CaliPoutine

Here is the better than sex cake. When I got in yesterday, I took a picture of it. It was all gone today.

So its over and I need to come down off this high!! It felt so good to prepare food that was appreciated( you're right Rona). I can't even count the number of compliments I received. They even asked me if I wanted to come and cook at their Eastern Camp( near Ottawa) next week. I said " No Thanks". I'll be in Florida as well. I dont think they realize how long I prepared for this. I was up at 4am and we got there by 6am. Breakfast was ready by 7am and then we worked on lunch. First though, here are some pics from yesterday's lunch. Sandwiches, chips, fruit salad and assorted cookies/bars. See those butter tart squares at the top? It was so freaking HOT that they were melting. Every single cookie/square that I made yesterday adn today was demolished. I dont think a lot of people bake these days.

Wow, that looks great. What a nice assortment of desserts. I hope we can find one of those dinners when we're in town. Is that you and your daughter?

They're going to take what they want, I'll take some and so will my sous chef I guess I'll dump the rest( which pains me to do). I'm leaving for Florida on Tuesday so I'll be missing my Senior dining next week. I baked 66 potatoes last night. I dont know what possesed me to do that. We diced up about 20 for breakfast this morning, they ate about 20 last night and there are many, many leftover. I figured 1 per person last night, but they were huge. I went straight to a produce company. They sold me the 50lb bag of russets for 9.00. Oh and its 4am and I'm awake I was planning on getting to the site an hour before breakfast but I dont think thats enought time for the french toast casseroles to bake. I'm going to give myself an extra half hour.

Here is my last photo for tonight. This was the dinner table. I'll post everything else tomorrow. Dessert was Paula Dean's Not Yo Mama's Banana Pudding. This is 3x a recipe and there was half of it left.

Chef Randi, I liked that

Today we worked 11 hours. We were able to take a few 15 minute breaks and get out of the sweltering kitchen. I opened up my thermapen thermometer and it read 96F in the kitchen. It was cooler outside though. This is for Kathryn. I'm just going to post a few pics as we need to be there tomorrow at 6am. I'm exhausted and need to sleep!! Everything went really well and everyone was so happy. I was almost in tears as one women( from Long Beach, CA no less) was telling me how great the food was. She said it was so much better than the food last year( a profesional caterer from London did that). Its so nice to be appreciated Before dinner. There was tons!! After dinner. I worried for naught!! Look how much is left.

Thanks for all the good wishes. I have to get a move-on soon, but I uploaded a few pics. I can't believe I forgot to take a pic of the soba noodle salad. It was really good!! chicken, sausage, onion bake( recipes that rock 2008 thread) pasta salad. Check out my vintage cheese markers. potato salad. I asked my helper to garnish w/ chive blossoms. She didnt tell me the blossoms werent open. LOL. group eating. This is just part of the food, I planned on refilling the platters, but I didnt need to. There is so much food leftover. Maybe because it was so hot, people didnt eat as much. I made two 900gram bags of pasta and I almost had Robin bring me another bag. I used 16lbs of mini potatoes( too many). Enjoy these pics in your cool airconditioned houses.

Well, the first day is over. Everything went really well except for the fact that it was probably 100F instead of 85F like I predicted. I probably dropped 5lbs in sweat. LOL. The food was great( if I do say so myself). I got many compliments. One lady said " this is the best food I've ever had at this facility". We left there at 7pm and we( my helper is spending the night at my place) were home by 7:40. I had a few things left on my to do list, but they'll have to wait until morning. The pulled pork was no where near finished when we left. I turned the slow cooker down to 250 and will let it cook all night. I had tons of salads leftover too. All the chicken was finished. Pics to come later.

More bargains. I needed ALL of this stuff so it worked out well. The peppers are for the greek and pasta salad. Tomatoes I'll use for the Greek Salad. The tomatoes I bought yesterday I'll use for sandwiches. The sub mix is assorted deli meats( this time it was ham, turkey and summer sausage) for 3.68lb. The red onions I'll use for the salad as well. Celery is already washed and trimmed and I'll use that in the tuna and egg salad. I think I did pretty well. I dont know how full-time caterers do it. I went to sleep at midnight and was up at 6am. Not because I wasnt tired, I just cant sleep!!!

I got really excited when I saw it in the index: then I opened the recipe and they meant store-bought sausages!!! Weak. I thought a charcuterie recipe from CI would be awesome. I like their recipe for red-sauced enchiladas from the past, but wasn't so hot on the tomatillo variation they came up with for it. Maybe this new enchiladas verdes recipe will be an improvement. Alas, I'm in "clean out the cabinets" mode right now, so I won't be joining in much of the fun with this issue for another month or so. Made the fried rice again a couple nights ago, though: I love that recipe! ← I love those red chilie chicken enchiladas. I'm excited to try this new green version. I'll have to wait until I can bring some tomatillos back from MI. Thats one vegetable I've never seen here( even in London). Its funny though, my small town grocery store does sells gooseberries( tomatillo's are a relative of) , but they always end up on the reduced rack.

