[Sca-cooks] My First Dayboard (Part 1 - long)

[Bethra Spicewell]

Greetings all,

  Daily life has slowed to a point where I can sit down long enough to
give you a report on "My First Dayboard"
  Everything being pre-prepped that needed to be pre-prepped, bought
that needed to be bought, and frozen (unfrozen), etc., I set out to
finish the cooking on Friday morning.  The stewed lentils fit nicely in
one 10qt pot, and thence into the fridge. The pickled eggs went into a
bucket, which formerly held potato chips, and joined the lentils. The
chicken & pear stew needed both the 12 and the 8qt pots, and went into
a five gallon bucket begged from food services at work. This went into
the big cooler and was packed around with ice (20 lbs or so) until it
was time to travel.  (I thought my arm was going to fall off at the
wrist grinding the anise seed for the stew - I have a small twist
grinder bought at Le Mart du Wal.)
 Friday afternoon my DH (and official Beast of Burden) bought the
apples and cider, retrieved the cheeses, bread and cookies from his
sister's house -auxiliary storage :-),  and helped me load up the rest
of the stuff in the car.  I think he used a shoehorn, but it all fit,
except the drink coolers - we'd take them Saturday. Then we stopped at
"that Scottish place" for supper and headed north.  Friday night - what
can I say ? A 90 minute trip took nearly 2 hours.  We arrived on site,
parked next to the kitchen and began to unload.  We had most of it out,
and then two wonderful gentles showed up and took out the rest (and
heaviest) of the stuff.  We set up 2 tables across the length of the
room, and began to unpack.
  The site had both a walk-in refrigerator and freezer, two big stoves
and at least four convection ovens.  I begged space in one of the ovens
from the headcook to use the next morning. The room where I was serving
Dayboard had a freezer, so we plugged it in and let it get cold so we
could keep chilled stuff there overnight.  DH then took the roast beefs
(16 lbs) and sliced it on the big slicer in the back room. I rolled up
all the slices that would roll, plattered some of them and wrapped it.
The rest went into a big foil pan with a lid, and all into the freezer.
 Then we cut the cheese.  Somehow, we managed to snag help - she
wandered over, asked, and we gave her a big knife and put her to work.
20 lbs of cheese takes a long time to cube ;-). She ran off, not quite
screaming. (Turned out it was her first event. She helped in the
kitchen, too. She told us on Sunday that she'd had a blast) After that
was done,  I set up the serving trays and bowls, which all had labels
in them, so I could judge space. It looked like a tight fit, but it
would work. We made sure all the cold stuff was in the freezer,
unplugged it and went home.(11:30 pm)
  The next morning, early, but far from bright (5am); we packed the
coolers, and headed north again. This time it took just over an hour.
I don't know why we'd bothered to put anything in the freezer- the room
was only about 45 degrees (7C). There had been a frost in a few areas
nearby. No heat in the building except a fireplace in the next room,
and the door had been open all night for people to move stuff in and
out.
  I found the tablecloths, taped them in place (so they wouldn't slide)
and proceeded to load up the serving dishes and replace them where they
belonged.  My cut carrots and celery hadn't shown up (the *only* job I
had sub-contracted), so I spent the next while cutting up the ones I
had had left over, and by some miracle of foresight, brought.  DH
spooned stew into foil pans to go over a sterno steam tray, and took
them to the kitchen to heat in the convection oven.  I dumped about
half the lentils into a borrowed crockpot, and plugged them in to heat,
the rest went to the oven to keep warm with the stew.
  I got the tea concentrate and the lemon syrup ready, after DH filled
the coolers with ice and water.  We poured the cider into its cooler
and added the gallon I'd bought and spiced Thursday. Set these on the
counters behind us to fill and refill pitchers from.  Eventually we had
everything almost set up.
  DH had to go to Court.
  I couldn't get the green olives open, and went on a manly manhunt.
They were opened. Good thing - I think my autocrat stopped by every 10
minutes to take anther handful. All the bowls and platters were filled,
the pitchers filled and set at the end; the lentils were heated, the
stew was hot and the first 2 trays had been moved to the steam tray. I
took a deep breath -- and had my first customer.

TBC (time to go to archery practice <s>)

Bethra

=====
Christina Elisabeth de la Griffon Riant
   Barony of Stonemarche        EK

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