I love food. Most of you know that. I just spent a couple weeks on a fire and was food deprived, both in quantity and quality. I don't really remember much of the first fire, but on the second one we were on swing shift. We worked from 3pm until between 3 and 5am. With that shift we automatically missed dinner and were sent out to the line with a sack lunch. Here's a rundown of the fire camp sack lunch: 1 meat-wad sandwich, 1 apple, 1 bag Goldfish, 1 bag Knotts Berry Farm shortbread cookies, 1 Cliffbar and 3 boxes of raisins. Who even eats raisins anymore? Over 10 days, the only difference to the lunch was that there was occasionally a piece of string cheese added and an orange exchanged for the apple. The first shift I ate all of it. The second shift I stopped eating the sandwich and only eating the Goldfish, apple and cookies. After about the 4th shift I quit eating the cookies and Goldfish.
Let's hold up right there. I love Goldfish. Everybody loves Goldfish. But after a few days of it being the only thing you can eat out of the lunch, Goldfish suck. The Chips Fire may have ruined Goldfish for me for life.
So really the only thing I was eating was the apple, orange and stick of cheese.
If we got off shift late enough, we could stay up and eat breakfast which starts at 5am and ends at 10am. The first couple of shifts I missed breakfast entirely, but the crew was running into town around noon to buy our own lunches, so I was doing that for a few days.
On one shift I was too tired when we got off to eat breakfast, slept through lunch and had a dinner of an apple, an orange, string cheese and a cliff bar.
Needless to say, I'm sleep deprived and lost a few pounds.
I still have a roast from the ranch down the street in my freezer, since I've been hesitant to thaw it. Being on a 2 hour callback means I can leave my food rotting on the counter for weeks before making it home to clean it up. I didn't want to waste a good roast, so it remained in my freezer.
Well I'm home now and I get two days off guaranteed, so it's thawed and awaiting the crockpot tomorrow. I also get to pick up my new batch of meat from the ranch tomorrow, along with a chicken or two and maybe another dozen eggs. I have to say, getting food fresh from the ranch has pretty much doubled my excitement for foood.
Not only do I have my roast ready to go for tomorrow, I also had bought the ingredients for a pasta recipe my family sent me for Christmas...and they hadn't gone bad while I was gone. A few of the tomatoes were a little wrinkled but most of them faired just fine. For Christmas, my family in Ohio sent me a recipe card for Tomatoes and Capers, along with a jar of infused oil and capers. It was a simple and delicious looking recipe that until now, I have not gotten arouund to making. I just made it tonight.
I don't even really know what capers are, but as soon as I opened the jar, I was sold. Whatever they are, I like them. The recipe is for a pasta with cherry tomatoes, black olives and capers, with romano cheese. I also cut the tops off of the beets and carrots I just bought and sauteed them with mushrooms and garlic (using some of the leftover infused oil) and served it as a side. It was all absolutely delicious. I had a glass of sweet vermouth with it as well.
I'm so happy to be home eating delicious, healthy food, even if it's only for a couple days.
