Dining MWB-style is not for the faint of heart. Cooking for thirty or more — you never know who or how many will show up for dinner — is more art than science, which can make grocery shopping a challenge. Fortunately, we have Janis to guide us. In the past she got stuck doing a lot of it herself, but in recent years, we’ve had success with different people taking charge of dinner each night.

We shop every day. Otherwise we’d run out of beverages, and that would be a serious problem. Janis, Joyce and I went on Monday. As best I can recall, here’s the list we worked from.

• 7 cases of beer (might have been ten)
• 10 pounds of bacon
• 4 dozen eggs
• 3 cases of water
• 4 cases of soda
• 3 gallons of milk
• Large bottle of hot sauce
• 4 bags of chips
• 2 pounds of butter
• 10 pounds of potatoes
• 3 large bags of salad mix
• 6 peppers
• A package of tomatoes
• A large bottle of salad dressing
• Two big bottles of salsa
• Cheese curds, lots of cheese curds — after all this is Wisconsin!
• Bulk-size barrel of peanut butter filled pretzels
• Tub of spinach dip
• Institutional size box of crackers
• Two air mattresses to replace ones that had flattened overnight

There may have been more; I don’t remember. Our purchases usually fill about three carts. They’re paid for from the kitty, which we all pay into according to how many days we stay. This money covers breakfast, dinner, and all you care to drink.

Breakfast is usually bacon and french toast, bacon and egg-in-a-hole, bacon, scrambled eggs and home fries, or bacon and … well, there’s lots of bacon consumed at Oshkosh.

Here’s the link to the EAA website information on camping with your plane. http://www.airventure.org/planning/camping_with_aircraft.html

If you scroll down, you’ll see a picture someone took several years ago at one of our breakfasts. Although you can’t actually see the bacon in the photo, you can be sure it was there.

Dinner can range from the simple to the sublime. Spaghetti on Saturday, followed by sloppy joes on Sunday (that would my contribution — Sarah’s really, since she did all the work — the simple part of the equation), tacos on Monday and Wisconsin brats and corn on Tuesday.

For the sublime, Wednesday brought pork stew, created by Rand of California, and on Thursday we had a sizzling jambalaya, courtesy of Todd, another West Coast chef. Then, Friday, we were back to spaghetti, a mix of the Saturday, Sunday, and Thursday’s leftovers. There may have even been some of Tuesday’s bratwurst in the pot.

That’s what I mean when I say cooking at Oshkosh is an art.

It was delicious.

Oh, and even though he didn’t cook as far as I know, Mike gets a special honorable mention for bringing the margarita machine.

I told you the Metro Warbirds lead a charmed life.

Frozen margaritas while camping under the wing of a plane. How cool is that?