Calipoutine Scrambles to go Catering

[CaliPoutine]

I put out a bowl of watermelon around 10:30am and it was much appreciated.

[CaliPoutine]

These are the baked beans from Saturday's dinner. Sue and Gloria's Baked Beans. Once again, I made way too much.

[CaliPoutine]

Here is my helper cooking the eggs on the flat-top. We did a small amount to see how it would work. It worked well, we did them all like that. The salamader was right underneath the grill and was really hot. Dana is telling me how hot it really was.

Edited June 8, 2008 by CaliPoutine (log)

[CaliPoutine]

As the woman made their way thru the line, I could tell who was American and who was Canadian by their reaction to the word peameal bacon. The Americans would say " What did you call it?". Then I'd say " its what we call Canadian bacon".

I diced up the leftover baked spuds and tossed them w/ Evoo, salt, pepper and fresh rosemary. We baked them in the oven.

This is another Paula Dean recipe for French Toast Casserole. It was really good, I can only imagine how much better it would be with the praline topping( that I left off). I used the Jimmy John's bread that I froze. I also used a few pieces of Scali bread that I made a few weeks ago and froze.

Edited June 8, 2008 by CaliPoutine (log)

[purplewiz]

I've been following along, and the food really does look spectacular. Especially the pork...geez, I wish I was there to help with the lefotvers!

Marcia.

[Kim Shook]

Randi, congratulations! Like others have said, I am so glad that you were able to cook for people who deserve you!!! Everything looked absolutely delicious – the standouts for me were the gorgeous fruit salad and the bbq. I am stealing the idea of cucumbers on tunafish! That’s a great idea. And I love that ‘Nana pudding – it is our favorite version! Enjoy your well deserved trip to FL!!

[Shelby]

The French toast is a picture! You have out done yourself!

[Lilija]

Oh, those lucky girls, having you cook for them, for a weekend. The food all looks amazing, I can't even pick a favorite dish or picture. Totally impressive, so well done. As others have said, it must be such a welcome change cooking for people that truly appreciate your effort and food. With more practice for events like this, the portioning will come together, better, and you'll have less leftovers. Not that leftovers are a bad thing...

[petite tête de chou]

How wonderful that you finally got to hear some appreciation. I can see why so many folks were pleased with the spread, just *look* at the variety of dishes you offered! Great job.

[KarenDW]

FanTAStic!

You rock, Chef Randi

[christine007]

Chef Randi

It's really nice to see you finally getting noticed for the wonderful cooking you do.

I can feel the love and thought you put into everything you do, and I pains me when you don't get the props you so deserve.

enjoy your vacation, you've earned it!

[CaliPoutine]

drumming

African dancing. The woman(instructor) on the left lives in Long Beach, CA. I spent a lot of time talking to her about my favorite restaurants and shops that I left when I moved here.

spinach, strawberry and brie salad. I used 2lbs of baby spinach( I bought 4, way too much), strawberries, cut up brie( I only used 1 of the packages I bought). I took the rind off because I hate it. I got cans of honey roasted macadamia nuts for 1.00 at big lots. I also threw in some red onion. I made a dressing with part evoo, part veg oil, sugar, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, a little soy and PC brand raspberry vinaigrette. I made 2 cups of dressing, dont ask me why. I probably used 1/2 a cup. I also put out the leftover greek salad that I dressed with paul newman's dressing. I left off the feta and called it a green salad.

ready to dig in.

lasagna. I used 3 packages of noodles to make 2 pans(there were just a few pieces left). I used 3 475g containers of ricotta and 2.5lbs of cottage cheese ( pureed). I used 2 family size packages of frozen spinach and a few eggs along with spices. I didnt pre-cook the noodles first so I used a lot of extra sauce. I used11 jars of classico sauce(on sale for 2.00). I felt bad about that because I can get san marzano tomatoes for 1.50 a can in Windsor,ON. I didnt want to use my stash because I dont know the next time I'll be back there. I kept telling myself that at least Classico is a high quality sauce. Nobody complained.

This is Marcy Goldman's Garlic Slathered Stretch Bread. It was probably the most popular item I made. It was gone within 5 minutes. Robin came up for lunch and to help me pack up. She loves this stuff and she didnt even get any. I made the dough the night before, cutting down the yeast to allow for the overnight rise. The recipe calls for 4 cups of bread flour, but I used closer to 7 because it was so humid and hot in the kitchen. The dough is slathered with a mixture of chopped garlic, parmesan cheese, mayo, evoo, and Italian seasoning. Its topped with lots of shredded mozzarella cheese. One lady told me that this was better than sex, not the cake. LOL.

