Saturday was a bit hectic when I rolled in at 11am, the time when we opened for lunch. Chef C had been there since 9am prepping, and still had a number of tasks to accomplish. Fortunately, customers were few and far between for a couple of hours, and we were able to bang out chocolate cake and tiramisu while baking off focaccias and slice pies. Chef A came in around 2pm, and before I knew it, it was time to leave to meet B for a dinner party in Brooklyn.
Sunday's brunch service was a lot busier, which gives hope to the thought that this may work out for the restaurant. Chef A was in for the early shift, and we started off with the dough and baking, and finishing up a cheesecake. Chef A gave me a list, and I went around the corner to pick up the basics for parsnip soup. I was given some simple directions (as it's a simple soup), and I chopped a bunch of veg. As I softened the onion, carrot, and celery in the large pot, it occurred to me -- my old c-school friend mire poix! I understood why Chef A instructed me to start with sauteeing these 3 vegetables, rather than just boiling the life out of them like with the parsnip main ingredient. (Sauteeing those 3 vegetables to soft rather than boiling them to soft with the other ingredients gives a very distinct, classic and yummy base flavor that simply boiling will not give.) By the time had all the soup blended, it was 4pm it was time to go to Westchester for my mission o' mercy.
ADDENDA:
My father had an un-ironic button that said, "Better Living Through Chemistry". He was a chemist who earned his PhD in the 60s, but I don't think the button was referring to LSD, but more like new-fangled 'plastics' and fluoridated water.
At the dinner party I attended Saturday evening, a guest contributed a bundt-shaped rum cake, with a butter rum glaze and chopped walnuts embedded in the crust -- very cool and retro. Even more retro was the fact that it was made with not one, but TWO Duncan Hines's mixes, a cake mix and a pudding mix.
I'm sure some colleague of my father was responsible for the formula of the cake I ate Saturday evening.
Sunday, I trekked up to Westchester to visit a recently married friend for dinner and a mission. Her husband has restaurant experience similar to mine, and made a hearty and soulful chicken florentine, was really nice and comfortable hanging out in the kitchen. After, I made two sheets of brownies from scratch in the kitchen. One sheet was straight and the other used butter I cooked up with five, um, 'oregano cigarettes', cough cough. My friend's mom is undergoing chemo and radiation, and all sorts of peeps have been kicking medicinal herb her way, but she has a hard time smoking.
You can't make something like that for someone without trying it to see what they're in for. After such a big meal, I knew it might take a while. I didn't really feel anything till I was riding my bike home around 11:30pm, and all of a sudden Tompkin's Square Park seemed big and and easy to get lost in (it's literally a park where you can see one side from the other.) Despite eating pizza everyday, when I got home, the frozen pizzas in the fridge spoke to me.
SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 9:30am, toasted bagel with homemade hummus, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
AM SNACK: 11:30am, pomegranate fizzy lizzy, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
LUNCH: 4:30pm, 1 slice pizza, root beer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 6pm, homemade acorn squash risotto, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 9pm, pumpkin soup, roasted chicken boob, sauteed mustard greens, lemon orzo salad, rum cake with ginger ice cream, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5
SUNDAY
BREAKFAST: 9am, apple, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 2pm, 1 slice, rootbeer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 3pm, flourless chocolate cake, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 6:30pm, chicken florentine, roasted potatoes, 2 pieces bruchetta, 1 beer, water, 3 straight brownies, 1 magical brownie, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
EVENING MUNCH: 12am, Amy's Frozen Margerita Pizza, quart of water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I used to eat a lot of Amy's brand frozen pizzas, though can't really stomach that quality of food anymore. It's truism that you really do need to be stoned to enjoy this stuff. I preheated the oven to the recommended temp, placed the frozen disc on the pizza stone, and after the recommended time, was still flibbidy flobbidy. I doubled the time, the top browned a little, but other than the outer rim, was still flibbidy. Upon eating, I realized that they over sauced and over cheesed the the pie, that it would probably burn before firming up. Bready and mushy, ick. The main difference between this pie and a normal Amy's is that instead of being coated in an indeterminate spray of grated cheeses, it had hunks of some sort of moz studded on it's surface. These said hunks melted down into a wet blanket. Bleah.
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