My Life According to Cole: Catering Gig

I survived catering the fishing tournament. Good preparation is essential when the closest decent grocery store is literally in the next state.

Three tables of dry goods and materials were laid out a week in advance. Some recipes were practiced on my two favorite test subjects.

Can you guess the recipe?

Now, I know the smoothest ice cream takes patience and cooking.

Taste testers gave it an A+.

Three days, every meal cooked at my house and raced over to the event. Yes, I take my dog. What did you think I meant when I said he was my constant companion? You should see him with a hair net on, he's adorable.

6:30 AM breakfast run with an electric griddle still hovering at 300'F. I almost got stuck on the trails after a night of heavy rain. Would have been cute to run through the woods carrying pancakes (ricotta orange pancakes, thank you very much), scrambled eggs and a variety of artisan sausages.
Some recipes were old standbys, like my lasagna.

What mortal is going to turn down homemade sauce and three cheeses?
And my secret weapon...

Nanaimo bars. All this to butter them up before I start trying out new recipes on them. Apparently not what a true caterer would do, but when else am I going to have the chance to test all the recipes my friend, Helene, sends me from Birmingham???

A five star potato salad in the making.

The hand ground spice rub for the ribs from a local organic Georgia farm.

9 lbs gone... I stole a rib just to sample... should've bought 10 lbs!

Three days to totally immerse myself in a creative pursuit. From 4 AM to midnight, or straight through if you're making whole wheat bread for their breakfast.

And a second batch on the next day:

They weren't fond of my organic salads, but they annihilated the brie en croute.

Ditto for the white chocolate cheesecake with raspberry coulis.

Thanks again to Helene for all recipe clippings.
Tip of the hat to Anne-Marie for all the professional chef advice and the canvas bag thingy with the nozzle.

No longer will my deviled eggs look like spheres besmirched with a foreign yellow blob.

I suppose there is an easier way to make apple pie...

...instead of spending hours wooing a temperamental all butter dough.

So worth it....

Should've made two of these too!
Couldn't have made any of it without my two kitchen assistants, Miss Maytag and Frau Bosch:

8 loads a day between the two houses. Time saved which allowed me to put forth Plan B for the tournament awards (since Plan A was aborted for fear of blowing myself up and causing a forest fire).