As expected, the Christmas break is flying by. I can't believe it's just a week till Christmas. I, however, am not as stressed about that fact as my parents are. I imagine this weekend will be spent writing cards and delivering presents. I designed and wrote a few Christmas cards myself this year. I've been working on a faux calligraphy, which is featured heavily throughout the cards. The cards are just done with some fine tip markers, as apposed to with crafting supplies, but I really like how they turned out. But since I've been home and have access to my scrapbooking supplies, I've made some other cards that are a little more intricate. I think making cards is going to be my new hobby. Ever since I had my new years resolution to write a letter and deliver it through snail mail every week, I've been a fan of sending snail mail (not every week though). Now I'm just adding making the cards to that. Although stationary areas in stores are still my weak spot.
The other thing I've been occupying my time with is wrapping Christmas gifts. I try and up my game each year. This year every gift has ribbon and a bow. I also try and wrap parts of gifts individually, because why open one gift when you can open 3? I made a gift basket of which I'm very pleased with.
The 2016 gingerbread creation has been designed (here's a sneak peak: it's not a house). I'm going to make it next week, show it off for a couple days to the relatives, and then it can be consumed. I may have designed a bigger creation that I thought, but we'll see how it turns out. It's never exactly the size it's meant to be.
I went through my photos from when I was abroad and have selected a highlight reel to print off and hopefully scrapbook. It still ended up being over 70 photos. But I guess considering I took over 2000, that's not bad.
And in case you hadn't noticed the trend of crafty and creative things, the other project occupying my time is a t-shirt quilt I'm doing for a friend. It's coming along nicely, although there was a bit of a pause while I waited for the last two shirts to arrive. I'm hoping that I can have it finished within the next week. The deadline is unofficially when I go back to Stratford, so that I can give my friend the quilt the next time I see her. If I happen to have time during the craze of the week surrounding Christmas, I'll start working on another quilt that I said I would do for a family friend. Its been about 5 years, so I figured I should probably get going on that. I just wish that I had room to sew at my apartment. I can't wait till I retire and have unlimited time to do crafty things.
Showing posts with label time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label time. Show all posts
Friday, 16 December 2016
Tuesday, 26 May 2015
A Peek Into the Life of a Food Service Director
I suppose it's been awhile. My go-to thing to do when I'm bored isn't blogging any more...now it's usually reading or Netflix :) But I finished my book and you can only watch so much Netflix at a time, so here I am (also I was told to by a certain BFFLAAT).
This past week at camp was hard and tiring, especially at the end. We had our first school group, Matthews Hall from London. Then we had a couple days with just the staff before a youth group retreat came up for the weekend. I screwed up two times: the first was with Matthews Hall. We made roast beef, but not enough. I panicked and was sitting on the floor of the kitchen not sure what to do. I just froze. Luckily, Nola, my kitchen partner (and debatable more-kitchen-abled) did not panic and/or freeze like I did, and started thinking of a solution. Aaron also helped, which surprised me a bit. It's taken me a while to get used to the fact that he's the go-to person in charge right now, not Reagan. Aaron was the one who convinced me to get off the floor and find a solution. Everybody at Matthews Hall had eaten but the staff had not, so we made chicken tacos for them. They were all very understanding and didn't get mad (at least to my face), but I was still beating myself up for it, and was for a couple days. And of course after that I was nervous every time I figured out quantities because I didn't want to screw up again. Everything was going fine until I screwed up again: this time with the youth group retreat over the weekend. We were having tacos/fajitas/whatever you want to call them for lunch and we ran out of ground beef (clearly beef is not my strong point. Probably in part because we don't order it through Flanagans and is really expensive). So we made more chicken (the chicken we use at camp is already diced and fully cooked, so makes for an easy prep). At least that time I think everybody, except for a few stragglers, had eaten and people just wanted seconds. I dealt with that situation much more professionally than the first. Nola and I didn't end up eating until 2pm. Aaron had gone to town when the beef ran out, and he bought me a sub from subway :)
And then Saturday afternoon happened. Most people don't know about this, because it all happened in the kitchen, and not around meal times. Nola and I were in the kitchen, trying to increase the amount of chilli we had prepared for dinner. We were adding beans and veggies and all forms of tomato: diced, sauce, paste. We even debated adding condensed tomato soup (that didn't end up happening). Now keep in mind that Nola and I had been in the kitchen since before 7 that morning. All of this is being added to a huge pot - easily a diameter wider than my shoulder width and as tall as my torso. We weren't sure how many people it would feed, and there were 160 of us that needed to eat. So we start lining up ladles along the edges and sides of the pot to try and figure out how many servings we
could get out of this thing. We even took a picture to send to Catherine to see what she thought.
