Day Nine - Back in Philadelphia

Time to get misty; today is my last day on tour with The Cadets; a wonderful group of young adults, who are working harder every single day than almost any group of people I have ever seen. It is truly jaw dropping what they do every day and the staggering amount of work they put in to perfect their show. If you have read the posts I have made over my time with them, you know that volunteering on the Food Truck is not a picnic, but it is fun and rewarding. You get to work with some wonderful people, parents of current and past members, past members and people who feel the need to help this great organization. They are all great people and working with them is an inspiration to me. The work is hard, the hours long, but the sense of accomplishment and the pride of helping a truly deserving group of young people is what makes it for me. I count my blessings that I am able to take six or seven days of vacation and spend it with The Cadets and my son. As a father, I know only too well how fast my kids have grown. They are now preparing to make their way out into the world. It is part of being a parent that you are destined to see them grow then move off into the wide world. The opportunities to work side by side with your child on something meaningful and difficult is a rare gem to be grabbed with both hands and held tightly. It is a gift to be there to witness my son meeting and mastering challenge after challenge, and I will cherish it.

Day Eight - The Beanpot Invitiational

Today started out at our housing site of Burlington high school. We thought we would do a breakfast of egg casseroles. They are easy to make and delicious. We added ripped up bread to 8 hotel pans and then added cheese, onions, peppers, ham and pepperoni and then baked them. Jay liked to get them almost all baked, then take them out of the oven to set up and then back in the oven to finish up cooking. They came out of the oven and into the cambros waiting for service. This is Matt's recipe, but he warned us that the members are finicky about egg casseroles and they never go that well, the member opting for cereal and other breakfast items. He was right and out of the 8 that we made, we had four left over. I had a serving and it ware really quite delicious, so I think the member missed out.

Day Seven - Happy Fourth of July!

The 4th of July dawned bright and hot and promised to stay that way all day. Today is parade day, and the corps would be performing in two: one in Bristol, RI and the other one in Norwood, MA. Bruno asked that we serve a hearty breakfast because the corps would be on the go all day. When I got up at 5 or so, Jay was already up and making his special biscuits. He let me know that I would be making sausage gravy.

Day Six - Beautiful Rhode Island

So I missed a day or two! It happens when you have a very busy day, and July 3rd was a busy day. We woke up at the beautiful Roger Williams University right on the Narraganset Bay next to the Bay Bridge. I woke up early because we needed to get breakfast started. Breakfast was fried eggs, flank steak, cheese and bagels to make breakfast sandwiches. I used the meat slicer to cut the flank steak into strips and Jay cooked them on the flattop, then we fried eggs individually so the corps could assemble their sandwiches. Served with our usual breakfast items it was a good breakfast for the corps to start a busy day. The weather looked a bit overcast but there was not much humidity and a nice breeze was blowing. They day turned hot, however, but thankfully the breeze never stopped blowing.

Can it be Day Five?

Hard to believe that five days have gone by! The days fly by when you are this busy. Just the fact that I have been able to make a post each day means the pace has been fast but not crazy. Today started at 5:00 AM when I got up to get dressed so I could go out and help with breakfast at 5:30. Elaine and Jay were up when I got there and Jay was preparing potatoes on the flattop while Elaine was cracking eggs. Jay said he wanted to do scrambled, but I wanted to learn his omelette technique so I shamed him into making omelettes. We made plain cheese and onion, green pepper and ham. I have attached a couple of pictures of them in process.

Day Four aka Laundry Day

Last night we got to see The Cadets at Southern Connecticut University. We usually get to see the brass warm up, which is always a treat. Last night the horn line sounded great. They got into position for warm up early so the kids got a little time to relax and hang with their sections. After that, they started their last bit of warm up which ends with "Rocky Point Holiday", which was so good I was pretty sure they were going to have a great show. I got into the stands and up the press box stairs in time to see the show, and I was not wrong. I thought the show, and especially the brass, was the best I had heard yet.

Brass warm up

The show at SCU

After the show, we loaded into the entertainer to head back to the housing site but we needed to hang for a bit to wait for the design staff to get back from the critique. We eventually got back and snack was being served by the people who remained behind and a couple of people who went back with the Admin RV from the show.

Since we were staying at this housing site for the next two nights, I had setup my inflatable in a computer lab that was air conditioned, so I headed off to a good night's rest. Matt, Jay and Dave were doing breakfast, so we got to sleep in a bit so I awoke at 7:00 AM and headed out.

