Day 90 - Heavy Duty cleaning = Reward Treat!

With Chef Lorenzo’s return only a day away, we had the heaviest of duty cleaning left. Hoods! For any of you who know what cleaning a kitchen hood is like, you can relate with the following description. Luckily, we pulled the hood vents on Sunday, so that they could soak for 2 days. Even with this forethought, the amount of grease on these suckers was disgusting. While Drew cleaned the vents, Katie and I tackled the entire hood vent system. It covers 2 stoves, 2 pasta boilers, and a double wide flat top, and it was filthy. A combo of grease, dust, dirt, and grime. We each started on and end and met in the middle. It was a dirty job, but someone needed to do it. It felt good to actually see the transformation happen as well, even if I did smell like a cadaver afterwards. Sick!

The rest of the afternoon was prep heavy for the week ahead as we had 4 parties looming. We filled and roasted the giant turkey legs from a few days ago, we prepped a la carte sides, and we made riccotta mousse. A few other items too, but Miercoledi would be prep hefty too, we just didn’t know it yet. Carlo decided that two of us would have the night off, lucky Katie and I were chosen. I spent siesta in nap mode, and awoke for dinnertime, which really ended up being chips and milk. So very healthy. Then Angela came home somewhat early, so I treated us all to homemade Boston Coolers and Brown Cows as a reward for our cleaning efforts.

Back in Michigan, a Boston cooler is a ice cream float with ginger ale and a brown cow is a float with coke. So with a mix of chocolate and vanilla gelato, a dash of whiskey creme liqueur, and tasty ginger ale, we had a delightful and comforting treat. It was exactly what I had wanted on this restful evening. And again, I finished my evening with a good long thought on packing, but not really doing anything about it. I just know that I have a lot of stuff, it is daunting, A domini.

I miss Vernor’s ginger ale, there is just no comparison, but in a pinch, a schweeps will do. Have yourself a tasty ice cream treat today!!!