(this picture does not do the size of the pot justice)
We had a range of guesses, ranging from 75 to 114. Regardless, not enough to feed everyone. So we start whipping up another pot of chilli. We cooked some more ground beef, start grabbing veggies and all our cans of tomatoes in various forms. The only problem is, we used so many of our cans of tomatoes and beans on the first pot trying to bulk it up that there wasn't many left for this second pot. So we added in all that we had, and it still wasn't tomato-y enough to be considered "chilli". So I start looking up how to make homemade tomato sauce because we have a box of tomatoes in the fridge. I had never before peeled a tomato, and I don't think I ever will again, but it was interesting at the time. Needless to say I did not have the 90 mins to let it simmer on the stove and added it straight into the pot.
So there we were, Nola and I on our step-stool (because the pots are so tall), using wooden juice paddles to stir the pots of chilli (because nothing else was long enough to reach the bottom of the pot), and the sanity had left the building. We said that we didn't have any sanity left, because it was a key ingredient in the chilli. There were also multiple mentions of leaving camp and never coming back.
When it was dinner time, we had to ask two of the guys on staff to move the pot because all Nola and I could do was nudge it in circles on the stovetop. We had managed to created almost another full pot of chilli. I knew that was really too much, but I had been told by Aaron, from Tyler, to "make enough, and don't worry about leftovers". Well Tyler, it's hard not to when you still haven't given me a budget. (As a result, I've decided that if this special meal deal* that Nola and I are doing for the staff goes over budget, camp will step in and cover the rest). Aaron came up to me and asked how it was going, as he has made the habit of doing around meal times, and all I had to say to him was "If they eat both pots of chilli, I'm handing in my two weeks notice**". And I wasn't even completely joking. Aaron, having not yet seen the pots of chilli, said "Don't say that!" I just walked away. He walks into the kitchen, where Em was because she was helping prep dinner, and sees the pots of chilli and goes "Whoooooooooooa..." Em then says something along the lines of 'that's why she's threatening to hand in her two weeks' because THERE IS A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF CHILLI.
Dinner starts, and the buffet line starts moving. I keep checking up on the pot of chilli and it seems to be going down at a reasonable amount. Everybody has gone through the line; people start coming back for seconds (more for the homemade buns than the chilli). Nola and I approach the pot. The bottom has just been exposed. We fed all 160 people. With one pot of chilli. I couldn't even get angry because I was just so done with everything. So the camp freezer currently holds a pot of chilli large enough to feed over 100 people.
And still we were not done. There was popcorn for a late night snack, and while popcorn is easy to make, it is very time consuming. My day did not get any better when Aaron said that instead of 9:40, the group wanted their snack bumped to 10:15. Nola and I were joined by Rebecca in making popcorn and putting it into paper bags to be handed out. We started right after dinner, and finished around 9:30. And we missed the fireworks that the group was letting off at the beach. I later found out that the spring staff had taken group pictures down at the beach after the fireworks, so I was bummed that I had missed out on that. At the final count, Nola and I had been in the kitchen for over 16hrs straight.
On Sunday, everything went fine food wise, but then we had cleaning to do. Clean up takes a long time, and people just want to go home, so it's always a rough process. Aaron was helping, which I appreciated because I would peg him as the kind of guy to disappear until everything was cleaned. But the thing that really got me down was that the debrief meeting that we always have after a group leaves was held while people were still cleaning in the kitchen. I know I wasn't missing much, because we just discuss how we felt the retreat went, but I felt really left out. Especially after that weekend, where I had hardly any time to relax and hang out with people.
