meal prep almost finished

The prep for the July 4th office luncheon is nearly done. I'll be waking up early and finishing most of the rest of the prep. Here are some photos (alas, the bacon is not pictured) of some of the food that got prepped on Sunday:

How good is your eye? Can you tell if this is pulled beef or pulled pork?

And how about this pic? Are you looking at pulled beef or pulled pork?

This poor pie requires an explanation. See below.

This is one version of double cream. The term "double cream" refers to different creamy preparations, but in this case, I followed Chef Mike Symon's instructions by gently boiling heavy cream to evaporate the water content, leaving the milk solids and making the cream doubly dense. Hence, double cream.

So—not much left to do. Oh, yeah—the ingredients for the things you saw yesterday:

Baked beans: canned beans (I have Great Northerns, but that would have added hours of work), bacon, ground beef, chopped-up hot dogs, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, BBQ sauce, molasses, and chipotle chili flakes.

Corn salad: canned corn, onion flakes, green and red bell peppers, black pepper, Italian chili flakes, cumin, Greek yogurt, and mayonnaise.

Cole slaw: white cabbage, red cabbage, carrots, onion flakes, black-sesame seeds, sriracha, sugar, mustard powder, apple cider vinegar, basically creating a crunchy pickle in slaw form.

Today's food:

Pulled beef: eye round slow-cooked for 10 hours, flaked apart, and doused with KC Masterpiece barbecue sauce.

Pulled pork: pork tenderloin slow-cooked for 10 hours (I know they say not to use it because there's no fat, and it dries up easily, but I call BS on that: I've make pulled pork with tenderloin several times, and it always comes out nice), flaked apart, and doused with KC Masterpiece barbecue sauce. Also prepped Costco slider rolls by buttering and toasting them. They'll need to be reheated tomorrow.

Double cream for mac and cheese: 1 liter of heavy cream boiled down to 500 cc. It almost felt as if I were making clotted cream, although that process actually takes a lot longer. The cream turns yellow as it's slowly heated, and you can never leave the stove because the cream must move constantly to avoid being burned. The process takes over an hour, and as I said, you're constantly stirring the entire time. To keep the labor from being too tedious, I kept my phone with me and watched Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson in "The Highwaymen," the story of the police hunt for Bonnie and Clyde. (Review pending.)

Apple pie: my standard pie crust plus a little sugar since this is a sweet pie, 8 apples (I never remember the names of the Korean apples I use; all I know is they're a bitch to peel and chop), egg wash on the top crust, and turbinado sugar on top. So why is the pie burned? you screech. Well, that's on me. I thought I had checked the oven before baking, but I guess I didn't check carefully enough, and for 20-30 minutes, the oven was set to use its top burner only. The top burner acts like a broiler when food is placed close enough to it, and my pie got severely suntanned as a result. I'll be eating the burned part during the luncheon so as to spare my boss and colleagues the pain of burnt pie, but part of me suspects that the burned part, because it's caramelized, might actually be good. I caught the pie about halfway through its baking cycle, switched the burners, and put a tin-foil shield on top of the pie to prevent further suntanning. What you see is the result. Overall, I think—I hope—the pie otherwise came out okay. We'll see. It's not smelling awfully burned or anything, but there's no denying or hiding the pie's over-baked look. I could maybe run out and buy some Costco cookies instead, but that's a waste of precious prep time in the morning.

When I wake up, I'll cook my pasta for the mac and cheese, then box up the macaroni. I'll be making the mac and cheese on the spot at the office, so I'll be bringing the components from home: the double cream, the cooked pasta, the cheese, the garlic powder, the black pepper, and the bacon. I also have to run downstairs to my building's grocery to buy some scallions for the galbi, which I also need to cook in the morning. It's been marinating nearly 48 hours; I'm a bit worried the meat might have turned mealy thanks to the enzymes in the Asian pear that is part of the marinade. Let's pray the meat is fine.

Expect photos of the luncheon!