Does anyone else remember the Friday potatoe bar? That was my favorite!!
Oh god, potato night was vile. Someone else mentioned taco bar. I don't know what it tasted like in California, but the one in Idaho was terrible. Crappy, cheap, corn tortillas, and that ground beef that tastes like it belonged in a public school cafeteria. But then again, I'm not much of a taco person. I hate corn tortillas. Especially with ground beef. Give me a burrito any day.
I could have also gone without sloppy joes, but that's another personal taste issue. I hate those retarded things.
Oh man, you know what else I loved?? French Dip.
The most brutal of Ironies is that RMA did NOT get their potatoes from Idaho. They got them from Washington. (I'm assuming because it was closer to the panhandle than southern Idaho.)
However, this is no reflection on the kitchen staff, they worked their asses off. It's tough to cook in bulk and still make it taste good. Especially when you are trying to heat it up over a flaming log of ponderosa pine.
i was kitchen manager for a long time. i liked working in the kitchen. i still love to cook. sorry if the eggs sucked i used to like to do sunday brunch, everyone liked it so much, so it was fun to help make it.
Oh god, I HATED working in the kitchen. When you got to challenge at RMA, you had two choices for work. (holy shit! I finally get a choice??)
The woodshop with Greg Springett, or the kitchen with Patsy and Wendy.
All the girls chose the kitchen, however, I practically ran to the Denali basement so I could do fun fun fun things like build footlockers, install new beds (enrollment went up to 200 around the time I was in challenge.), and burn people's names into a splinter of wood for the new student cubbyholes in the mudroom. Oh yeah, I think we were still working on Greg's handmade canoe, too. You have to admit, that was a kick ass boat.
The job sucked, but not as much as the kitchen. And either way, it's all gravy because you are INSIDE!!! FOR ONCE!
The one week or two I had to work in the kitchen was because Greg was on a Wilderness Challenge, so all woodshop students went to work in the house. I was totally miserable before I even started working. I fucking hate kitchens, cooking, cleaning or anything domestic like that. I burn salad, and I was just SO fucking unhappy for those couple of weeks. That kind of work is just.... oh god, it's awful. I would have happily run down to the wood corral for some sledge n' wedge than make quiche for 200 fuckers. (Oh god, remember the quiche? That stuff was awful.)
However, the one nice thing about the kitchen were the staff.
Regardless, I am glad I had the chance to work there, albeit briefly, because the girls taught me how to crack an egg with one hand, and it is waaay easier than cracking it with two, as far as I'm concerned.
That's probably the most valuable lesson I learned at CEDU.... how to crack an egg one-handed. I don't cook, but I can crack an egg.
Dona Dona
On a wagon bound for market
There's a calf with a mournful eye.
High above him there's a swallow
Winging swiftly through the sky.
How the winds are laughing
They laugh with all their might
Laugh and laugh the whole day through
And half the summer's night.
Dona dona dona dona
Dona dona dona don
Dona dona dona dona
Dona dona dona don
"Stop complaining," said the farmer,
"Who told you a calf to be?
Why don't you have wings to fly away
Like the swallow so proud and free?"
Calves are easily bound and slaughtered
Never knowing the reason why.
But whoever treasures freedom,
Like the swallow must learn to fly
Okay, the creepy thing about this is, even though it is about the holocaust, it totally reminded me of when we were either going to the doctor's, or on a ski trip, or something, and we got caught behind the slaughter truck just as it was leaving RMA. So we got to look at all the cows in the back of the truck that we had gotten to know so well while we were in quest... looking all sad, scared and delicious. Most of the people in the van were bummed. I was thinking to myself "So what's the turnaround for this? When do we get them in edible form?"
Fresh beef and pork can't be beat. Right from the abattoir and onto your plate. Too bad they didn't have enough animals to slaughter enough for all of us every day. Morning crews on the farm trying to take care of that teeming mass of future yumminess would have been a nightmare. We never would have gotten done.
Besides, I hated the cows and the pigs and the chickens. They were ugly and smelly and gross. As far as I'm concerned, they deserved to be on my plate, where they smell and look a hell of a lot better.
Although... there was one cow I liked, and that was Pepper. Mainly because she had a silly moo. But I'd still have no qualms about eating her.
Don't forget, you can't have slaughter without laughter.