I know that some exclusion comes from working in the kitchen - that was a lesson I learned last year - but I never felt as left out as I did on Sunday while cleaning up and leaving. I understand why the meeting happened when it did, people were done cleaning and wanted to go home. But I felt like I hadn't talked or even sat down with someone other than Nola in days. People come by to help prep or clean up, but I can't really relax and chat with them then. I can't even talk to people during meals because during the meal we have to watch the buffet and replace food when it runs out. By the time Nola and I are eating, everyone else is already done and gone. Often we just end up eating on the counters in the kitchen because there's no longer any reason to go eat somewhere else. I'm going to mention it to Reagan, because I feel like I need to tell someone about how the meeting didn't happen when all the staff were present. And I just also need to get it off my chest, which this has helped with a bit. Hopefully this upcoming week is better.
*The Special Meal Deal: in hindsight, probably a bad idea on my part in terms of stress and extra work required, but hopefully it works out. Nola and I came up with this because the meals that the spring staff have together alone are dwindling quickly. We pitched to the staff that if they each brought in $3, then we (Nola and I) would make them a meal of their choosing that is not limited by camp's (non-existant) budget or food/ingredients, for a dinner this coming week where it's just spring staff. They were all for it, and so this Friday dinner will include guacamole, chicken breasts with goat cheese, stir fry and some sort of dessert (Nola wants to make cheesecake).
**Handing in our two weeks notice has become something of a joke between a handful of us at camp. A couple weeks ago Em, Aaron and I were chatting about the changes at camp that we didn't like/agree with. We were jokingly threatening to hand in our two weeks notice of quitting our jobs. We all agreed that if one of us did it, the others would. We then went to see Reagan and told her about this. I asked her what she'd do, and without missing a beat she said "I'd hand in mine as well." :D
This past week at camp was hard and tiring, especially at the end. We had our first school group, Matthews Hall from London. Then we had a couple days with just the staff before a youth group retreat came up for the weekend. I screwed up two times: the first was with Matthews Hall. We made roast beef, but not enough. I panicked and was sitting on the floor of the kitchen not sure what to do. I just froze. Luckily, Nola, my kitchen partner (and debatable more-kitchen-abled) did not panic and/or freeze like I did, and started thinking of a solution. Aaron also helped, which surprised me a bit. It's taken me a while to get used to the fact that he's the go-to person in charge right now, not Reagan. Aaron was the one who convinced me to get off the floor and find a solution. Everybody at Matthews Hall had eaten but the staff had not, so we made chicken tacos for them. They were all very understanding and didn't get mad (at least to my face), but I was still beating myself up for it, and was for a couple days. And of course after that I was nervous every time I figured out quantities because I didn't want to screw up again. Everything was going fine until I screwed up again: this time with the youth group retreat over the weekend. We were having tacos/fajitas/whatever you want to call them for lunch and we ran out of ground beef (clearly beef is not my strong point. Probably in part because we don't order it through Flanagans and is really expensive). So we made more chicken (the chicken we use at camp is already diced and fully cooked, so makes for an easy prep). At least that time I think everybody, except for a few stragglers, had eaten and people just wanted seconds. I dealt with that situation much more professionally than the first. Nola and I didn't end up eating until 2pm. Aaron had gone to town when the beef ran out, and he bought me a sub from subway :)
And then Saturday afternoon happened. Most people don't know about this, because it all happened in the kitchen, and not around meal times. Nola and I were in the kitchen, trying to increase the amount of chilli we had prepared for dinner. We were adding beans and veggies and all forms of tomato: diced, sauce, paste. We even debated adding condensed tomato soup (that didn't end up happening). Now keep in mind that Nola and I had been in the kitchen since before 7 that morning. All of this is being added to a huge pot - easily a diameter wider than my shoulder width and as tall as my torso. We weren't sure how many people it would feed, and there were 160 of us that needed to eat. So we start lining up ladles along the edges and sides of the pot to try and figure out how many servings we
could get out of this thing. We even took a picture to send to Catherine to see what she thought.
