And worst, wilted mustard greens or some other glop was served without warning. And you HAD to eat what was served, like it or no. The only excuses were major illness or death. I remember one sweet little thing who managed to find out in advance that liver and onions were on the evening menu. Now she knows two things: 1) she HATES liver and onions, and 2) she is pretty sure she can flirt her way out of eating it. So she goes out to eat and has a big, big lunch. Comes to the dinner table and sits next to the FLO coordinator, an old pal from the Cleveland area. (NOT Waysider). Cocks her pretty head, bats her pretty blue eyes, and says, "I just hate liver and onions. I ate a big, big lunch so I wouldn't have to eat this stuff, because I just truly, truly HATE liver and onions. You're not going to make me eat this nasty stuff, now are you?" (Blink, blink, smile)....
And he calmly said,
.......
.......
scroll down.......
scroll down some more.......
"YEP! You have to eat it like anybody else."
Best thing I ever saw him do.
She managed to choke some down but she was unhappy about it. I didn't like it much either, but usually tried to sit wherever the future Mr. Garden's household had parked their contribution, because Mr. Garden smothered it with garlic, cooked it in butter until tender, and added sauteed onions. And sitting at his table made it taste actually pretty good.
Again, I confess, my culinary compass went coo-coo in the midwest. No offense to the many fine foods and preparations to be found there but there were some meats and vegetables that didn't deserve the kind of treatment they were subjected to post-mortem. In fact I did find some - like liver - to my liking. I liked it, and I'd never even had liver growing up, before moving to Indiana, and had it there once and remembered why I didn't like it. But the Way Nosher kitchen prepared it a little left of center, and didn't fry it to a hard leather like consistency and I found it rather tasty. Always liked onions, so hey. Slap it on my plate and pass the forks.
Worst meal - the carrot and raisin salads. Remember those? Carrots and raisins don't belong together in close quarters, they're bad bunkies. If it had been some sort of Mediterranean preparation, maybe. But that semi-sweet gelatinous consistency was, in a word, gross. Talk about evil vegetables - that's evil FRUIT and vegetables. Spiritual wickedness in high places, that.
And Waldorf Salad, which is especially delicious when made using home-made mayo that's been prepared in mass quantities in someone's dank basement using fresh farm eggs.
Sprinkle some mung bean sprouts on that puppy and you got yourself some mighty fine(and "Oh, so tasty!") vittles.
I never understood the homemade mayonaaise thing. What was wrong with Kraft? Nowadays the raw egg would probably kill us.l
Real Waldorf salad has apples and pecans in it, along with I think celery? It's not so bad if you use a tiny amount of real storebought mayo.
Mung bean sprouts are like eating unborn plant children - and alfalfa sprouts - perhaps you remember the cute, if unprintable name Mr. Garden had for them.
I grew bean sprouts a few times after I was married, until we got to that point of honesty to admit they might well be extremely healthful and high nutrtitious - but we both had to admit we just didn't like them!
My fondest memory of a meal at HDQ was a early summer Saturday supper (remember the Midwest names for the meals?) where we had all the muskmelon (cantaloupe) and vanilla ice cream we could eat with ice tea. It was a sight to see the Corps eating this treat family style and all the tables going back numerous times for refills. I do not know what happened in the later years but I was able to enjoy fresh coffee beans UPS'ed from California for espressos while in-residence and definitely during the interim year on staff. A lot nicer than DP which I thought was carbonated prune juice.
A lot nicer than DP which I thought was carbonated prune juice.
Indeed. A tad too sweet for these tasters.
Coffee - not big on it today but back in that day - practically had a 30 cup stainless steel monolith java maker installed in my car. Lotsa coffee downed.
At the Dallas 98 ac special the breakfast was so bad that martindale promised he would talk to the hotel,Next morning it was better
Evenings were the best as we went to local resturants.Que?
I was there.
It was the most money I've ever paid for food I didn't eat - because there never was any!
Funny Story:
My best girlfriend, Judy and I schlepped up to the bar at the top of the hotel. We'd missed like two meals in a row because there was like a food shortage at the hotel. It was crazy.
