MattyC

I tend to have music on the line, although just turned down during service. I'm a person that likes to have a little noise going on in the background, and have found it at times a little harder to concentrate in dead silence. I can't stand it loud, and it's never turned up enough where people are singing and not paying attention to orders, so it's never really been an issue. I think it makes things a little more cheerful in the kitchen.

I'm usually around the 50-60 hours a week mark. When it's really busy, yes, i've been known to hit around 70-80, but that has been pretty rare

I've felt the bad effects of this whole economic downturn. 3 months ago I was laid off from a small restaurant where I was working - unfortunately it was a new place, still in it's first year, and some people were put off a little by the prices to begin with. I think that if it had been a little more established, things wouldn't have gone south so fast, but it just didn't have the regular customer base to help, so pretty much as soon as the economy went down, the place hit a brick wall. But now i'm back to where I was working before there, a remodeled fine dining OPR turned bistro, and business has been nothing short of great. We are still only open for dinner, just a scant 4 hours, but on the slowest days we still do about 40 covers and on the weekends around 90, and just recently expanded to 7 days a week, and still pulling in good business. No idea if this will last, but it seems pretty constant, and strangely enough it's actually been getting busier, so who knows. Sadly, as an example of what someone said earlier, on how smaller bistros are doing ok and fine dining is taking a turn for the worse, we did 88 people within the first 3 hours of service last saturday, and a well known fine dining place did 20, if that, all evening. I mean, good for us, but I feel bad for the fine dining since I know someone there.

Unfortunately, i'll be working, so I think I might be making food for the few staff we will have on, just kind of throw our own little superbowl shindig. For some reason I haven't really wanted wings or anything fried this year, so I was thinking maybe a nice seafood chowder. Scallops, haddock, lobster stock base - I have some decent stock kicking around in the freezer at work that keeps eying me every time I open it. Little brandy and some fresh thyme, it should come out pretty good. Was also thinking on a flatbread pizza. Did a BBQ Duck pizza a few months back for something else, came out pretty tasty, so I was thinking on modding that a little bit for the superbowl ? Haven't really put any thought into this until I saw this thread lol Also, do have a friend getting me some imberico ham from a specialty place around here, kinda as a late birthday gift. Won't see him until superbowl sunday, and almost thought on using it for a platter with some friends, but afraid i'll have to keep that one just to myself though

I agree wholeheartedly. Last job I was at had 3 or so soups on the menu at any time, and when I started their, they didn't have any acidity in their soups! When I started to prep things after just starting, they pretty much left me alone, so I made the soups the way I always do. As example, I always use cider vinegar in my butternut squash soups, and they happened to have a simple one on their menu. After I made it, the head chef tried it and wondered why it was so good. This wasn't the only job where acidity isn't really touched on, is it really that forgotten to put acid in a dish these days? I've always been under the impressing that a good level of acidity is needed, it's that certain layer of flavor you just can't get another way.

Got a bunch of pork from a farmer friend of mine. Straight from farm to me after it was butchered. Good thing about getting it from her is that the piggies are fed all of our restaurant scraps, so we know what goes into them. Anyway, got a lot of nice stuff, so I decided to make some rillettes! Pretty simple, some nice pork belly and shoulder seasoned and cooked down for hours with a bouquet garni (it's been on the stove for about 5 hours now, probably another 2 more). Once it's nice and tender and cool enough, shred with a fork and fold in some pork fat. You're pretty much looking for a hideous pork paste, but once you mix that together and let it sit for a few days, you have the most delicious paste to smear on bread or whatever. I'll probably pick up some baguette, and dig in with a nice beer once it's ready. Also have some hocks, probably going to braise those tomorrow, and in non-pork cookery, made some nice gnocchi and did a roasted chicken with some gravy. Breakfast was an omelet with pancetta, kale, and caramalized onions, topped it with a little homemade cheese. Need to make some veg stock for soup later, but after just digging my car out of a ton of snow, I might put that off till tomorrow too. Yeah, i've been busy lol Just felt like being active, being cooped up at home all day with all the snow.

Always love making soup, yesterday I made a butternut squash soup. garnished with some curried pumpkin seeds and a little bit of cider vinegar, came out really well. And the other week I made a simple but good one, some simple corn chowder, but with a little bit of crispy pancetta. Very nice, although I will take any excuse to put pancetta on something or put it with something. Hmm.... now I feel like making another one today

One thing I like doing in the winter is a roasted veg bread pudding! Simple way would be to mix the veggies with cubed bread, maybe some roasted garlic too, in a baking pan, and make an egg/milk mixture, pour it over, bake until knife comes out clean. You could always do that, cut it into squares or whatever size you would want for a portion, and then wrap it in puff pastry, en croute style, and bake until it's golden brown.

Sorry about the job situation Maggie. I myself just lost my job about a month ago, and understand how rough it is right now without a whole lot of income. A lot of great ideas have been mentioned ( I especially love the gnocchi one, I just made a batch the other day to store in the freezer), and to be perfectly honest it was sort of a good thing, I've been trying to watch what I save and use a lot more now, and have found myself doing more from scratch than I normally did at home. Making my own cheese has been a big thing. Many soft cheeses are easy to do, and makes for great snacks or breakfast with bread or crackers, and doesn't cost much more than milk and just a few small ingredients. Chowders are there too. Simple corn chowder isn't more than 5 ingredients - Onion, carrot, milk, butter, flour, corn - season it how well you want, and you have a decent lunch that will fill ya up. Many potato things have been mentioned too, and gratins are cheap and good, and you can come up with all kinds. Another simple idea is a warm potato salad. Warm potatoes sliced, tossed with vinaigrette and a fresh herb or two. Potatoes soak it up, and you have a delicious salad. Hope that helps a little. You just gotta keep your chin up and get creative with what you have, plus I wanted to say you aren't the only one in this boat! All the best to you