The Command Visit

Over the past few weeks I had been surprisingly busy. At times I do enjoy a hectic schedule. However, this time I was not preoccupied doing things for myself. Rather I was assisting my husband to prepare for his Command Visit, while also participating in a few activities on their calendar of events.  

The Command members that typically perform these visits are the Commanding Officer (CO) and the First Sergeant (1stSgt). They are in charge of the assigned “host countries” in their region. Their visit is intended to ensure that the Detachment Commander and his Marines are moving in the right direction to perform their jobs properly and efficiently. As well, the Command likes to visit the Detachment Commander’s residence to not only meet his or her family, but to also confirm that their living conditions are suitable. The visit sounds pretty cut and dry; not too difficult. But any service member knows that when their Command comes to town there is a great deal of prep work involved. They were scheduled to stay in Algiers for four days with a jam packed schedule of activities and events. This wasn’t going to be any picnic in the park.

Being the new kid on the block is undoubtedly challenging. One has to become familiar with his or her settings and get up to speed on his or her surroundings and new responsibilities. Needless to say, being a new Detachment Commander is a pretty stressful time the Marine and in turn, the spouse. My husband is not easily stressed. On the contrary, he is usually the person who has a nonchalant attitude, yet still gets the job done. I am more of the worrier in our household. Often I am concerned about each step in any process. And if that is not enough, I consistently triple check myself and my work to guarantee that either it was done properly or things are moving according to the set plan. This time the tables were turned. My husband would be the one to spend countless hours in the day preparing documents and materials for the Command. He would be the one questioning his own plan to make sure it was a wise choice. And he would be the one triple checking his work to ensure accuracy.

About a week prior to the arrival of the Command I sensed my husband could use my help at work. Not to do his job, but to assist him in establishing some type of organizational system that would allow him to clearly identify his tasks and responsibilities and to distinguish his priorities. Sometimes a person may have all the answers within their possession. Every file may be held on the organizations shares drive. Or the loads of paperwork may be placed in one office. But neither one of those things will matter if it is scattered amongst different drawers in the office, various shelves, or in an assortment of folders found on the computer. When maintaining my work space, my motto has always been to consolidate. If ten items found in five different folders, all pertain to one event I’m working on, then I’m going to immediately transfer all ten items to one folder for my current event. The week prior to the Command arriving, I gladly stepped in to assist my husband in arranging his materials in a way that would set him up for success now and in the future.

In addition to lending a hand to my husband in the office, I also planned to make a few meals for the entire detachment and the Command during their stay in Algiers. Although I do know how to cook and enjoy making meals for my husband and I; I have never cooked for a large group of people. Nor have I ever baked anything from scratch. A box labeled with instructions has always yielded me fantastic results. Therefore, I had a minute challenge ahead of me. I would host a dinner at my house for a party of nine.

Our shipments from the states arrived two weeks prior to the scheduled visit. Since I knew the Command was scheduled to do a walkthrough of our residence followed by dinner here; I wanted to make certain that the house was well put together. I unpacked every box, put everything away in its proper place, and organized our consumable good so that they were displayed nicely. As for the household cleaning, I could have opted to use a maid service, but I chose to do it myself instead. I figured it’s my home and besides; it would be good exercise for me.

I decided to set aside one day to clean my home from top to bottom. It was a good thing I allotted myself that much time. This house took nearly an entire day to thoroughly clean. There were moments I almost regretted not hiring a maid to do the job instead. Never once had I spent an entire day of just cleaning. I know some people get a thrill out of cleaning their home. However, I am not that female. I loathe cleaning, especially dusting and doing the bathrooms. It has always been tolerable in the past, but after cleaning a there bedroom, three bathroom home with all marble floors and high ceilings, I was completely done!

