Keith (Hathaway House #11) - Dale Mayer Page 0,9

delivered coffee to a guy, and you came back with a special smile on your face.”

She groaned. “Oh, my God, you two. The guy just got here, and he’s had a raw deal. He was awake, so I offered him coffee. End of subject.” But she watched Gerard and Dennis nudge each other, laughing like schoolboys. “Maybe you two would want to get some work done, huh? Everything ready for breakfast?” she asked, heading over to the latest arrival. “Need you to step up on the juices, if you don’t mind, and make sure the coolers are stocked.”

Dennis called over to her, “I just came in to get a dozen juice bottles, but I’ll fill the big cooler instead, and we’ve got to get the coffee going. Are people out there now?”

“Yeah, I’ve got six. I did a small pot for them and then refilled it, but we’ll have a bunch more now, so let’s get the big coffeemakers going.”

And with the hustle-and-bustle happening in the kitchen with breakfast preparation, before long the rush was to get everything out on time and then, of course, to feed everybody. She stepped in the back of the cafeteria line and kept watch to make sure there was enough and that everything went smoothly. It was weird how one day the big run was on eggs, the next day no sausage would be left, then a few days would go by, and it seemed like nobody was even hungry at all, but then not a slice of bacon was left in the building.

By the time breakfast was over, everybody was happy and settled, the dishes were well in hand, if not done, and they were already prepping for lunch. She had several roasts in the oven, and she left Gerard to deal with the pasta. She would do up a huge roasted veggie platter, so the preparation was underway for that.

“I want something with fish,” she said to one of her guys. “What can we do that we haven’t done lately?”

“How about we roll it up in parmesan and add a bit of a lemon zest to it.”

She looked at him in surprise. Sammy hadn’t been with her very long, but he had some really good ideas. “You know how to do it?”

He looked at her in surprise and then slowly nodded.

“Good, you’re it,” she said. When he hesitated, she looked at him and said, “Questions?”

“Yeah,” he said, “I get that I’m it, but I don’t know how much to do.”

She thought about that for a moment and said, “Let’s do twenty pounds.” She walked with him into the freezer, and they pulled out fillets. By the time she had what she thought was a perfect amount, and they had them laid out on cookie sheets to thaw properly, he was already preparing the breading for them.

“Remember. Not too strong,” she cautioned. “Lots of touchy tummies around here.”

“I know,” he said, “but it’s a really good recipe.”

“Sounds like it,” she said, “and we also have to make sure that, when we fry them up, it’s not greasy.”

He hesitated before he said, “We could do it in the oven. That would be faster.”

“Wouldn’t necessarily be as tasty though, correct?”

He grinned with relief. “No, that’s exactly it.”

“Well, we have the fryers,” she said. “We’ll have to set the temperature for fish, not for french fries, and then they’ll have to be babied.”

“I got it,” he said.

She watched him as he straightened his shoulders and stood a little taller. She nodded. “You do. So let’s see what you’ve got.”

With that, he grinned and turned back to his dish.

She wandered over to check on the roasted veggies. It was amazing just how much they shrunk down by the time they went through the oven, so, to end up with a great big roasting pan full of roasted vegetables, plus another full roasting pan for backup, meant that she would have to cook a good forty pounds of the raw veggies. She watched as they brought out the fresh parsnips. “Wow,” she said, reaching for a big long white one. “I haven’t seen anything this size for quite a few months.”

“They look really good,” Jose said, as he picked up his chopping knife and started whacking away at them.

She watched the veggie piles build up really fast. Then she grabbed the olive oil and drizzled it over them, throwing in rock salt and taking up her big pepper grinder. By the time all of the veggies were prepped,