Anyhow, it was a beautiful setting and we picked out a table near the windows, so we could enjoy the view. Then we spotted them - roasted cashews, with salt, on the table! We ordered our drinks, nibbed cashews and cleaned out the bowl before the drinks arrived. The waitress brought another bowl of nuts.... we ate that. We klepoted a bowl of nuts off a nearby table and started on that (each bowl was maybe 1 cup but anyhow...)
Then, Judy decided to start dumping bowls of nuts in her purse in case there's nothing for supper!
I remember ordering a second drink (Long Island Iced Teas - no joke!) and tottering back down stairs to the afternoon meeting. I don't remember as damn thing about that day other than the nuts and drinking my a$$ off....
I found myself living in St Marys of all places in 84-85. The isolation of not being on staff or corps is another story, but I did find myself eating at hq now and then. Most of it is a blur, but I recall really liking the fried chicken.
One night I was driving around with Mark Fr***cz*k who was on security detail. We strolled through the kitchen and were given some chicken cordon bleus being served for some function that night. They were remarkably good, and I knew there was no way the staff and corps were getting them. There must have been some special gathering of upper crust leaders. Maybe they were kissing up to someone with a lot of money.
One of my frustrations during our brief time at Rome City was that Mr. Garden and I can both cook like fiends. Some of the stuff was good, but there was never enough of it, and to make things worse we were there early so our son could start school and volunteered to work in the canning shack to can tomatoes, something we had done before and were very good at, if I may say so. However, according to the chick in charge, we didn't know beans from barium. First of all, there was NO hot water, so we were washing them in bone-numbing cold water, not very sanitary considering we kept animals on the farm and I expect there was a lot of organic fertilizer ("poop"to you city kids) poured on the gardens there. Then we were REPROVED for cleaning the tomatoes, i.e. taking off the stems and cutting away the rotten parts. We were commanded to throw the whole shooting match into the big pots and cook it all down together. We were treated like idiots for thinking people might not want rotten tomatoes in their sauce. Which of course we ignored. This was followed by the now-famous LCM salsa at the end of the week.
It was sadly, a saltless, garlic-free and onion-free taste of what was to come.
"WARNING! Consuming this nasty-tasting, disgusting, green mystery food, which actually tastes as weird as it smells, is hazardous to your overall health! It can permanently damage your olfactory mechanism, taste buds, tongue, esophagus, upper and lower digestive tract, and above all is proven to be deleterious to your heart for eating in general."
Where these folks came up with this stuff is beyond me. My mother used to make wilted lettuce, using leaf lettuce and a hot mixture of vinegar, minced onion crumbled bacon, bacon grease and I think hard boiled egg, but she at least served it as a side dish. When we were served wilted mustard greens, this was THE dish you had for supper. Nothing else but water.
We also had a version of ratatouille (sp?) once time our second year. One little girl was heard to loudly exclaim: "Im not eating THAT! It looks like it's already been eaten and thrown up!" She was promptly escorted outside for a severe thrashing, and then forced to gag down some of it. It wasn't too bad, like maybe tomato pudding or something. I think there is eggplant in it. FLO was always very very moderate with seasonings unless you happened to sit at the table where the food had been cooked by someone more adventurous and generous with the seasonings, like Mr. Garden. I, alas, worked in Columbus and never got to cook supper. On Saturdays, we could pitch in and make chili or something at our own expanse sometimes, but usually if we could possibly manage, we just wanted to get off on our own for a bit.
I found myself living in St Marys of all places in 84-85. The isolation of not being on staff or corps is another story, but I did find myself eating at hq now and then. Most of it is a blur, but I recall really liking the fried chicken.
One night I was driving around with Mark Fr***cz*k who was on security detail. We strolled through the kitchen and were given some chicken cordon bleus being served for some function that night. They were remarkably good, and I knew there was no way the staff and corps were getting them. There must have been some special gathering of upper crust leaders. Maybe they were kissing up to someone with a lot of money.
That was some good eating though.
Hiway, I had that chicken cordon bleu, too. It was standard faire for wedding dinners that were held at HDQ or the Sidney House. Fried chicken was a favorite for me. I remember a pig roast that occurred about that time near the pond by the covered bridge. I think there were two or three hogs buried in hot coals for a whole day. The entire staff, Corps and local believers had a great BBQ feast.