To simply sweep the entire residence, it took me approximately one hour. Then it took me another hour to use my Swiffer and clean all the floors. I must mention that using a Swiffer is not all that great. I think an actual mop is still the best things to get clean floors that are super shiny and residue free. A Swiffer is just easier than walking around with a bucket of water and continuously dipping the mop in the bucket, squeezing off excess water, mopping and repeating several times.

Next I moved on to vacuuming. We only have two rugs in our home; one in the living room and one in our bedroom. Therefore, this would not take long. I started in the living room. When I was almost done with that area, I started to smell something that reeked of burned rubber.  I looked down to see smoke escaping from the bottom of my vacuum cleaner! I thought to myself, “Vacuum cleaner please hang in there. I’ve got to get the rest of this rug clean and the one in my bedroom.” Fortunately I did manage to finish vacuuming both rooms. Although I could tell the vacuum cleaner was not picking up dirt and trash as easily as before. Once I finished, I quickly unplugged the vacuum and placed it in the hallway for my husband to examine. He’s not only a Marine, but he’s also our resident repair man. Hey, I’m the house cleaner and house cook. We both have collateral duties that come with zero benefits!

After setting the vacuum cleaner aside, I began the dusting. There is something that I have always loved about the look of dark furniture. Cherry wood is my favorite. When entering our residence for the first time, I was excited to see all of the furniture was cherry wood.  However, there is nothing beautiful about the obvious dust that is shown on such furniture. Dark wood shows everything! I’ve noticed that a day or two later after I dust, it looks like I didn’t do anything. The dust returns so quickly. Therefore, I delayed dusting until the day of the dinner so that the furniture would look freshly cleaned when they arrived. Between sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, dusting, washing and folding laundry, and tidying up the place; I was excited for the day to finally arrive.

I can be very indecisive, but it didn’t take me long to make a decision about what I would fix for dinner and dessert. For the appetizers, I kept it simple and nicely plated pepperoni cuts of cheeses, crackers, olives, and onions. For the entrée I chose to cook oven roasted chicken with carrots and potatoes, served with cornbread. For dessert I made a pound cake served with macerated strawberries and sprinkled with confectioner's sugar. The meal seemed easy enough to me. I figured it wouldn’t be a lot of work. Boy was I wrong about that!

 The dinner was on a Wednesday. That Monday I took the chickens out to clean and season them in advance. Cleaning a chicken in Algiers is very much different from cleaning a packaged chicken in the states. Often the chickens here still have feathers on them, which need to be removed. There is not a massive amount of feathers, but it’s enough to require some detailed cleaning. Fortunately, the butcher clears out the inside of the chicken for me and always cuts the neck off.  However, there cavity was still filled with loose parts and a little too much blood for my liking. In the past it only took me a few minutes to thoroughly clean a whole chicken.  Here it takes me at least thirty minutes. I planned to roast two whole chickens, so that evening I was in the kitchen for over an hour. After spending nearly 90 minutes cleaning both chickens I decided not to season them that night. I noticed there was more blood than usual dripping from the cavity of the chickens. My mother gave me a tip that proved to be excellent. She said to sprinkle some salt inside the cavity, and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator. My mother said that would be a good way to drain the blood from the chickens. I followed her advice and placed the two chickens into the fridge for the night.

Tuesday morning I woke up, ate breakfast and removed the chickens from the fridge to see if the salt tip worked. My mother’s advice was perfect! There was no more excess blood dripping from the cavity. After rinsing the salt from the cavities and patting the chickens dry with a paper towel, I seasoned them with kosher salt, pepper, original Mrs. Dash, and olive oil. Then I placed both chickens in two large Ziploc bags and returned them to the fridge.

Subsequently, I gathered the ingredients to make my pound cake. Pound cakes are typically done in a bundt or loaf pan. I didn’t own either. The day before I requested the Marine driver to take me to a nearby store where I was told I could find bundt pans. The person who recommended the place didn’t know the name of the store, so it took me a little while to find. I finally spotted the store after walking by it twice. Everything sold in Algiers is made in European sizes. The bundt and loaf pans were nearly half the size of the normal pans I am accustomed to seeing. I bought two bundt pans in case there was too much butter for one.

