firehouse grub

I would rather scrub out the toilet than figure out what to make for dinner.

Trying to make dinner for a meat and potatoes husband and a 2 1/2 yr old who wants pancakes for dinner can be trying. Especially when I am happy just eating something healthy and fast like kale and brown rice and tofu. Or grabbing a handful of baby carrots and hummous. It's not that I don't like food.... I love good healthy food but I am just not inspired to make it. And it's not so much the cooking that bugs me.. it's the clean-up afterward... it's like adding insult to injury.

That's why meals at the firehouse are so much fun. You bond over breaking bread and there's lots of help washing dishes. There's a saying at work which is "it doesn't have to be good (but it always is)... it just has to be lots". And lots of food it is. There is always at least one guy who does a few great dishes. Calzones from scratch, 20 1b roast beef dinners, crepe suzettes, turkey with all the trimmings at Christmas. cedar-plank salmon, pasta-primavera, fruit smoothies...... but one of my favourite all-time meals is the fireman brunch which we usually have on a Saturday or Sunday shift. It consists of:
eggs of course (3 per)
bacon
hot italian sausage
toast
hash browns
oj (I'd love to say we squeeze it fresh but we don't.... we have a food budget... normally 5 dollars per meal)
sludge

What is this sludge you ask....? read on....

Now we just eyeball the recipe for sludge depending on how large our crew is that day. We're a 2 truck hall so that means at least 7 people. Sludge is a fantastic mixture of deep browned beans, ground beef, red and green peppers, onions, and spices as hot as you can stand...... looks like sludge... tastes divine.... keeps you going for hours. It is made up mostly of the musical fruit after all. Not recommended when you want to impress your date. Luckily at my firehall I have my very own bathroom.