Foodie burbling about MonUCS camp
Camp was good. MonUCS is definitely going through one of its strongest periods at the moment.*
Despite me having some brain-fail/freak-out moments in the kitchen (particularly just after lunch when I was tracking well behind schedule for dinner), the food all got out on time.
Slight fails happened, as they do.
• A decent amount of the summer/cold borscht was consumed. Ably assisted my (coincidently) Russian kitchen helper, I dispatched her to make sample shooters of borscht to press on people at afternoon break which probably helped choristers to make the decision at dinner to try it.
• Zero (I mean none at all) left over bircher muesli, spiced ‘poached’ pears and peaches and Greek yoghurt. Although, this meant lots of left over cornflakes, wheaties, bread and milk.**
• All of the lunch time sausages went on the first day. So no quandary as to how to make use of cold sausages.
• The over-buy of tomatoes was dealt with by Wiz being on the ball and not cooking off the entire quantity of dry pasta for dinner. Hence I had dry pasta left to make pasta neapolitana for Sunday lunch.
• The buckwheat cooked up to a much larger volume than I’d expected. Definitely going to be using buckwheat in lieu of rice for risotto some time in the near future. It’s tasty.
• Plum and almond tart was one of the desserts. The camp site had no rolling pin in the kitchen though.*** This was about the point of one of the brain-fail/freak-outs and Wiz saved me by prepping the frangipani filling. Fortunately, the spray oil can was sufficient to roll out pastry to make one big tart using one of the high sided catering oven trays (instead of the 5 smaller ones originally planned).
• I was quite generous with the salad sizes for lunch. Fortunately, MonUCS isn’t a very meat and potatoes crew and they tucked into the Greek salad, tabouli and four bean salad as much as the sausages and potato salad.
• Dessert of plum and almond tart and/or strawberries Romanoff must have hit the spot because even after a solid helping of beef stroganoff, buttered noodles and two salads, the only dessert left over was 2 cups of the orange cream and 3 slices of the tart.
• My (almost as expensive as an iPhone) food processor ROCKS!!
There was a bit of a SNAFU prior to camp. The number of people to be catered for went up by 50% due to late enrolments. Unfortunately, this was after the menus had been planned and shopping priced out to come in under the fixed price budget. All up though, fixed budget was only slightly over-run. (Mostly because of the campsite not providing any cleaning equipment and items not turning up as promised from the stores.) Hopefully, the quality of the food and the active communication with relevant committee types prior to expenditure will smooth the way.
Several people commented on the awesomeness of the food and I got a very warm and long applause after Sunday rehearsal. Best complement though came on Sat night when, flooping in a heap with my shoes off and feet up in a quite corner of the kitchen one of the fresher type girls came through the kitchen in search of her alcohol, spotted me and burbled earnestly about how good the food was and “Seriously. It’s better that what I get at home.” (BTW, I gather that meant her family are foodies.) She ran out of nice things to say blushed furiously and ran away. So sweet!
I’m totally stuffed today. Certainly would have been worse if the camp site didn’t have a private unit which I was able to secure for the weekend. Ensuring downtime, privacy and enough sleep to function.
*This is very encouraging seeing that they are now 13 months out from the start of their 50th anniversary year.
** Probably due to the big sleep in most campers had on Sat which meant only 10 people showed for breakfast more than 30 mins before rehearsal was due to start.
*** When I trialled making it with frozen pastry, the pastry collapsed so I was resolved to make my own following the recipe.
Despite me having some brain-fail/freak-out moments in the kitchen (particularly just after lunch when I was tracking well behind schedule for dinner), the food all got out on time.
Slight fails happened, as they do.
- Sat morning snack was one almost fail because the oven was slower than the temperature markings led me to believe. I had to slice it as soon as it came out of the oven meaning it tended to fall apart. The slightly dodgy presentation was compensated for by the zucchini bread being a novelty to the crowd and tasting pretty darn good.
- Minor disaster on the vegieburgers at Sat lunch. Should have trialled the recipe a bit better. Would certainly have helped if I’d remembered to par-bake the patties as was planned but several things didn’t happen to plan on Friday. But the vegetarians were forgiving and dealt with “tofu scramble”.
- Potato salad and bbq for lunch was in danger due to the promised supply of oil from the screen printing room never actually arriving at camp. A mercy run to the shops was dispatched and got back just in time to save lunch.
• A decent amount of the summer/cold borscht was consumed. Ably assisted my (coincidently) Russian kitchen helper, I dispatched her to make sample shooters of borscht to press on people at afternoon break which probably helped choristers to make the decision at dinner to try it.
• Zero (I mean none at all) left over bircher muesli, spiced ‘poached’ pears and peaches and Greek yoghurt. Although, this meant lots of left over cornflakes, wheaties, bread and milk.**
• All of the lunch time sausages went on the first day. So no quandary as to how to make use of cold sausages.
• The over-buy of tomatoes was dealt with by Wiz being on the ball and not cooking off the entire quantity of dry pasta for dinner. Hence I had dry pasta left to make pasta neapolitana for Sunday lunch.
• The buckwheat cooked up to a much larger volume than I’d expected. Definitely going to be using buckwheat in lieu of rice for risotto some time in the near future. It’s tasty.
• Plum and almond tart was one of the desserts. The camp site had no rolling pin in the kitchen though.*** This was about the point of one of the brain-fail/freak-outs and Wiz saved me by prepping the frangipani filling. Fortunately, the spray oil can was sufficient to roll out pastry to make one big tart using one of the high sided catering oven trays (instead of the 5 smaller ones originally planned).
• I was quite generous with the salad sizes for lunch. Fortunately, MonUCS isn’t a very meat and potatoes crew and they tucked into the Greek salad, tabouli and four bean salad as much as the sausages and potato salad.
• Dessert of plum and almond tart and/or strawberries Romanoff must have hit the spot because even after a solid helping of beef stroganoff, buttered noodles and two salads, the only dessert left over was 2 cups of the orange cream and 3 slices of the tart.
• My (almost as expensive as an iPhone) food processor ROCKS!!
There was a bit of a SNAFU prior to camp. The number of people to be catered for went up by 50% due to late enrolments. Unfortunately, this was after the menus had been planned and shopping priced out to come in under the fixed price budget. All up though, fixed budget was only slightly over-run. (Mostly because of the campsite not providing any cleaning equipment and items not turning up as promised from the stores.) Hopefully, the quality of the food and the active communication with relevant committee types prior to expenditure will smooth the way.
Several people commented on the awesomeness of the food and I got a very warm and long applause after Sunday rehearsal. Best complement though came on Sat night when, flooping in a heap with my shoes off and feet up in a quite corner of the kitchen one of the fresher type girls came through the kitchen in search of her alcohol, spotted me and burbled earnestly about how good the food was and “Seriously. It’s better that what I get at home.” (BTW, I gather that meant her family are foodies.) She ran out of nice things to say blushed furiously and ran away. So sweet!
I’m totally stuffed today. Certainly would have been worse if the camp site didn’t have a private unit which I was able to secure for the weekend. Ensuring downtime, privacy and enough sleep to function.
*This is very encouraging seeing that they are now 13 months out from the start of their 50th anniversary year.
** Probably due to the big sleep in most campers had on Sat which meant only 10 people showed for breakfast more than 30 mins before rehearsal was due to start.
*** When I trialled making it with frozen pastry, the pastry collapsed so I was resolved to make my own following the recipe.