Reporting for Duty...

Our phones rang shortly after 5am on Monday morning. It was St Francis calling us all to cancel us for the day! This meant that we had to go to CRH at 7am and "report for duty!" We met at 7am and were reluctant to find out our assignment for the day! We told the supervisor, we didn't care what we did as long as we got to stay together for the day! (That was our first mistake of the day!!!) She replied, "Do you want to go fix meals at the community center?" Our reply..."Sure, how hard can it be to cook???" (Second mistake of the day!)

We arrived at our destination, and awaited to hear our "cooking assignment" for the day. The volunteer lady was nice and was grateful for our help. She quickly told us our menu for the day. We were immediately overwhelmed to hear the number of meals that we would be preparing by 3pm. We were to fix food for approximately 400 flood victims. The menu was Salisbury Steak with homemade beef gravy, sauteed with onions and squash, mashed potatoes and green beans. The real kicker was that they had one stove to cook with, 2 skillets and 4 roasting pans! Okay, it didn't sound completely impossible..until we learned that we were to make the Salisbury Steaks out of hamburger and had to make approx. 400 patties by hand. So...at 8am, Susie and I began our work! (I quickly acquired the name "Patty" for the day!)

Let's just say that none of us care to see another hamburger for a loooooong time! :)
Blair and Jane chopping onions and mincing garlic for the Salisbury Steaks...

Shirley, our "top chef" of the day...placing the hamburgers into the roasters to simmer.

Taking a much deserved "5" minute break... Blair on the other hand is high on garlic cloves!
Amy saying "I just lost count of how many hamburgers we have cooked!!!"
There's a hilarious story behind this picture!!! (Don't tell anyone I smelled burnt plastic...)
The CRH labor and delivery chefs! Food for 400 people in 7 1/2 hrs??? No problem!!! Diced squash...we put this in "everything" as we were told to do so! Do you have any idea how many potato flakes it takes to make servings for almost 400 people? I think I grew muscles stirring them up!!! On the last leg of the meal...the volunteers were about to arrive to set up the assembly line to box up the food! (Another story in itself!)

It just dawned on all of us that we now have to wash all the pans when they were finished boxing them up! Groan...........

We totally should have volunteered to clean out the shed instead of going into the kitchen first thing that morning. The people outside were done much sooner and did odds and end jobs for the rest of their shift!

We however, had a hilarious day together and got to know each other much better than we ever intended!

We smelled so bad like fried hamburgers when we left that the dogs chased us home! Not quite, but they could have! The smell must have been up my nostrils as I kept smelling it all night even after a shower!

I didn't complain one bit today as I reported back for duty at St Francis to deliver babies!!! ;)