Downtime

So yesterday was slow.  Not the slow steady dribble of guests that makes for a long yet still profitable day but the kind of mind numbing slow that makes you want to beat your head against the prep table because you swear it’s been an hour since you last checked the clock and in reality only 3 minutes has passed.

As usual, I tackled the kind of projects that inevitably bring people through the door, because as we all know once you start a project you get busy….or at least it seems that way.

15 minutes later we had the reach-ins cleaned out and organized, the floor swept and the counter tops cleared of debris and wiped down.

Now what?  Well, either we spend the afternoon staring at each other, wiping tables that have been wiped down already, texting or playing on the internet via the phone or we find something constructive to do.

I had noticed that the display case where we keep our breakfast pastries was starting to look a little bare and so I decided to make some donuts.  I had a fairly easy recipe for cake donuts and figured I’d play around with the flavorings a little.  So along with the standard ingredients I threw in some coffee and coco powder and ended up with a really aromatic dough that looked like this. 

I don’t have a donut cutter but by using a couple of dough cutters I was able to make a reasonable looking donut.

It was on like donkey kong! I made a quadruple batch since the recipe I had was only for a few donuts and so the afternoon was whiled away with kneading, rolling, cutting, and frying until I had 3 dozen doughnuts and the same in donut holes.

All I had to do was toss them in some powdered sugar and viola!

The lazy afternoon had been transformed into a productive one and the display case was replenished with warm mocha goodness. And wouldn’t you know it. Right as the donuts were hitting the case some customers, who had come in during the final stages of frying, noticed the aroma and insisted on being the first to try my donut experiment.

As for the donut holes….well I had considered putting them out with their big brothers, but in the end they wound up as “wait bait.”

Stutter Steps

Ah the twists and turns that life throws at you.  When I posted last I was extremely excited and optimistic about relocating and starting a new job in a new town.  What I walked into was not quite what I expected.  The property was really nowhere near being ready to open and there was not a lot that I could do since I don't have a background in construction or anything of the sort.  With that in mind I did what I could to help out. I worked on assembling various shelves for use in the kitchen, cleaned the hoods which were quite frankly atrocious and started on building an order guide so we could hit the ground running.  While that was taking place I did some cooking for the owners of various specials that I had proposed.  All seemed to be going well when one weekend after cooking for a small get together for their friends I was informed that things were not working out and I was let go.
Scrambling for options I called my former employer and he promptly put me back on the schedule. Whew.
So now I find my self back in Chama. I have decided that I'm not going to look around again for a while.  I"m making a commitment to my current restaurant and to this sleepy mountain town.  Since I do like cooking a variety of dishes I am going to look into the various catering possibilities in this area as well. Since I've been back I've been asking myself "what really went wrong and why did this happen?"  Suffice it to say, I may never know the answer to the first question and some interesting possibilities are opening up that may answer the latter.  While I love the kitchen and all the creativity it entails it may be that I return to my roots and exercise my creative chops in other avenues. Whatever happens I know that I'll always keep cooking and experimenting and I will definitely continue to chronicle the ride.