OK then...here's the story.
We had been living in the
Village for several years. Every year, the week before Thanksgiving, we had a large community Thanksgiving dinner. The Housing department provided the turkey, potatoes, and gravy. Everything else was supposed to be pot luck.
Well...we attended for five years and let me tell you...the turkey dinner they provided was
aweful every year. So, one year about a month before, I volunteered to fix the Thanksgiving dinner. Little did I know...
Of course, they wanted me to simply reheat the grocery store prepared turkey dinners they had been serving the previous five years. I said, "No way. If you want to take me up on my offer, I'm going to show what I can do." And they did.
We have our own turkey frying rig. I knew I was cooking for 200 residents. So, I had them get me 3 15-pound raw turkeys. Two were deep fried, the other oven baked a la Alton Brown. I also agreed to reheat 2 9-pound smoked turkeys, as I had those before and they were good. I brought over my two largest crockpots and made two batches of my Crockpot Holiday Stuffing, one using chicken stock and one using vegetable stock (we had lots of vegetarians in the village). I made appetizers of deviled eggs. I used the pan drippings from the oven roasted turkey and made my home made gravy. I baked Idaho potatoes and served them with butter and sour cream. And I insisted they let me serve the five different types of cranberry sauces I usually rotate through at my own holiday dinner.
Even with all that, the cost of that meal was
less than what they had been paying for the three premade meals of turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy.
We still promoted it as a pot luck. But, as had been the case in the past, only five families brought items to share and they only made enough as if they were feeding one family. However, since I had expanded the menu, everyone sat down to a decent feast anyway.
The activities programmer who oversaw me doing this was moving away the following April due to her husband graduating. When she gave her notice, I received a phone call offering me the position. I didn't even know she was leaving, and had never applied for it. But as it was located where I was living, and I could set my own hours it was perfect.
As far as cooking phrases we use? Other than
stirrin' the pot I can't really think of any offhand, but I'll post if any come to me.
