CaliPoutine

I just got a call from the supervisor. She wanted to let me know how a cook at another program cooks her roast. She buys an Outside round roast and cooks it from frozen. She puts it in a pan with a bit of water. She covers the pan with saran wrap and then foil( I didnt know you can cook saran wrap). She cooks it at 325f for 1/2 per pound. Does this sound right? Do you cook beef from frozen?

The meeting is over. It lasted an hour. I went in with pictures, a list of every menu I've prepared since I started, the policy manual w/ tabs so I could flip to the pertinent parts , the grocery add and her highlighted letter. She tore into me as soon as I sat down. First she asked me if I eat out in restaurants here and I said " No, I'm not happy with the food in this town, so I cook at home". She said " if people dont like what we're serving, they're not going to come back. I whipped out her highlighted letter and told her that she was discriminating against me based on orign( " I dont know where you're from") which was clearly against company policy. I also said the letter was threatening " You can decline to work with me". I also told her something that Kerry pointed out " Are you willing to listen to what I want". I said " shouldnt it be what the seniors want". You told me to make peas and carrots and they hate peas. Well, as soon as the letter came out, she totally backpedaled telling me to " Oh, just rip up that letter and lets start again". She said she was frustrated. I said that she was attacking me based on one meal. She had pictures of other meals that I've made and she pulled those out along with the new pics. She said everything looks fantastic. Except, she pulled out a pic of beef stew and said the bowls wasnt full enough. I said that "overflowing" bowls is in direct conflict with the manual. She said the bowls looke chintzy. I said maybe the bowls are too big. I also said that I dont see how they'd pass "overflowing bowls" around the table. They're old people!! She changed her attitude towards me once I said that my spouse suggested I go to her supervisor based on the abusive letter. She then started asking me what we can do to make things better. I suggested her making up a survery( she liked that idea) about favorite meals, least favorite veg, etc. I also suggested selling tickets to reduce the amount of no shows. She wasnt keen on that but she said she'd start calling ppl to see if they were coming( there is a set list of the same ppl each time). I told her I'd need to know by Monday. She also suggested I plan ahead and buy for the freezer( duh, I've been doing that since I started). She wants me to buy extra vegetables( I said fine). She pointed out that one table didnt like that I only allowed 1 slice of tomato per person. I said " once again, thats according to the manual". I said " there was more tomato in the kitchen and if they wanted more( which some did), I can cut it up as needed( which I did). She said she didnt like that I served "store bought" pie back to back. I said " in the almost 2 yrs I've been doing this, I've only served storebought dessert 4 times. I said " older ppl like pie, I was giving them what they want". I told her the pies were local( once again, in the manual" and were fresh baked that morning. When I picked them up at 1pm, they were still warm. She said that I am very good on budget( I was under budget this last meal). I did concede that the fish wasnt good and I should have bought something else. She said " we have to give the seniors what they want, they want meat and potatoes". I said " I'm not going to cook a roast every single time. We talked about the roasts that are on sale this week. Its either a boneless blade roast( 1.99lb) or an eye or round roast (2.00lb). I did some research on the eye of round and it said it was a tough cut. Thats the roast I made in January that they thought was tough. I said " the only roasts that are good for oven roasting are expensive cuts". We decided I'd do a pot roast( I made one I believe back in February and they loved it, it cooked in the crock pot all day and overnight". She then said " Can we do mashed potatoes"? She went from telling me what to do, to asking me what to do. LOL I told her that no one has ever complained about my food before I started working here. I also told her that they want me to be their cook in my town. I said the clientele in this town is different. They're snobby and they're complainers. I said " I can guarantee you'll get complaints next week about something". She also asked me if I can do something with peaches. I said I was planning on trifle because pound cake is on sale. I'll do a peach trifle. I told her it was going to look like a messy trifle because I make it in a punch bowl and its scooped out into small serving dishes. She thought maybe I could make 40 individual trifles in disposable( plastic) glasses. Yeah, ok talk about a waste of money and bad for the planet. I told her that was going to be very time consuming. She said she was going to look into getting smaller serving dishes so the bowls look fuller. She apologized about the letter and her tone and said she was frustrated. Whatever!! She even offered to start the pot roast for me. I said " its part of my job, I'll come in on Wednesday and do it", I'll also be making the dessert. I told her I'll be arriving later on Thursday since I'll be putting in 2+ hrs the day before. I felt better after I left, but I still think she isnt a nice person and I'm going to have problems down the road. Only time will tell.