Breakfast was pancakes (strawberry, chocolate chip and plain) along with ham and the usual assortment of  cereal and some blueberry muffins that Elaine and Tessa made the night before while we were at the show.

Lunch was remote again and we decided to make cold salads; tuna and chicken. We made some plain and some with onions and celery in it. All had a spice mix of a little garlic granules, dried parsley, salt and black pepper. We packed all that in the box truck and off it went with bread, drinks and all the other parts of a Cadet style meal.

After lunch was in hand and prepared, we started on plans for dinner, which on a laundry day, is always a puzzle. We were told that most of the laundromats did not have any food places nearby. It is usual for the members to go to the laundry, put their clothes in the washer and the quickly got get a treat of fast food or ice cream or other such stuff. So we would be preparing a dinner for the corps so they could get some food before they left. We decided that making fajitas would be a good choice because they could make one to go if they wanted. So we prepared lots of onions and peppers to be sauteed on the flattop and cooked another 8 pounds of rice. I tried to make the rice a little different by adding cilantro and lime, but I think it would have worked better if I had been able to get some fresh cilantro and more lime. Still, it tasted quite good. 

Sauteing the peppers on the flat top

Matt also prepared roasted potatoes getting Elaine and Tessa to chop some up so he could roast them with some spices and a little onion. They came out delicious and everyone loved them. The fajitas went well, but as is sometimes the case on laundry day, some kids had a difficult time getting ready for laundry and grabbing some food too. So we have some great leftovers for a snack in a couple of days. We may use the leftover potatoes, peppers and onions tomorrow for breakfast.

Tonight we get a rare break of an open evening, the members are out doing laundry and we already served them all their meals, so there is nothing to do but hang out and maybe have an adult beverage with some of the other carrots and drivers. After that, a bedtime of 11:00 PM sounds pretty good, breakfast prep is at 5:30 AM tomorrow...

Oh, and it rained pretty much all day, but we missed the really bad storms that hit other parts of the state. Hoping for better weather tomorrow, but I think the forecast is similar to today's...

Matt

On the Third Day...

After a great show in Quincy, MA last night  Matt (tour cook, not me) and the gang laid out a nice snack spread of leftovers and other assorted goodies. I was so tired that I was not to much help. I hit the sack as soon as we pulled out and slept through to the morning. I woke up about 6:00 AM a bit groggy but got going pretty fast. Jay and Dave Marden were up and doing breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage and all the usual breakfast items.

Lunch was split again but to add some spice, it was remote. We needed to cart the lunch over to the stadium where the corps was rehearsing. The lunch was cadet-style grilled cheese which means we butter the bread with mayonnaise. Now this is the way my family has always done it, but many people find it strange. We setup a bit of a line to assemble the bread, cheese and mayo. Tessa, Alice, Elaine and I were able to get the 400 sandwiches made in about an hour and a half. After we got the first large pan finished Matt, Dave and Jay grilled them up and put them in hotel pans and into the cambro for transport. The rest of the lunch was packed and shuttled over to the corps.

After lunch departed we started on dinner. We planned dirty rice since we had lots of onions, peppers, celery, ground beef and rice. Alice and I started by chopping peppers and onions then I did the celery. I cooked the vegetables on the flattop. We saved off some of the vegetables to cook without animal fat so we could serve a vegan version of the dish. While I had a quick shower and shave, Matt browned the ground beef. Then time was getting tight so I started to cook the rice. I used the oven method to cook the rice. We decided to cook about 32 pounds of rice so we would be sure to have enough. While the rice cooked we portioned out the meat and vegetables into 8 foil lined hotel pans and added the creole spice mix that Alice had made up earlier in the day. Once the rice was done, we added a good amount to each pan, added a bit more chicken broth, mixed it all up and and covered them with foil and put them back in the oven for a bit.

We served the dinner with corn and salad. Lots of members, volunteers, and staff said they enjoyed the meal, so I think the team had another success. I saved some of the rice I made to give to our Asian members, they miss their rice so much that I thought a little treat of plain rice might be well received.

We are off to see the show and since we are doing snack back at the housing, we have the rare treat of having nothing to do at the show.

Here are some shots.

Cooking the Holy Trinity - Carrots, Onion and Celery

Member Shun Sasaki enjoying Dirty Rice and some plain rice I made special for our Asian members