Son’s Birthday Supper

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

SmokinEdge

Epic Pitmaster
Original poster
OTBS Member
SMF Premier Member
★ Lifetime Premier ★
Jan 18, 2020
10,378
13,544
Western Colorado
This is a funny story, but also a story of sheer will.
So my oldest turned 22 a couple days ago. Even at his tender age he is one of the managers at our local Wally World. He is doing well but I personally wish he would move on in his career. At any rate he requested a dinner from me on his day off which fortunately landed on his actual birth day. No problem I said, what would you like? Anything you want I will fix it.

Supper Menu:

Tri-Tip done SV at 131F (that’s what he likes)
sauteed shrimp in butter, garlic and white wine.
Pasta, fettuccine with a butter lemon sauce.
No veggies.

Easy enough, you got it buddy.
So at around 4:00, maybe a skosh earlier, the SV was pre-heated and the Tri-Tip prepped with Montreal seasoning went in the water bath. Supper is scheduled at 7:00 so this is easy, so I thought. At about 6:00 I’m prepping the other stuff when suddenly the power goes out! Carma scrambled onto the internet to find out why. Turns out it was a scheduled outage for maintenance, be a couple hours. Really?? At 6:00 in the evening?? Most people aren’t doing much around here at 6Pm I guess, anyway, the show must go on!!

Its coming dark outside, I’m not to worried about the SV since it’s set up in a cooler, so figured just let it set and temps won’t drop that fast. This is where it gets fun. My Mother is coming over and supper is set at 7:00 and the sun is setting. So I scramble down stairs in our storage room to retrieve my 2 burner Camp Chef propane camp stove. Set that up on the patio, hook it up but the gas regulator is stuck and cant get good flame. So out now in the gray of light looking to cannibalize another hose/regulator off another unit. Get that changed out and I have good fire.

Now it’s getting darker out so drag out the camp lanterns and Carma lights a few candles, I gather up flashlights and proceed with the cook. Sautéed the shrimp on the camp stove, started two pots of water for pasta (he is Celiac) cooked the pasta. While that’s going of course my Mom shows up to lanterns and candles and a frantic me. Carma says to me “I bet the lights come back on by the time you finish “ Ha! Maybe so and maybe not. I finish the pasta, start the pasta sauce, get every thing done on the camp stove, start plating and wouldn’t you know it? The lights came back on! By this time it was 8:00 but we were thankfully eating a wonderful meal.

I never did serve in our armed services, but I’m a big believer in “Improvise and Overcome “

In the end it was a bit of an adventure, but we pulled it off and the boy had a fantastic Birthday meal. Sorry no pics just the story, but always try to be prepared to finish the job, no batteries required! Lol

Thanks for stopping by.
 
You're a good dad. Most people would have put the SV meat in the fridge and just gone out to dinner instead...make the special dinner another night. But that was a heck of a scramble!

Funny how that works with the power. I have a generator set-up that I can have powering the house in minutes. Just have to move a few things, roll it out of the garage front and park it right there, run the cable to the dedicated 230v plug that feeds the breaker panel around the corner. Breaker down the panels, do the breaker feed switch, fire up the genny and most breakers back on...BAM!...got enough power for almost everything.

I have a "suicide light" the guy I hired for the new breaker panel wired up for me that I turn the switch on, and when the power comes back on, it lights up. Totally not code! Almost without fail the power is back on in 20 mins or less! The genny needs to exorcise once in a while anyway but its a lot of activity that usually I could have just waited 10-15 minutes to avoid.

Pretty sweet when the power is down longer though! Plus I have an old 6 burner Viking cook-top in the garage always connected to a propane tank I can fire up anytime...OK, I admit, I went through a "prepper" phase some years ago...
 
  • Like
Reactions: SmokinEdge
Good job on making it work! I'm sure everyone had a good time and sounds like the food was great!
 
Nice work, sometimes when stuff happens they are the best tasting meals. You'll be laughing next year when planning his party.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SmokinEdge
Good job pushing through! Maintenance at 6PM is actually wild, but your story really hits home that cooking is a labor of love.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SmokinEdge
Tri-Tip done SV at 131F (that’s what he likes)
sauteed shrimp in butter, garlic and white wine.
Pasta, fettuccine with a butter lemon sauce.
Sounds like a great meal to me!!
At about 6:00 I’m prepping the other stuff when suddenly the power goes out! Carma scrambled onto the internet to find out why. Turns out it was a scheduled outage for maintenance, be a couple hours.
Maintenance outage?? That's crazy, we don't have those around me. Well, at least not intentionally scheduled...😄
Carma says to me “I bet the lights come back on by the time you finish “ Ha! Maybe so and maybe not. I finish the pasta, start the pasta sauce, get every thing done on the camp stove, start plating and wouldn’t you know it? The lights came back on!
Of course the lights come back on, but at least you got to get a better look at what you've prepared...😁

Anyway, great job at overcoming a little adversity and Happy Birthday to your son...🎂
 
  • Like
Reactions: SmokinEdge
That's a great story! Bet he won't ever forget it either! A belated happy birthday to him!

Ryan
 
  • Like
Reactions: SmokinEdge
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky