Cousin Reunion #5: I review all the meals

All of the last entries about the cousin reunion may give you the idea that all we did was play games and enjoy athletic activity. Honestly, nothing could be further from the truth. Mostly we just ate. We were there for a conference called "See the Leaves," cause it was leaf-changing time in North Carolina, but I’m pretty sure the only leaves I saw were the ones that were along the path that led to the dining hall and back.

Since so much time was dedicated to eating, I thought I'd dedicate a few entries to food. One of the best things about staying at Kanuga is no one has to cook. You just show up at designated meal times and there is a delicious all-you-can-eat meal waiting for you. To show you how good this deal is, I will review all the meals I ate in the dining hall. I might not remember all the side dishes, because after all now it's been a week since I ate them. But have no fear, I remember the important things.

Friday--Dinner
On the menu: A piece of meat that I think was eventually identified as pork, cheesy scalloped potatoes, green beans and I think something else. For dessert there was chocolate cake.

The verdict: This meal was really good when I ate it, particularly those potatoes. I did remark that the sodium content seemed kinda high, and I think that if I'm commenting on the sodium content, then it's probably really too high. When I ate this meal, I rated it very high to my dining companions, but I think it's just because I didn't realize what good meals were yet to come. Still, overall, I will give it a grade of B-.

Saturday--Breakfast
On the menu: It was a buffet of every single breakfast food you can think of! Including blueberry pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, grits, oatmeal, and KANUGA TOAST and probably some other things too! Oh and fruit! There was also fruit.

The verdict: Maybe you are getting concerned that I can't remember all the other things on the breakfast buffet. But I will tell you this--I got one of everything to try for comparison's sake, because that's just the kind of sacrifice I make for my blog. And the reason I can't remember all the side items is because one thing stood head and shoulders above the rest of the breakfast food items, and that thing was the BLUEBERRY PANCAKES. I give those pancakes an A. My least favorite thing I tried was the oatmeal, probably because I didn't take the time to dress it up with accoutrements such as brown sugar, raisins or whatever else you put on oatmeal. I was too impatient to get to those blueberry pancakes. Everything else was like a B-.

Saturday--Lunch
On the menu: Tacos! You could pick from hard or soft taco. After that, all basic taco fixings were available, including ground beef, beans, rice, cheese, salsa, guacamole, even a few jalapenos. For dessert, there were peanut butter cookies or M&M cookies.

The verdict: I had 2 soft tacos with every single topping that was available. I really appreciated Kanuga providing guacamole and jalapenos because I love those two things, but sometimes I feel that they are the first to go when people are planning meals of tacos. For dessert I had the M&M cookie. Overall I give this meal a B+.

Saturday--Dinner
On the menu: It was a fancy buffet night! There was a roast beef carving station, these gigantic shrimp for shrimp cocktail, a pasta that had pepperoni and chicken, a blue cheese salad, an orzo pasta salad, succotash, a vegetable medley and probably some other stuff. For dessert you could pick from several types of cheesecake.

The verdict: This was the best meal of the weekend. I give it an A+++. When I went through the buffet the first time I got one of everything, because, as I said, I had to try everything for the blog's sake. But on my second trip, I realized that there were only three things I needed to focus on: roast beef, the gigantic shrimp and the pasta with pepperoni. Those things really put this meal over the top. The cheesecake was only okay though.

Sunday--Breakfast #1
On the menu: Various pastries and sausage biscuits.

The verdict: The whole reason I went to this breakfast was for the sausage biscuits. Luckily, they didn't disappoint. The sausage biscuits also get an A+++. This is an early breakfast they have before the church service. But if you don't want to go to church, you can just go back to your cabin, pack, and wait around a few hours for:

Sunday--Breakfast #2
On the menu: Another breakfast buffet. There was French toast, breakfast meat that I guess was ham, maybe some other meats, grits, fruit, etc.

The verdict: This breakfast wasn't as good. The French toast was cold and there was nothing that matched the sausage biscuits I had a few hours earlier. Plus I was sad that cousin reunion was coming to an end and we would all have to say goodbye soon. So I only give this meal at C-.