BernardandMissBianca
Rum makes math fun!
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2005
- Messages
- 23,882
PARTY DATE - October 16, 2011!!!!!!
Party in 2007
Cast of characters:
Me - picture taker and food server
DH - aka chili man
Mom - The hostess with the mostest
Dad - The man of the hour
the kids - the laborers, gophers (go for this, go for that), and over all great kids
I awaken at sunny dark, as the kids would say, to the sound of DH's alarm, ANK, ANK, ANK!! Imagine the alarm at a nuclear power plant right before a melt down. Yeah
that's the sound.
Wait a minute, didn't I just close my eyes???? UH HUH, 7 am comes early for those who go to bed at 2. However the bonus to finishing up chili at 2 is it's still warm at 7, and 9, and 11. But more on that later.
It was a dark and stormy night.... oh wait, sorry, that was the night before. It was a great big beautiful tomorrow (bonus points if you can name that ride). The sun was shining, the trees were bountiful with colors of autumn, it was a beautiful, crisp, chilly, New Engl....... hold on....... stop the presses.... it was 78º outside on October 21,2007. What is wrong with this picture??? It was a beautiful, hot, sunny, New England Day.
It's 8 am and the kids are up, dressed, and out the door, before the morning coffee is finished. There is work to do, wood, to be stacked, and people are already arriving. Now to get the idea of how this little shindig works, I live next door to my parents, my house was built by the son of a previous owner of their house, see where this is going. It's a family thing, anywho, I have a field in the back of my house owned by the nephew of the people who built my house, see I told you where it was going but you wouldn't listen would you. Now because my dad and all his friends have big toys like cars, steam engines, boats and the like, all modern cars park at my house and the cool stuff gets to go to his house. Go figure...
Around 10 DH and I make 2 trips from my house to Mom's with 10 gallons of chili, that would be:
6 pounds of hamburger
6 pounds of ground pork
2 pounds of bacon
1 pound of sausage
15 cans of black beans
15 cans of Dark red Kidney beans
9 large cans of diced tomatoes
4 cans of tomato sauce
spices (secret family recipe) I'd tell ya, but I'd have to kill ya
tobasco
red hot
garlic
cilantro
and various liquids (falls under the need to know secret category)
enough to feed an army, trust me! Mom made her world famous turkey soup, she is up to 3 soup pots and 4 turkeys. Plus all the goodies other people bring, bread, donuts, cakes, cookies, pies, side dishes, you name it, it was there. I don't think I will need to cook for a week.
At 11 people start filing in, we're hungry. Well sorry people lunch is in 1 hour, mumble mumble grumble. Hey, there is a ton of food in the dining room, go graze or something. Guys, there were a few men who never left the dining room, I kid you not. Every flat surface in that room was covered by food, it was on the table, extras were stored under the table, the benches and chairs were covered with food too. And that didn't count the food and drinks in the kitchen.
High noon - I send DH, aka chili man, out to announce "Foods on" He is loud, it's the irish in him, it works well in situations like these. Then the word gets back to the steam whistle guy so he toots the whistle, well really it's more like a whoooooohhh sound, it's loud too. I wish I had sound effects capability here. AHA! try here but turn it up real loud, warn the kids, DH's, DW's and the dog, http://www.crosby-steam.com/sounds/4crcr3s.wav
The way that the kitchen is laid out works great for this, the back door is right behind the stove and to the left, there is a 1/2 wall that divides the stove and the door. so picture the line at a cafeteria, they come in the door, get hot food, file into the dining room, circle the table and head back out. It's great and as long as you don't mind the dining room being like a bus ride back from the Magic Kingdom.
We were hoppin' one person serving soup, one person serving chili, we could not dish it out fast enough, the food was gone, gone, gone, in 45 minutes! By our bowl count we served over 350 people, but I'm fairly sure there were more than that there.
1pm I get to eat, anything but chili. I taste tested and smelled chili for 2 days, there is no way I'm touching the stuff. I did have some today though. We always set aside some for us since DH only makes it once a year.
We had an auction, my dad's friend is an auctioneer so he sold steam engines outside the big barn. As I was walking by, the first engine sold for $180 so I think they did really well. We also have a guy that makes t-shirts for the party and sells them for $10 a piece. He gives us the money to donate to charity, we made $380 for ST Jude's.
Anyway, all in all it was a fantabulous day. Here are some pics to get an idea of what life is like on a daily basis around here.
steam tractor
classic cars by the little barn
classic cars by the front of the house and road
the green Model T is my dad's
the back yard and big barn. the auction was just starting now
steam boat, very cool, but not as cool as the African Queen which was here one year.
steam tractor in motion
steam table with miniature steam engines
one of the trucks in the front yard
Thanks for lookin!
