Off to Camp Mendocino

[snousle]

Whew. John and I just completed shopping for 360 meals at the Golden Gate Guards run this weekend. The kitchen there is huge, though, easily able to feed 1000, so feeding 60 will be a snap.

The Guards gave me a $1200 food budget, not including meat and liquor, of which I have spent just shy of $1000. It's packed into fourteen boxes of various sorts ranging from wooden crates to coolers, and all but three of them are jammed into the CRV (with a few things on the roof to boot). We just have to take it four miles down to the highway, where we will rendezvous with the truck.

The remaining two boxes are in the Beetle, i.e. the fruitmobile - one is a duct-taped aggregation of fruit boxes, the other is a pair of wooden crates filled with expanded paper for the sole purpose of transporting 30 baskets of strawberries from the farm down at the bottom of the hill. John's getting those right now, since they're so fragile that they would suffer greatly on our road.

I'm getting to know some of the local store owners and managers - I think in the future we'll place our order ahead, since they all seem quite eager to help out. I suppose it's easier for them to put the stuff in a box for me than it is for them to put it on display, check it out, and so forth. There is a particularly good local market here that has their own meat locker, and their quality and prices are both excellent. The owner even made a special trip to the dairy today on my behalf. And to top it all off, his store attracts the highest concentration of virile, crusty, blue-collar lunks I've ever seen in my life, beating out even the best lumberyards. Did I mention how much I like this county?

Overall, it's been pretty easy - we left for shopping at 10 AM and everything was fully packed by 4. The gig has exposed several weaknesses in my database - my recipes need to be much more vague with regards to particular ingredients, and allow for a lot more improvisation during shopping. Also, the boxes of food, for all their efficient packing, turned out to be awesomely heavy. I can barely lift some of them.

The menu includes a lot of baking, so the dry goods includes 35 pounds of flour. This will be John's first big baking experience. His cinnamon buns and dinner rolls are to die for, and I hope the as-yet-untested apple tarts will be as good.



10/2/2008 6:00:00 PM 20 Pasta
10/2/2008 6:00:00 PM 20 Beef stew
10/3/2008 7:00:00 AM 20 French toast with hazelnuts
10/3/2008 7:00:00 AM 20 Granola with fruit and yogurt
10/3/2008 12:00:00 PM 20 Antipasto Plate
10/3/2008 12:00:00 PM 30 Bread basket
10/3/2008 12:00:00 PM 10 Potato salad
10/3/2008 12:00:00 PM 20 Cookies (purchased)
10/3/2008 6:00:00 PM 50 Braised chicken
10/3/2008 6:00:00 PM 60 Zucchini with onions and peppers
10/3/2008 6:00:00 PM 60 Apple tarts
10/3/2008 6:00:00 PM 25 Lentil and pasta salad
10/3/2008 6:00:00 PM 50 Rice, steamed
10/3/2008 11:30:00 PM 20 Bread basket
10/3/2008 11:30:00 PM 20 Antipasto Plate
10/4/2008 7:00:00 AM 30 Bacon
10/4/2008 7:00:00 AM 30 Fried ham
10/4/2008 7:00:00 AM 60 Eggs with spinach and cheese
10/4/2008 7:00:00 AM 60 Fruit salad
10/4/2008 7:00:00 AM 30 Biscuits
10/4/2008 7:00:00 AM 30 Egg fried rice with green onion
10/4/2008 7:00:00 AM 30 Sausage gravy
10/4/2008 12:00:00 PM 30 Black beans
10/4/2008 12:00:00 PM 30 Spanish rice
10/4/2008 12:00:00 PM 60 Cucumber salad
10/4/2008 12:00:00 PM 60 Cookies (purchased)
10/4/2008 12:00:00 PM 60 Tacos
10/4/2008 7:00:00 PM 30 Caesar salad
10/4/2008 7:00:00 PM 60 Strawberry shortcake
10/4/2008 7:00:00 PM 60 Dinner rolls
10/4/2008 7:00:00 PM 60 Mashed red potatoes with sour cream and chives
10/4/2008 7:00:00 PM 20 Stuffed Mushrooms
10/4/2008 7:00:00 PM 60 Prime Rib
10/4/2008 7:00:00 PM 60 Vegetables, roasted
10/5/2008 8:00:00 AM 60 Cinnamon buns
10/5/2008 8:00:00 AM 60 Eggs, scrambled
10/5/2008 8:00:00 AM 60 Sausage
10/5/2008 8:00:00 AM 60 Pancakes
10/5/2008 8:00:00 AM 60 Fruit salad



FOR ALL THIS WORK I SURE HOPE TO HELL I GET LAID!!!

Comments

[h0gwash.livejournal.com]

Good luck on both fronts! Wish I could be there.