Got to bed around 11, woke up at 9:30 to a happy B&E. Horrible weather, sleeting and windy and freezing, it would have been a disaster to have a debut knish stand today. Had a cleaning person over to do the laundry and clean the house top to bottom, and B went out to get her hair did while I took Edles out to a local restaurant to feed. It was even worse weather on the way home. Me n' Edles watched a little TV when my momma in law came to help out with Edie, and I quickly passed out on the couch for a solid 4 hours -- 5 days of intense knish making will do that to a guy.
We ordered in pizza, as the fridge is still in lock down with too many trays of knishes. Tomorrow they will be disgorged to the world, and hopefully I will get some good vibes, personal and business related, back.
BREAKFAST: 10:30am, blueberry pancakes, bacon, potatoes, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 6pm, 3 slices pizza, green salad, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 7:15pm, box of entemann's chocolate chip cookies, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Saturday, October 29
Friday, October 28
The Knishening is (was) Tomorrow
Hoo boy. Edie is a little feverish, B is a little pregnant, I woke up with not enough sleep and the final day of knishing ahead of me.
AM SNACK: 7:15am, diet coke
----
That's all I wrote, in the morning. I don't quite remember what I ate the rest of the day, except it involved a 2 liter bottle of diet coke fueling me. I baked 166 potato knishes while juggling other things, like a phone call from Edie's school saying she was 102 degrees and needed to be picked up. I picked her up, she was in a good mood, and Betsy was able to cut her day short and meet me when we got back so I could go back to the knishes.
The last round of knishes, the last round of the day, the last round of the week, the last round before setting up shop tomorrow, was in the oven when I sat down to check my email. I heard the weather was going to be iffy so I thought to email the fair organizers to see if they have any arrangements with food banks or charities in case I have a lot left over. There was an email from the organizers cancelling the event, due to predictions of rain, wind, snow and freezing, sleety weather.
I first called Betsy to tell her the news, who was at the pediatrician with E (E is fine, but better safe than sorry.) Then I stood by my living room window and stared out the window for a solid 10 minutes, wearing nothing but floury boxer shorts, hands knitted in a ball behind my back. What does one do with 500 knishes and no place to sell them? My permit to sell is temporary, limited to one day in one place, any other day in any other place requires a new permit, not to mention publicity, time and a host of other arrangements. Being that I've been working from a home kitchen, I've been banking knishes -- after the weekend, they will seriously start to lose quality. They gotta move, and they gotta move this weekend. An email to the fair organizers brought back no suggestions.
Sunday is better weather. So Sunday it has to be. Where? I live next to two green spaces. I send an email to my coop board and the organizer of a group that cares for the public park next door. In a few hours, I get permission to distribute and ask for donations from my backyard, but to be discrete about the money thing. I quickly update my blog, my facebook, create a facebook event, get in contact with the media that has been friendly to me the past month to spread the word. I'll be hosting the equivalent of an adult lemon aide stand on Sunday. Who said giving birth to a business would be easy?
Sitting around, mind racing in the evening. For all is said and done, with the refund of the cost of the table, the money I'm in for is not that much in the scheme of things, even if I don't make dollar 1 this time around. But this was a one shot deal --- I can not put my household and family through an entire week of full time production for such a meager yield -- I should be able to pop out 500 pieces in 1 eight hour run in a properly scaled industrial kitchen, not 5 twelve hour runs where my family has to crawl around a grumpy knish maker, and a fridge that is barren of everything but the bare essentials to get through the week.
Contemplating the next move, gonna give it some thought while enjoying this baby coming up. Which could be any day now.
AM SNACK: 7:15am, diet coke
----
That's all I wrote, in the morning. I don't quite remember what I ate the rest of the day, except it involved a 2 liter bottle of diet coke fueling me. I baked 166 potato knishes while juggling other things, like a phone call from Edie's school saying she was 102 degrees and needed to be picked up. I picked her up, she was in a good mood, and Betsy was able to cut her day short and meet me when we got back so I could go back to the knishes.
The last round of knishes, the last round of the day, the last round of the week, the last round before setting up shop tomorrow, was in the oven when I sat down to check my email. I heard the weather was going to be iffy so I thought to email the fair organizers to see if they have any arrangements with food banks or charities in case I have a lot left over. There was an email from the organizers cancelling the event, due to predictions of rain, wind, snow and freezing, sleety weather.
I first called Betsy to tell her the news, who was at the pediatrician with E (E is fine, but better safe than sorry.) Then I stood by my living room window and stared out the window for a solid 10 minutes, wearing nothing but floury boxer shorts, hands knitted in a ball behind my back. What does one do with 500 knishes and no place to sell them? My permit to sell is temporary, limited to one day in one place, any other day in any other place requires a new permit, not to mention publicity, time and a host of other arrangements. Being that I've been working from a home kitchen, I've been banking knishes -- after the weekend, they will seriously start to lose quality. They gotta move, and they gotta move this weekend. An email to the fair organizers brought back no suggestions.
