Nacho bar

How fitting that right I would be writing about my October 30th Staff Appreciation lunch a few days after my December 10th staff appreciation lunch. The day before I made 10 lbs of chicken cutlets and I wanted to make sure they were tender and juicy so I brined them for the first time ever and they turned out really well. And I learned again why I don't like chicken cutlets! It took forever to remove the tendons for all that chicken. I saved the PTA some $$$, so I guess it was worth it.

I wanted to do something different for my event in October, so I planned a nacho salad bar. I had a volunteer set up to help me, but she got sick the day before. 

I was stressing a little, because salad stuff is so much better cut fresh and I had planned to cut everything up that morning at the school and then cut and restock all day. Thankfully I was able to enlist Matt to help take everything to the school that morning - and it was pouring down rain - and then stay for the first hour to help me chop. 

After that Ashlee hung out for a bit and then to clean and pack up I was flying solo and it was v lonely. It’s just a lot of work and I was so tired and actually sore. I’m not used to that kind of manual labor anymore! 

Also, and it’s weird when you’re blogging weirdly like I am, the day before was Alli’s birthday and we’d celebrated with her at Medieval Times so I was also sleepy tired. Anyways, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, staff appreciation ❤️. 

I thought everything turned out really well. People loved it and there was enough variety that there was something for everyone, no matter what food allergy they may have. 

I brought over a bunch of my halloween decorations and the staffroom looked cute. Except for the chalkboard that still sported flowers from Spring. I wish I could get my act together to make a new sign for each event, but it's good enough.