We had a range of guesses, ranging from 75 to 114. Regardless, not enough to feed everyone. So we start whipping up another pot of chilli. We cooked some more ground beef, start grabbing veggies and all our cans of tomatoes in various forms. The only problem is, we used so many of our cans of tomatoes and beans on the first pot trying to bulk it up that there wasn't many left for this second pot. So we added in all that we had, and it still wasn't tomato-y enough to be considered "chilli". So I start looking up how to make homemade tomato sauce because we have a box of tomatoes in the fridge. I had never before peeled a tomato, and I don't think I ever will again, but it was interesting at the time. Needless to say I did not have the 90 mins to let it simmer on the stove and added it straight into the pot.
So there we were, Nola and I on our step-stool (because the pots are so tall), using wooden juice paddles to stir the pots of chilli (because nothing else was long enough to reach the bottom of the pot), and the sanity had left the building. We said that we didn't have any sanity left, because it was a key ingredient in the chilli. There were also multiple mentions of leaving camp and never coming back.
When it was dinner time, we had to ask two of the guys on staff to move the pot because all Nola and I could do was nudge it in circles on the stovetop. We had managed to created almost another full pot of chilli. I knew that was really too much, but I had been told by Aaron, from Tyler, to "make enough, and don't worry about leftovers". Well Tyler, it's hard not to when you still haven't given me a budget. (As a result, I've decided that if this special meal deal* that Nola and I are doing for the staff goes over budget, camp will step in and cover the rest). Aaron came up to me and asked how it was going, as he has made the habit of doing around meal times, and all I had to say to him was "If they eat both pots of chilli, I'm handing in my two weeks notice**". And I wasn't even completely joking. Aaron, having not yet seen the pots of chilli, said "Don't say that!" I just walked away. He walks into the kitchen, where Em was because she was helping prep dinner, and sees the pots of chilli and goes "Whoooooooooooa..." Em then says something along the lines of 'that's why she's threatening to hand in her two weeks' because THERE IS A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF CHILLI.
Dinner starts, and the buffet line starts moving. I keep checking up on the pot of chilli and it seems to be going down at a reasonable amount. Everybody has gone through the line; people start coming back for seconds (more for the homemade buns than the chilli). Nola and I approach the pot. The bottom has just been exposed. We fed all 160 people. With one pot of chilli. I couldn't even get angry because I was just so done with everything. So the camp freezer currently holds a pot of chilli large enough to feed over 100 people.
And still we were not done. There was popcorn for a late night snack, and while popcorn is easy to make, it is very time consuming. My day did not get any better when Aaron said that instead of 9:40, the group wanted their snack bumped to 10:15. Nola and I were joined by Rebecca in making popcorn and putting it into paper bags to be handed out. We started right after dinner, and finished around 9:30. And we missed the fireworks that the group was letting off at the beach. I later found out that the spring staff had taken group pictures down at the beach after the fireworks, so I was bummed that I had missed out on that. At the final count, Nola and I had been in the kitchen for over 16hrs straight.
On Sunday, everything went fine food wise, but then we had cleaning to do. Clean up takes a long time, and people just want to go home, so it's always a rough process. Aaron was helping, which I appreciated because I would peg him as the kind of guy to disappear until everything was cleaned. But the thing that really got me down was that the debrief meeting that we always have after a group leaves was held while people were still cleaning in the kitchen. I know I wasn't missing much, because we just discuss how we felt the retreat went, but I felt really left out. Especially after that weekend, where I had hardly any time to relax and hang out with people.
I know that some exclusion comes from working in the kitchen - that was a lesson I learned last year - but I never felt as left out as I did on Sunday while cleaning up and leaving. I understand why the meeting happened when it did, people were done cleaning and wanted to go home. But I felt like I hadn't talked or even sat down with someone other than Nola in days. People come by to help prep or clean up, but I can't really relax and chat with them then. I can't even talk to people during meals because during the meal we have to watch the buffet and replace food when it runs out. By the time Nola and I are eating, everyone else is already done and gone. Often we just end up eating on the counters in the kitchen because there's no longer any reason to go eat somewhere else. I'm going to mention it to Reagan, because I feel like I need to tell someone about how the meeting didn't happen when all the staff were present. And I just also need to get it off my chest, which this has helped with a bit. Hopefully this upcoming week is better.
