Day 9 - Thursday March 19

Adventures in food.

Today we had a financial wellness fair at work. I was asked to help oversee the food. The menu: hamburgers and hot dogs. At work there were to be two electric griddles and a charcoal grill. I went to work armed with a chimney starter, real wood charcoal, tongs, spatulas, lettuce, onion, and tomato. I cut the veggies up the night before. Around 10am, I left my desk to go downstairs to the staging area. We had 160 hot dogs and 40 hamburgers to cook. Food was to be served starting at 11am. In order to use the chimney starter, I need a cinder block or some bricks to spare the concrete the scars of charring. I collect 10 bricks conveniently located by the dumpster. I ask for the grill. The organizer points to a box. I need to assemble the grill. After ripping open the box and using my fingers to screw things in, I realize I need some tools. Get the tools. Assemble the grill. It's now about 10:40am and I have raw food that needs to be cooked. I put 16 burgers across the two griddles. I set up the veggies, condiments and chips up along the tables. Grab some napkins and plates. The plan: to cook the burgers off on the griddles and finish them off on the grill for that charred flavor. Execution: poor. After I went outside to start the coals I came back in to find the burgers just the way I left them. I hear no sizzle. I touch the griddles and they are cool to the touch. After checking the power cords, the power strip, the extension cord, and the other power strip I came up with nothing. I found out later that I had blown a fuse. Sweet. It's almost 11am and people start looking for food.

I notice that it has started to rain. The coals are warmed up and the griddles placed outside to be plugged in there. We get one griddle to work. The burgers have finally started to cook. I put the coals in the grill and throw a bunch of hot dogs on. Backup arrives. Melanie starts working the burgers and dogs. Someone offers me an umbrella and I proceed to tell them that I am anti-umbrella. I say this not out of spite, but because, truly, I am anti-umbrella.

The grill sports a paltry 18 square inches of cooking surface. The grill grate is less than 2 inches above the coals. I could be wrong, but I think that wood charcoal burns hotter than their fabricated compressed counterparts. The hot dogs puff up and blacken on one side and develop a light brown color on the other. Great - black and tan hot dogs. The people will have to wait, the food, after all is free. Just like people will do anything for a free T-shirt, people are very willing to eat any food that is free.

A batch of hot dogs are ready. The burgers transferred from the griddle to the grill. The second griddle had been plugged in outside, inevitably overloading the circuit. Down to zero griddles and one grill. Anxiously people with dressed buns await the arrival of burgers. Some had given up on the thought, taking their consolation hot dog. People have gathered around the table, looking hopefully through the glass door that separates the smokey grill from the temperature controlled office building. The fight for purchase. Hierarchies are established. My progress hindered. It seems that they do not know that I support their purpose, to provide them with food. Instead, I am seen as competition, and not the granter of hopes and dreams. I don't blame them - as their expectations and mine have not been met.

Things work out. The lack of burger frequency allows us to stretch out the hours during which burgers are served. We have plenty of hot dogs. People seem to really like hot dogs that are burned. I am grateful for this. A missing component arrives. Drinks. This occupies the would be consumers.

Credit goes to Melanie. She was a soldier today, working past her commitment with zeal. I want to make her cupcakes. Badass cupcakes.

Due to the imminent rainfall and the potential for the barbecue grill as the only source of heating, the grill and the chimney starter were moved close to the building for fear of downpour, creating a cornucopia of smoke. This is the environment in which she thrived. Props to her.

Later, I was given credit for turning out wonderful food and effective crowd control. I remember telling a woman who asked if the brownies were brownies that they were not, that in fact, they were bite sized pieces of meatloaf. I followed this up by telling someone else that the brownies were made of things found in the office - half & half, cocoa mix, and sugar - which is possible, but not the case. Credit to Sam for the brownies - they were good. I gave much deserved credit to Melanie for her grillmanship.

I am alive. Hopefully no one got sick from my food. I learned today that on the food line the diced onions should come last, or at least after the sliced onions, as they were rationed with the hot dogs in mind. I saw much used for burgers. Also, that if utensils are not given for community food, that someone will use their hands, at first with hesitation, but once that barrier has been breached, and slippery slope ensues.

Previous night's sleep - 6.5 hours - ok - start/stop - poor

Consumption - decent

Breakfast - 1 bowl of cereal, Honey Bunches of Oats w/ Almonds with light soy milk
Snack - hot dog - it was a tester - no bun - and was not heated through
Snack - hot dog with ketchup
Snack - hot dog with chili
Snack - 4pm - leftover chicken and pasta w/ smoke gouda - see previous post
Snack - a rainbow M&M cookie
Snack - 8:30pm - slice of cake - really thin
Dinner - 10pm - 4 chicken tenders (about half the size at a restaurant) with rice and chili garlic sauce with some other stuff (oyster sauce, red pepper flakes, sesame oil) - credit Visa
Some lemon grass chicken and rice + pork over noodles (amazing!) - from Saigon Cafe

Workout - none - I stayed at work til around 7 to make up for time spent on the food odyssey.

I continue to go to bed late - the post says 9:30, but it's 1:30am.

I probably won't work out tomorrow - but will need to pull some on the weekends.

I have started looking into incorporation for the catering business. LLC, S corp, C corp, etc.

Funny fact - two women from work came up to me at the end of the day to tell me how great the food was. One said that hot dogs were not normally consumed by her but that those of today were some of the best she'd ever had. Again, I had to give credit to Melanie.

I also told them about my catering venture. They gave me encouragement and support. Solid.

Fin