Running my @$$ off.
Jun. 14th, 2004 07:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rikibethI knew going in that today would be busy. After all, there was the Monday delivery to deal with, and an 8:20 AM order for 15 muffins, and an 11:45 order for lunch for seven, and Monday is Jen's day off, and it's also the day Carlos the dishwasher doesn't come in until 12:30 PM instead of 8:30 AM.
So I knew I was in for a lot of work.
I didn't expect to be there for over eleven HOURS, but maybe I should have.
Normally I make two dozen muffins for the store. "Dozen" actually works out to sixteen because of the way the fruit takes up extra volume, but we call it a dozen anyway. So needing fifteen extra muffins for the special order (a high-end jewelry store around the corner from us, I think it's their monthly staff meeting or something) meant one extra batch. The usual blueberry, plus cran-orange-walnut, and banana chocolate chip, because Lux Bond & Green doesn't like corn muffins, even my super-duper Cook's Illustrated recipe with sour cream in it, and we were pretty much out of all the other kinds of fruit because we'd been making about eleventy gazillion pies last week. And the bananas were VERY ripe, so using them was good.
The three batches of muffins used up the last nine eggs in the house. I knew that was going to happen, and had planned for it. I'd even made only a half batch of raisin scones and no cinnamon on Sunday for today so that I would HAVE nine eggs left. I figured, there were 30 dozen eggs coming in the delivery, as long as I had enough for muffins, it would be fine. And people could deal for one day having only raisin scones. They only ever used to have more than one kind of scone on the weekends, before I got there, but people asked for cinnamon scones so often that I decided it made sense to make a batch of each and bake both kinds off daily, and add a third variety on weekends.
Well. Things were going along smoothly, and then the order arrived. With a different driver from our usual guy. Who didn't have much English. I think he was Polish or Russian. And he said something about being short on eggs. So I had to call Michaele. We determined that we could get by if I borrowed a flat or two of eggs from Grant's next door, but I guess she raised enough hell with the warehouse that they called the driver and told him to give us eggs that were marked for someone else.
Let me tell you how much I enjoy Michaele cussing a blue streak in my ear over something I did not do and was being responsible enough to alert her about. Not.
But anyway we got the eggs.
Okay. Breakfast under control. Brioche and sticky buns a LITTLE delayed because of the hassle, but not by more than ten minutes. On to the deli case.
Only one Michaele's Special Salad left, not worth putting it out again, and we were out of sugared walnuts so making more wasn't going to happen, not when I had a sandwich order for 11:45 AM. If I'd had the sugared walnuts I might have, because they're stupidly easy -- fill the clamshell with the mesclun greens, layer some red onion slices on, a handful of the sugared walnuts, a handful of craisins, and a bit of crumbled goat cheese, add a little container of balsamic dressing, and boom. But not today.
Deli salads -- we didn't sell very much of the black bean and corn salad, and it was looking icky, so out it went. Coleslaw was OK. What was left of the chickpea was fine with a few fresh scallions on top -- as long as the vegetables look OK, that one really tastes better the longer it sits, because the bland chickpeas have more chance to absorb the dressing. Tomato mozzarella with pesto was also OK, although it was definitely its last day. Everything else -- the egg salad, the cucumber dill salad, and the tuna bowtie -- needed to be made fresh. And the 11:45 order wanted 1 1/2 pounds each of two different salads, so it made sense to make two new ones, not just one to replace the black bean and corn. And there was tomorrow to think about -- even though I wasn't going to be there, I was aware that we had a lunch order for 30 that included salads.
It's sort of cool, really. That order for 30 is from the committee holding the hearings on whether to impeach the governor. I have no love for Governor Rowland, believe me. Didn't vote for him ANY of the times he got in. The committee's been giving us repeat orders for their lunches. Michaele thinks it's because the president of the state Senate is from West Hartford and was hanging out in our sidewalk seating the first weekend in June.
But anyway. Political amusement aside, a lunch order for 30 means making sure Jen has enough salads. So I made edamame salad with red peppers, red onions and scallions and a ginger-sesame-soy dressing, and my favorite white bean and artichoke salad with grape tomatoes and lemon garlic vinaigrette. Both of these bang together fast. I really, really didn't want to make new chickpea salad, because it has a zillion different vegetables including grated carrot, and it takes too damned long to make.