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Watered Garden
And worst, wilted mustard greens or some other glop was served without warning. And you HAD to eat what was served, like it or no. The only excuses were major illness or death. I remember one sweet little thing who managed to find out in advance that liver and onions were on the evening menu. Now she knows two things: 1) she HATES liver and onions, and 2) she is pretty sure she can flirt her way out of eating it. So she goes out to eat and has a big, big lunch. Comes to the dinner table and sits next to the FLO coordinator, an old pal from the Cleveland area. (NOT Waysider). Cocks her pretty head, bats her pretty blue eyes, and says, "I just hate liver and onions. I ate a big, big lunch so I wouldn't have to eat this stuff, because I just truly, truly HATE liver and onions. You're not going to make me eat this nasty stuff, now are you?" (Blink, blink, smile)....
And he calmly said,
.......
.......
scroll down.......
scroll down some more.......
"YEP! You have to eat it like anybody else."
Best thing I ever saw him do.
She managed to choke some down but she was unhappy about it. I didn't like it much either, but usually tried to sit wherever the future Mr. Garden's household had parked their contribution, because Mr. Garden smothered it with garlic, cooked it in butter until tender, and added sauteed onions. And sitting at his table made it taste actually pretty good.
WG
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socks
Ha! Well good, WG!
Eat that liver!
Again, I confess, my culinary compass went coo-coo in the midwest. No offense to the many fine foods and preparations to be found there but there were some meats and vegetables that didn't deserve the kind of treatment they were subjected to post-mortem. In fact I did find some - like liver - to my liking. I liked it, and I'd never even had liver growing up, before moving to Indiana, and had it there once and remembered why I didn't like it. But the Way Nosher kitchen prepared it a little left of center, and didn't fry it to a hard leather like consistency and I found it rather tasty. Always liked onions, so hey. Slap it on my plate and pass the forks.
Worst meal - the carrot and raisin salads. Remember those? Carrots and raisins don't belong together in close quarters, they're bad bunkies. If it had been some sort of Mediterranean preparation, maybe. But that semi-sweet gelatinous consistency was, in a word, gross. Talk about evil vegetables - that's evil FRUIT and vegetables. Spiritual wickedness in high places, that.
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waysider
Carrot & apple raisin salad.
Yum Yum!
Yup---We had plenty of that too.
And Waldorf Salad, which is especially delicious when made using home-made mayo that's been prepared in mass quantities in someone's dank basement using fresh farm eggs.
Sprinkle some mung bean sprouts on that puppy and you got yourself some mighty fine(and "Oh, so tasty!") vittles.
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Watered Garden
I never understood the homemade mayonaaise thing. What was wrong with Kraft? Nowadays the raw egg would probably kill us.l
Real Waldorf salad has apples and pecans in it, along with I think celery? It's not so bad if you use a tiny amount of real storebought mayo.
Mung bean sprouts are like eating unborn plant children - and alfalfa sprouts - perhaps you remember the cute, if unprintable name Mr. Garden had for them.
I grew bean sprouts a few times after I was married, until we got to that point of honesty to admit they might well be extremely healthful and high nutrtitious - but we both had to admit we just didn't like them!
WG
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So_Cal1
My fondest memory of a meal at HDQ was a early summer Saturday supper (remember the Midwest names for the meals?) where we had all the muskmelon (cantaloupe) and vanilla ice cream we could eat with ice tea. It was a sight to see the Corps eating this treat family style and all the tables going back numerous times for refills. I do not know what happened in the later years but I was able to enjoy fresh coffee beans UPS'ed from California for espressos while in-residence and definitely during the interim year on staff. A lot nicer than DP which I thought was carbonated prune juice.
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socks
Kraft
Now we're talkin'.
A lot nicer than DP which I thought was carbonated prune juice.
Indeed. A tad too sweet for these tasters.
Coffee - not big on it today but back in that day - practically had a 30 cup stainless steel monolith java maker installed in my car. Lotsa coffee downed.
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ChasUFarley
I was there.
It was the most money I've ever paid for food I didn't eat - because there never was any!
