cooking at work...

... definitely has it's pros and cons. I think I wrote after I started this new assignment that it does not take long to memorize all the ingredients in a recipe: especially when you make it four times in one day. I was surprised to discover myself knowing just exactly what is required, as a result of duplicating over and over and over.

I have favorite/successful/well-received recipes on cards, in a box, that I have made numerous times over many years.  Delicious cookies or casseroles on little file cards, in hand-writing from family long gone, or friends fondly remembered. I will always refer to the card to be sure I am doing it in a manner that will provide the desired results.  

And constantly refer to the instructions at work, to be sure I am getting the measurements right, so the end product is consistent. But am still surprised when I make that same thing several times a day. When I realized I don't need to really refer to the recipe by the fourth time: it's just there, in my head.

Yesterday's recipe was interesting: Pasta shells stuffed with a chicken mixture, topped with a sauce that had salsa verde mixed in for a little bite back on your tongue when you bite into a  fork-full. Starts with a rotisserie chicken from the deli, that you pull all the meat off, and dice to stir into a bowl with cream cheese, green onions pimento with a bit of cumin to flavor. Put that in the cooked pasta shells, and pour over a sauce that has the salsa, sour cream and a half can of cream of chicken soup. Everything is already cooked, so you just need to heat thoroughly, top with shredded cheese, and put back in the oven just long enough to melt the topping.

I'm supposed to set a timer, before I scoot over to the phone in the deli, where I go to make my 'it's ready' announcement. And put anything I have not served/given away in the trash after thirty minutes. I guess the food safety people are the ones who made that rule. Usually, it's gone in thirty, but on the occasional slow day, I do have some left. Which I offer to co-workers in the deli: those guys are like Mikey, who, as you know, Will Eat Anything.