Cooking For Mr. Griffin

The gazillionaire owner of my wife's company will be flying in tomorrow in his private jet & will arrive at the plant by limo. He is going to be hungry for lunch at some point, so my wife has roped me into helping with the feeding. I say roped, but it's actually been fun. It's just that she was devious in her methods. She said, "Hey, do you think you could make some mashed potatoes for when Mr. Griffin comes in?" Well, sure, I can make mashed potatoes. No problem. I have been happily going along with her on buying missions, picking up sour cream here and pricing cheesecake there. Then, today, just after I had tasted prototypes of some very tasty sauces, she explained to her QA guys that I am catering the meal and will be in tomorrow before 7. Hmm. News to me. The good news is, she'll be helping me some. Even better, very little of the cooking is actually my responsibility.

So, right now, she is listening to Natalie Merchant (we just took a dance break) and making beef stroganoff with a bunch of filet mignon. I spent the afternoon peeling 15 pounds of potatoes and making them into mashed potatoes, one of the world's perfect foods. Since the idea is to showcase what her plant is producing, I used some of their chicken base in the potatoes & it made them a gorgeous creamy yellow. Added some good flavor, too. Our menu:

Queso (plant-made) and tortilla chips
Greek salad, using their balsamic vinaigrette
Iceberg salad, with their sweet & sour vinaigrette
Fruit trays topped with edible orchids
Tomato basil bisque (plant-made) with parmesan & croutons
Chicken pot pie filling (plant-made) & beef stroganoff (using their onion soup base) over mashed potatoes
Pulled pork, using their BBQ sauce
Cheesecake

The secretary says I must eat with them. I will probably do what the real caterers do & eat in the kitchen (in this case, the QA lab) between shifts of eaters.

I also need to remember to send my nice tea box in with J because Mr. Griffin likes to drink tea.