All the salads except the egg salad were in the deli case by 10:30 AM, and the sandwich station was stocked with the usual lettuce, tomatoes, turkey, ham, chicken salad, and tuna salad. Plenty of time to start working on sandwiches, because I knew the meat was already portioned.
For the store: five corned beef wirh Swiss and coleslaw on rye with Russian dressing, six roast beef wraps with lettuce, tomato, red onion, and blue cheese dressing, and six turkey club wraps with bacon, lettuce, tomato, and Cheddar. For the order: one each of what I just said, one chicken salad wrap, one tuna salad wrap, one veggie wrap (with the last of the hummus, provolone, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and sprouts) and one ham and Swiss with lettuce, tomato, and Dijon mustard on whole wheat.
Still plattering at 11:30 when the customer shows up for it. She SAID 11:45. Still, she had to pay, and pick out sodas, and bring things to her car, so it all worked out, and she was happy.
Whew. Special order managed. Egg salad. Right. It's out by five past noon. Roasted eggplant mozzarella rounds with red pepper follow ten minutes later -- I'd roasted off the eggplant on Saturday, I knew I'd need it. One customer (vegetarian I guess) disappointed because they weren't out earlier, but that's life. No lecture from Michaele, anyway. And she didn't come into the kitchen to help! Yay!
Double whew. Time to sit down and eat something -- I'd saved the last scoops of the leftover tuna bowtie salad for my lunch. It's SUCH a retro Betty Crocker fifties sort of recipe -- tuna, bowtie pasta, red onions and green peas, with mayo and relish in the dressing -- but we sell a TON of it. And it does taste pretty good, after all, even if it's not sophisticated.
Okay. Time-dependent stuff all dealt with. On to the prepwork. First, though, the not-so-perishable items from the order still need to be put away. Right. Then two trays of chicken breasts go in the oven to roast off (one hour at 350), and two trays of bacon go in the other oven. THEN, I start chopping up the mirepoix for chicken soup. It's easy, it's not too heavy for the weather, and Michaele likes it -- it's a winner. This time, I put a blob of chicken fat pulled off one of the boneless breasts in with the mirepoix when I'm wilting it... anything to intensify the chicken flavor, since we're not starting with bone-in chicken the way it should really be done. Smells good.
With those all going, it's time to make a new batch of hummus. I learned my hummus technique from my dad, who learned it from his Israeli colleague Chanan. Here's how I make hummus:
- One Big Ass can of chickpeas. I think it's called a #10 can? Big, anyway. Like a largish bongo drum. Drained and rinsed to get the tinny taste off.
- Twelve cloves of garlic. You might need more. We get a plastic jar of already-peeled cloves, and they're strong little buggers, so if you're using garlic from an intact head, you might want to adjust.
- One bunch of flat-leaf parsley, stemmed.
- Half a cup of tahini. Roughly.
- The juice of eighteen lemons. Which is about 2 1/2 or 3 cups.
- Sea salt and cracked black pepper. No, I don't really know how much. A couple of tablespoons each, I guess.
- Enough olive oil poured into the food processor to make it come out smooth.
It has to be done in three batches to fit properly in the work bowl. So, um, for one food processor workbowl full of chick peas, divide everything else by three.
Since I had all these lemons anyway, and was only using the juice, I decided to zest them while I was at it and make some lemon sugar, so that got pulsed in the processor and put in a bucket on the shelf. Maybe we'll make some lemony sugar cookies. And we can put it in our iced tea.
Then it was on to slicing pickles. I did the whole bucket while I was at it, because it just makes the rest of the week easier. I love our bucket lid wrench.
I got the chicken soup transferred into a storage bucket and stuck the Rapi-Kool in it.
Carlos was done making the chicken salad by then, so I had room at the mixer to back up scones for Jennifer. A full batch each of raisin and cinnamon. Yay.
The last thing I did for the day was to wash eight heads of lettuce so they'd be ready for the sandwich station. I even saved the tiny center leaves in a separate bucket so we could use them in wraps. They don't fit well on loaf bread, but in a wrap, they're just great.
Ten minutes to five.
And I am out of there.
We had takeout Chinese for dinner at home tonight. Are you surprised?
