TOBM #4: Cooking!

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 06 January 2005 10:13:22

Cooking is what I do at mission. At my first team meeting 5 years ago, I turned up and everyone said "what section (ie. age group) do you want to do?". Apparently my answer of "er... actually I don't like kids much" relegated me to the kitchen. Which is fine with me. Cooking is fun and exciting.

Our facilities aren't really that bad, considering that we are cooking in a tent. I have decided that I prefer working on a grass floor to say lino. If you spill anything, it just soaks in... It's not usually too hot. We have plenty of ventilation and electric fans and stuff. Flies can be a major problem. More about them later. Under varmints heading.

Hmmmm anyone interested in what was on the menu? A sample of things I can remember in no particular order grilled lime and ginger chicken, ratatouille, lamb chops marinated in red wine, spaghetti bolognaise, gado gado, waldorf salad, avocado and red pepper salad, profiteroles, chocolate mousse, caesar salad, butterscotch self saucing pudding, pancakes, porridge, pot roast, pizza, sticky date pudding, orange syrup cake....

The kitchen is also the social centre of mission. It's where people come to chill out, play darts, eat ice blocks, bribe the cooks, get first aid (more on that later) and escape from the perils of camp life. I like being a cook.

There were no spectacular cooking disasters this year. It was all fairly smooth really. Which is not a bad thing at all. A good development was the roster system. This year we had four cooks so everyone had either one or two meals off each day. Think about this. You get up in the morning, put out the cereal, and fruit, organise orderlies to make toast and reconstitute juice and set tables etc, then you're done for the day. Of course it didn't work out that way but it was a lot less frenetic than past years. I still didn't make it to the beach but that's ok. I don't like the beach much anyway. All wet and sandy. Ugh.