I made 4 of these. Marcy's book is called A Passion for Baking and I highly recommend it.

This was the last meal of the day and by the time lunch arrived(1pm) they were hungry.

I got 11 hours of sleep last night and I feel way more refreshed. I was on such a high this weekend from adrenaline and all the compliments. Still, I dont think I could do this every weekend. Way too stressful. I'm totally ready to go off to Florida and eat out in restaurants. Robin is staying home with the boys but I made sure she has lots of leftovers.

Thanks for everyone's comments and compliments. I feel very appreciated by my eG peeps.

Edited June 9, 2008 by CaliPoutine (log)

[SobaAddict70]

Cali --

You'll always be a chef in my book.

[CaliPoutine]

Cali --

You'll always be a chef in my book. 

←

Awwww, thanks

[Shelby]

OMG that bread! I will definitely be making that. 'Specially if it's better than sex

Have fun in Florida!!!

[kbjesq]

Great job all the way around! Hope that you took lots of notes on quantities for the next gig!

Please PM me the sex-bread recipe. OMG that looks delicious. Actually all of your food looks delicious. I wouldn't mind going to the camp, skipping the drumming and dancing, and just eating all day!

PS Thanks for the extra photos!

[racheld]

This is what that "You GO, GIRL!" thing is all about.

Believe me, with many of years of doing that in the Mississippi heat, I can say:

GIRL!!! You WENT!!!!

[eldereno]

I have been keeping up with both this and the elder group dinners. What a feat you have accomplished!!!!! Great job! Can't even imagine doing all that you have done AND SO WELL!

[jayhay]

Great job Chef!

So happy they appreciated all the time & effort you put into their meals.

[Kim Shook]

Randi - you did a fantastic job! You have a lot of proud people here at eG! I, too, want the sex bread recipe. (Did anyone else go to the auto link for the sex-bread recipe in the above post? I think it's hilarious that is links to The Old Fashioned Bread Recipes book - good, old fashioned sex bread )

[hsm]

Brava! You so deserve the praise. Everything looked fantastic - and yes, perhaps a posting of that recipe to RecipeGullet is in order. (I can't find the pretty please emoticon.)

edited because it's one word, cap R, cap G

Edited June 10, 2008 by hsm (log)

[CaliPoutine]

I'm in Detroit now, but when I get back, I'm going to ask Marcy if she minds that I post the recipe. Hopefully, she wont mind

Thanks for all the compliments.

Btw, is it tacky to tell you how much I made from the job?

[Kerry Beal]

I'm in Detroit now, but when I get back, I'm going to ask Marcy if she minds that I post the recipe.  Hopefully, she wont mind 

Thanks for all the compliments. 

Btw, is it tacky to tell you how much I made from the job?

←

Of course not, but only because we didn't ask first - now that would be tacky!

[CaliPoutine]

I got 2100.00 for 50 people. I paid my helper 270.00( 10 an hour). That was well worth it. Don't think I'm cheap, I paid her more than she makes as a line cook at a country club in London.

I'm pretty sure I made close to 1000.00. I say pretty sure because I added up all the food I bought up until Thursday and it was 500.00. I spent a lot more between Thurs-Sunday but I dont think it was more than 300.00-400.00. I actually could have made more than 1k, but I dont think so. I did probably spent about 100-150 more on food that I needed to. For instance, I bought 4 gallons of milk in MI. I then bought 4 bags( 4L) of milk on Friday morning at Shopper's drug mart( they have the cheapest milk). We never even used the bags of milk and there was probably half a gallon of regular milk left. I used all regular milk for cooking. So, there was 16.00 that I could have had as profit. I did freeze the bags of milk so it wont go to waste.

The two things I ran out of( OJ and Ketchup) are the two things they asked for.

I took home lots of leftovers too. I also took home spices, and lots of condiments that I didnt use up. When I can get to a calculator, I can give a better estimate.

[CaliPoutine]

I've arrived in Florida

Marcy said I can post the recipe but I wont be able to do that until I get back to Ontario. She thought she was an eG member but can't seem to comment. Hopefully she'll be able to figure it out so she can post it before I get back.

Its soooooo good.