What happens to new things at a Mennonite camp...

In an effort to keep up with the enormous amount of recycling every day, I labeled a box and instructed the other kitchen staff to please break down empty boxes right away, so it's not such a taxing job at the end of the day. That lasted about a day and a half before one of our kitchen helpers (who shall not be named) was a little too efficient/unobservant and broke down all of the boxes... even the one labeled for holding the recycling. I laughed it off and didn't try again after that.

I couldn't get the whole pile into the picture, but the pile of boxes is definitely about 6ft high.

In which the barn staff are voluntold to tackle the dishes...

One of the best Post Cleans we had this summer was when the barn staff had finished their cleaning early, and had come back requesting a job on the Main Site. Most of the other jobs were either done or close to being done, and the only other job we had for them was washing out the food waste buckets that had recently been emptied (after sitting around for a week with lids on in the hot summer weather, of course).

After we as a kitchen staff (and some other accomplices) had wrestled all of our lovely barn staff into hair nets and aprons, we realized the intense downfall/hilarity of the situation at hand: none of them had ever worked in the kitchen before, so they didn't even know how to turn on the dish machine (the most basic thing. there's even a neon orange poster with foolproof directions on the wall beside the machine), and would have to be guided through each task before they could find a rhythm and flow.

Not long after teaching them the dish process, I realized (by the rising noise level) two things: first, that none of them were used to working inside and had all brought their outside voices into the concrete box that is the kitchen; second, that none of them actually knew what they were fully doing, so each of them had adopted their own version of what was supposed to be happening, and then used the only method of getting others' attention they knew: being louder than everyone else. Almost as if on cue, Alana (the assistant wrangler) stepped into the kitchen and asked me what in the world was going on. I quickly explained the situation as I fought her into her very own hair net, and (before she realized what I was doing) thrust her into the fray saying that they needed a leader to guide them. To her credit, everyone calmed down quite a bit as soon as they realized she was alongside helping them, but it definitely didn't stop all of the kitchen staff from standing around with our cameras, trying to document this historical and hysterical event. Here are some of my favourite pictures:

Alana: "Stop laughing and taking pictures of me and HELP!!"

Me: "Hey Alana! That's a pretty hairnet/apron combo you're sporting!"
(That's my personal apron, for the record.)

Someone from outside the kitchen had just walked by and commented on her pretty outfit. Especially the hairnet.
For those of you who don't know: that's Alana's "Stop talking or there will be dire consequences" face.

They spy a strange tool they've never seen before.
They can't figure out what on earth it could be used for in the kitchen,
so they rapidly it's some kind of medieval torture device.

Alana holding the device in question.
It's actually used for cutting cakes and squares into even pieces,
but I was laughing too hard after their fabricated stories of torture to correct them.

...and they say we never have fun in the kitchen!

I'd also like to say that the PUSH girls invited me to their little spa night by the creek tomorrow evening (exfoliating with a handful of sand, anyone?), and I'm SO pumped for it!! It actually melted my cold heart a little when their leader told me that all the girls were stoked to invite me. Seriously the sweetest group of girls.

lunch 07.17.12

Oh my goodness, I made the yummiest salad EVER for lunch today, and I just have to share it with the world!!

Backstory: I have a staff on my Special Diets list who's doing this parasite cleanse, and who has a intensely strict list of foods she has to avoid. So, while researching foods that would comply to these standards, I found a recipe for curried quinoa (link!) and decided that I would use that as a major ingredient in her salad. I also cooked up some chicken drumsticks last night, in an effort to have unprocessed chicken around for her; so I pulled that out of the cooler, too. And in a move of sheer brilliance, I began putting a plate together based on the colours of the vegetables we have kicking around. And the finished product was phenomenal! So pretty and so intensely yummy, too!!

The Salad

Ingredients:

-a handful of fresh baby spinach (used as the base of the salad)
-1 recipe of the curried quinoa from the link above, made with raisins (as we're a nut aware camp, I was unable to use the cashews but I'm sure they would have been a great addition)
-1/2 a large tomato, cut into 1/4 in dice
-1/8 ea red and yellow pepper, cut into a smaller dice than the tomatoes
-just a few rings of red onion, diced
-chicken from 2-3 drumsticks, diced up
-small handful of fresh blueberries

Just throw all the ingredients on a plate or in a bowl, and enjoy! Seriously, if you enjoy curry like I do, you should definitely try this!

Note: Because of her super strict dietary restrictions, I was unable to give her any dressing beyond a drizzle of olive oil, but I made up a honey and lemon vinaigrette for mine. For that, use 1 part lemon juice to 1/2 part honey, warm that up just enough to be able to blend the two, then add 3 parts canola oil, and season with salt and pepper to taste. A perfect compliment to all of the flavours!

Summer: Week One (Kitchen Edition) Overview... plus some.

With Week One all over and done now, it kind of seems like an out of the ordinary dream for the most part. That being said, one of the last things I want is to have to wake up and do it all over again. "What's done is done," as a friend of mine says all the time, "why dwell on the past and regret it, when you can look to the future and anticipate all the exciting things to come?"

So today, I realized just how much my desire to either have full control of a project or no involvement whatsoever is black-and-white. While I know I could do the out trips and special diet food all week (holy moly; special diets, batman! more on that in a bit) and never touch regular camp food ever, I know that it would become more of an obsession than a job. And that's not okay, and I realize that.

