Monday was a bright and early one, starting the day at 6am to help with AM Production. As soon as I arrived they put me to work cutting up ingredients for recipes to be made later that day or some items for the following day. The one thing I learned quickly was you never want to be preparing something last minute, and since cutting foods up is the most time consuming that is what fills most days. I got to use what I called the chopper, and dice many pounds of bell peppers. The chopper is my new favorite kitchen tool since you simply place your pepper onto the flat grid, which is sharp, and slam down a top part with a similar grid design that dices the peppers into nice even pieces. Besides using this contraption I also practiced my knife skills by cutting up onions, celery, green onions, and many more vegetables. After a long morning of dicing, the AM crew let me switch it up a bit and use the slicer. This machine is very user friendly as I simply had to turn it to automatic and watch my perfect slices of ham and turkey appear. All of this seemed pretty monotonous but it was still fun to me and is something the employees have to do every day. Also during this morning I got to make strawberry and blueberry syrup to be used the next day for pancakes!
The next day Anna and I met with Tod Fudge, the Facilities Manager, to learn about the importance of machine and building maintenance along with safety concerns faced everyday. Something that I found especially interesting is that Mizzou is working on using a computer program that will help them monitor all the different equipment. This program will allow them to track each item and log when any work is done to it. This will also help with preventative maintenance and knowing when certain items need worked on. After this meeting we headed to Sabai, which is an Asian restaurant during the school year but is transformed for 3 weeks in the summer to feed a camp of high school juniors, the Missouri Scholars, who come from all over Missouri to take classes for 3 weeks, a way to learn what college will be like. I worked the entree line and scooped plate after plate of chicken, rice, broccoli, and rolls. Luckily I wasn't alone since the line was never ending!
Wednesday was back to Plaza 900 for me to do more production, this time working with the PM crew. This day was more of the same cutting and slicing but I also got the chance to make Vegetable Lo Mein and use the fryers for egg rolls, both items I had for dinner and thought were delicious! I had made Egg rolls and Lo Mein before but never in the quantity we needed to here. During the day I also sat in on an Operations/Support Meeting, where all the managers discussed the department goals and objectives, some of the events that had occurred in the last month, some of the conferences people were attending or had already, and some important issues such as student employee pay raises. I thought it was great that the whole department got to sit down and brainstorm their goals and specific objectives to help make sure they are accomplished throughout the year. Many of these meetings had previously occurred so this one focused more on re-wording objectives and then making sure each objective actually fit into a goal category. I think sitting down as an entire group is a great way to keep focus within the department along with recognize the hard work everyone has been doing, and both of these were definitely accomplished during the meeting.
Thursday and Friday were also spent at Sabai doing production and counter. Here we helped with production and Anna and I baked pies and also made Pasta Primavera, Hummus, and Tabbouleh, all of which I thought turned out really well! We worked with Shelly, the production guru, who let us help with any and everything. Friday for lunch Anna and I got to help set up the deli station and dessert station and keep them filled throughout lunch. Between lunch and dinner I got to prepare pasta with peas and edamame, a dish I can proudly say was completely put together by me! It was really fun to do an entire recipe start to finish and then also get to serve the pasta that night! The true challenge came on Friday during dinner when Anna and I were assigned the entree line alone, along with being in charge of refilling our pans from the hot box as needed. Our line consisted of pasta primavera (left from the day before), rice, onion rings, the pasta I had made, and Tiger rib sandwiches. And who knew high school juniors loved onion rings and ribs so much?! We had a nonstop rush of people wanting this combo, completely ran out of tiger ribs, and were continually running out of onion rings, which couldn't have been made fast enough! Although this few hours was chaos, Anna and I were able to team up and get everyone served, a true accomplishment in my mind.
So as you can see it was a crazy busy week here at Mizzou and the weekend couldn't come fast enough! One extra cool part of the weekend was going to the local farmers market where they are known for their honey ice cream, which I thought was delicious! The market was really cool to walk around, with a variety of items from vegetables to meats to baked goods. I have never seen zucchini so large!
Well that is all from Mizzou for now, I hope everyone enjoys their weeks!
Pictures of the week:
Soooooo much pasta primavera!
Just baking some delicious rolls.
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