Thursday, June 10, 2010

I survived!

The holiday weekend, that is! Everything went without a hitch for my first holiday weekend in the restaurant. We ended up with 38 reservations on Friday and 51 on Saturday! It was a just about a full house!

51 may not seem like many to you, but we only seat 60 and do not typically turn tables. What this means is -- you have the table for the night, there is no rush for our customers. I think this is wonderful and wished there were more restaurants were like this. If I am going out for a special meal, I like to be pampered and take my time. Ok, maybe I am a little spoiled....

Our specialty dessert now is our rhubarb & strawberry cobbler. It is made to order and takes about 10 minutes to serve from time prepped to bake time. It is worth every minute. The best part about it is I am learning how to cook fruits for desserts and learning all kinds of tricks and tips. I hope that all this baking will give me a little edge when it comes to my baking class this fall. I never knew that I would like it so much since I was not a real big dessert person. My how things have changed!!

We also are serving sides of sauteed morels, which smell divine. They are too expensive for me to be tasting, but I am ok with this. We've been cleaning and cutting morels for days now -- my fingers were starting to smell like mushrooms. Thankfully, the last box was finished on Tuesday and I won't have to touch another morel for another year. If you ever complain about your job, just remember you are not scrubbing sinkfulls of mushrooms with a toothbrush and move on. Thankfully, I am doing this work on purpose and kind of enjoy it. Spoiled, yet sadistic -- what a combo.

Tonight I have to make our "house" dessert, called Quatro de Leche, which I love making. They are made in special antique pans that lady chef inherited from a relatives bakery. I can't tell you what is in them exactly, but if you know enough about Spanish you can figure part of it out. If you ever come to visit, make sure you order one of these -- you won't regret it.

Well, it's about that time. Time to play with food, time for fun. Have a wonderful day.