*The Special Meal Deal: in hindsight, probably a bad idea on my part in terms of stress and extra work required, but hopefully it works out. Nola and I came up with this because the meals that the spring staff have together alone are dwindling quickly. We pitched to the staff that if they each brought in $3, then we (Nola and I) would make them a meal of their choosing that is not limited by camp's (non-existant) budget or food/ingredients, for a dinner this coming week where it's just spring staff. They were all for it, and so this Friday dinner will include guacamole, chicken breasts with goat cheese, stir fry and some sort of dessert (Nola wants to make cheesecake).
**Handing in our two weeks notice has become something of a joke between a handful of us at camp. A couple weeks ago Em, Aaron and I were chatting about the changes at camp that we didn't like/agree with. We were jokingly threatening to hand in our two weeks notice of quitting our jobs. We all agreed that if one of us did it, the others would. We then went to see Reagan and told her about this. I asked her what she'd do, and without missing a beat she said "I'd hand in mine as well." :D
Saturday, 8 November 2014
Homecooked Meals For the Win
I feel bad for the students who are living off fast food and premade frozen meals because I just had a PC indian butter chicken frozen meal.
And.
It.
Sucked.
I was supposed to have spaghetti and meatballs, but I forgot to take the sauce out of the freezer, so I had this frozen dinner that I only bought cause it was on sale. And how badly I would have preferred the spaghetti and meatballs, you'll never know.
This weekend has been incredibly unproductive in terms of school work. Although I have made big progress on my various study abroad forms. I've decided that my first choice school is the University of Leeds. I'm really excited, now that most of the stress of all the forms is mostly out of the way. Also, I can't get over how fast time is moving. Like, another week is gone already. Each day comes and is it's own, but then BAM it's the weekend again and I'm just over here like damn where did the time go. And I keep looking at my list of things that I need to do and how I'm ignoring every single one of them. I'm pretty sure at about 8pm tonight I'll suddenly get this panic and I'll work till midnight (hopefully. I'm kind of banking on that happening so that today isn't completely unproductive).
275. Something that's worrying me right now
(LOL) Um, my lack of productiveness this weekend.
276. tumblr friends
No one.
277. Description of my best friend.
- funny
- beautiful
- caring
- loving
- creative
- giving
- supportive
- loves me for me
- honest
- makes me smile
- fashionable
- intelligent
- genuine
- my RDJ-loving partner
- there for me
- encouraging
- imaginative
- ambitious
- friendly
- happy
- outgoing
- an independent woman THAT DON'T NEED NO MAN
- encouraging
- talkitive ;)
- basically the coolest person I know
- aka my BFFLAAT 8D
And.
It.
Sucked.
I was supposed to have spaghetti and meatballs, but I forgot to take the sauce out of the freezer, so I had this frozen dinner that I only bought cause it was on sale. And how badly I would have preferred the spaghetti and meatballs, you'll never know.
This weekend has been incredibly unproductive in terms of school work. Although I have made big progress on my various study abroad forms. I've decided that my first choice school is the University of Leeds. I'm really excited, now that most of the stress of all the forms is mostly out of the way. Also, I can't get over how fast time is moving. Like, another week is gone already. Each day comes and is it's own, but then BAM it's the weekend again and I'm just over here like damn where did the time go. And I keep looking at my list of things that I need to do and how I'm ignoring every single one of them. I'm pretty sure at about 8pm tonight I'll suddenly get this panic and I'll work till midnight (hopefully. I'm kind of banking on that happening so that today isn't completely unproductive).
275. Something that's worrying me right now
(LOL) Um, my lack of productiveness this weekend.
276. tumblr friends
No one.
277. Description of my best friend.
- funny
- beautiful
- caring
- loving
- creative
- giving
- supportive
- loves me for me
- honest
- makes me smile
- fashionable
- intelligent
- genuine
- my RDJ-loving partner
- there for me
- encouraging
- imaginative
- ambitious
- friendly
- happy
- outgoing
- an independent woman THAT DON'T NEED NO MAN
- encouraging
- talkitive ;)
- basically the coolest person I know
- aka my BFFLAAT 8D
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)