So I knew I was in for a lot of work.
I didn't expect to be there for over eleven HOURS, but maybe I should have.
Normally I make two dozen muffins for the store. "Dozen" actually works out to sixteen because of the way the fruit takes up extra volume, but we call it a dozen anyway. So needing fifteen extra muffins for the special order (a high-end jewelry store around the corner from us, I think it's their monthly staff meeting or something) meant one extra batch. The usual blueberry, plus cran-orange-walnut, and banana chocolate chip, because Lux Bond & Green doesn't like corn muffins, even my super-duper Cook's Illustrated recipe with sour cream in it, and we were pretty much out of all the other kinds of fruit because we'd been making about eleventy gazillion pies last week. And the bananas were VERY ripe, so using them was good.
The three batches of muffins used up the last nine eggs in the house. I knew that was going to happen, and had planned for it. I'd even made only a half batch of raisin scones and no cinnamon on Sunday for today so that I would HAVE nine eggs left. I figured, there were 30 dozen eggs coming in the delivery, as long as I had enough for muffins, it would be fine. And people could deal for one day having only raisin scones. They only ever used to have more than one kind of scone on the weekends, before I got there, but people asked for cinnamon scones so often that I decided it made sense to make a batch of each and bake both kinds off daily, and add a third variety on weekends.
Well. Things were going along smoothly, and then the order arrived. With a different driver from our usual guy. Who didn't have much English. I think he was Polish or Russian. And he said something about being short on eggs. So I had to call Michaele. We determined that we could get by if I borrowed a flat or two of eggs from Grant's next door, but I guess she raised enough hell with the warehouse that they called the driver and told him to give us eggs that were marked for someone else.
Let me tell you how much I enjoy Michaele cussing a blue streak in my ear over something I did not do and was being responsible enough to alert her about. Not.
But anyway we got the eggs.
Okay. Breakfast under control. Brioche and sticky buns a LITTLE delayed because of the hassle, but not by more than ten minutes. On to the deli case.
Only one Michaele's Special Salad left, not worth putting it out again, and we were out of sugared walnuts so making more wasn't going to happen, not when I had a sandwich order for 11:45 AM. If I'd had the sugared walnuts I might have, because they're stupidly easy -- fill the clamshell with the mesclun greens, layer some red onion slices on, a handful of the sugared walnuts, a handful of craisins, and a bit of crumbled goat cheese, add a little container of balsamic dressing, and boom. But not today.
Deli salads -- we didn't sell very much of the black bean and corn salad, and it was looking icky, so out it went. Coleslaw was OK. What was left of the chickpea was fine with a few fresh scallions on top -- as long as the vegetables look OK, that one really tastes better the longer it sits, because the bland chickpeas have more chance to absorb the dressing. Tomato mozzarella with pesto was also OK, although it was definitely its last day. Everything else -- the egg salad, the cucumber dill salad, and the tuna bowtie -- needed to be made fresh. And the 11:45 order wanted 1 1/2 pounds each of two different salads, so it made sense to make two new ones, not just one to replace the black bean and corn. And there was tomorrow to think about -- even though I wasn't going to be there, I was aware that we had a lunch order for 30 that included salads.
It's sort of cool, really. That order for 30 is from the committee holding the hearings on whether to impeach the governor. I have no love for Governor Rowland, believe me. Didn't vote for him ANY of the times he got in. The committee's been giving us repeat orders for their lunches. Michaele thinks it's because the president of the state Senate is from West Hartford and was hanging out in our sidewalk seating the first weekend in June.
But anyway. Political amusement aside, a lunch order for 30 means making sure Jen has enough salads. So I made edamame salad with red peppers, red onions and scallions and a ginger-sesame-soy dressing, and my favorite white bean and artichoke salad with grape tomatoes and lemon garlic vinaigrette. Both of these bang together fast. I really, really didn't want to make new chickpea salad, because it has a zillion different vegetables including grated carrot, and it takes too damned long to make.
All the salads except the egg salad were in the deli case by 10:30 AM, and the sandwich station was stocked with the usual lettuce, tomatoes, turkey, ham, chicken salad, and tuna salad. Plenty of time to start working on sandwiches, because I knew the meat was already portioned.
