LOTS OF HOT STUFF

    The little nutritionist in my head is having to choose between acceptance and a stroke. I tell her "there are vegetables in the tomato sauce," but she continues to turn up her nose at the food.
     Arriving at 10:00 this morning, I found Doug, Crazy, Hottie and Rick making a racket that would have shocked a 19th-century garden club high on rum cake. And they say women are the talkers. No.
     On the stove was a large pot of homemade chili. Even Doug admitted it was too hot to eat, and he was surprised that many folks asked for seconds. I'm telling you, that stuff was a gastronomical disaster waiting to happen! In another pot were those little cobs of corn. The lunch menu was chili, crackers and chicken nuggets. For tonight's dinner, Doug is serving Italian meatball hoagies, the corn, and baked beans. Improvising the hoagies, we stuffed four meatballs into hot dog buns, drizzled spaghetti sauce over them, then sprinkled on grated mozzarella cheese. Those plates were filled, wrapped and stored in the food warmer.
     Crazy is in fine form, and took it well when one of the others sniffed his cup (just checking). Rick has a cold and didn't wear gloves while plating the dinners. Doug is a very happy camper today—seems to be in his element. And Hottie—well, that child's front-desk responsibilities don't let him come to the kitchen nearly often enough! I never thought I'd see the day when a long blond ponytail (on a guy) would catch me drooling.
     We served about 20 clients at lunch. The little girl got yet another color of Play-Doh, and the boy got a toy periscope. He's an interesting study, steadily happy, a bit hyper and owning a very short attention span. His mother returned to the counter for her usual "little bit more" whole plate of food.
     The truly lovely young woman I mentioned last week was unchanged. Again she presented herself as a special guest, not a client. She ate alone in the back of the room. I asked Doug, "What's her story?" He says she thinks she works there, and truly she does have the air of such a person. It just ain't so. I'll keep digging.
     Another attractive young woman came to lunch. She too ate alone. I was interested in the conversation she was having while she ate. I heard her ask, "Did you get the message I sent?" It SO appeared that she must be talking via Bluetooth on a cell phone. Problem was—she didn't have a phone.
     I found some Christmas lollipops at the Dollar Tree this week, so everyone got one of those today. At Walmart I found affordable bags of wee Tootsie Rolls and a box of little candy canes. Those should last through Christmas. Crazy still tries to bully me about giving "those people" candy. He says they'll be bouncing off the walls all afternoon (not that he would be affected), but I'm not about to endorse his opinion. As a sober person, he apologizes for his bullying, and we can all live with that!
     For next Sunday, Doug said he would steam some cabbage if I would bring four heads. I'll cut them up at home. There are more canned goods in the pantry now, and the apples are holding up. I took a dozen boiled eggs and put them in a bowl on the serving shelf. At the end of lunch, one lone egg caught the lovely lady's eye. She thanked me for bringing boiled eggs, picked it up and told me that she was just going to take it with her, for later.
     I had to tell her that taking food from the dining room is verboten, but if she'd put her name on it, we'd keep it in the refrigerator for her. It was interesting how she knew exactly which drawer held a marker! "Those people" have way more access to forbidden areas than we like to think. See you next time!