Dorm Cooked Meal

So this is a long overdue post. The actual meal took place some time in early October. But at the time I was too focused on what ruined the night for me to write about it for the humorous event it actually was. So, here's to catching up.

The idea was put forward by a guy on Renfield 1 that we, as a hall, should treat each other to a home-cooked meal. We would all chip in monetarily and help out with the cooking and cleaning on a volunteer basis.

The menu?
Chicken Parmesan, salad, rolls, and a desert called Death by Chocolate.

The venue?
Renfield 2 is equipped with a kitchen facility. That they apparently never use. When we invaded with our mass of people and food related products, they just watched us in shock.

Adventures:
1. We had only one pot. We needed to boil water to cook an alarming number of noodles. Luckily (ish) the pot was large enough to boil a small child. Unluckily, we had to fill it nearly to the top to accommodate enough water to cook said pasta. As anyone who has ever cooked knows, that amount of water (a small lake's worth I'd say) takes eons to boil. And a watched pot never boils. Despite the fact that the four of us in the kitchen each took several turns willing the water to boil with our minds, we still ended up having to serve the pasta as a second course. When the bubbles finally appeared, the kitchen broke out in euphoria.

2. No potholders. We had thought in advance to get aluminum pans on which to bake the chicken, but upon the dinging of the timer, it was discovered that we had no means by which to remove said pans from the oven. (Oh, and there was no thermometer in the oven. *sticks hand into oven* "Does THAT feel like 350 degrees?" "I don't know!" "What do we do?" "I don't KNOW!" "Just stick it in there!" *snigger* "That's what SHE said!") So, we ran around Renfield 2 asking if anyone had potholders. While some of us ran around, the rest considered other options. "A tshirt?" "Eew! I don't want anyone's dirty shirt on my food!" "Paper towels?" "Maybe...a LOT of them..." "Wouldn't that burn your hands?" Finally, someone had potholders. Chicken parm safe!

3. When you allow a straight teenage male to do the food shopping, your salad ends up being a head of lettuce and a bag of croutons. Trishna and I decided that this would not do. So we ran (in the freezing cold) to Usdan dining hall. Our plan? Each of us would use a meal to buy as many cut up salad vegetable as we could. We got some funny looks from the cashiers (who honestly just gets a to go box full of sliced carrots, peppers, tomatoes, etc?), but we SAVED THE SALAD.

4. Once the noodles had finally cooked, we realized we had no strainer. As I mentioned, it was a LARGE pot, and thus, a LOT of freaking noodles. So...a conundrum. We ended up (this was a three-people mission) using a random lid we found in the kitchen to press down on the noodles while we poured the water off into the sink. Two people holding the pot, one holding the lid, everyone watching for stray noodles. Couldn't lose any! Oh, and because of the enormity of the pot, the noodles were cooked unevenly. We told the diners that if they liked al dente, they should take from the top.

5. We quickly ran out of eating utensils, despite telling everyone to bring their own. It ended up being a big sharing thing, which was nice.

Clean-up went quickly. I mean hey, we only had one pot.

So that was dorm cooked meal. Sadly, the event has not been repeated. It was fun though. In remembering :)

And sorry for the delay in posting about that. But it's here now. Love to all!