Party in 2007
Cast of characters:
Me - picture taker and food server
DH - aka chili man
Mom - The hostess with the mostest
Dad - The man of the hour
the kids - the laborers, gophers (go for this, go for that), and over all great kids
I awaken at sunny dark, as the kids would say, to the sound of DH's alarm, ANK, ANK, ANK!! Imagine the alarm at a nuclear power plant right before a melt down. Yeah
that's the sound.Wait a minute, didn't I just close my eyes???? UH HUH, 7 am comes early for those who go to bed at 2. However the bonus to finishing up chili at 2 is it's still warm at 7, and 9, and 11. But more on that later.
It was a dark and stormy night.... oh wait, sorry, that was the night before. It was a great big beautiful tomorrow (bonus points if you can name that ride). The sun was shining, the trees were bountiful with colors of autumn, it was a beautiful, crisp, chilly, New Engl....... hold on....... stop the presses.... it was 78º outside on October 21,2007. What is wrong with this picture??? It was a beautiful, hot, sunny, New England Day.
It's 8 am and the kids are up, dressed, and out the door, before the morning coffee is finished. There is work to do, wood, to be stacked, and people are already arriving. Now to get the idea of how this little shindig works, I live next door to my parents, my house was built by the son of a previous owner of their house, see where this is going. It's a family thing, anywho, I have a field in the back of my house owned by the nephew of the people who built my house, see I told you where it was going but you wouldn't listen would you. Now because my dad and all his friends have big toys like cars, steam engines, boats and the like, all modern cars park at my house and the cool stuff gets to go to his house. Go figure...
Around 10 DH and I make 2 trips from my house to Mom's with 10 gallons of chili, that would be:
6 pounds of hamburger
6 pounds of ground pork
2 pounds of bacon
1 pound of sausage
15 cans of black beans
15 cans of Dark red Kidney beans
9 large cans of diced tomatoes
4 cans of tomato sauce
spices (secret family recipe) I'd tell ya, but I'd have to kill ya
tobasco
red hot
garlic
cilantro
and various liquids (falls under the need to know secret category)
enough to feed an army, trust me! Mom made her world famous turkey soup, she is up to 3 soup pots and 4 turkeys. Plus all the goodies other people bring, bread, donuts, cakes, cookies, pies, side dishes, you name it, it was there. I don't think I will need to cook for a week.
At 11 people start filing in, we're hungry. Well sorry people lunch is in 1 hour, mumble mumble grumble. Hey, there is a ton of food in the dining room, go graze or something. Guys, there were a few men who never left the dining room, I kid you not. Every flat surface in that room was covered by food, it was on the table, extras were stored under the table, the benches and chairs were covered with food too. And that didn't count the food and drinks in the kitchen.
High noon - I send DH, aka chili man, out to announce "Foods on" He is loud, it's the irish in him, it works well in situations like these. Then the word gets back to the steam whistle guy so he toots the whistle, well really it's more like a whoooooohhh sound, it's loud too. I wish I had sound effects capability here. AHA! try here but turn it up real loud, warn the kids, DH's, DW's and the dog, http://www.crosby-steam.com/sounds/4crcr3s.wav
The way that the kitchen is laid out works great for this, the back door is right behind the stove and to the left, there is a 1/2 wall that divides the stove and the door. so picture the line at a cafeteria, they come in the door, get hot food, file into the dining room, circle the table and head back out. It's great and as long as you don't mind the dining room being like a bus ride back from the Magic Kingdom.
We were hoppin' one person serving soup, one person serving chili, we could not dish it out fast enough, the food was gone, gone, gone, in 45 minutes! By our bowl count we served over 350 people, but I'm fairly sure there were more than that there.
1pm I get to eat, anything but chili. I taste tested and smelled chili for 2 days, there is no way I'm touching the stuff. I did have some today though. We always set aside some for us since DH only makes it once a year.
We had an auction, my dad's friend is an auctioneer so he sold steam engines outside the big barn. As I was walking by, the first engine sold for $180 so I think they did really well. We also have a guy that makes t-shirts for the party and sells them for $10 a piece. He gives us the money to donate to charity, we made $380 for ST Jude's.
Anyway, all in all it was a fantabulous day. Here are some pics to get an idea of what life is like on a daily basis around here.
Thanks for lookin!
Carrousel of Progress!
I'd love a road trip too, but it would have to be a long one-we are completely opposite side of the country!
