Yours truly, the Kugel Queen, reigned supremely over the Kugel and Blintz Booth yesterday at the Jewish Food Festival.
I wish I had pictures....but your royal highness here....was so busy....from 6am till 5pm……I never could get my phone out of my apron pocket!
This is truly a labor of love…..because the week before the festival is quite stressful for a queen who doesn’t cook.
First of all….I have to help make 25 huge pans/tubs of noodle kugel. By “help” I mean….I’m the kitchen slave to my hub and the director of the festival who mix and blend and bake this Eastern European delight in a commercial kitchen.
The two baking sessions are followed by “jamming”….the art of scooping strawberry jam into little ¼ cup portion cups. The jam is not for the kugel but my booth also sells blintzes….and we give out a sour cream cup plus a jam cup with the blintzes. Fortunately, other folks do the sour cream….I’m just responsible for the jam.
I make a 1000 jam cups….neatly organizing them into plastic bags containing 50 cups a piece…. and then I stuff about 40 bags in my second fridge in the garage.
Of course, I worry too. Being in charge of a booth means scheduling volunteers…..making sure you have all your equipment….and keeping everything coordinated.
Of course, people are your biggest variable….some volunteers I plead sweetly with….to ensure they will be there…other folks…like some of the younger guys….I use guilt….telling them if they don’t show up…..people won’t get a break to eat, sit down or PEE. It works!
We usually have about 10,000 folks come through the festival….which means we serve a lot of kugel and blintzes. Yesterday was a beautiful day….so we could have had more folks...I haven't heard the official estimate yet.
Strange….for one brief moment…..as I saw pairs of policeman roam our festival…. I thought of this week’s arrest in NYC of folks who were making plans to bomb a synagogue ….and here we all were….working and dishing our food and friendship out at our festival….all clumped together...an easy target.
But I shook my head….to get rid of my thoughts.....because you can’t think of those things or you could be paralyzed with fear.
So the blintzes…cooked brown in their butter…..the kugel came out of the warmer and hit hundreds of plates…..and a good time was had by all.
This morning…I required one muscle relaxant and a couple of aspirins .....but the Kugel Queen rose (although slowly)…..and quickly threw her greasy apron into the wash.
Next year….there will be a new Kugel Queen……
And all I ca say is.....Hail to the new Queen!!
While I will be a lowly volunteer in some other booth.....Yippeeee!
