2009 TL Lunch/The Mondavi Flu

It has been a little quiet on the Blog recently as there were no posts in the past couple of weekends. Two Fridays ago I did my annual TL Staff lunch. I just got the pictures from the event so I thought I’d do a quick Blog about it.

"One half of the buffet"

I work in a mid-sized accounting firm and as this being Tax Season, most of the Partners and staff are extremely busy. I used “most” staff as this time of year is usually a quiet time for me on the computer support side of things.

"Chicken Caesar Salad and Pear and Walnut Salad"

So to help make Tax Season a little easier from everyone, I do lunch for the Firm. I enjoy the challenge of making lunch for 55-60 people. At work, we have a good sized kitchen, with a full sized fridge, a bar sized freezer and a couple of microwaves but no stove or oven. I own a couple of portable hot plates and last year I bought two chaffing dishes so I could add more ‘warm’ dishes to the menu.

"Wine to left of me, Food to the right of me!"


The Menu

Thai Curried Sweet Potato Soup
Chicken Caesar Salad
Spicy Vegetables
Calabrese Salad
Anti Pasta
Hummus with Pita
Gorgonzola Dip
Pear and Walnut salad with fresh Parmesan
Sushi Tray

"Spicy Vegetables"

The Wines

Robert Mondavi Riesling
Kendall Jackson Chardonnay
Ravenswood Zinfandel
Beringer’s Founder’s Estate Merlot

"Sushi"

I did most of my shopping on the Wednesday night and started prepping/cooking at about 1:00pm on Thursday and finished up about 10:30pm that night. The next morning I was in work by 8:00am and had the car unpacked by 9:00am and spent the next three hours prepping more food and setting everything up.

"Dessert table"

By shortly after noon the line up started and lunch was served. I did “cheat” a bit as I got a couple of cold meat and cheese trays from our local supermarket and had the Sushi place across the street from work do a couple of trays of Sushi. I had 10 different volunteers that each made a dessert, as I love cooking but hate baking.

"Wow, does that look good!"

I’m getting better at do this each year as usually by 11:45am on Friday, I’m in full on panic mode trying to get everything finished but this year by 11:45am things were well in hand.

"Building a plate!"

The biggest challenge of the lunch is making sure there is enough food and I was pleased that I was the last person to make a plate and there was still at least some of each dish remaining.

"Keep moving!"

After cleaning up, packing and unpacking the car again I was done for the day at about 3:30pm. Mick, Amy, Pat and Jack all came by at 6:30pm to help finish off the leftovers which included the wine remaining from the lunch. Mick agreed to cook Saturday night as after cooking for the last 24 hours the last thing I wanted to do was cook again. We killed a lot of wine Friday night and Mick was playing ‘clean-up’ hitter on the wine and the food. I didn’t realize how much wine he had had until Amy and him were leaving and Amy had to do up his coat for him for in his drunken state he couldn’t figure it out.

Thankfully both Mick and Amy are in walking distance so no cars were involved in this story.

I got a call from Amy the next day around lunch and she informed me that Mick wasn’t feeling well and “thinks he has the flu” to which I reply with a laugh “yeah, the Mondavi Flu from the 1.5L bottle of Riesling he killed last night!”. So dinner might be cancelled for the night.

Mick called me later in the afternoon and said that he and Amy were going to take us out for dinner to a new restaurant in town – Spice Avenue.

Spice Avenue to quickly sum up, as this Blog is getting long, – great food especially the appetizers, good portions, nice interior, reasonable prices but the crappiest wine list ever. I think Swiss Chalet has a better one and that is saying something. On the other hand they have only been open less then month so the wine list might improve.

Cheers!

Mark