Christmas Dinner For A Crowd

 A not so beautiful day arrived out of the fog.  Even though I COULD have slept in an extra hour or maybe even two, my brain would not let that happen.  You know how when you just lay there and you think of things you should have said ... or should have done?  I don't think I have ever counted so many sheep!!  

The fog never let go of its tight grip on the countryside.  In no time I was off and running.  Here's our Bingo room, magically turned into an inviting banquet for the Radio Controlled Car group Christmas dinner.  Luckily we have nothing to do with that, but we DO have to cook dinner for 100 and get it on the road to the Senior Center.

I'm ever so thankful for this crew.  Kathy (second from the left) and her husband Nick (second from the right) have been in the catering business for many years.  I can't tell you how happy I was when they became members and volunteered for BINGO.  There's not another couple as hard working as they are.  

Kathy also volunteers to help the kitchen crew almost every day.  That's the KING in the middle and one of our permanent Bingo players on the right.  Hard to believe we usually cook this feast by ourselves.

Lucky for me, the head Chef had already put the turkeys in the oven.  The crew chopped up the biggest can of cranberry sauce you've ever seen while I scouted out the yams and brown sugar.  Oops ... there was no brown sugar to be found anywhere.

While there, we were dodging a delivery guy.  That's when they told us the brown sugar would be on the SECOND truck.  We waited.  And waited some more.  At long last he showed up and the yams went in the oven.  

Thankfully, the head Chef helped with the magic stuffing mix and the mashed potatoes.  Easy peasy, right?  Just dump in hot water and stir.  On this occasion however, it didn't all work out so great.  We cut up the turkey, loaded everything up into the big keep-it-hot containers and headed out the door right on time.

That's when it all went south.  We told them we would be there at 4:30 and serve at 5:00.  The lady in charge of the facility said NO ... 5:30 and the delivery meals would wait until 6:00.  No No No ... I pulled out my sheet.  You said eat at 5:00!!!  I think she wanted to wrestle over it.  Obviously she is NEVER wrong ... but I was at the meeting and I wrote it down.  I even showed her my notes.  She was not impressed.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door.  She went over, pointed at her watch and put her hands on her hips.  What the heck?  The little old 80-something lady said "can I come in please"?  NO ... 5:30.  You cannot come in until 5:30!!  Good grief ... this lady in charge is a mean awful person.  

I heard the little old lady say ... but I'm cold ... please let me in.  OMG .... she was told NO.  I said loudly ... for heavens sake, let the lady inside!!!  She begrudgingly opened the door.  We are serving in this big common room, so it's not like a restricted area or anything!!!  

Finally the King said we need to get going in spite of her protests.  We got the food out of the containers and began to prepare 44 to-go meals for those that cannot come to the room ... or don't want to face the ogre of the castle.  With that done, she finally let everyone else into the two big rooms.  The serve was on!!

I have to say here, I really do appreciate the lodge cooking crew OH SO MUCH.  However ... the frozen peas we ordered turned into CANNED.  They were that lovely army green color and tasted terrible.  The potatoes were perfect, but the stuffing?  It turned into a BRICK.  It was very dark brown and didn't even LOOK like stuffing.  I think they didn't use enough water.  You could barely cut it with a knife.  

So in my humble opinion ... this was the worst dinner we have cooked for them.  That made me sad.  You know sometimes, you just have to do it yourself.  The good news is they had pumpkin and pecan pie for dessert.  

We headed to the lodge at 6:15 where we unloaded all ten big pans and began the cleanup.  We had a little turkey left over that we split between us so at least everyone got a turkey sandwich for dinner.  YUM!!

I got home just in time for company to arrive.  It's going to be a short visit however, since I'm out the door by 10:00 for bookkeeping, then back to the lodge for lodge dinner night.  I think I should have my own parking spot!!  I hate to say it, but I'm going to enjoy being gone for a while!!!