Purdue University: Week Three

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Purdue University: Week Three

Hello world! It feels like we're finally hitting our stride in the best Lafayette, West Lafayette!

After a week of adjustment to the dining hall/retail dining life, all four of us went to work at Ford Dining Hall Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings while working on our nutrition education programs in the afternoon. Ford is known as the "guys' dining hall", known for its fried food, burgers, and chili, so we had a blast learning how to operate flat top grills and fryers to make the best tater tots, French toast sticks, and bacon-cheddar scrambled eggs on campus. After three days of catering to the needs of almost 1000 4-H kids, we went on our merry way to McCutcheon, where we crafted, cut, and pasted to our little hearts' content in order to explain Fruit and Veggies Month (September) and Spiritual Wellness Month (November) to students in the dining halls. Given a few extra hours in the day, we were able to finish two boards of four! Very exciting stuff.

Fruit & Veggie Month!

#MindfulnessMatters

On Thursday, we returned to our home away from home, the Purdue Memorial Union kitchen. In the morning we assisted in providing snazzy boxed lunches featuring BBQ chicken wraps and roast beef wraps and later spent the afternoon doing inventory for recipe testing. After three and a half days of being on our feet, it was a relief to sit down and do some old fashioned pencil pushing- painstakingly combing through the electronic inventory and actual inventory in order to make note of any discrepancies.

Friday was a much anticipated day off, and we decided (of course!) to be the true 90s kids we are and see Finding Dory with Mary Frances' Mom (hi Mom!) It was a fantastic movie and surprisingly deep for children- highly recommended, of course. We then went to this awesome upscale restaurant in downtown Lafayette, Restauration, a restaurant that prides itself on sourcing local ingredients and unique dishes, such as yuca fries and lamb burgers. The food was delicious and certainly much appreciated... To cap off a fun night, we went bowling and played three frames, finally signing off at around midnight.

We may need some more practice before we start our own league

Saturday afternoon we were back to the grind; 3 pm rolled around quick, and we were back to the Memorial Union for another catering event. Last weekend, we were introduced to the wedding world by being thrown into catering 2 weddings at the same time. This weekend seemed to be a breeze with only one wedding to take care of. We all had an enjoyable experience during our last wedding event getting to work with a great catering staff. Through our wedding experiences we learned that organization and communication are key. Also, that plans are meant to be altered in the catering world; there may be a series of situations that are out of your control, but there is always room for problem solving.

Beautiful cake for a beautiful couple!

Koozies all around!

On Sunday (another well-deserved day off), we decided to visit Mary Frances' sister (Hi Amy and Austin!) in Indianapolis and visit the Indy zoo. Despite it feeling like 110, we trekked all over and took on the lions, tigers, and bears, Oh my! (Well, not the tiger... he wasn't feeling up to visitors!) Afterwards, we toured the canal and took in the sights of the historic southwest quadrant, including the monument to fallen Civil War soldiers. Unfortunately, we couldn't take a ride to the top to see the city due to extreme weather, but we did finish off at Yard House, a restaurant in the heart of Indy. Great food, great hosts... it was definitely an experience, and we're so grateful to have had such an awesome experience! We even got a nice treat for the ride home with a beautiful sunset. Needless to say it was a picture perfect ending to week three here in Boiler town.