Lessoned Learned in the Catering Kitchen

1.  Don’t open the dishwasher until all cycles are completed.

2.  Read all directions first.

3.  Wipe off the prep table.

4.  Always sharpen knives.

5.  Get everything that needs to be used out on the prep table.

6.  Put a cloth under the cutting board.

7.  Move quickly.

8.  Listen and don’t argue.

9.  Clean up and put things away.

10. Try to keep your apron clean.

Connoisseur of Scones

Every food magazine that I buy, I am looking and searching for recipes for new and different scones. I have looked through all my old cook books and old magazines for scone recipes. Every time that I am in a store, I search out the food magazines and look though them for a new scone recipe. Even at the book stores…I go through the magazine rack and then through the baking cook books searching for an interesting scone recipe.

I guess that I am in my baking mode to find some new and delicious tasting scones to try out at my daughter’s catering kitchen. The scones that are made are sold at her downtown deli, Erin’s Deli.

 

When I find a good recipe, I buy the book or the magazines take them home, copy the recipes on my printer, and then I take them down to the catering kitchen. I might even find a cool and interesting cookie recipe to copy and try out.

But it’s always good to keep the old reliable scones and even better to try a new delicious scone that will take off with the customers!

Restaurant Depot

A quick trip to Restaurant Depot, located in the Strip District, to grab food for Erin’s Saturday wedding. All I can say is that I needed to wear a jacket when I went into the refrigerated area to pick out the fresh, frozen produce, meats, and fish. I saw one of the workers bundled up as if he were on a trek in the Antarctic. That is how cold it is in that area. Brr…yeah, I was grateful that I had a zipped up hoodie to wear. There was a lot of everything….meats, cheeses, and fresh fish that were buried in ice, giving me a glassy ‘dead’ eye stare.

Restaurant Depot is a dream place under one roof to find every type of imaginable herbs, spices, seasonings, boxed and canned supplies, fresh and frozen products. There is an area for disposable plastic wear, storage boxes, catering needs, and more. It is a cooking supply haven for a caterers and restaurant owners. You need to be a member to get into Restaurant Depot. If you are a people person, you won’t be disappointed. But don’t forget to bring along a jacket!

Dos and Don'ts in the Kitchen

 

For every accomplishment that I have made at the catering kitchen, I also find that I completely forget to do some things. When this happens – I get frustrated but that’s when I sit down, pull out the notebook that my daughter the chef gave me, and write down the Dos and Don’ts  and steps that are important to remember the next time that I work in the kitchen.

My little black notebook has become my bible for my kitchen work. I only use it for recipes that I have been given to follow exclusively in the kitchen. I also use it to write down step by step instructions of what to do and what not to do.

My notebook is black with the word UNSCRIPTED embossed on the front. Sometimes, I put a note on the cover of things that I have to pick up at the grocery store on the way to work or I write a list of the jobs that I will be working on that day. I might make a note of something that I need to change or make sure that I do in the kitchen.

I have a few papers and papers and recipes and other things pertaining to the kitchen slipped into the pages of the notebook. I know that the food that I make, like sconces, soufflés, mini pepperoni breads, spinach/feta pin wheels, and cookies look good and usually taste good.

Not being a trained baker, there are a lot of things that I need to remember, such as: sanding sugar goes on all the scones when they go into the oven. But the sugar is not sprinkled on scones if they go unbacked into the freezer. I have to remember to weigh both the cookies and scones. Scones are a different weight then the cookies. I need to add a vanilla glaze to the chocolate chip scones, blueberry scones, after I bake them and they cool down for a few minutes. The strawberry scones and the savory scones, each get a different glaze.

If we decide to measure and pre-package (to place on the shelf to use later) the ingredients for scones or for cookies…there are also a few things to remember. For scones, all dry ingredients are measured and placed into a plastic bag or plastic container. But for cookies…all the sugar is kept separate from the flour and salt and baking powder.

There are more things to remember…a lot more!

Strawberry Moon Farewell

What is a Strawberry Moon…? When I first heard that term, Strawberry Moon, I didn’t know what it meant. So, I decided to look it up and found out that a Strawberry Moon was the name that the Algonquin tribes gave to the moon. It appeared during the short harvesting season for Strawberries in the Northern Hemisphere.

 

  Well, on our last night in Rockport, my friend and I walked the short distance to the rocky pier, from our rental. While my friend took some photos, I walked as far as I could, and sat down on the rocks, looking out at the water, the sky and the house and some of the boats that were in the water. A lone bird was bathing in the water or maybe eating and I took a picture of it. After saying goodbye to the ocean, to Rockport, to all the other places that I had visited and the great memories, I got up and started to walk back to find my friend. I saw her as she kept trying to get my attention to look back at the water. Finally, I got the message and looked back at the water. I couldn’t believe my eyes - the moon was rising up out of the water, from the short time that I walked away.

I quickly pulled out my camera and starting to take pictures of the translucent moon that got bigger and brighter. It was the color of a strawberry and got intense. A few people had come out and they told us that it was a Strawberry Moon. It was beautiful. The whole evening was a gift and so was the Moon. It was a true goodbye gift to us. I don’t know if I will ever see another Strawberry Moon but there was something different about seeing one on our last night of vacation, coming up out of the water and getting bigger more intense in color. It was a farewell to us and a thank you as well!

Essex Historical Society and Shipbuilding Museum

We got up and drove along the scenic ocean view route to Essex, Massachusetts. Our destination, besides the drive was to tour Essex Shipbuilding Museum. The museum building looked like the typical New England style building. We opted to do our own self-guided tour, which was easy enough reading the information on the walls, and the pictures that were in the exhibits.

It was really interesting to talk to the young woman, who admitted us and gave a small introduction talk to the shipyard. She was born and raised in Essex and talked about the shipyard and about her family who did a lot of clamming. She loved where she was from and loved being by the water and waking up to it. I found it interested to hear all of that, I especially enjoyed listening to her talk about her family and how proud and happy she was about her birth place, Essex.

After, touring inside the museum, the rest of the displays and the ship equipment were located outside. There were displays and small buildings that showed how to frame and make a schooner.

Ship building began in Essex before 1668. By 1840, there were as many as 15 ship yards making over 50 vessels a year. At least 4,000 wooden vessels had been launched from the banks of the Essex River. There was a schooner on display outdoors. It wasn’t being reproduced to its original but rather being preserved. The Evelina M. Goulart was built in 1927. It was one of 7 surviving Essex built fishing schooners, used mainly for sword fishing.  At one time, the Evelina was converted into a fishing dragger, fitted with an engine.

 

I enjoyed touring the ship building yard, and it gave me a better understanding of what went into building a wooden ship. It took a lot of mastery, pride, and precision work by the builders. They had to feel a real sense of accomplishment after building a ship.

Essex is a quaint area and definitely worth a visit, especially to the ship yards, where one can better understand the history of ship building.