The pound cake recipe I used was that of the infamous, Paula Deen. Nonetheless, that meant I was going to be using lots of sugar and butter. Her pound cake recipe called for three cups of sugar. I decreased it to a little over two cups because I didn’t want it to be overly sweet. Unfortunately I could not taste test the batter, because I didn’t make it gluten free. I just hoped that the amount of sugar I did put was enough to still make it delicious. A pound cake seemed relatively easy to make. After doing some research, I found the most important step was adding the sugar to the butter and shortening while mixing. This stage creates the light and fluffy texture that is desired.

After mixing all the ingredients and being extra careful during the first stage of adding the sugar, I poured the batter into my pans. It seemed like a lot of batter for just one pan. To be on the safe side I went ahead and used both pans since I had them. After removing the cake from the oven, I saw that I could have easily put all the batter into one pan. Lesson learned. 

When the cake was done I patiently waited for my husband to come home and taste a piece. I had already decided that if the cake was not delicious then I would simply bake a boxed carrot cake. I had already baked one recently and everyone loved it.  I like to always have a back-up plan. When Douglas got home, I served the cake to him with some leftover, lightly macerated strawberries I had in the fridge. I even sprinkled a little confectioners sugar on top to give him the complete dish. Once Douglas tasted the cake, I knew he loved it by that look in his eyes. It was also obvious because he continued to take bite after bite until his plate was empty. He said the cake and strawberries went perfectly together. My dessert was all set.

That night I stayed up late to clean a few pounds of strawberries. Most people in Algiers soak their fruit and vegetables in a cap full of bleach and cold water. However, I just could not accept the idea of soaking my food in bleach. Instead, I take extra time to clean each fruit and vegetable thoroughly under my filtered faucet. It took me a solid hour to clean the strawberries, cut out their core, pat them dry, slice them in half, layer them in a dish, and sprinkle them with sugar. Certainly, I was pleased that I didn’t wait until the day of the dinner to do all of that. Also, the strawberries create better syrup when they sit in the sugar for twenty-four hours or at least overnight.

Douglas finished his work at the office sometime after midnight. I was still up cleaning the kitchen when he returned. There was a breakfast and lunch scheduled for the next day at the Marine house. The Marines have a maid that cooks all their meals. Though, their maid was not scheduled work on the day of their scheduled breakfast and lunch. Of course I offered to help make breakfast since the guys are not too familiar maneuvering their way through a kitchen. Although my husband can cook; he was going to be with the command up until it was time to eat. Per their request, I planned to make pancakes for breakfast.  I opted to make tuna fish for lunch. This was a last minute request, and I had no other thawed out meat in the refrigerator. Tuna would be an effortless dish to prepare. 

The day of the dinner was finally here. I was nervous, excited, and couldn’t wait for it to all be over. Again, I am the worrier of the household.  My only desire was for everything to go well. I wanted to have a great visit with the Command and serve them a scrumptious meal. That morning I awoke at 6:30 a.m. to begin the process. I first boiled the eggs for my tuna fish. Then I prepared the pancake batter. As abnormal as this may sound, I don’t recall ever making regular pancakes – ones containing gluten. Growing up my mother always made breakfast. Her pancakes were delectable. During my first two years at college I always ate pancakes from the cafeteria or at a local restaurant. In the middle of my college years I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease and could no longer eat regular pancakes. Since this time I’ve only fixed gluten free pancakes. Even my husband eats the same pancakes I do.  Hence, making Hunger Jack pancakes was new to me. When I saw the batter was extremely runny I questioned whether or not that was how they were supposed to be. My batter always comes out with a nice consistency. I thought if I let the batter sit on the counter for a while it might thicken up.

