Pumpkin and Spice

I started my new shift this week. I'm off midnights, and am now working the evening shift at the seafood restaurant. It's actually kind of a nice shift, because I'm sort of a night person, and I can sleep until 9:30 or 10a, and still go to the gym before work. It's awesome. I love not waking up early.

When I arrive, I generally duck into the employee cafeteria for a quick bite to eat- usually a sandwich and some fruit. I eat quick, then head to the bakery to start work. The restaurant doesn't open until 6:30p, so prep work occupies the first part of my shift. Usually it involves making sauces, baking mini-cookies, assembling tarts and making dessert items that need to be done day of, like chocolate mousse. After all the prep work is done, we have to slice and portion all the desserts. Since the restaurant is buffet, we then have to plate and garnish all the desserts.

All of the desserts are smaller portions- I guess so you can eat more than one... Or possibly so you can still eat dessert after eating your weight in sushi and crab legs. Some of our desserts from the past few nights have included mini fresh fruit tarts, chess pie, mini raspberry marzipan cake, raspberry truffle brownies, assorted homemade chocolates and truffles, creme brulee and pannacotta. There are always at least thirteen different desserts every night!

Then the girls who work the buffet take the plates out and arrange them. After the restuarant opens, we don't do much else for the restaurant (by which I mean, everything is already plated, so we aren't really doing much more plating unless they run out of something out front.) While the restaurant is open, we work on making desserts for the next night. It's nice, because there's only two of us back in the bakery, so we have lots of space. Our bakery is pretty small, so space is usually quite a luxury.

On an unrelated note, the Sundance Film Festival started today, which means everything is going to get crowded. Already the buses are more full, and there's actually traffic, and Main Street is an absolute mess with cars and people. Sissy and I both have Sunday off, so we're going to make it a Sundance day. We're going to try to get stand-by tickets to a film, then brave the crowds on Main Street to eat and wander around, and pick up some Sundance merchandise at the festival shop. There's going to be a lot of waiting in line (especially for stand-by tix) but I spend a lot of time at Disney World- I'm a pro at waiting in line. Doesn't bother me (except at the Post Office... wonder why that is? I hate waiting in line at the Post Office.) Our goal for the day is to see at least one celebrity. We don't really care who it is, we just want to be able to say that we saw so-and-so at Sundance.

Ski season is officially half over... which means I get to go home in about three months. Yay!