Show was in the way.  It was 4:45 when she mentioned that no one was coming to dinner until 5:30.  What???  Okay, we'll just stand here.  Many people cannot get to the dining room, so their meals are boxed up and delivered.  She decided to do those first.  That was fun ... some are vegetarian, some don't like ham ... all special orders.  It was a madhouse!!!

At last the nice folks were allowed in the building and we began to plate up.  But wait ... this is not the usual buffet ... they decided we should DELIVER each meal to the tables.  And so we grabbed every able body and served the entire crowd.  WHEW!!!!!!

I started at 1:00 and it was now 6:30.  I'm beat.  We loaded everything back into the trucks, again in the pouring rain.  We plowed through 4" of water in the street, my pants AND shoes now soaked, and drove back to the lodge.  We unloaded everything, cleaned up the big mess, grabbed a few leftover scalloped potatoes and headed out the door.  

I had to be up and at 'em really early for my 7:00 truck appointment.  And so ...... here I sit.

One of my friends, the lodge bookkeeper was going to pick me up and take me to work with her.  I would just wait there until my truck was done ... an expected five hours.  Oh yeah ... that should be fun, right?

She forgot me.  I finally got a ride with one of the owners in his new GMC truck.  I overloaded him with questions.  When I mentioned something about clunking in my drive train, he said that was something that happens to this model and year, an easy fix.  He added that to my list as he dropped me off in the freezer section of the lodge.  

Oh my gosh it was freezing cold!!!  Next time I better keep my mouth shut about the PG&E bill at the lodge.  My suggestion to turn the heat down was working, but boy oh boy I was an icicle by 10:00 ... and I had five more hours to wait!!!

That however, is tomorrow's story!!  And TODAY I have company!!  Woohoo!!!