Meanwhile, I started on my tuna fish. At the last minute I decided to go against my rule when it comes to cooking for others. My rule is to never do a dish for the first time when cooking for someone else. I just hated when my mom did that. She would try out new meals for huge dinners like Thanksgiving or Christmas. Here is my thought: If the dish turns out to be bad, then you just served a bomber dish for a much anticipated dinner. Now I ate my own words, because I decided to look up a recipe for tuna fish and make that instead of my usual tuna fish recipe. I narrowed it down to one I found on www.allrecipes.com.  Over one hundred people reviewed it with five stars. I figured it had to be good and was worth a try. I had no back-up plan if it didn’t taste good. My fingers were crossed.

The recipe did not call for eggs or relish which is usually a staple for my tuna fish. I can eat it without relish, but my husband on the other hand doesn’t think its tuna fish unless it has relish in it. So I set aside the eggs that I already boiled and hoped I would find something else to do with them. The recipe called for celery, but I didn’t have any in my fridge.  Instead, I chopped up some green peppers since that is usually what I put in my tuna fish. The recipe also called for two cups of mayonnaise. I felt that was way too much mayonnaise for the amount of tuna I had. I only put one cup. I mixed everything together, gradually adding in the green peppers. At the last second I decided to leave most of the green peppers out in order to see how it tasted without them. Once all the ingredients were mixed well I was absolutely amazed by its deliciousness. When my husband came home later that morning, he tasted it and couldn’t stop eating the tuna fish. He never ate my old tuna recipe straight out the bowl like that before. It was a hit! Sadly though, the Command and other Marines would not get to consume this dish. When Douglas came home to pick up the pancakes he told me the maid showed up and he didn’t need me to fix lunch. There was a small part of me that wished I knew that before I got up so early just to prepare the tuna fish. But there was a bigger part of me that was happy I fixed it. If the tuna was just for our home, I may have never tried out the new recipe. It ended up being a win-win situation for us all.

Breakfast was scheduled to start at 9:00 a.m. and it was 8:45 a.m. I turned the eye on to heat my buttered pan for the pancakes. They did thicken up a bit, but not much. Twenty-four pancakes later and the batter bowl was empty. There sat a bunch of flimsy looking pancakes that I could only hope tasted better than they looked. Douglas grabbed the stack, along with our syrup and scurried out of the door to go to the Marine house. I was done with my first two meals for the day. Now it was time to start on dinner, and it was only 10:30 a.m.

I took my two whole chickens out of the refrigerator to bring them to room temperature. Then I went to the back room to get my potatoes that were being stored in a cool, dark place. I began to thoroughly wash about fifteen large potatoes. The potatoes here are grown in sand; therefore they are very dirty. In the midst of my cleaning something made me think about the recipe I was using. I had done this meal several times before. But suddenly I remembered that it only served four people. I double the recipe and planned to cook two chickens but then it dawned on me that I was cooking for nine people, eight of whom are male Marines with a large appetite. One of my pet peeves is not having enough food for my guest. I don’t want to have just enough where they can clearly see that if they get the amount they would like, it may not be enough remaining for everyone else to adequately eat.

I recalled I had an extra chicken in the freezer that was already seasoned. I was supposed to cook it a couple weeks ago for the Marines, except at the last minute they cancelled due to a schedule conflict. Rather than still cooking it, I covered the chicken in saran wrap, placed it in a gallon sized freezer bag and stuck it in the deep freezer. This would be perfect for me now. I took the chicken out of the freezer and quickly thought about the best way to defrost it. It’s not like this was a couple pieces of chicken breast; it was a whole chicken that would take much longer to thaw out. I was tempted to put the chicken outside in a large bowl and let the sun do the work. Then I thought that might not be the best idea. Alternatively, I placed the chicken in a large bowl of cold water, promptly changing the water every thirty minutes. Four hours passed and the chicken was completely thawed.

