Pumpkin and Spice

I know there's been a bit of a post drought lately, but my defense is-
a.) I spend most of my time sleeping, at work or at the gym and
b.) Work has been sorta uneventful.

In a way, uneventful is good, because there's been no drama and things are going smoothly, but it sure makes for boring blogging. I'm still at the top-of-the-mountain lodge, though last week I was on a different shift. My first week, I was on days, working a pretty standard 8-4:30 shift. (Kinda a rarity in the culinary/hospitality industry!) Last week, I was working at the restaurant, which is a buffet-style Alps/moutain inspired restaurant.

The dessert portion is a fondue station. Fresh fruit, cookies, pound cakes and three different fondues- dark chocolate, white chocolate and caramel. Delicious, but not too exciting or challenging from a baker standpoint... basically we cut up lots and lots of pineapples, bananas, apples and strawberries, along with making the fondues. (Check out those gorgeous strawberries! We get cases and cases of them everyday- of course they aren't in season here, so I can't even imagine how much they must cost!)

We also feature a chef's special dessert, which this week was a brandied cherry cobbler-cake with brandy creme anglaise. (Most nights it was my job to make and assemble the cakes.) They were soooo good! Very rich, with lots of butter and cream, and delicious tart cherries!

During service, I'm back in the bakery, replenishing fruit as needed, and baking cookies and pound cakes for the next day's service. It's busy, but pretty low stress.

I did work on Valentine's Day, which I was expecting to be much crazier and more hectic than it was. Remarkably, everything went exceptionally smoothly, and the guests were very friendly and calm, which doesn't always happen on holidays at restaurants/resorts/hotels. It brings up an important point, though- be nice to the staff at restaurants on holidays. (Well, any day, really.) Keep in mind- you're out with friends, family and loved ones enjoying your holiday. Your servers, the hostesses and cooks are at work on the holiday. Okay, I'm done with my public service announcement.

So, what did you all do for Valentine's Day?