Catering gig

As part of a fundraiser for Congregation Beth Israel, I donated a home-cooked meal for 8, using recipes from the cookbook I wrote a few years back. Someone actually bid on it, and this past Sunday was the day the bidder and I agreed on for the meal.

That meant that I had to get up early on Saturday morning to head to a restaurant supply house and buy aluminum hotel pans and some other essentials, and pick up a brisket my co-author had helpfully ordered for me. I raced home to put the rub on by 10, because the brisket had to absorb the rub for at least 6 hours before I smoked it in my smoker for 5 hours, and then kept it in the oven at 200 degrees for 17 hours.

When I got back from the supply house, who greeted me but Rachel? She came to the garage door in her pajamas and said, "how can I help?" I promptly gave her some of the hotel pans (they were very light) and she carried them into the house, along with some of the lighter stuff I'd bought.

Then she wanted to help me pat the rub onto the brisket. At first she was hesitant because of the heavy spice smell (this rub was made of cumin, garlic, salt, pepper, ground Nicaraguan coffee and hot pepper, among other things) but then she dove right in, asking Drew to help put on her apron and dragging her little chair from the bedroom and standing next to me as I handed her the rub to pat on the meat. She did a great job.

The meal, by the way, was a wild success -- I made pumpkin soup, a pear/bleu cheese/spinach salad, brisket, a cheesy potato casserole (recipe from the book) and pumkin cocoa cake with a semisweet chocolate glaze, covered with crushed peanuts. Everyone gave a toast to me at the end; one of the couples came up to me and said, "this is some of the best food I've ever tasted!" and the hosts said over and over again how nice it was to be able to actually visit with their friends instead of trying to talk to them while preparing and serving a meal.

And they all asked if I was available for future gigs. Of course, I said, passing around the cards I'd just ordered the day before. So maybe someone will call "The Smokin' Gal: BBQ, baked goods, and other culinary delights" over the holidays and I will earn some extra money, which we really need.