Luckily I had plenty of potatoes and carrots to go with the third chicken. Once the potatoes were clean, I peeled them and cut them in medium sized squares. Then I thoroughly washed the carrots and sliced them about an inch thick. I didn’t sit down the entire day. I prepped three whole chickens and veggies to roast in the oven, made both gluten free and regular corn bread, put the finishing touch on dusting and cleaning my home, took a shower and set-up for my guest arrival. I regret not taking pictures of everything to share with my readers. I will remember to snap photos of my finished product for future post.

The house was now perfect; so perfect it was noiseless. I felt the quietness might be a little awkward. Everyone hates those moments of silence where you hope that someone says something, anything to make that uncomfortable feeling disappear. I elected to put some background music on that everyone would enjoy. While I would relished to hear the hip tune of Chuck Brown’s, Bustin’ loose, I thought that might be a tad inappropriate for the caliber of our guest. A medley of Jazz tunes seemed to be the better alternative.

The Command was expected to come over at 6:00 p.m. to do a walkthrough of our residence before the rest of the Marines entered at 6:15 p.m. The timing between the food being taken out of the oven and the guest arriving was impeccable. The last two chickens came out of the oven at 5:45 p.m. Now I would just wait for everyone to show up. Once they did Douglas would carve the chickens while the guest munched on an assortment of appetizers.

Then my perfect little plan was popped like a dart thrown into a hot air balloon. Douglas received a phone call from the 1^stSgt stating that they were running behind and dinner would be pushed back until 7:00 p.m. Great! And I mean that in the most sarcastic way possible. This wasn’t the type of meal you could stick back in the oven for another hour to keep warm. The chicken would surely dry out. Thank goodness I never removed any of the food from the oven bags in which they were cooked. The steam in the bag kept everything warm. Unfortunately by the time it approached 7:00 p.m. the oven bags of food were no longer hot. I didn’t want to warm the food close to the new time in case they still were running late. Nothing is worse than food that has been reheated several times. Minutes continued to pass. Eventually they showed up a few minutes after 7:15 p.m.

The CO and 1^stSgt were extremely approachable and friendly. The CO especially had a warm presence and immediately took away any nervousness I had about meeting him. As we did a quick walkthrough of our home, all I could think about was the lukewarm food on the stove that I needed to warm. After talking for about fifteen minutes I heard a knock at the door. There were the other Marines. This was an ideal opportunity for me to excuse myself from speaking with the CO and tend to the food. I found myself slightly frustrated because it was getting late. The clock showed 7:30 pm. My oven had already been turned off for a while. I knew if I turned the oven back on now, it would take at least fifteen minutes to warm up. Against my better judgment, I decided to warm everything in the microwave.

While the food was warming, Douglas took my place in the kitchen to carve the chickens. This gave me the chance to mingle with our guest. After several minutes we exchanged places and I went back into the kitchen to heat up the rest of the food. Twenty minutes passed and all of the food was still not hot. It takes a lot longer to warm a large dish rather that a small plate. At this point I wished I left the oven on and just placed all the food inside. Too late to entertain that option now. I’m positive it would have taken less time than this slow method. I had everything planned out seamlessly. What I didn’t plan for was the guest arriving nearly ninety minutes late. Flexibility is a must when dealing with Marines and in life period. A little after 8:00 p.m. dinner was finally warm as it was going to get.

Since the appetizers were more than half way gone, I knew everyone was ready to chow down. I offered the gentleman an alcohol selection of Blue Moon, Shock Top, Coors, or Beringer White Zinfadel. Most of them had beer when they arrived and chose to have wine with dinner. I poured the drinks and finally we were ready to eat.  

Dinner was a success. I watched a few people go back for seconds and thirds. That was the first positive sign. Then a couple of the guys started asking me how I got the chicken to be so juicy and vegetables to be so seasoned. This was the second affirmation. Lastly, a few of them bluntly told me that is was great. Wonderful! Douglas also told me it was the best I had ever done that dish. My husband and I have an honor system when it comes to my cooking. He has to let me know if it was a hit or miss; otherwise he will quite unhappy when that same meal is served again. The honor system has worked thus far.

