Hey guys, it was a crazy week in KC for the draft. It was an honor and privilege to represent the NY Jets as one of the fans in the Inner Circle again this year. It was a fantastic experience getting to meet fellow Jets fans for the first time as well as see all of my Super Fan friends from across the league. There were plenty of fellow Pro Football’s Ultimate Fan Association (PFUFA) and Tailgating Hall of Fame members in KC and in the Inner Circle.
As great as it was in the draft theater, the best part of the weekend was spent nowhere near the theater, doing something completely unrelated to football. Fellow PFUFA member Sheree Pintea organized a day at the Kansas City Ronald Mcdonald House and asked me to run the cook team, made up of a group of fellow PFUFA members representing teams from around the league. We were tasked with making lunch on-site for 50 kids and their families. Of course, if you have been to a TailgateJoe party, food for 50 is going to end up being more like food for 100+!! The roster of volunteers pictured below left to right was: Monte Short, Toni Sides, Freddie Mclemore, Sheree Pintea, Jeff Christiansan, Jeff Rinehart, Karl Sides, Frank Monaco, TailgateJoe, Cheryl Stewart, Emily, Terri, and Lynn Schmidt
If you are not familiar with the Ronald Mcdonald House, here is what they are:
There are over 380 Ronald McDonald Houses in 64 countries. These accommodate families with hospitalized children under 21 years of age (or 18 or 26, depending on the House), who are being treated at nearby hospitals and medical facilities. These houses are located just minutes away from the special care hospitals that are required to help children get back to full health. Ronald McDonald Houses allow families to stay free of charge. They also provide families with home cooked meals. Houses like these scattered throughout the world allow families to have a home away from home and focus on what is important, their child’s health.
MY CONNECTION TO THE RMH
As a double cancer survivor, I actually have a small tie to the NY RMH. My first battle with cancer was Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, which I was diagnosed with when I was 18. My treatment was at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on the upper west side of Manhattan. At the time I was living on the south shore of Staten Island, and with that commute we are talking about 1.5 hours each way if you are lucky, and over 2 hours if traffic is just a little backed up. It’s definitely a tedious commute for an adult working in the city, but for a kid going to and from all-day chemo treatments a few days a week, it’s pretty terrible. The Ronald Mcdonald House offered us a place to stay, but after speaking with my parents, we felt it was the right choice to give that bed to a younger child coming from further away, my mom was more than up to the task of driving me every day. So while I didn’t ever stay at a RMH, I was always appreciative of the offer and understand just what a difference they can make.
HOW THE COOK WENT
The Menu
Coming up with a menu had some challenges that needed to be met:
- It’s for kids, so it has to be kid-delicious
- It has to be made on-sitewithin the 2 hours we had, no prep elsewhere
- It has to be able to be eaten when made or packaged and refrigerated for later
- My cook team was all going to be fellow fans, not restaurant cooks
- everything needed to be individually packaged in disposable containers
- It had to be fun for the kids, and it had to be fun for the volunteers and not feel overwhelming or like real work, because I want to inspire volunteerism, not turn them off to it
So with those guidelines in mind, and knowing what kids like to eat based on the army of niece and nephews I have, here is what I came up with:
- Teriyaki chicken and asian slaw pita
- cold sesame noodles
- fresh baked chocolate and sugar cookies
For the chicken pita wraps, I went with boneless skinless thighs marinated in teriyaki and grilled on the back patio of the kitchen along with a quick asian slaw. For the cold sesame noodles I used my regular recipe which is simple and both adult AND kid delicious. The fresh baked cookies I cheated a little bit, using Davids frozen cookies.
The Cook Execution
Running the TailgateJoe Game Day Fan CLub and Tailgate since 2009 has given me a lot of experience on how to train people to cook, and to do so in a clean, organized, professional manner that is still enjoyable. There is no yelling or screaming in my kitchens, I don’t believe in it. To set the team up for success, I did as much legwork and prep as I could ahead of time. I devised teams and stations for different tasks, and printed out enough copies of all recipes and directions for everyone. I changed my flight to KC to allow for two extra days, one to hit up Restaurant Depot and Costco to shop for ingredients, and another to do an advance site visit to the RMH kitchen to tour the facilities and confirm there was the right equipment and enough of it. I also took that visit at the RMH to do a little prep with trimming and marinating the chicken so it would get a nice soak and be ready for us on cook day.
On the day of the cook, I started off with a little motivational pep talk as usual and explained the menu, timeline, and instructions, and then everyone went to work. It was great to see everyone staying on task but yet still having so much fun. While walking around the kitchen and helping with things, explaining things, teaching techniques, I was hit with a flood of emotions from my time as a pediatric cancer patient, the meals handed out at the day hospital, even the smell of the chicken nuggets that would make me nauseous. It was a lot. In the end, we made a ton of food, everyone had a great time, and we did some real good. Funny enough, later that night before the draft concert, a draft theater volunteer came up to me and told me she was also a volunteer at the RMH and that she had never seen the food eaten that fast. Apparently, most volunteers aren’t real trained cooks and so most meals are chili or spaghetti, which are cheap and easy to make. The kids and even the parents can only eat it so many times according to the girl, and ours was just different and it was a huge hit. I guess if you cook for enough kids, and Jets fans, you know what children like to eat!!
