[Sca-cooks] Feast costs/budgets

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

>> I have always written rcipes in case of disaster response . . .
>
> This is a failure of mine I must resolve to improve on. I think it's
> that whole "cognizance of one's own mortality" thing. Why would we
> need such detailed notes? I'll be there. What could possibly go wrong???

I think this realization (that we had better not be irreplaceable) happens
to all of us, though those, like Master A, who have a good sense of
organization, probably get away with it longer than those, like me, who
have people begging them to get a written organization even when we're
THERE. :)

I'm a naturally frazzled person, and more of a good plain cook than
anything else. Having lots of pieces of organizational paper-- copies of
recipes with redactions, shopping lists, and schedules-- means that a) I
figure that if something terrible happens that my crew can pick up and go
with it without me; and b) when my plan fails to survive contact with the
actual events of the day, I at least have a list that I can use to come up
with a new plan. Also, I can say "Go look at the list" when people ask me
what they need to do when I'm doing something else. Having recipes I can
hand people is just such a blessing to me.

Now, does that mean that I will, when I start cooking, use my own
redaction exactly? Oh, no. It just means that I have some notion of what I
said I would buy, and how I planned to put it together. I tend to read the
recipe, read my redaction, and then wing it. :)

I do test my recipes in order to get redactions and quantities (it's
important when you need to buy cheese in pounds for Armored turnips and
you aren't a professional cook who can guess these things by eye!), but
also to make sure the flavors will go with the other flavors in that
course, which for me means being able to a) taste it, and b) having other
people taste it.

-- 
-- Jenne Heise / Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
jenne at fiedlerfamily.net