When I noticed everyone was finished with their meal I began to collect the plates. The guys were kind enough to bring their dishes to the sink for me. That was a pleasant surprise. Next, it was time for me to prepare the dessert. I warmed the pound cake and plated each slice. I spooned the macerated strawberries half way on the cake and the rest on the plate. Then, I sifted confectioner's sugar over each plate and served it to them. Again they were all very considerate to not begin eating until I sat down with my plate. I only had strawberries since I didn’t make the cake gluten free. They devoured the dessert. Everyone was stuffed. Yet again I received great compliments. I was glad it all pulled together in the end. This was undeniably worth all the preparation it took. Happy guest makes a happy host. After chatting at the table for a while they called it a night.

I was nervous for no reason at all. I told the CO and 1^stSgt that it was my pleasure and would do it again for them anytime. In my mind I also said, “If you all were on time then the food would have been oven hot and we would have eaten at a decent hour.” Some things are better left unsaid. Overall the evening was a success, and I greatly enjoyed their company. Douglas was supposed to ride back with them to the hotel. However, the CO told him he could stay home. I suspect the CO might have felt pity on me as he observed the kitchen full of dishes that awaited my attention. Imagine several dinner plates and utensils, dessert plates and more utensils, glasses for everyone, and then all the serving dishes, etc. It might not have been so bad if we had a dishwasher, but no such luck. Times like that you really wished the person who designed this residence left room for a dishwasher to be installed. I could have always went picnic style and pulled out the paper plates. It would have saved me another hour on my feet. Douglas and I began cleaning with a feeling of contentment after having such an awesome dinner.

The next day there was another dinner planned for the Command. This time the Regional Security Office (RSO) would be the host. It was held at the Marine house on the deck. The RSO planned for a barbecue. I went over a little early to help her prepare. She made watermelon salad, grilled chicken with barbecue sauce, grilled veggies and potatoes. To her misfortune she found herself in the same boat I did the night before. The dinner was scheduled to commence at 5:30 p.m. One would not believe that it ended up starting at 7:30 p.m. instead. The Marines were behind schedule since their activities in the day took longer than expected. Of course it all worked out in the end and everyone enjoyed themselves and the food. After dinner we remained outside and gathered around one of the many wooden tables. The conversation quickly turned to a couple people discussing their all-time funniest pranks ever done to someone else or pulled on them. It was hilarious! One person said they filled their co-worker’s overhead desk cabinet with Styrofoam balls. When the person reached to open the cabinet, all the Styrofoam fell on top of them. Another person shared their story of stringing their co-worker along to believe that he was in major trouble for a joke he pulled on another co-worker. They even got their boss to call the guy into her office where she began to reprimand him. But the best story was the one where a group of co-workers got the key to another co-workers home and while the person was gone, they rearranged his entire home. The guy thought he was going crazy and had no idea what happened. A few people at that table, including the CO, were quite the pranksters. I surmise it must be pretty entertaining working such people. We stayed out there laughing our heads off until almost 10:00 p.m. Everyone had a fun night.

The next day I woke up feeling very energetic, which was a bit shocking seeing as I hadn’t slept much in those past few days. It was Friday and the Command would fly back home early that afternoon. I made my last small meal for them, which was a large variety of muffins to include blueberry, orange cranberry, banana nut, and apple cinnamon. All courtesy of Martha White muffin mix.

After they left all I wanted to do was take an incredibly long nap. For two weeks I was moving like the energizer bunny working off of very little sleep. I noticed I even lost a few pounds from not eating nearly as often. Since everything went so well I’m looking forward to doing it all again on their next Command Visit to Algiers. Thankfully it will be several months before another one occurs.