Chaos!!! It Was Chaos!!

Somehow, getting up at 3:45 in the morning ruins the day.  At the very least, it makes that morning cup of wonderful sweet coffee, NOT the experience I was looking for.  I was on the road by 5:00.  Why you ask? Because there was a big party on Saturday night that had to be cleaned up BEFORE we could even begin to prepare breakfast for 350 folks.

There was the biggest mess you have ever seen on the tables, the floor ... everywhere!  They left the coffee pot plugged in all night and the juice container leaking on the table.  We got to work like a hill of ants!  

That's when everything came to a screeching halt.  Apparently more than one person had a little too much fun and threw up all over the tables, chairs and floor.  And of course they didn't bother to clean it up.

That's when we found the REAL damage.  THEY BROKE TWO TOILETS!  Who does that??  Not kidding here ... there were busted parts and pieces all over the floor with the accompanying mess.  No worries, they will pay for everything ... but obviously we had to clean things up for OUR event.  We were furious, but what could we do?  

Here's our Numero Uno in charge ... Mr. Jeff.  He's a great guy, great sense of humor and just all round nice.  I think it's because he's a motorcycle guy!

To start Father's Day out right, Dads could partake of this special double barrel shot.  Don't ask me what's in it cuz I don't know.  I didn't have one ... but I was certainly intrigued by the crispy bacon on top.  We have a bartender extraordinaire ... who can make some of the craziest things you've ever tasted.  

With everything finally CLEAN, we began the cooking.  Krusteaz sweet cream pancakes came off the grill looking (and tasting) amazing!!  The guy in the middle cooked the eggs (while ribs smoked back at his house) and the guy on the end ... GRAVY MAN.  

We tried something new this year.  We made SIX gallons of gravy, poured it into steel pans and kept it in the warmer.  You can't believe how easy that was ... and how good the gravy turned out.  Italian sausage is the key, though you wouldn't think that would make good gravy.  It was the best we've ever had.

In the meantime, I baked up 520 biscuits to perfection ... and didn't burn a single one.  Nor did I burn any humans in the process.  I made a rule this time ... NO one comes on MY side of the table this year.  I also cooked up 10 pans of sausage ... more than ever before.  Thinking we were going to run out, we stationed a gal at the table to dole them out and rushed out to buy more.

It must have been pretty tasty because we barely had enough leftovers to feed the crew.  Here's the room, seating almost 150 people.  We opened at 8:30 and were full by 9:00.  It stayed that way until 11:00.

Then came the hard work.  Cleanup.  All those plates that had been run through the line twice had to be picked up once again and everything washed and put away.  

I got out of the last bit because the Elks Lodge has a special celebration for Dads up in the Lodge Room.  They were short one person, so I got shanghaied.  This time I had to read half a page ... but that's okay, there was no one there to hear me except four other folks.  With that done, it was time to get out of Dodge.

I fixed up several small styrofoam cups of leftover gravy for whomever wanted to take some home, and packaged up the leftover sausage in small zip lok bags.  Many times our young cleanup crew get to take food home to their families.  

I was exhausted and HOT, but that didn't keep me from having a little dinner once I recovered.  Sausage on toast, smothered in sausage gravy ... breakfast of champions.  It tasted okay, but to be honest, when you've cooked this stuff all morning long, it really doesn't hit the spot come dinnertime.  Hopefully I can figure out something to do with the bit of remaining gravy.

So here we are on a lovely 59 degree morning where you will find me lounging on the couch with my Kid for the next few hours, doing absolutely NOTHING!  It's recovery time!!