This was Thera’s and my second year navigating the kitchen, and every year brings new excitement. First we would like to thank everyone who showed up to help with all the chores, and boy did we have a lot of them.
Thursday night we had a crew of 17 to help chop the vegetables, wash the spinach, set up the tables, arrange the tablecloths, and assemble the deserts. This has become a real party before the big night. George Hansen brought his ax and hack saw so he definitely could chop anything we had on hand. This year we had desert crew which was headed by Tim Maxey who had the honor of stirring for an hour to make the lemon filling for the tarts. We had a crew of two assembling all the deserts and getting them ready for the serving tray. The potatoes were chopped just the right size ... last year we learned to make them smaller so they were actually done by dinner time. We ended the night having a glass of wine and a snack for dinner.
Friday afternoon was a breeze, almost everything was done, it was time to assemble the salads, toss the spinach with bacon and all the fixings, and throw Terry Andersen’s great Caesar dressing on the Caesar salad. We will have more of that salad next year, since this is the second year we ran out. 11 kitchen helpers waited patiently for the roasts to finish in the ovens. This year OYC calibrated the ovens and they read correctly, but it took 25 minutes for them to heat up to 325 degrees. This is really important information to know when you have a breakfast to get out at 0700. Dinner was served and clean-up started when we began assembling the strata for the next morning. Thera and I closed down the kitchen about 2200 She was off to get the race committee meals assembled and I set my alarm .. for a 0400 wake up call.
It is just like being ready for the start line for a race. Last year I found out the hard way that the ovens were cooking low and slow, this year, things were going to be ready, even if I didn’t get any sleep. Our starting gun was at 0700 when the kitchen needed to be up and ready. To my surprise as I walked into the kitchen Sue Marrs had beaten me to the coffee pot and was already starting to set up for the fruit salad. I can not thank you enough Sue for all your help. We started out with all our jobs, muffins halved, fruit washed and chopped, strata cooking, and Bill Brosius helping me get the pilot lights going so we could cook hash browns on the grill.
Our next job was to clean everything up and start on the soups. The flags were still hanging limp and we wondered it we would be having to dish up soup which hadn’t even been cooked. But finally Norm started the race and we in the kitchen sighed a sigh of relief … time to let the soup simmer. We all gathered around the TV to see Apollo Ono win a metal. Tired sailors came in and devoured everything we put out on the counter. We had to buy some more bread to fill the bellies of the sailors. I just wish I had had some rum to fight off the cold. We finally closed down the kitchen about midnight Saturday night, or Sunday morning.
Sunday was the final clean-up. Again the people came out of the woodwork to make sure that OYC looked spotless. I understand you can see your face in the griddle thanks to the work of Betty Hansen.
All in all things went pretty well. Some people came once and some people came three times and stayed for the who day. All together we had a huge number of people who helped to feed everyone. There were more of you than I can name here. We had incredible support from OYC and SSSS. There was always someone there and Thera and I both thank all of you. We plan and you do all the work We couldn't put on this dinner without all of you.
We donated two stratas and lots of additional food to the Salvation Army. When we took the extra stratas in on Saturday morning the people there said, “This is Sunday morning breakfast for our folks.” They happily took open jars of salsa, half jars of mayonnaise, even half a quart of cream, and bags of muffins and some fresh fruit. Next time you have a big shin dig and you have food left over, please think of the Salvation Army. They cook three meals a day and are open 365 days a year.
Please go on the web site and look to see the pictures of great help and see if you made it into our “Did you make it to the party” pictures. Again thank you everyone and plan on coming next year to the Toliva Party.
Suzie Shaffer
Toliva Shoal Race photos