Kitchen

So yesterday I cracked open 45 dozen eggs. That’s 540 eggs. I cracked the eggs into a huge sieve and sort of mixed them up and down with a metal ladle so that they flowed down into a big plastic container. Then I covered up the container, dated it, and put it in the “walk-in.” The container of eggs was extremely heavy. I also peeled about 100 carrots, opened cans of black beans and corn and mixed them together in big metal serving trays, and generally did whatever Chef Willie and Chef Ididn’tquitecatchhername told me to do. It was my first day doing kitchen prep at Shepherd’s Table, which feeds a lot of homeless and I suppose poor people in the county where I live.

I will go back. I like the place, I like the busy-ness and the feeling I have feeding people, and I like that Shepherd’s Table has their own garden where they grow their own vegetables and herbs. (They gave me a tour.) Yesterday we prepared (I say “we” as in the Editorial We) broiled chicken, rice, and several different kinds of vegetable dishes, plus dessert donated by local stores, fruit salad, and there were also little snack packs made up for people to take with them of cereal and so forth. The food smelled good; I didn’t taste it.

So I’m feeling quietly optimistic this morning. Like a “new me” is starting to take shape since Sarah died. Is that too much? The new me volunteers. The new me doesn’t wear jewelry or nail polish anymore. The new me is a little heavier than I used to be, at least right now. The new me is quieter, a little more reticent. The new me does Ethics law, not litigation, although that was already starting to happen before Sarah died. The new me will be busy with my Dad nearby shortly.

I think the new me should probably watch The Bear on Hulu. My dad keeps recommending it, and it’s about a kitchen. Perhaps it’ll help me sharpen my kitchen skills. Yesterday Chef Willie asked me to go open the steamer for him, and I had to look all over the kitchen because I didn’t know what he was talking about.