Cooking on the job

[EMTGuard Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close EMTGuard]

Anyone here regularly cook at work while on shift?
My assignment at the steel mill is a really laid back job and we have the advantage of being posted in a building which has a small kitchenette. The building houses the guard shack as well as the plant truck weigh scale house. It's not uncommon for the scale operators or guards to get together and plan meals.

Scale op: You guys want to do burgers tommorrow?
Guard: Sure. You need me to bring something? I have a pack of buns at the house.
Guard/EMT: And I just picked up a couple bags of chips at Wal-mart.
Scale Op: OK. I'll bring the patties and some stuff to put on them.

or

Guard: Anyone feel like breakfast tommorrow? I got some eggs to use up. I could bring in some sausage too.
Guard/EMT: Works for me. Here's a couple of bucks to cover my share.
Scale OP: (yelling down the hall from scale house) I'm in. I'll bring some Grands biscuits.

And like that we have plans for a late night dinner/breakfast at the main gate.
Maybe it's my partner Steve B. mixing up some Sloppy Joes to put on the buns I brought like in the photo below-

Another night we may make biscuits and scrambled eggs with sausage in it like he's making here-

Another night we may be sitting at our desk at 3 am with pancakes and sausage in front of us. Have to move the laptop and log book out of the way to make room my plate.

We don't do this every night. Most of the time it's a brown bag lunch we bring in and microwave during the night. Maybe we order pizza. Often, if we are ordering we all chip in together to make one order everyone can share.
The truth is that we have it pretty good at our site.
I am curious if anyone else has had the chance to cook up their meals beyound the usual microwavable TV dinner.

[HotelSecurity Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close HotelSecurity]

Don't need to cool when you work at an hotel! Just don't get the cooks mad at you or they might add something extra to the food.

[Lawson Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lawson]

Damn that would be sweet. Those pancakes look mighty fine right about now. Out here its just the usual microwave dinners... or I can make a trip out to a fast food joint or a grocery store.

[Mall Director Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mall Director]

That is awesome! LOL! You have it made!

I have the same mall food joints to look at all the time, and after having to deal with halfthe employees, I rather not go near them as I am sure they will add a surprise! So its a brown bag every day here..

You have a good set-up!

[N. A. Corbier Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close N. A. Corbier]

Food was:

- Sammiches at 7-11 (I wouldn't call them samwhiches, cause...)
- MREs heated in the engine compartment on a 12 hour vehicle post
- Papa Johns (Love internet ordering, order in BFE without a phone)
- Lunchables

[Andy Taylor Member Find all posts View Profile Close Andy Taylor]

Don't need to cool when you work at an hotel! Just don't get the cooks mad at you or they might add something extra to the food.

Same here, just substitute the word "casino" for "hotel".

[Mr. Security Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mr. Security]

Man that looks good!! Can you "beam" a burger up here?

[Lawson Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lawson]

When I worked for Wackenhut at a distribution warehouse, there was a cafe built in staffed by cooks. We always made real good with the cooks and they would make us up some nice meals and give us free sodas and whatnot. Whenever I used to get a breakfast burrito, it was funny to look at the size of the one they made me, compared to the pre-made ones they sold to everyone else

If it wasn't for such poor management (and the site being a billion miles away), I would have loved to stay at that place.

[GCMC Security Member Find all posts View Profile Close GCMC Security]

Food was:

- Sammiches at 7-11 (I wouldn't call them samwhiches, cause...)
- MREs heated in the engine compartment on a 12 hour vehicle post
- Papa Johns (Love internet ordering, order in BFE without a phone)
- Lunchables

Used to do that on humvees in the field works great!

[flashlightcop509 Member Find all posts View Profile Close flashlightcop509]

Cooking at work?

Well Hell, every chance I get (which is slim since site policy is no 2 Officers in the office at the same time)... When I started at the site I'm at now, the office didn't have thing one to heat up foodstuffs with, save for the computer case top that is ...

So after a few months of going broke buying Nuke food from the joints on the Access Road (this is Killington, VT mind you; a tuna wrap with lettuce and some kinda sauce at the ski lodges commands a $10 price tag )

I decided to bring in my spare microwave oven and a toaster oven as well, for the food that just doesn't come out right Nuclearized ... Problem is, now (well, soon anyway) it's gonna be getting hectic around the mountain, and the hot food thingy is probably gonna be dust in the wind; Figure if I can stock up on slice bologna, cheese, and bread, I can keep it in my patrol vehicle and throw a sammich together between guest service calls and building patrols and call it good...

[Eric Member Find all posts View Profile Close Eric]

Which Fire Department do you work for?

If you are able to prepare meals and still get the work done, that is a great bonus. On a few overnight shifts, I have brought in a chunk of ham and a couple of eggs. Microwaved scrambled eggs are not for everyone though, but a hot meal at 0400 is great.

[Lawson Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lawson]

I used to play the microwaved scrambled egg game. I just cant seem to stomach it anymore without massive amounts of tabasco pepper sauce, pepper and/or ketchup... basically, if I cant cover up the taste, I cant eat it

It would be nice to have a fresh hot meal at work though. Thats for damn sure.

When I was down in Louisiana, I had the best best best best site ever. We had caterers, breakfast, lunch and dinner. I am a BIG fan of southern cooking too and these guys had it right.

Every morning it was a buffet style, eat till youre full breakfast... scrambled eggs, pancakes, waffles, sausages, biscuits and gravy, grits (never had em until I was down there), ham, bacon, a real home style meal. Then there was an unlimited supply of cereal and muffins for those "lightweights"

Then for lunch there was always something good like fried chicken, beef briscuit sandwich, red beans and rice with a link, Shrimp/Beef/Chicken "Po-Boy's" Mmm Mmm Mm..

Then for dinner we were treated to meals such as chicken fried steak with a creole sauce, crawdads (which I found Im not too fond of), Fried Buttered up catfish, Steak and baked potatos, it goes on and on...

This was positively some of the best eatin' I've ever had, and the cooks were always friendly and were willing to dish you up a plate any time of the day...

Why I came home... I have NO idea.

[N. A. Corbier Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close N. A. Corbier]

BAH.

Ok, tips on scrambled eggs...
1. Don't use real eggs, use that liquid egg stuff.
2. If you microwave it, do it on defrost so that the cycle is on-off.
3. If you have the resources, get a George Foreman and some tin foil. Put the tin foil in a cold george to make a little "skillet," turn it on, put some oil or butter in, and there you go. Close it and it's an omlet. I've done this when the apartment had our stove replaced for a day, its rather useful.

I want a buffet now.

[Lawson Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lawson]

BAH.

Ok, tips on scrambled eggs...
1. Don't use real eggs, use that liquid egg stuff.

You must be crazy.

[N. A. Corbier Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close N. A. Corbier]

You must be crazy.

Honestly, it fluffs up better. You can use real eggs, but you have to whip the hell out of them first, so that they're the same even consistancy.