Sami - Catering

It's been a while since I wrote last time. This is mostly due to laziness, but some things have happened during the last week as well.
For one, I've started to spend more of my free time (and sometimes project time) on drawing, trying to learn more since I've been procrastinating on my studies for quite a bit.
This is due to reading some posts by artists I admire, but also because I got around an art book shop with a project teammate of mine (A place called Basheer Graphic Books). Even though my wallet might not be so thankful, I must thank her for taking the time and choosing to take me there. There was a sale on some items so I didn't end up spending as much as I feared, although there was some temptation to get more books.

Futile Payback

In addition, mainly due to the generosity of a local friend of ours (one that I mentioned before. From now on referred to as Barbecue Guy or BG, in the same team as Teo the engineer.) we decided to host a party of sorts. He has bought us all kinds of things to the point of despair. Before his actions I didn't know a person can be destroyed by pure charity. Anyway, onto what we had in mind. We were thinking of cooking something Finnish for the locals. The recipe we ended up with was meatloaf with brown sauce served with potatoes and grated carrots, with a dessert of crepes with jam. The only problem was that our flat has no oven. Now, Barbecue Guy said it's no issue, that he has a smaller model oven he can borrow. We agreed.
The day of preparation arrived and tasks were shared. Three of us would go to the grocery store and two would clean up in the meantime. (One of us was away, over at Malaysia for a short period). Around 80 dollars worth of supplies were bought, slightly less than I had anticipated. Once I, Teemu and Toni returned from the shop, BG caught up to us with his car, bringing his oven. The timing was perfect, and Teemu grabbed it. To our dismay at the apartment, it turned out the oven was bought that day, under two hours ago as we found a receit on the box and the appliance was in enclosed packaging. I did not notice this since I didn't have a close look at it yet. Either way, he had one upped us by 50 dollars already, as the oven cost around 130 dollars.
Finally the day arrived (Thursday after school) and we all were anxious for one reason or the other. I was nervous due to two things: One being that we made some improvised decisions when it comes to ingredients and I hadn't cooked for a large amount of people in a long time, and the other because I had a feeling BG had something else up his sleeve.
Around ten people arrived to the flat that day. Local students, and one of the lecturers at NYP as well. We were prepared to cater for six or so. Not everyone ate though, so it wasn't an issue. There was enough food to go around, and while people waited Finnish drinks and snacks were offered. I was in charge of making the meat loaf, sauce and making sure the potatoes were cooked. Teemu prepared the grated carrots and helped me with the preparation of the meat loaf. Teo was in charge of dessert. Everything turned out fairly well despite some minor issues, as is natural for a group of people with Finnish intuition. Problems like removing a tray from the oven without oven mitts wouldn't be an issue.
People seemed pleased with the meatloaf especially. Some of the potatoes and carrot was thrown away. Our dessert seemed to please our guests as well. The reaction to Finnish drinks and sweets were mixed at best. Towards the evening BG had disappeared, apparently to have a smoke. He returned with a bunch of pizza, garlic bread and chicken wing drumsticks. Our plan to repay was wrecked in an instant, and we have given up on fighting generosity with generosity.

Friday (a day off due to Hari Raya Puasa) arrived and we decided to go to the barbecue place again. This time without BG, but with another group of locals. Chatting and sharing stories and jokes, the evening went really smoothly as we ate ourselves full. I didn't need food at all the next day, but had a small dish of noodles in the evening since we were traveling outside. During this time there was talk about planning to do something next weekend as well. Since we have an oven now and all. BG said he would grab it in the course of about a month, but I wouldn't count on that.