It's been a while

I can finally take a deep breath from recent "events." My breath will be short lived though.

So where I left off you learned some grilling tips. Grilling season is in full gear and yes of course I've had the pleasure of doing my fair share of it too. I thought instead of giving you tips and pointers of grilling I would share a story of one of my previous events, particularly 3 days ago. To set the scene...Horses everywhere, pretty women too. Lot's of dirt, gravel, grass and more dirt. A horse jumping twirling competition is what it's called. Inavale Horse Show...oh yes you can see my smile now....sarcasm. Ill take on ANY challenge and cook ANYWHERE. I've cooked while standing on moss (seriously). It was for 100 people out in the sticks. I've cooked in the back of van. I've used an EXTREMELY small kitchen to cook for 125 and did it well. You name it and I've probably cooked in it. Just give me some heat and I'll do anything anywhere. One thing you must know about my cooking profession it that I HATE HATE HATE preparing food in a tent and in dusty dry dirt. So there I was in a hot tent with my sous chef and others at my hip. With a place like this EVERYTHING gets covered in dirt, just from working in the tent. It was Saturday, June 27th. My sous and I arrived to the site around 12:30 "ish." We had to feed the masses (350) ribs, chicken, CORN BREAD and such. We had a smoker, camp stove and one heck of a crappy grill. The previous couple days I spread word that we were going to smoke corn bread...haha never done it. I'm HUGE on keeping my word. Derek (my sous) started preparing the corn bread while I got some other things going. I found myself pacing around trying to think of a "backup" plan in case the corn bread didn't turn out in the smoker. For the life of me I couldn't come up with an idea to make 350 people corn bread on a crappy grill and a camp stove. "Clank" went the door of the smoker. "Corn bread is in," I yelled out. The whole time just stressing inside about it. I knew that if the smoker got up to temp it would probably work but you NEVER know. The king of improve was at a brick wall without any plan to pull this one out of the ditch. Needless to say it worked and worked well.
Next came the ribs. 45 racks of ribs. Being out in the tulips there is NO way to cook this many ribs all at once. Knowing 350 people would show up regardless of problems. Ribs were in roughly an hour after the cornbread. With 3.5 hours before the deadline and hungry, uncaring customers on the horizon we put all our trust in a smoker that we've only used once before. Being the kind of person I am, I always have a backup plan (especially with cooking). This particular day I did not. I was vulnerable and my battle shield was down.

They worked and they were really good.

Next is the chicken. 1 hour to go before the hounds were released we started chicken. For some strange reason the smoker did NOT like chicken. The cooking temp was NO WHERE near the correct temp. It was at 250 and then dropped to 220. Everything checked out and was working properly but the temp was just too low. If you've ever slow cooked chicken thighs and breast tenders you'd know that it's not a pretty sight. The protein starts to leak out and become gross white custardy looking goo. I prayed and prayed for the smoker to spike in heat but it just wouldn't. 5:30 rolled around (chicken was still raw) and we were serving at 6. I had to make a decision and fast. I paced around for a bit and directed others to what needed to be done. Snap went the finger and we pulled the still raw chicken of the tired smoker and started throwing the it on the grill. This grill was piece of work. My cooking area was about 14 inches by 20 inches. Now thats ok for a family or small group but not 350 people. I knew if I had a enough chicken to feed the first wave of people ready I would be ok. 6:05 rolled around and the first pan of chicken was out and ready to be consumed. Derek and I had the little grill area full of chicken and a small griddle on top of the camp stove covered in chicken just feet away. Derek and I looked at each and I gave him "the nod." We started "dancing" and got all the pesky chicken out. 175 people ended showed up. haha!

Everything worked out. Battle tested.