This weekend, I almost bought a computer and a countertop mixer, both of which were SO PRETTY, but I'm proud of my adult-ness and my decision to save for them and not just buy them and not have any savings left. I think I'm growing up a little, day by day.

I realized this weekend how much my reaction to people around me crying is similar to that of a man's reaction: "...oh crap, I broke it! Quick, how do I fix it and stop it from leaking?!" I also realized that I desire to just make people stop crying, but sometimes the solution is to let them cry, and that's okay too. It's hard, though.

The PUSH kids are still doing marvelous work, and every day I marvel at their leaders for keeping the motivation and the work ethic so high, when all they're doing is paying us camp fees to clean for two weeks. It's kind of crazy.

I seem to attract people with crazy weird food allergies, somehow. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the challenge of finding things that they can eat that also taste good, but sometimes, I think that the world is trying to gang up on me and push me to my limit to see if I'll ever stop loving it.

Through it all: God is good. All the time. God is good!

Week One: Finish Line ...almost there.....

I looked down at my arms today while lifting something not very light (because that's what everyone does, isn't it?) and got a shock when I saw how big my triceps are getting. Holy moly! Well, they're not weightlifter arms or anything, but for a girl who spent 5 months of this past year sitting on her butt eating junk food and watching movies at 2am, I think any muscle definition is great progress. I've also spent 98% of my time in the kitchen this past week drenched in sweat thanks to the +30 degree weather we've been having, which hasn't been the most memorable of times, I think. I reeeeeally don't like being sweaty.

Camp is a wonderful, and yet terrifying place to be for me. I know how hard I work, and I realize how overwhelming my perfectionism really is, when I spend from 6.30am till 9pm in the kitchen, take an hour break (just so everyone clears out of the kitchen so I don't get caught), then go back to it until 11pm (last night), or even 2am(a couple nights ago). It's the first week of summer, and I want so desperately to do a good job that it's already happened more than I'd like to admit. I'd also like to say it's not going to happen again, but that's a lie and I try not to do that anymore.

I should really cut back on using coffee creamers; I don't think they're doing me any good, besides making the coffee not taste like coffee anymore.

I think I like writing in short sentence form more than long-winded stories.

This morning, when I woke up after going to bed a mere 4.5 hours prior, my first thoughts weren't very nice ones, which makes me a little sad now looking back. I wish I could re-train my thoughts to be only nice, gracious, and godly ones. Just like I wish I could re-train my immediate reactions to situations... and then maybe I wouldn't have run out of the kitchen crying yesterday. Who knows.

So I realized this morning as we were listening to a Capella African choirs and tribal-sounding music how much I love African drums and just how cute one of the guys here is. And even as I'm writing that, I'm debating how wise it is to leave it vs deleting it and letting no one be the wiser.

I'm bad at delegation. Really, really bad at delegation. I'm working on it, but most of the time I just don't trust people to do a good enough job... like the mopping job in the kitchen last night. I saw how awful it was, but I left it, and I think that's tremendous progress within the confined and confused space that is my mind.

We'll say that's all for now, I think.

God is good. All the time. God is good.

12:45am and all is well.

I enjoy being in the kitchen super late at night, simply for the calming peace of the absolute quiet and the smell of freshly baked bread at midnight. And one o'clock.

Every time I read my friend's blog (link!), it makes me want to write like she does. Maybe it's about time that I try just writing what I'm thinking. Most of the time. And maybe without some of the four letter words that appear sometimes... maybe.

I got a sunburn on the weekend (I spent enough time outside to get a sunburn; imagine that), and now it's crazy itchy. Just in time to get another one, I guess. Maybe this time I'll be smart about the sunscreen, and not care so much about the awesome people around me and building memories. Probably not.

There's a boy here (staff, actually) who has an anaphylactic allergy to dairy, and it's a wonder I don't kill him every day.
     Or the two kids with PKU (look that up).
          Or the celiacs.
               Or the other lactose intolerant/allergies.
                    Or any of the other crazy allergies I'm responsible for feeing this week, or even for the rest of the summer.
Sometimes I wonder how I don't kill everyone every day... the sciences of cooking, baking, and dishwashing are all so unique and yet so much the same that it scares me all day, every day. I still hold grudges from last summer, and I wish I could just let it go already.

Sidenote: I just squished a bug on the computer screen and it smeared a bunch. Ew.

Blessings so far in this week of madness: unexpected babies, and the work crew who's more like a cheerleading team with a cleaning problem than an actual work crew comprised of teenagers.

Super huge surprise of the month: boss' wife unexpectedly popped last Thursday, and I was unceremoniously launched to the top of the kitchen totem pole. However, Mommy and Jellybean (Levi Jack) are doing well, despite the craziness and stress of his entrance into the world. And he's crazy tiny and cute and likes to snuggle.

In other news, I got to meet him last night and he fell asleep in my arms and it made me absolutely melt inside. But I still don't want kids.

I feel like this is a good way to get people "on the outside" all caught up on my crazy boring life without all the erroneous words. I also painted my toenails with sparkles in an attempt to have a moment of pure girliness every day.

Well, bread's done, I've only been caught twice, and I have to sleep before running Summer: Day 4 (Kitchen Edition). Maybe I'll be back with more stories later today.

I miss CoCo more than I thought I would.






God is good. All the time.
God IS GOOD.

And I'm gonna make it through this week.