Week 1

Wow, being unemployed for so long caused me to forget just how tiring working a full-time job can be! I've just wrapped up my first week of training and things are going quite well! I won't divulge too much information about the job or my coworkers for privacy's sake, but I will say that things are going as well as I hoped they would. We're steadily getting ready to ship ourselves out west and I'm beginning to understand the ins and outs of the job itself. In brief, our training days consist of organizational meetings, shop-work (such as truck outfitting and equipment inventory) and - my favourite part - menu demos for dinner. Since I've arrived I've cooked dinner every night except our first night in order to test out menu ideas for the tours once they begin. On that subject, I have composed a tentative list of meals to cook on the road which can be repeated for each tour:

1. Tofu with tomato and coconut curry served on rice (vegan)
2. Linguine prima vera with chicken or plain (optional vegan)
3. Potato soup with ham or plain (optional vegetarian)
4. Penne caprese with chicken or plain (optional vegan)
5. Shrimp jambalaya
   
6. Salad niciose
7. Mexican rice (Vegan)
   
8. Asian noodle salad
9. Fettuccine Alfredo with bacon and shrimp or plain (optional vegetarian)
10. Burritos (optional vegan)
11. Cream of mushroom soup with tomato and cheese sandwiches (vegetarian)
12. Perogies (vegetarian)
13. Macaroni and Cheese (vegetarian)
14. Chili con carne
15. Spaghetti bolognese or alla arrabiata (optional vegetarian)
16. *Special occasion* Fettuccine with salmon and mushrooms in a brandy cream sauce
17. *Special occasion* Whitefish (whatever's available) encrusted with yams served with sautéed green beans and dill sauce
    

Obviously one of the major things to note is that my menu is limited by various dietary restrictions. I'm not sure exactly what kind of dietary restrictions my tour will be dealing with but it's a safe bet that at least several of them will be vegetarian and possibly there will be a celiac, vegan or lactose intolerant as well. This choice of meals should be fairly accommodating to such dietary restrictions! Also, another huge limitation is my lack of an oven. All my work must be done on a stove top alone. Finally, the most interesting element for menu restriction is the availability of ingredients. Most of this food must be cooked from canned or bought instead that day from the grocery store. Relying on grocery stores all across Canada to be consistently stocked on whatever ingredients we'll need for that day is a difficult task to say the least.

Working in a yard is not one of my strong points. I'm really waiting for our ship out date to come! My prescription aviators came in yesterday though so at least working outside will get a lot easier really soon.