The Big Church Day Out - Part One

 Time passed during which I started to take charge of meals for when friends visited, parties, etc, so the food got bigger and better. Summer came along with the barbecues for seventy odd people sometimes! I began making bread regularly and perfected a method for amazing bread every time. The kitchen was fast becoming my domain.

 However, the next step in my evolution was undoubtedly this. A huge milestone and sculptor of who I was to become. A friend of the family was again going to be in charge of a catering team who would be taking care of the main Tea Tent at a major music event in Sussex. They would be serving thousands of cream-teas over the weekend and would need the extra hands. Some of my favourite bands would be playing there too so there's me thinking, "Awesome! Let's do it." It would be camping which I don't have a problem with and it was a good six hour drive too so my two older brothers, Tom and Joe, and I packed our bags and we were away!

Prepping the kitchen

 We got tents set up after arriving and had a look around. The venue was the grounds of a stately home so it was huge. The tent was massive as well and could hold hundreds so we were going to have our work cut out. We got the kitchen in the back of the tent sorted after numerous trips to where a lot of the equipment was stored and got it up and running.  (This itself was fraught with misadventure but I would never be able to write everything!) We were shown how to use the ovens, mixers and, most importantly, how to make scones. A rhythm was found and then we set about making hundreds, thousands of scones for the next day. Joe and I clocked off around midnight with our friend and Tom closing the little kitchen after half-past one in the morning! I think by the time we we clocked off that day, we had made easily into the thousands.

One of the tens of thousands made.
 P.S. Who nicked all the cream? I know I piped it sky high on all of them!

 At just after six A.M. the next day, Joe and I got the ovens and on and started making more scones. Mix, roll, cut, cook, cool. The big boss arrived and we got cracking again. The next step after we had made a good dent in getting a whole bunch of scones done, was to start filling them. We were going to use piping bags (which I had never used before) filled with jam or cream and splirt it in there. At first it was a little messy but we had to get the hang of it. Soon the whole tent was beginning to fill with that irresistible aroma of hot scones. (I was thinking of putting a scone recipe up but I've had a lifetimes worth of anything to do with them!)

The three big marquees in the background are the tea tent.
Yeah, there were a lot of people!

 When it came to selling, the deal was that we were the kitchen behind the scenes and out the front was a separate organization who would be making and selling hot drinks and other cakes along with our hot cream-teas. All we had to ensure that we just kept on cranking them out. There was also another tent at which we would be selling them but that was on the other side of the campus so we also had to keep filling crates with filled scones for that too. 

My awesome, older brother, Tom

The delicious man himself

 People started arriving, the madness began and we were working like a well oiled machine, however, the big boss was often not able to be there all the time as he had to do announcements on the big, main stage and meetings with the organizers. To ensure that everything stayed ticking properly in the kitchen, he put me in charge! As you can imagine, I felt out of my depth by a few fathoms but there just was not time to take things like that in. Something clicked inside and we put things up a gear. Joe was put in command of ferrying scones to the other stall and selling them from there while we, Tom, the bosses son, another friend and I, kept the kitchen ticking. Mix, roll, cut, cook, cool.

 There were so many other mishaps it was unbelievable but, as I said, it would be nearly impossible for me to be able to recount everything. You'll just have to take my word for it that the entire weekend defined with ease organized madness! For instance, Joe cut himself really bad while he was cutting scones but to find out more you'll just have to wait. Part 2 coming soon!

People started arriving before we were even ready!

"To glorify my Savior, Jesus Christ, the Creator 
of the universe and spread further abroad His glorious gospel." - Yours Truly