I sure wish I had your knife skills( and one of your sharp knives) to slice them thin. Anyway, I'm going to say screw it and hope I have enough. 8 of the 50 people are vegetarians and they'll have a different entree. I'm also making potato salad, pasta salad and a greek salad. Cake for dessert.

Finding bargains has almost become like a full-time job. LOL. Here is a funny. I thought I found a great bargain when I bought Carapelli EVOO at No Frills for 3.99 ( their regular price, its since gone up to 6.99). Personally, I like it. I also like Colavita(9.99). The latest issue of Cook's Illustrated doesnt agree with me on the Carapelli. They think it sucks and it made their "Not Recomended" list. Anyway, I made a raspberry viniagrette using that and some PC rasbperry vinegar for the Spinach, Strawberry and Brie salad they're eating on Sunday. I thought it was tasty, hopefully everyone will agree with me.

They're eating the pork on Saturday night. I'm cooking it on Friday at the site( the original menu was for the pork on Friday, but logistically it didnt work out) and will refridgerate it there. I have 2 porchetta roasts( boneless). They were leftover from a senior meal. They're 1kg each. Then I have 25lbs of bone-in butt. I could have bought the shoulder for 1.18lb vs 1.79 for the butt, but it looked a lot fattier. Now I'm totally worried that I dont have enough. I dont think I can get anymore either( I'm in a small town). I even called Costco in London and they dont carry it.

The new issue is out. Anyone( Chris??) made anything yet?

Its going to be 85F with no A/C in the kitchen. Thats why I'm using the crockpots. I'm going to make them on Friday and pull them and reheat on Saturday. I've done them before in the crockpot ( the recipe I use is from the Gourmet slow cooker book) and they worked out well.

I really like it cold!! My gram and mom make a baked rice pudding( its a Jewish recipe I think) that is very firm. You can cut it into squares with a knife.

I'm getting pretty anxious about this job. I dropped a ton of food off at the site this morning on my way to MI. I stopped there again on my way back and dropped off even more stuff. I bought 12 loaves(6.00) of day old bread from Jimmy John's. I'm going to use this for the french toast casserole. I had to buy a container at Target to hold it. I took a bunch of pics of the kitchen. Before I got there, I stopped at Sobey's for fruit. I bought 2 watermelons( 2.99 each), 3 cantelopes( 1.50 each) 1 honeydew(1.50), 6 containers of strawberries(1.50), blueberries(2.49), blackberries( 1.50) and raspberries(1.50). They were having a fruit sale and yeah, I know not local but nothing( except rhubarb) really is at this time of year. At least the fruit was from the US and not S. America. I removed the soup from the Saturday lunch ( its supposed to be 85F) and added a large fruit salad. I bought 3 pork butts in MI. They were 1.79lb and I got 25lbs. I really, really, really hope thats enough. There are 8 vegetarians and 42 meat eaters. Do you think thats enough? If not, I have a huge boneless pork loin in my freezer, can I use that for pulled pork? I'm making it in the crockpot( no smoker at the facility). Those little creamers are for any vegan's. Tomorrow I'm going to Costco to get some produce, some foccacia rolls for sandwiches and individual creamers.

Bingo---that's the one I was thinking of. I know I've made that one in the past and it was really good. Maybe I will give the muffins a shot too, but I'm definitely staying away from the Sept. '95 recipe: it's just not very good. ← I made the Corn muffins( using organic stone ground corn meal) and I wasnt impressed. I'm always comparing corn muffins to my favorite corn muffins from a Jewish Bakery in FL. The muffins as I made them were grainy. Maybe I was supposed to whiz the cornmeal in the cuisinart?

Id use the Le crueset, at least its enameled cast iron.

It just kills me to pay 8.00 lb for boneless, skinless, chicken breasts. If I had to do all my shopping in Ontario, I wouldnt make any money.

I'm pretty sure they're just a hop, skip and a jump away from you

I cooked in my living room when we went thru our reno's. I used a toaster oven/microwave and my outdoor grill. You can buy a small hot plate and use that.

I love those beans!! I just made Green's Black Bean Chili with those same black beans. I really need to dog out my copy of Veg cooking for everyone. I've seen it mentioned in so many threads lately.

I've been doing a lot of shopping in MI for this upcoming catering job. I'm happy to say that I'm not sick of JJ's yet. The last 2 times I've went, I've brought the sub home for dinner. I've also been buying their day old loaves of bread for .50. I'm hoping to use them in a baked french toast.