And So It Continues

I have a rather sad, embarrassing past as an adult in my church with preparing food for large groups of people.  It's been a struggle.  The first instance I can remember was about a year after Clay and I were married, and I got a surprise phone call from one of the youth in our ward asking me if I would be in charge of food for the Stake Youth Conference two weeks later.  It would be 4 meals for about 200 people.  I was floored, but I couldn't say no.  I'd been practically begging for something worthwhile to do (it was illegal for me to go to school, work, etc.), and this seemed to be the answer.  My good and patient friend, Ortensia, volunteered to do the shopping with me at Costco, and before I knew it, I was driving by myself to a remote location, three hours from home and at least an hour from civilization, with a lot of food in my little car.  I hardly knew any of the youth, none of the leaders, and I had no idea what was going to happen.  To cut to the end of this story, it turned into a pretty terrible disaster.  I hadn't purchased enough food (apparently the wilderness air was really increasing already healthy young appetites), and there were no stores to run to for backup.  I left in shame, wondering how I got roped into this last-minute task in the first place.  

Fast forward from here past a few other instances (in which I wasn't the top dog so things went alright or I didn't bear the brunt of responsibility) to last fall.  I made soup for 50 missionaries, which turned out to be a bit more work than I bargained for.  With dishes piled high in my kitchen, soup sloshed all over my trunk, one screaming kid attached to each leg, and a shocked Visiting Teacher who had come over for a quick visit but had stayed to help with dishes, it was something to remember.  It did turn out okay in the end, and there was enough food (yeah!), but it left another little scar etched into my book of "big food blunders."  Later, as the Branch Activities Committee Chair, the Christmas party took some work.  We did appetizers instead of a full meal, but it was still kind of crazy to warm everything up in our building's small oven in good time.  I should add here that a big part of my problem is trying to do everything myself.  I bought all the food, planned the activities and crafts, and tried to decorate and cook everything myself.  Silly, I know.  Luckily, my friend Tiffany really stepped up to bail me out.  Our branch is small with limited man-power, and I always feel like I'm going to overload people.  

Anyway, today we had a Branch breaking-the-fast potluck/celebration of our graduates.  I prepared the main dish (pulled-pork sandwiches), and purchased cakes.  You'd think this would be fine, since we were only expecting about 80 people, but it was A LOT of pork.  I gathered a pretty large crowd around my cart at Costco who were all asking what I was going to do with 7 8-pound pork loins.  After doing 8 Crock-pots worth of pulled pork the night before and almost gagging in the morning while inhaling the overwhelming pork smell, my blood pressure was rising during Sacrament Meeting when the pews were jammed full with more people coming in.  Clayton looked over and mouthed, "Will we have enough food?"  I was really worried, but there was nothing to do about it then.  Memories of the Youth Conference fiasco flashed through my mind.  It was ridiculous.  We had over twice as much pork as we needed, and I watched our budget being haphazardly doled out to unenthusiastic members after the potluck because I had grossly overestimated how much everyone would eat.  I guess I just don't have the gift.  Either I will need many more of these failures under my belt to figure it out, or I'm doomed to food failure.  Oh well.  I guess it's better to have too much than too little.

Fourth of July pancake breakfast, here I come.