Saturday, March 2nd
In January, after one of Ben's Thursday trainings at the fire station, he came home and told me they were going to do the crab feed again. I wrote the date on the calendar right away, so we didn't double book our Saturday with something else. I asked Ben what my job would be this year, and he said that I could have any job I wanted. I've done the condiment table, the soda and water table, I guess I will find out when I got there to see what area had a vacancy.
Ben spent the next few trainings helping the fire department get ready for the crab feed. The Thursday before, they spent most of their training time setting up chairs and tables, staging equipment and doing the last-minute check offs. Everyone knew what their job was whether it be getting the crabs ready, cooking spaghetti and bread in the kitchen, a gopher/runner, working the silent auction, volunteering handing out food or beverages or manning the ticket tables or money.
I asked Grandma a few weeks back what she wanted to do for her birthday, and she told me to give her a couple days to think about it. She finally got back to me and said that doing a St. Patrick's Day theme would be easy since I had most of the decorations. I told her she could have whatever theme she wanted. She stuck with St. Patrick's Day. I asked her if she had come up with any food she would enjoy. She said she wanted cubed steak and gravy made in the Instant Pot, mashed potatoes, soda bread, a green salad, green beans and an Irish apple crisp. I looked to see what made it Irish. Irish whiskey and Irish oatmeal. We had the Irish whiskey, but I'd have to look into the Irish oatmeal.
This all seemed pretty doable. I would just have to see how many people were going to come so I had enough food for everyone. After work, the Friday before, I got a list together and headed into Hawks Prairie. I stopped at Walmart first, then Winco and finally Safeway. I was able to get everything I needed. I got home just before 7 p.m.
Ben brought the crab feed tickets home, and we got the same people to purchase them like we do every year. His Mom, Ed and Amy, my Mom and Dad and this year we got Josh and Heather to come support Ben and his fire station. I told everyone to get there somewhat early so they could get a good table and settled in.
Ben got up early on Saturday because he was on shift. I spent most of my morning making Grandma's soda bread she wanted for her birthday party the next day. I knew I needed to get the bread and the cobbler done before the next day. I ran out of time to do the cobbler so I would have to do it after the crab feed or the next morning when I got up. I got ready to go and drove out to Tenino around 2:30.
I rolled into town around 3, found a place to park down the street and let Ben know I was there. He met me outside and told me that I could be with him, Jed and Amanda at the alcoholic beverage table. Jed and Amanda were checking ID's and giving out bracelets and Ben and I were handing out the alcoholic beverages. We both had a can opener with us because we had to open it up and hand it to them. It's the law. There were several different types of beers and hard seltzers.
As 4:00 approached, many people flooded the doorway, waiting to get in and to their tables. Everyone was hungry and could not wait to get in line for their food. The alcohol table got busy. Ben and I were taking tickets and popping tops left and right. As the tables and chairs filled in more and more, Mike decided on what order each table would go up to the food table. I still didn't see any of our people yet. I sure hope they arrived soon.
As the evening wore on, our family, Josh and Heather did finally arrive. They came up to get alcohol from us and eventually got in line for some food. Ben and I each took turns hanging out with them at their table while they ate. We even got to meet Sheriff Sanders, who took a picture with us. As Sheriff, he tries to get to as many events in Thurston County as he can.
Just as everyone was winding down, Mike came out and let everyone know the live auction was about to start and the silent auction was going to end soon. The live auction items started to be brought in, and everyone had their full attention on the items as it got underway. It took a little bit to get through the items and it seemed like everyone was having fun.
Both auctions came to an end, people who didn't bid on anything, cleaned up their area and left while the people who won items, went into the lobby to pay and pick up their winnings. I asked Ben what the next step was, and he said to start picking up our area, putting the leftover alcohol away and see if another area needs some help. I went into the kitchen to sit for a minute since I had been on my feet for several hours and it felt good to take that break.
Everyone who was available, started cleaning off the tables, gathering chairs and breaking down the tables. I made myself useful and jumped in. We got the bay all cleared out in about a half hour. A few people manned the push brooms, and the kitchen crew brought out some of the extra food for the volunteers so we could eat. We were able to have as much spaghetti, salad and bread as we wanted, a bag of crab (if you liked crab) and some steak off the grill. I chose a piece of steak that was literally still mooing and worried if it would come back with a vengeance. Luckily, I was spared.
I asked Ben if I needed to help with anything else and he said no, I could go home and feed the kitties. I left around 8:30 and drove home. I really didn't feel like making the apple crisp when I got home, instead I fed the kitties and relaxed a little bit. I then got ready for bed and read a few chapters of my book.
Sunday, March 3rd
I had let everyone know about Grandma's birthday and what we were going to have. I set it for 2 p.m. that afternoon so I would have enough time to get the food ready.
I got up and finished getting the house cleaned up and ready. Ben brought in the chairs, and I set up the rest of the decorations on the tables. I had a hard time keeping Wade from messing with them. We got further into the morning, and I asked Ben if he would peel the potatoes with his fancy potato peeling machine he got as a gift. He gets excited every time he gets to use it. We use it mostly when we have to peel a bunch of potatoes for a party. Meanwhile, I got the apples ready for the apple crisp.
The apple crisp was relatively easy to put together. I have never used tapioca starch before, so that was interesting. I know it is used as a thickener. The whiskey was a nice addition as well as the Irish oatmeal. Once it was done, I let it sit on the counter to cool. I quickly toasted some walnuts and had some caramel sauce to drizzle over the top of it.
I got the ingredients out for the cubed steak and the gravy it was supposed to make inside of the Instant Pot. Me, personally, am not a huge fan of cubed steak, but it wasn't my birthday, and Grandma had asked me to make that, so I did. I followed the recipe and the instructions she had sent me in a text. I got everything into the Instant Pot and set it to 15 minutes with a 10-minute natural release. I got the potatoes cut up and put into a pot and told Ben once they were done, he was in charge of mashing them. I got the soda bread cut up and placed in a container and then washed up some green salad and put it in a bowl. Ben got the potatoes mashed up and we stuck everything in containers and put it in the table.
People started to arrive as it got closer to 2 p.m. and the food was actually done on time. Wooo! I had perfect timing for everything. Everyone grabbed a plate, loaded up on food and sat down at the table. We talked about all kinds of stuff. We tried getting Erika to tell us what she was going to name the baby, we talked about wedding stuff and what everyone has been doing for the most part. We all knew our summer was going to be really busy.
After we finished our food, I got out the apple crisp, told everyone that they could have it with the walnuts and caramel sauce and a scoop of ice cream. Most people opted out of the walnuts, which was fine, I made them just in case. Grandma opened her gifts, and we had some idle chatting.
It was about 4 p.m. when everyone was ready to pack up and leave. I knew everyone wanted to go home and get ready for the work week. Everyone thanked each other for a nice time and went home. Ben and I spent some time cleaning up and putting everything away before getting our stuff ready for the work week.
Happy Birthday Grandma!
Next Adventure: Cache Maintenance with Mom on a Nice 70 Degree Spring Day
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