Chapter 2 - preparing the end of the year party

Every morning, it was so difficult to wake up, even though my carer was such a nice, attentive and smart guy. "Madam" he whispered in my ear. "Madam, it is time to wake up and get dress and I'm here to make your day a beautiful one and help you the best I can. Madam, I'm sorry to pull you out of the beautiful dreams you surely had during the night, but it is time to get ready." So I did.
Still very much sleepy, with the help of Gurdeep, I had breakfast, got up and dressed, ready for a new day at Charleston's.
But just before I left to go to the classroom: "Oh, I forgot to tell you, Mrs Foster is waiting for you in her office. She wanted to see you first thing in the morning" he told me.
All I could think of was: what on earth is she after again, what have I done? I always have good night sleep, but now I'm sure to have nightmares if she continues to be after me all the time.
But I had no choice, so I went and knocked on her office door.

"Come in" she said...
As I opened the door I found Rebecca and Mrs Foster, both of them were smiling. I didn't understand what was going on.
"Please, Rebecca and Helen, have a seat. Helen as I was just saying to Rebecca, you two are the best student in the cooking class. So, I suggested the principle that you get to prepare the menu and the meal for the 'end of the year party'. And she agreed. What do you think about it?"
"Well,... why not, well... Yes in fact. Yes, we'd love to" both of us said at the same time, smiling to each other.
It was true we loved this class. We liked thinking of wonderful menu, and getting them prepared and cocked.
"Thank you Mrs Forster "we said, "thank you very much. But how many people will there be in June for that party ?"
"There should be about 200 people, including your families and siblings, the teachers and the school's benefactors." said Mrs Foster
"200 ! But well need and army of cook to be ready and hours of work and tons of food..." said Rebecca.
"I'm sure you can make it, you'll have help from the kitchen staff and from all the carers. You've got free hand on this girls. Now you better get going. You need to start working on this just after your lessons today."
It took us a few seconds to realize what we've been asked, then we left the office, thanking Mrs Foster again and we aimed to our classroom.
The day went on all right and when ever we had a minute, we would write down ideas for the menu.
In the afternoon, for our quiet time Gurdeep came to us and showed us in the school library. There, we were alone. In the center of the room, there was only a big table, 2 chairs, pencils and paper, recepy books and of cause a lot of food to nibble while working. He said: "I've been told to stay with you and bring you all you need while working here. You should have finished round 6pm. And finished meaning having wrote the menu and eating everything on the table. If you happen to be ready before 6, then you can go back to your room and wait for the evening meal and I'll bring more food if there isn't enough. Have a nice working time" he said, smiling sweetly.

First we had a look at a lot of books. We decided to choose food we liked and food we knew people we loved, liked. We also decided that we didn't want a 'sit at the table' party, but rather a buffet style, even though it was going to be a high-class one.
And of course while writing everything down we ate all that was on the table, polishing the whole lot before time was over.

This is what we came out with
Cold dishes: Caesar's salad - smocked salmon salad - sausage rolls

Hot dishes: top quality beef burgers - prosciutto di Parma pizzas - duck and chicken nuggets - melted cheese and garlic bread - Moroccan lamb tagine - Russian borscht

Pudding: mince pies - figgy puddings - chocolate and coffee éclairs - all kind of mousses (chocolate, orange and lemon) - crème brulée - chocolate cakes - fruit jellies -

Fruits: according to what we can find on the market. If possible we would like strawberries and raspberries with cream, apricots, bananas with hot chocolate -

Ice creams and sorbets: fresh fruits sorbet. The fruits would be chosen and bought the day before, so we could have the ripest and sweetest one.
Chocolate, vanilla, fudge, pistachio, raspberry and strawberry ice-creams.
All of the sorbets and ice-creams will be served with fine biscuits.

Drinks: all kinds of soda and fruits juices, beer and cider, tea and coffee and still and sparkling water.

We had also calculated all the quantity of food we had to buy for 200 people, including around 20 on-they-way-to-obesity students.

Before we finished, Gurdeep left the library room and came back a few minutes later: "I understand you have more a sweet tooth for what you have chosen for puddings, fruits and ice-creams, so I brought you a lot of sweet food for you to enjoy."
We were so existed with all this, what we continue to dig in all this delicious food and at 6 we had nearly finished it all again.
In came Mrs Foster, she red what we had set as a menu and said: "You've done a very good job. And I can see you had plenty to eat while working. Very good girls."
"Yes in fact" I said, "maybe we had to much."
"Once again Helen" said Mrs Foster "Did you now. You just wait the day when the food will be prepared and cooked, then you'll see what it is to eat too much. That is why cooks always seem to be nice, round and fat. That is how you'll end up, you know it, don't you? Girls I'm very proud of you. Have a nice evening."