For the store: five corned beef wirh Swiss and coleslaw on rye with Russian dressing, six roast beef wraps with lettuce, tomato, red onion, and blue cheese dressing, and six turkey club wraps with bacon, lettuce, tomato, and Cheddar. For the order: one each of what I just said, one chicken salad wrap, one tuna salad wrap, one veggie wrap (with the last of the hummus, provolone, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and sprouts) and one ham and Swiss with lettuce, tomato, and Dijon mustard on whole wheat.
Still plattering at 11:30 when the customer shows up for it. She SAID 11:45. Still, she had to pay, and pick out sodas, and bring things to her car, so it all worked out, and she was happy.
Whew. Special order managed. Egg salad. Right. It's out by five past noon. Roasted eggplant mozzarella rounds with red pepper follow ten minutes later -- I'd roasted off the eggplant on Saturday, I knew I'd need it. One customer (vegetarian I guess) disappointed because they weren't out earlier, but that's life. No lecture from Michaele, anyway. And she didn't come into the kitchen to help! Yay!
Double whew. Time to sit down and eat something -- I'd saved the last scoops of the leftover tuna bowtie salad for my lunch. It's SUCH a retro Betty Crocker fifties sort of recipe -- tuna, bowtie pasta, red onions and green peas, with mayo and relish in the dressing -- but we sell a TON of it. And it does taste pretty good, after all, even if it's not sophisticated.
Okay. Time-dependent stuff all dealt with. On to the prepwork. First, though, the not-so-perishable items from the order still need to be put away. Right. Then two trays of chicken breasts go in the oven to roast off (one hour at 350), and two trays of bacon go in the other oven. THEN, I start chopping up the mirepoix for chicken soup. It's easy, it's not too heavy for the weather, and Michaele likes it -- it's a winner. This time, I put a blob of chicken fat pulled off one of the boneless breasts in with the mirepoix when I'm wilting it... anything to intensify the chicken flavor, since we're not starting with bone-in chicken the way it should really be done. Smells good.
With those all going, it's time to make a new batch of hummus. I learned my hummus technique from my dad, who learned it from his Israeli colleague Chanan. Here's how I make hummus:
- One Big Ass can of chickpeas. I think it's called a #10 can? Big, anyway. Like a largish bongo drum. Drained and rinsed to get the tinny taste off.
- Twelve cloves of garlic. You might need more. We get a plastic jar of already-peeled cloves, and they're strong little buggers, so if you're using garlic from an intact head, you might want to adjust.
- One bunch of flat-leaf parsley, stemmed.
- Half a cup of tahini. Roughly.
- The juice of eighteen lemons. Which is about 2 1/2 or 3 cups.
- Sea salt and cracked black pepper. No, I don't really know how much. A couple of tablespoons each, I guess.
- Enough olive oil poured into the food processor to make it come out smooth.
It has to be done in three batches to fit properly in the work bowl. So, um, for one food processor workbowl full of chick peas, divide everything else by three.
Since I had all these lemons anyway, and was only using the juice, I decided to zest them while I was at it and make some lemon sugar, so that got pulsed in the processor and put in a bucket on the shelf. Maybe we'll make some lemony sugar cookies. And we can put it in our iced tea.
Then it was on to slicing pickles. I did the whole bucket while I was at it, because it just makes the rest of the week easier. I love our bucket lid wrench.
I got the chicken soup transferred into a storage bucket and stuck the Rapi-Kool in it.
Carlos was done making the chicken salad by then, so I had room at the mixer to back up scones for Jennifer. A full batch each of raisin and cinnamon. Yay.
The last thing I did for the day was to wash eight heads of lettuce so they'd be ready for the sandwich station. I even saved the tiny center leaves in a separate bucket so we could use them in wraps. They don't fit well on loaf bread, but in a wrap, they're just great.
Ten minutes to five.
And I am out of there.
We had takeout Chinese for dinner at home tonight. Are you surprised?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Exhausted.
Date: 2004-06-14 05:58 pm (UTC)I am surprised that you even want to eat!
no subject
Date: 2004-06-15 04:50 am (UTC)I hope the rest of the week is less crazy.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-15 09:22 am (UTC)I'd say takeout Chinese was well earned in this case.
At least you were doing something you love to do... :-)