Funny Story:
My best girlfriend, Judy and I schlepped up to the bar at the top of the hotel. We'd missed like two meals in a row because there was like a food shortage at the hotel. It was crazy.
Anyhow, it was a beautiful setting and we picked out a table near the windows, so we could enjoy the view. Then we spotted them - roasted cashews, with salt, on the table! We ordered our drinks, nibbed cashews and cleaned out the bowl before the drinks arrived. The waitress brought another bowl of nuts.... we ate that. We klepoted a bowl of nuts off a nearby table and started on that (each bowl was maybe 1 cup but anyhow...)
Then, Judy decided to start dumping bowls of nuts in her purse in case there's nothing for supper!
I remember ordering a second drink (Long Island Iced Teas - no joke!) and tottering back down stairs to the afternoon meeting. I don't remember as damn thing about that day other than the nuts and drinking my a$$ off....
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hiway29
I found myself living in St Marys of all places in 84-85. The isolation of not being on staff or corps is another story, but I did find myself eating at hq now and then. Most of it is a blur, but I recall really liking the fried chicken.
One night I was driving around with Mark Fr***cz*k who was on security detail. We strolled through the kitchen and were given some chicken cordon bleus being served for some function that night. They were remarkably good, and I knew there was no way the staff and corps were getting them. There must have been some special gathering of upper crust leaders. Maybe they were kissing up to someone with a lot of money.
That was some good eating though.
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Watered Garden
One of my frustrations during our brief time at Rome City was that Mr. Garden and I can both cook like fiends. Some of the stuff was good, but there was never enough of it, and to make things worse we were there early so our son could start school and volunteered to work in the canning shack to can tomatoes, something we had done before and were very good at, if I may say so. However, according to the chick in charge, we didn't know beans from barium. First of all, there was NO hot water, so we were washing them in bone-numbing cold water, not very sanitary considering we kept animals on the farm and I expect there was a lot of organic fertilizer ("poop"to you city kids) poured on the gardens there. Then we were REPROVED for cleaning the tomatoes, i.e. taking off the stems and cutting away the rotten parts. We were commanded to throw the whole shooting match into the big pots and cook it all down together. We were treated like idiots for thinking people might not want rotten tomatoes in their sauce. Which of course we ignored. This was followed by the now-famous LCM salsa at the end of the week.
It was sadly, a saltless, garlic-free and onion-free taste of what was to come.
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Shellon
ROFL I love the 'without warning' part
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Watered Garden
Should have required warning labels:
"WARNING! Consuming this nasty-tasting, disgusting, green mystery food, which actually tastes as weird as it smells, is hazardous to your overall health! It can permanently damage your olfactory mechanism, taste buds, tongue, esophagus, upper and lower digestive tract, and above all is proven to be deleterious to your heart for eating in general."
Where these folks came up with this stuff is beyond me. My mother used to make wilted lettuce, using leaf lettuce and a hot mixture of vinegar, minced onion crumbled bacon, bacon grease and I think hard boiled egg, but she at least served it as a side dish. When we were served wilted mustard greens, this was THE dish you had for supper. Nothing else but water.
We also had a version of ratatouille (sp?) once time our second year. One little girl was heard to loudly exclaim: "Im not eating THAT! It looks like it's already been eaten and thrown up!" She was promptly escorted outside for a severe thrashing, and then forced to gag down some of it. It wasn't too bad, like maybe tomato pudding or something. I think there is eggplant in it. FLO was always very very moderate with seasonings unless you happened to sit at the table where the food had been cooked by someone more adventurous and generous with the seasonings, like Mr. Garden. I, alas, worked in Columbus and never got to cook supper. On Saturdays, we could pitch in and make chili or something at our own expanse sometimes, but usually if we could possibly manage, we just wanted to get off on our own for a bit.
wG
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So_Cal1
Hiway, I had that chicken cordon bleu, too. It was standard faire for wedding dinners that were held at HDQ or the Sidney House. Fried chicken was a favorite for me. I remember a pig roast that occurred about that time near the pond by the covered bridge. I think there were two or three hogs buried in hot coals for a whole day. The entire staff, Corps and local believers had a great BBQ feast.
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