Found it! It looks perfect! Can you give me approximate proportions of ingredients? Equal parts of all the beans? How much water, sugar, vinegar? Regular white vinegar? Thanks for the help! BTW - that's an awesome thread. ← Here is the recipe as wrtten from my Mother-in-law. IIRC, I used some more beans, added more celery, onion and green pepper( diced), added green beans( recipe called for wax beans), added some celery seed. My MIL tends to stick to recipes like glue, but I only use them as a guideline. She makes this every xmas and keeps it cold in the garage. I used a large( costco sized) Hellman's container. That amount fed 45ppl. Just taste the "sauce". I think I added more vinegar too. Bean Salad: 1 can lima beans 1 can red kidney beans 1 can wax or butter beans 1 can cici beans (chick peas) 1 can romano beans 1 stalk of celery cut fine 1/2 cup onion cut in rings 1 green pepper sliced Sauce 3 cups white sugar 2 1/4 cups white vinegar 3/4 cup water 1 1/2 teaspoon salt Boil sauce and cool 1/2 hour. Pour sauce over bean mixture and let stand at least 24 hours. Here is a pic

Check out the Senior dining thread for a bean salad( it uses green beans, celery, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, etc). Its a cheap side dish and it can and should be made ahead. It gets better with age. The seniors love it and I happen to think its pretty tasty too.

SO relevant, actually. Did the new person even speak to you while she watched? It would be interesting to see what is in the Job Description for the coordinator, as well as what is in your Job Description (as pertains to menu and budgeting) ← I set the meeting for Friday. I looked at the Cook's manual and everything she is asking of me is in direct conflict with the manual. For instance. I'm NOT to go over budget. I'm to allow 1/2 c. of rice/pot per person. 1/3lb of meat. I'm not supposed to buy food so that there is extra for takeouts. There is nothing in the manual about me making every single dessert from scratch. I would love to transcribe the entire letter and post it here. Its really unbelievable. It borders on harrasment.

As my spouse pointed out, its obvious that she has never been in a supervisory position before. My spouse( who is in charge of 50ppl) was appalled at that letter. Robin suggested I might go to her supervisor, but I will sit down with her and talk about the issues she raised. I'm calmer now that I wrote out my point of view regarding the issues she raised. Thanks for all your support!!

Thanks. I've spent the afternoon writing out all my menus. I've printed it off and will bring it in on Thursday. In 2 yrs, I've served store bought pie 4x. I served storebought Pumpkin pie on thanksgiving and xmas. They were 2.50 each( I can't even bake a pie for that). A can of pumpkin is over 3.00 here. No one has ever complained about "store bought" pie before. I honestly dont have enough time to bake 7 pies from scratch while trying to make a meal for 40ppl( we only have 2 regular ovens). I'm just so flaming mad at the tone of her letter. Btw, not that this is really relevant, but she just stood around and watched me in the kitchen. She never helped at all( the other coordinators do dishes and help clean up). She has no experience as an office worker, she's worked for the company for 10yrs, but she was a person who went into the Seniors home to clean or help with personal care.

To be honest, I came home and cried. I can't freaking believe this letter. Here is one quote from it " This is my first real project in a new job and I want you to know that I will NOT fail"( emphasis mine). " As i see it, its very simple to feed elderly people, they want simple tasty homeade food and lots of it". " They dont want mushy undercooked fish( it wasnt undercooked) with 4 beans and store bought pie". I could go on and on, but this is really upsetting me. I will tell her that they prefer their veggies mushy, they hate peas, they love storebought food and they dont want tons of food. I was constantly throwing out food, so I've reduced the amount I buy to stay within budget. Eta: there was still leftover poatoes and veggies. Oh, I have to add this other little gem " I dont know where you grew up, but here in Huron County, you are dealing with a farming comunity". They're used to bowls briming with food and not having to try to figure out how to take the right amount so the bowl goes around the table". Total BS. My MIL and every other relative's house I've eaten at doesnt serve " bowls briming with food". My MIL( who grew up in this county) always thinks I serve too much food. Deep breath Randi, deep breath.

