A very long but very productive day. It was so very hot in SF today, and even more so in the kitchen. We have a little window AC unit in the bedroom, so the one room in the house has a little respite from the heat. But the kitchen, is not that room. We had a mess of gnocchi to make and the pots of boiling water were almost comical in how much hotter the room got. Windows open, all extraneous lights off, but it was still hot.
Did a bit of organizing in the morning and cleaning the kitchen before my zoom call with the fantastic group of women of the Dainty Dames. Scrambled to get all the orders on the "board", which is really our refrigerator. Then went out into the world to do the shopping at Restaurant Depot, Safeway and Sugar and Spice, the cake decor place in Daly City. For my purposes, I am glad they are considering themselves "essential" although I can't really see how cake decorating supplies are essential. But it's the kind of place where there is NEVER more than one or two people in the whole place. The little octogenarian who runs it is such a character. She had the radio blaring some top 40 pop station with Katy Perry or Beyonce or someone like that singing. She putters around this funny little store. Helpful always, but it's just funny.
Then home to the gnocchi factory. We worked steadily all afternoon and evening... I think I sat down for about 10 minutes total. Willi made a fresh batch of the Moroccan Chicken Tagine (which I finally had for lunch yesterday.... totally delicious) and roasted the poblanos to make the Pozole out on the grill to save the amount of heat in the kitchen. Ended up making 14 orders of gnocchi!
Now we are contemplating when to head up for more mushrooms. I think it's kind of like childbirth. The fun of picking them, and the pleasure of making food with them and selling them to folks who want them, makes you forget the hours of work to process them! The weather doesn't look promising for this weekend, but it means that if they get rain we will have more luck finding more the following week. I will keep you posted if we have more to sell!
Finished up the night by baking the sponge for the special cake order I have for tomorrow, and by prepping a raspberry curd for the filling. Tomorrow is an early baking day, so I am headed to bed. Already midnight, so I hope to fall asleep FAST!
Menu below for Friday (SF pick up and Delivery) Orders for Friday should be placed by Wednesday evening/Thursday morning. I have space in the schedule to do one more special order cake, if anyone has an event to celebrate this weekend...graduations? Birthdays? Zoom weddings?
I hope you all found things to bring you some joy today. For me, today's gratitude list includes the smell of rosemary on my hands, the relative cheer maintained in our kitchen today, the work already done for the orders prepped for tomorrow, and the anticipation of the cool bedroom. Take care, be kind to your bodies. Hug yourself for me! xoxo