This whole Sweet Life Sauce Company thing is a hoot as far as I am concerned. I am having a blast with it...I think Holly is warming to it more and more each time she packs an order and sends it off.
It is no secret to those in my circle of influence that I really dig cooking for big crowds. It's a secret to my wife though. Well...maybe not that I dig cooking for big crowds but that someday, SOMEDAY I hope to get other people(also known as customers) to give me certificates of appreciation(also known as money) for the stuff I cook for them.
I think this fascination and passion comes from my days during my high school years as a cook at Fryers Chicken in Umatilla, Florida...my hometown. It was the Sieberts in Umatilla that had this neat little fried chicken and hamburger joint called Fryers Chicken...always flush with employees from the local high school. I happened to be one of those high school kids that needed a job to pay for the stuff a high school kid needs.
You know...that stuff all us 80's teenagers had to have. Stuff like quarters to play Star Wars at the arcade at the Lake Square Mall(it took 2 quarters to play that game!)...stuff like a new comb as big as my hip bone for my flowing locks that could stick prominently out of my back pocket...stuff like the newest tape cassette from Journey...stuff like $1.83 for 3 gallons of leaded gas to stick in Donald's chick magnet 1973 Plymouth Fury...stuff like the latest Members Only windbreaker...or Chams...or bleached jeans...or stuff like a big ole' Maxi Burger from Fryers Chicken. I just needed some money...or so I thought! Have you ever found yourself in one of those jobs where you only did it for the money but you wound up LOVING the work and the money didn't matter. That was Fryers Chicken for me. We cooked all kinds of stuff in that little kitchen in the back. Fried chicken, fish, burgers, chicken sandwiches, mushrooms, cole slaw, fries, hush puppies, corn fritters, potato salad, macaroni salad...man, we had some good stuff.
I learned how to prepare food and cook food and serve food to the public at this gig at Fryers Chicken. And I'll let you know there was some serious inventin' going on in that little kitchen. We had all kinds of things we would throw together...just to see what "could" happen when certain ingredients were thrown together in a melange of flavors...a dance of delicacy.
I remember some of the first fried pickles I ever had...they were yummy. I remember breaded hamburger patties layered with bacon and cheese on toasted buns...I remember something called a jack-o-melon sitting in the cooler...I remember incredible tasting fried chicken that had been brined in this big ole' tumbler that let the chicken get all happy in its own juices with the brine solution...I remember some very tasty cole slaw made from scratch...and I remember these really amazing corn fritters we made from scratch with tons of whole corn all in them finished off with powdered sugar...mmmmm...mmmm...M! And I remember Donald on his last day of work playing toilet plunger darts on the door of the walk in cooler...man he was good at that game...I suspect it wasn't his first round of this fast food kitchen game....and now that I think about it...THAT WAS GROSS! (all sanitized at the end of each shift I tell you!)
Man what a time it was...to know that I cleaned grease traps and washed dish after dish and cooked pound after pound of food. Now 25 years later...or so...I can look back to that time and really find my roots for my love of cooking. This love moved right to college with me.
College...the "casserole" years...
College...the University of Florida...School of Building Construction. The Phoenix Funhouse. Give me a box of Bisquick, some ketchup, a couple Kraft Cheese Slices, and a hot dog and I will bake you an incredible cheese pizza topped with German spicy sausage. Let me go out to Lake Lilly in Melrose, catch a mess of specs and put a fish fry in front of you that makes your parents come back to college to visit for three weekends in a row! A bag of rice...some peas...a couple cans of the cheapest cream of mushroom soup and a freezer burned chunk of venison from Theron...DA BOMB!
Fast forward 20 years or so and you'll find me doing BBQ's with the friends and family. No meat will intimidate me. Big honkin' chunks of beef with rib bones included and chunks of pork on charcoal and gas grills, smokers and open pits...it doesn't matter. I prepare for my first whole sheep on an open pit...I'm going Middle Eastern on you!
Pounds and pounds of boiled crawfish thrown out on open tables with pieces of corn on the cob, onions, fresh lemons, whole heads of garlic, sausage, hot dogs, baby red potatoes...jumbo shrimp drown in a buttery and garlicky and spicy sauce.
I just loving cooking for the masses!
And then I get hooked back up with Darryl. Me and Darryl go way back. I was this fresh from college superintendent put into a been there done that sales dudes neighborhood of Darryl's...and he taught me the ropes in the world of home building. He teaches me to this day. Though these days its on the fine art of feeding large groups of people with exceptionally tasty and well done morsels of pork and chicken and beef and all the accoutrement's that would go with a proper BBQ catering company. He is a pro for sure and one that I can recommend without reservation from Sweet Life Sauce Company.If you're up for some incredible BBQ in Central Florida...or just about anything else you can think for a big group of people...outdoors...ready to do some finger licking...listen to some music...hang out around a bonfire...doing some tailgating...got a birthday party celebration...want to have a Shindig...have a wedding reception...need to do a company picnic...want to reward your team for a job well done...Darryl is your first call. Backwoods Boys BBQ...proudly recommended by Sweet Life Sauce Company!
Check out his website and awards at www.backwoodsboysbbq.com. He can even feature sauces from Sweet Life Sauce Company.
Did I say he has an award winning Cole Slaw...a concoction that has won a State of Florida Food Award! Just hook me up with an I.V. and shoot this stuff right into my arm...I could live on his cole slaw...and pez. And baklava...and garlic pegged shrimp coated with Spice of Life BBQ Sauce...
I digress...
As we say at Sweet Life Sauce Company...all is well in the land!
Get your Sauce!...at www.sweetlifesaucecompany.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment