The idea that we stretch out the dining experience to more completely cover the entire time period between the morning practice session and the afternoon session is great.
I think the amount of time an individual cook needs to dedicate to the effort should be considered. I'm confident that I speak for the group when I express my great appreciation to every BigBlueHuddler who donned the apron and mitt and manned a charcoal grill for us during the picnic. But, I wanted to make sure that at some time we could say "cooking's done - now you cooks grab a beverage and join the party."
Maybe a simple schedule that allows some cooks to start our the party at a grill to provide us all with their speciality, then step back, enjoy a well deserved beverage and our appreciative company while a new cook steps into the pit and whips up a second course.
This might also allow us to defeat another little bug in our use of the park there by Lake Rensileer: the official mandate that we only use park provided grills, that are permanently fixed into the ground and spaced out apart from each other.
For example, everyone loves Vettes ribs (start out with good meat, add a fine dry rub, then proper sauce and a good measure of loving attention), but for him to deliver them he had to get three grills going, and nearly wore a path in the grass between them while keeping everything right and proper. (Big thanks to you Vette).
If we were a little more organized with grill timing, we could keep from spreading out all over the park to have enough cooking surfaces for all our yummy goodies.
Another thing to consider is a few more folding tables. The picnic table that the park provides are chained to the trees, apart from each other (like the grills) and we end up spreading out pretty far and wide just to set up our fare. If we had a few folding tables we might be able to centralize the arrangement and keep the group together more closely.
I don't think the spreading out really hurt us in any big way. The idea of moving things more closely together might just be the kind of tweak that makes the event a little more cozy.
pagan43
I think the amount of time an individual cook needs to dedicate to the effort should be considered. I'm confident that I speak for the group when I express my great appreciation to every BigBlueHuddler who donned the apron and mitt and manned a charcoal grill for us during the picnic. But, I wanted to make sure that at some time we could say "cooking's done - now you cooks grab a beverage and join the party."
Maybe a simple schedule that allows some cooks to start our the party at a grill to provide us all with their speciality, then step back, enjoy a well deserved beverage and our appreciative company while a new cook steps into the pit and whips up a second course.
This might also allow us to defeat another little bug in our use of the park there by Lake Rensileer: the official mandate that we only use park provided grills, that are permanently fixed into the ground and spaced out apart from each other.
For example, everyone loves Vettes ribs (start out with good meat, add a fine dry rub, then proper sauce and a good measure of loving attention), but for him to deliver them he had to get three grills going, and nearly wore a path in the grass between them while keeping everything right and proper. (Big thanks to you Vette).
If we were a little more organized with grill timing, we could keep from spreading out all over the park to have enough cooking surfaces for all our yummy goodies.
Another thing to consider is a few more folding tables. The picnic table that the park provides are chained to the trees, apart from each other (like the grills) and we end up spreading out pretty far and wide just to set up our fare. If we had a few folding tables we might be able to centralize the arrangement and keep the group together more closely.
I don't think the spreading out really hurt us in any big way. The idea of moving things more closely together might just be the kind of tweak that makes the event a little more cozy.
pagan43