Sunday is better weather. So Sunday it has to be. Where? I live next to two green spaces. I send an email to my coop board and the organizer of a group that cares for the public park next door. In a few hours, I get permission to distribute and ask for donations from my backyard, but to be discrete about the money thing. I quickly update my blog, my facebook, create a facebook event, get in contact with the media that has been friendly to me the past month to spread the word. I'll be hosting the equivalent of an adult lemon aide stand on Sunday. Who said giving birth to a business would be easy?
Sitting around, mind racing in the evening. For all is said and done, with the refund of the cost of the table, the money I'm in for is not that much in the scheme of things, even if I don't make dollar 1 this time around. But this was a one shot deal --- I can not put my household and family through an entire week of full time production for such a meager yield -- I should be able to pop out 500 pieces in 1 eight hour run in a properly scaled industrial kitchen, not 5 twelve hour runs where my family has to crawl around a grumpy knish maker, and a fridge that is barren of everything but the bare essentials to get through the week.
Contemplating the next move, gonna give it some thought while enjoying this baby coming up. Which could be any day now.
Thursday, October 27
The Knishening - Day 4
Woke up at 6am after some fantastically graphic stress dreams. Got some knish-related work done before getting Edie to school, did some food shopping in the morning and spent about 11 hours cranking out brocolli cheddar knishes and spinach & roasted garlic knishes. All in all, almost 200 pieces. I actually ordered in a sloppy breakfast from the local diner because at the moment, the oven, the stovetop and the microwave were all working, he he he.
Edie & Betsy went over to a friend's for dinner and they brought me back some left overs, which helped. It was good to be able to start winding down around 8pm, allowing me to clean a little and prepare for the final day of cooking tomorrow.
BREAKFAST: 10:15am, pancakes, sausage, potatoes, diet coke, 1 bowl
PM SNACK: 12:30pm, greasy corn muffin, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 2pm, broc cheddar knish, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER pt 1: 6:30pm, chicken nuggets, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER pt 2: 8pm, 2 slices of pizza, can of diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Edie & Betsy went over to a friend's for dinner and they brought me back some left overs, which helped. It was good to be able to start winding down around 8pm, allowing me to clean a little and prepare for the final day of cooking tomorrow.
BREAKFAST: 10:15am, pancakes, sausage, potatoes, diet coke, 1 bowl
PM SNACK: 12:30pm, greasy corn muffin, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 2pm, broc cheddar knish, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER pt 1: 6:30pm, chicken nuggets, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER pt 2: 8pm, 2 slices of pizza, can of diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Wednesday, October 26
The Knishening - Day 3
Woke up worn out from yesterday's knishening, but the knish shall not be denied. Spent the morning delivering trays to friend's houses for storage, as my fridge is limited. Made 4 big batches of dough which will hopefully get me through, cooked off the rest of the pumpkin filling, then went to Brooklyn and taught.
Got home totally blown out. Got through part of a short list of things that needed to be done, passed out around 10.
BREAKFAST: 9:15am, good granola with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 12:45pm, pumpkin knish
Last knish out of the oven was a 13th, and so I ate it. It's good, but could use a little bit more salt -- why didn't I catch that earlier. Oh well, it's not bad, just not perfect.
SCHOOL SNACK: 3pm, chocolate covered pretzels, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
SCHOOL DINNER: 6:30pm, shrimp in sauce, Cesar salad with fresh croutons, sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 9pm, potato chips, chocolate chips & peanuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Got home totally blown out. Got through part of a short list of things that needed to be done, passed out around 10.
BREAKFAST: 9:15am, good granola with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 12:45pm, pumpkin knish
Last knish out of the oven was a 13th, and so I ate it. It's good, but could use a little bit more salt -- why didn't I catch that earlier. Oh well, it's not bad, just not perfect.
SCHOOL SNACK: 3pm, chocolate covered pretzels, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
SCHOOL DINNER: 6:30pm, shrimp in sauce, Cesar salad with fresh croutons, sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 9pm, potato chips, chocolate chips & peanuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Tuesday, October 25
The Knishening - Day 2
Woke up at 6am to get the onions in the oven, but only 2 of the trays fit. Peeled potatoes as Edie and B got up, and soon after I delivered E to school, got back to cooking the potatoes, cooking up the filling for the pumpkin knishes and kasha knishes, made a buttload of knish dough.
By 2:30 got everything cleaned up, cooling in the fridge or the counter and picked Edie up from school. First we went to the market to pick up some supplies, then to a park, where I ate some Chinatown vendor food. I dropped Edie off with our friend B and his son (sons, I guess, since he has a new sprog) while I did a shift at the CSA. Once home, I got to the process of assembly and baking until I couldn't no mo'. Ran out of dough, that was all. A little ahead of my production schedule, but as a few bumps have shown me, I'm really figuring this out as I go.
