When oven mitts melt

What an interesting morning, Jenny and I were making 300 plus banana pancakes for breakfast and we were using the camp provided oven mitts, when something very interesting happened. I have never heard of an oven mitt melting, since they are made to withstand heat and pick up hot items, but while I was flipping pancakes on a flat pan on the stove using my mitten hand to keep the pan in place, my mitt hand and bare hand crossed paths and the rubber on the mitt melted onto my middle finger. I immediately ran it under cold water to help take the burn away, but it didn't help much. I tried to wash the black tar looking rubber off my finger, but it stuck on there good.

I threw out the oven mitt that was now worthless. 

Campers arrive

First dinner with all the campers here was soooo stressful! Its a big change cooking for 60 people, then setting 8 tables with bowls of main dishes, salads, bread, desert, and plates and cutlery. It is very hard to judge how much each table will eat and it was very hard to get everything out on the tables on time.

It can only get better from here.

Realization of being the cook

When I accepted this job, I took the job thinking I had agreed to being an assistant cook. Chopping vegetables, prep work for the head cook. When I got to Deer Crossing, I had a sudden realization that was not what I was going to be doing. There was no "head cook" there were 2 cooks, Jenny from Colombia and myself.

Jenny in the beginning was very hard to work with, she spoke very little English, and had no idea how to prepare any of the dishes on the menu. It did not feel at all like I was an assistant cook, but more like I was the head cook. Jenny took to me like I was in charge, and I made all the decisions, like what to make for the meal, what time to start cooking, how to make the dish, it was very overwhelming.

After some time Jenny started to pick things up, I taught her to make French toast, and how to properly cut fruits and vegetables so it was time efficient. I also taught her how to make chili, meat and veggie chili, which was exciting since she had never had chili before.

Teaching someone how to cook things I have grown up cooking is so interesting, it feels good to share with someone a skill that they will keep with them forever and to share a recipe you can now both enjoy.

Learning the WAYS of Deer Crossing

The rules of the table;
1. To sit at the table for a meal, you must have a full 1 liter bottle of water.
2. To begin passing food, the head of the the must say my table may begin passing.
3. You must pass all cutlery, plates and cups in a clockwise direction, then pass all food.
4. Before you may begin eating, the head of the table must ask does everyone at my table have what they want? Then my table may begin eating.
5. If you would like to get up from the table for any reason you must say excuse me, then leave.

Cooking at Deer Crossing is very different then cooking anywhere else. For the stove and oven, you must first turn the gas switch on, then for the stove burners you must light all of them before they will work, and for the oven you must open the bottom cover and put the lighter in this hole and hold down a red bottom for 45 or more seconds making sure the light is still lit then after 45 or so seconds let go of the red bottom and if it stays lit then the oven is good to go.

Cooking for 18 people is kind of difficult to get the portions right, but it is getting better and better. All the recipes are either for a bunch of 50 or more or for a family of 5, so Jenny and I are learning to convert recipes.

Arriving At Deer Crossing

It was an interesting time just getting to the camp. I arrived at the Sacramento Airport around 7:30pm, I texted Neal, the camp guide sent to pick up all the staff flying into California. When I got there I met Anna from Spain, who will be teaching Sailing and speaks decent English, but mostly Spanish. Ania from Poland, who also teaches  sailing, and speaks English very well. Pako from Mexico, who is going to be our maintenance guy and speaks very little English at all. We all had to wait until a little after 11pm for the last staff member flying in from Colombia. Jenny was the last to arrive, she is the other cook and speaks decent English, but again mostly Spanish. Jenny was an interesting arrival, she didn't have Neal's phone number, and we didn't have any of her flight information just an estimated time of arrival. So we split up and Pako and I waited in terminal B and Neal went to terminal A  to wait. I held a Canoe paddle for over an hour that said Deer Crossing Camp on it hoping to attract her if she came into the terminal. It was an interesting wait, looking for someone you have never seen or met before, but it all ended well and we eventually found her in Terminal A.

After we had accumulated all the staff who had to fly, we had a 3 hour drive to Deer Crossing in a very luggage packed van, we finally made it to camp at 2am, and had to wait at the other side of the lake until they noticed us. We had our headlights on for 45 minutes before the flashed back at us they knew we were here. It took about 15 minutes before the boat arrived and we loaded in all of our luggage. It was a different boat ride then I was use to we power boated across the lake with no lights, because Jim said it was easier to see that way, which is strangely true. Once at the camp Jim gave us a quick tour of how to use the bathrooms here at camp, and where we were sleeping in the lodge that night, by 3am we were finally ready for bed.