Gregor The Grumman

In October of last year we made the decision to get mobile with the business in the form of a food truck or basically a mobile kitchen designed for serving large groups. Purchasing a run down piece of crap food truck was not an option given the outrageous cost ($40-60K) and the fact that we would need to still completely retrofit the truck to suite our needs. So we decided that we would build one from scratch. Easy, right? False!!! We picked up this truck in Grand Forks as our base platform and it had everything that I wanted for the build. It's not overly huge with a 14' box and it has a diesel which is great for torque, which is helpful when hauling around a commercial kitchen on your back. It also has the barn doors in the back instead of the roll-up door which is a plus and being that it is a Grumman Olson step-van it is also all aluminum with the bonus of never being painted which gave me the option to polish the body (still in the works). Start to finish the project took me around nine months with some very long nights in the shop thrashing away, knowing that the truck was already booked for jobs in July. I won't go into every little detail of the build but I will say that it was one of the most challenging and fun vehicles that I have ever worked on and it taught me how to weld aluminum and stainless as well as a bit of plumbing and a crash course in electrical thanks to our pal Graham Jones. The truck is now on the road and we just did our first real gig with it in Castlegar at the Mir Centre for Peace. Here you can see our star employee, Pam, busily assembling appetizer platters. I still need to finish my exterior polishing duties then we will lay on the graphics. This truck is a blast to drive and work out of and I can't believe that I've lived this long without having a vehicle that I can drive with the doors open.

15 Years!

It's hard to believe that we started this little company a whopping fifteen years ago and are still going strong today, fueled by the love of food and a passion for serving quality meals to the masses. It's been a great journey and I feel like we are still just hitting our stride with the addition of a new catering truck (unveiling very soon) and wedding season about to kick into full swing. This job has never been boring with every gig offering new, interesting, and often challenging dimensions. It keeps us on our toes and I feel like I'm still learning as we go, as we face new challenges every day. It helps to keep us sharp as we trudge forward like culinary warriors. We are not the type of people who could punch the clock and sit behind a desk for 40 hours a week. We need new and exciting prospects in our workplace to keep our minds active; to keep up with changing food styles and peoples ever evolving tastes. So, what I'm not saying here but should really elude to is "Thanks", to everyone who has been with us along the way and helped to make Alligator Pie Catering what it is today. We couldn't have done it without you. Seriously, catering to an empty room would be really weird….

Our first year with our original third member, Tracy.

Possibly one of our first weddings.

Good Morning!

Neither one of us are super motivated breakfast makers, unfortunately. 

Usually one of us excels at something that the other person really can't be bothered with and it will even everything out. For example, I am the smoothie maker and Pat is the cocktail maker. There are certain ways to keep the balance of the universe intact....

For breakfast though, besides smoothies, we are both exceedingly lacking (this possibly translates to lazy).

So enter in overnight oats. This has become a staple in our house recently and with good reason. I can pretty much make breakfast for every day of the week at once. I was doing this every couple of days but I quickly realized that even almost a week later the oats were still really yummy. This is basically a cold oatmeal replacement except that it's not disgusting like cold oatmeal. There are also endless variations with this recipe.

I have been making about 4 jars at a time and that really does tend to last us the whole week since it's so filling.

Here is the recipe I have been working on:

Overnight Oats

-1 1/4 Cup Quick Oats 

-1/3 Cup Shredded Coconut

-1 1/2- 1 3/4 Cup Milk Product (we use a mixture of about 2/3 soy or almond milk and 1/3 coconut milk but you can use whatever you like)

-1/2-1 Cup Dried Fruit (you could use fresh fruit as well but that may not keep as long if you are making a weeks worth of this) we use figs and dates since they are also naturally sweet so you don't need to add sweeteners.

-1/3 Nuts (we have been mostly using almonds but I think any nut will do)

- 1 t Maple Syrup or Honey

*a few variations are:

hemp seeds or chia seeds 

This makes about 2 cups.

 

*occasionally, if the mixture seems to dense, I add a bit more milk to it and it's good as new.

Mix it all together and put into mason jars or some other vessel and pop into the fridge.

I feel like this is a pretty forgiving recipe so you can really experiment with it. See how your first batch goes and then mix it up for the second batch-add more milk or more fruit or different nuts, etc.

Before

After

Deep in the heart of winter...

I realize this is a little late for a New Year post but it is our first post for 2015 so that's what it is.

We're enjoying a busier than usual January but we did manage to have a bit of a rest after the absolute craziness of December Christmas parties.

2014 was a great year for us, we catered all over the Kootenay's for both new and repeat customers.

2015 is already shaping up. In April we celebrate 15 years in business. That feels fairly impressive.
Pat is also very hard at work trying to get our new catering truck finished by spring-it's a very exciting project and Pat is doing an amazing job of tackling it. There is only a moderate amount of screams of frustration....

We're also really trying to get some work done on our upcoming cookbook. It's sometimes difficult to fit this in but it is a fun and rewarding project and we're determined to finish at least the majority of it this year. You can follow us on instagram to see some of the food ideas: alligatorpiecatering

We are very close to being booked up with weddings already so it promises to be another busy year.

Thanks to everyone who has supported our business!