Time for a new budget I'd say. ← It was increased to 3.50 a person. Still not enough!! Most of the "roasts" I saw were over 4.50lb

I cooked last Thursday( I forgot the camera). I made a tomato/havarti cheese salad baked flounder green beans( frozen) corn muffins( jiffy mix donated) hash brown casserole store bought Apple Pie w/ ice cream. The grocery store had litterally no meat/pork that fell into my budget. The butcher told me he'd sell me bags of arrowtooth flouder for 2.00. I breaded them and baked them in the oven. I think the fish might have been freezer burnt, because it ended up very soggy. I should also mention that I have a new coordinator and she received lots of complaints. I went into the office today to turn in receipts. There was a letter waiting for me. Basically, she told me I HAVE to cook roast beef, potatoes, peas and carrots with homeade dessert next week. She told me I can either deal with it, or quit( or I assume be fired). She went on to say my presentation sucked and I'm not providing enough food. I'll be calling her tomorrow to set up a meeting this week.

Here in Ontario, we have a toasted Western. Its a Western omelet between toast.

The slaw that Marmish made at the Heartland Gathering was amazing. She posted the recipe in that thread.

The super Wal*Mart in Port Huron, MI recently lowered their prices on KA flour. Prior to the big price hike months back, it was 1.92, then it jumped up to 3.99. Its now 3.65. Still expensive though. I switched back to Gold Medal for my cakes/cookies because I dont think KA flour was making a difference for those. I still buy it for bread though. The supermarket in my small town( 4,000) has some great deals most of the time. They have a reduced rack for produce and bread. I bought a bag of hot cross buns for 1.00( which was weird because I always thought they were an Easter thing). I made french toast from them and they were really good. A month or so back I got a huge bag of plums and apricots for 1.00 each. I made a nice pluim sauce and a vanilla apricot jam. Grocery shopping is almost like a full time job for me. eta: The Kroger in MI is very expensive. I only buy sale items there.

Maybe you or Marlene would like to be a guest chef for the Seniors???? They'd love that meal!! The last roast( I think back in January) I made for them was a disaster. My coordinator said to me " even I have trouble cooking roast". Yours looks perfect!!

I think Marlene has one!! Maybe she'll chime in.

I wear the Bistro( black). I really love them!!

Dreamfields is the best pasta for Diabetics.

My favorite ever breakfast burrito comes from a restaurant in Long Beach, CA. Its got brown rice, black beans, chicken, scrambled eggs( or beaters) and cheese. Omg, it was soo good, kinda wet inside( I never got salsa so I dont know what that was). I wish I could duplicate it, I've tried, but have never come close. eta: I found a pic, but of course it doesnt show whats inside.

Thanks 'snob! Here's a linky for the rest of ya.....White Butter Cake Just looking at the picture of the cake that you took makes me want to bake it! ← Even after living in Canada for 5 years, I'm still not used to metrics. How many egg whites would 150G be? Would 175C be 350F?

I believe Kerry bought the White Lily that was made in TN( I checked the package because before she bought it). I usually always make CI's Tall and Fluffy Buttermilk biscuits. Here's a pic I dug out of my archives. I subbed some WW flour for the white.

She named a bar after you. How cool is that?

I filled in for another cook today. They loved my food and said " I wish she was our regular cook". Too funny. I think my seniors just take me for granted. I made Ham and scalloped potatoes( ATK recipe). I made jiffy corn muffins, the same ambrosia I made on Thursday and veggies and dip. They absolutely loved the potatoes too. If you ever need to make scallopped potatoes for a crowd, I'd highly recommend this recipe. You cook onions in butter, then add heavy cream and chicken stock. You simmer the thinly sliced russet potatoes in this, then dump into a pan and cook in the oven for 45min. I added shredded mild cheddar on top. There is a previous pic somewhere in this thread. I made a trifle( thank Kerry) too. I used pound cake, birds custard, cool whip, rasberries and rasberry jam. It was a hit. I went in yesterday and made it in a large punchbowl. There wasnt a drop left. This kitchen is much smaller. Not a great picture, but you get the idea.

I'm sure that it would taste great, but you are right, the consistancy might suffer. Maybe if you used Whip It? ← IIRC, the actual recipe calls for frozen whipped topping, OR an equal amount of whipped cream.

Randi, if you're really blaming yourself, get professional help. (Hug) You served a great meal. But I agree that this death will be on the minds and tongues of the Seniors next time. I agree with rachel -- give them the comfort greatest hits. ← No, I'm not blaming myself. The sad thing is, I can't picture who the woman is. I know the name, but not the face.

I might very well have served someone their last meal. I just found out that a lady who attended the dining program on Thursday night, died on Friday morning. I sure hope it wasnt all that processed food they love so much