Over 30 Were Fed

(And No One’s Dead)


I am so relieved…I actually did it, and not by myself I might add.

If it hadn’t been for Pat’s steadfast support and my friend Rusty’s ability to imitate my own limited tamale making skills, I might have caused a minor bout of starvation at dinner last night, but instead I laid my head on my pillow before midnight secure in the knowledge that our dinner party was a resounding success.

I sort of out-smarted myself in waiting a bit late to start putting the tamales together because I wanted them to be “fresh,” but Pat and then Rusty jumped in and helped me with the production process and in the end we probably had close to 100 little neatly tied corn husk wrapped packages.

Our buddies down at Marsh Point Bar and Restaurant loaned me two deluxe commercial sized covered chafing dishes and we ran a smaller third chafing dish containing my Mexican Rice mixture and just to put things in perspective let me say that I think that…

Our guests “chowed down.”

I think that everyone was surprised at the quantity of food that we were serving (My Invitation said DINNER and I meant it,) and I never got around to cooking the fish for the tacos and all of the chicken tenderloins still lay raw in the fridge when the dust settled. (I’ve got a long way to go when it comes to estimating proportions.)

In the end I realized that cooking for two or four or six is a no brainer, but that cooking for thirty is HARD WORK, yet having people come back through your buffet line two or three times and rave about your food makes it all worthwhile.

Captain Dave and one of his friends (I forget his name) provided the entertainment by playing the keyboard and harmonica, and I jumped in a couple of times with my own harmonicas and the crowd sang along to things like Billy Joel’s “Piano Man.”

All in all, a “Large Time” was had by all, but I'm definitely not ready to do it again...at least for a few months.