This was my first night as lead for the Ronald McDonald meal prep. When Paul Jacoby approached me to take over, he mentioned how Mike Bisaga provided him with five different choices of meals to prepare. Paul settled on Mike’s famous Cowboy Meatloaf. This led me to wonder, “Hey, Where’s Mike?”.  Mike has been the chief chef and director of the meal prep for most, if not all, of our meals. Guiding everyone with his incredible kitchen prowess. Anyway, I told Paul, “If it ain’t broke, I ain’t gonna fix it.” Cowboy Meatloaf will continue.  Then I asked Paul, “Mike will be able to help out the first couple of times, right?” The answer was, yeah,…probably.  Unfortunately, Mike was unable to make it, so we all had to put our Big Boy Pants on and march ahead. Mike sent me a note saying, “You guys got this!” He had trained us well, and he knew it.

Since this was my first time as lead, I arrived earlier than normal to get the kitchen in order, find all the right pots and pans, and get water on the stove. Next was arranging all the food I had purchased the previous day to be certain I did not forget anything, my big fear.   Paul indicated he would come early to make sure I was on track. He didn’t disappoint and arrived about 20 minutes later. We jumped right in and began prepping.   John Steuterman arrived next and, as a second timer, knew exactly what needed to be done, and he tackled the potatoes.

Harold Bates and I have been there to help Paul for most of his tenure as lead. When Harold showed up, I knew we were in good shape. Harold jumped in and helped make sure everything was on schedule, keeping a watchful eye on the entire process.

The rest of our crew consisted of Steve Darr and Chris Friesen, both first-timers, Denny Garner, and Vernon “Cookie Man” Preston. Normally, the newbies get potato peeling duty, so I had Chris jump in on the potatoes. Since there were already two people on potato duty, I had Steve take a giant leap for a first-timer and mix the meatloaf. Harold jumped in to help Steve finish them up, get them on the baking sheets, and check to be sure the loaves were shaped the way Mike had taught us. Meanwhile, Vernon baked up multiple batches of cookies while Paul took care of the green beans and rolls and kept me on target.  The most important part of this meal is the gravy. Denny took over the gravy like a pro. Stirring and checking to be sure it was perfect.

We had a smaller-than-average group show up at dinnertime, but we know that a lot of families are at the hospital late. The RMH facilities manager mentioned how the staff and some of the folks staying there look forward to our meatloaf dinner, saying it’s everyone’s favorite. He went on to let us know how much people appreciate being able to warm up a meal when they return from a stressful day at the hospital.

Once we served, we were all able to sit together, dig in and eat. Afterward, there was cleanup duty. Did I mention that John is an absolute MACHINE on dish duty? He really took over and allowed the rest of us to clean up and attempt to leave the place cleaner than when we started.

Wow! What can I say, I was blessed with an amazing group of guys on my first night. Thanks to all.