AM SNACK: 6:30am, iced green tea
BREAKFAST: 10:30am, good granola with dead organic milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 3:15pm, fishball with rice noodle, lotus leaf wraps, a donut, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 9pm, mini kasha knish
DINNER: 10:30pm, 2 hotdogs, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
By 2:30 got everything cleaned up, cooling in the fridge or the counter and picked Edie up from school. First we went to the market to pick up some supplies, then to a park, where I ate some Chinatown vendor food. I dropped Edie off with our friend B and his son (sons, I guess, since he has a new sprog) while I did a shift at the CSA. Once home, I got to the process of assembly and baking until I couldn't no mo'. Ran out of dough, that was all. A little ahead of my production schedule, but as a few bumps have shown me, I'm really figuring this out as I go.
AM SNACK: 6:30am, iced green tea
BREAKFAST: 10:30am, good granola with dead organic milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 3:15pm, fishball with rice noodle, lotus leaf wraps, a donut, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 9pm, mini kasha knish
DINNER: 10:30pm, 2 hotdogs, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Monday, October 24
The Knishening - Day 1
Had dreams about making knishes, kind of. I had a made a huge amount of crisp thin dried round apple slices, and I was attempting to smear peanut butter on them and reassemble them so they looked kinda like lined apples. I was only able to make a handful of perfect ones, as a lot of the apple broke or was misshapen.
After taking Edie to school, went straight home and attacked the mountain of knish making. Today, did the dough, filling, assembly and baking of 125 apple-cheese and chocolate-hazelnut sweet knishes. Diced 15 lbs of onions before showering and picking up Edie at school at 3. When B got home a little after 6, started again and diced another 30 lbs. Pretty much got done what I wanted, but I suspect I'm going to have to go late Thurs and Friday nights....
AM SNACK: 7:15am, iced green tea
BREAKFAST: 10:30am, good granola, dead organic milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
AM SNACK: 11:45am, pint of grenadine soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 4pm, shrimp lomein, egg roll, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 8:30pm, white castle burgers, water, peanuts & chocolate chips, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
After taking Edie to school, went straight home and attacked the mountain of knish making. Today, did the dough, filling, assembly and baking of 125 apple-cheese and chocolate-hazelnut sweet knishes. Diced 15 lbs of onions before showering and picking up Edie at school at 3. When B got home a little after 6, started again and diced another 30 lbs. Pretty much got done what I wanted, but I suspect I'm going to have to go late Thurs and Friday nights....
AM SNACK: 7:15am, iced green tea
BREAKFAST: 10:30am, good granola, dead organic milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
AM SNACK: 11:45am, pint of grenadine soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 4pm, shrimp lomein, egg roll, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 8:30pm, white castle burgers, water, peanuts & chocolate chips, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Sunday, October 23
The Knishening is Koming - Prelude
Woke up about 15 minutes after the time I was hoping to leave for the bike ride in the Bronx. Despite almost 11 hours of sleep (with an hour of TV watching around 2:30am), felt groggy and achy -- back is better yet, but still sore, though reasonably so. Nose is still stuffy.
But it's good, today I got to help Betsy out with Edie, and knock out some of the food shopping necessary to start production tomorrow. Brought home 150+ lbs of groceries on my bike for the beginning of the Knishening tomorrow, got the laundry done, played with Edie in the backyard for a few hours. In the early evening, a reporter from jewcy came over to interview me, don't think the piece will be published before the event, but perhaps after. So focused on planning today, kinda forgot to eat lunch.
Had a hard time falling asleep --between 11 hours of sleep last night, anxious about starting knish production tomorrow, and a bunch of Sunday night television shows I watch, I didn't get down until 1am.
AM SNACK: 9:30am, iced green tea
BREAKFAST: 11am, toasted sesame bagel with cream cheese, pint of grenadine soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 2pm, tortilla chips, a little guac, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Swung by a local Mexican joint where B&E were eating, on the way to the supermarket.
PM SNACK: 4pm, a couple of sweet knishes, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 5:30pm, half a sweet knish, glass of grenadine soda, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 8:30pm, eggplant parm hero, green salad, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 10pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
But it's good, today I got to help Betsy out with Edie, and knock out some of the food shopping necessary to start production tomorrow. Brought home 150+ lbs of groceries on my bike for the beginning of the Knishening tomorrow, got the laundry done, played with Edie in the backyard for a few hours. In the early evening, a reporter from jewcy came over to interview me, don't think the piece will be published before the event, but perhaps after. So focused on planning today, kinda forgot to eat lunch.
Had a hard time falling asleep --between 11 hours of sleep last night, anxious about starting knish production tomorrow, and a bunch of Sunday night television shows I watch, I didn't get down until 1am.
AM SNACK: 9:30am, iced green tea
BREAKFAST: 11am, toasted sesame bagel with cream cheese, pint of grenadine soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 2pm, tortilla chips, a little guac, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Swung by a local Mexican joint where B&E were eating, on the way to the supermarket.
PM SNACK: 4pm, a couple of sweet knishes, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 5:30pm, half a sweet knish, glass of grenadine soda, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 8:30pm, eggplant parm hero, green salad, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 10pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
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