Every other Thursday, all directors, volunteers, and year-of-service pequeños (about 15 of us) get together for a dinner made by two of the group. Sophie and I had the great pleasure of making dinner this past Thursday.
From the hour of 2pm until dinner at 9pm we were cooking away, using a miniature oven for two pans of brownies, three lasagnas, and three rolls of garlic bread for fifteen hungry mouths.
Throughout the day we had a number of adventures.
#1 What to Cook
We had to come up with what to cook based on the donations in the kitchen. Of our ideas, hamburgers proved too much of an extra cost, pizzas too complicated with no ovens (Mexicans don’t use ovens that much for cooking), and American Mexican food just impossible, as there is no cheddar cheese in the grocery store. We therefore went with lasagnas using Mexican sausage, tomato paste, and random spices found on the shelf in the kitchen.
#2 Adventure to Wal-Mart
My most American experience thus far in Mexico. Garrido, the men’s sub-director drove us in his minivan to Wal-Mart to get the few things we were missing. As we rode the escalator with our cart into the blinding light emanating from the Wal-Mart ceilings, I had a moment of nostalgia for my native culture. I hate that Wal-Mart is responsible for that. At least Wal-Mart had what we came for: brownie mix.
#3 Lighting a Gas Stove
My stove is the scariest part of my life in Mexico. Above cockroaches. Above the whistling men. It’s the gas stove and oven that I need to light with a one and a half inch match that gives me the willies over all else.
Today was our first attempt at using the oven. We opened it up and looked inside. No clue as to what to do. I resort to the internet. They talk about pilot lights and removing shelves and turning knobs. Say what? I ask Veckry, the women’s sub-director, and all she supplies is a story of how one volunteer attempted to light the oven and came out of it with singed eyebrows.
Solution: get Sophie to do it.
She by far has bigger balls than I do. Within a matter of seconds she successfully lights her first gas oven. Finally, in go the brownies.
#4 How to Fit It All In
We have a tight schedule. Two pans of brownies need to bake separately in the kitchen in our house. We then need to move to the main kitchen in the cafeteria to cook pasta, sauces, vegetables, and meat. We the need to return to our house with the enough time to cook three lasagnas each for 45 minutes and place in garlic bread to heat. We guess the temperature on the unmarked knobs praying not to burn the brownies or leave the pasta uncooked in the lasagnas.
#5 Rainy Season and Visitors
Dinner location. We planned to have the dinner in the visitor house. Negative, full of visitors. Move to the roof of the visitors’ house. Code yellow – it might rain. We do it anyways, gather our table for twenty underneath the plastic awning. We go up to the roof at dinner time. Pure darkness. Oops. Forgot that there were no lights up there. Volunteer Mario to the rescue and soon we have a construction light shining across the roof.
#6 Are Plates Really Necessary?
Of all the things to forget, we forgot to reserve the plates, utensils and cups with which to eat. Half an hour before dinner, I ask the Veckry where I can find some. She says don’t worry about it, she’ll bring them.
Fifteen minutes into dinner, Veckry’s still not there. It’s ok. Tiempo Mexicano
Thirty minutes – yes, I see Veckry coming up the stairs. Wait, she’s empty handed. Crap.
Haha, five minutes later a pequeño comes sprinting back with our long awaited eating materials. Dining time.
#7 The Taste Test
After a long afternoon of cooking, chopping and cleaning, it’s time for the verdict. Of course who comes to dinner to dine with us but the National Director of NPH Mexico. I’m praying it will be good. We start to serve. People ask for two slices of lasagna – really? Before you’ve even tried it??
All of a sudden there’s a sound from the far end of the table that is soon echoed from every corner:“Mmmmmmmmm.”
Ahh. The sweet sound of success.
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