Cheers!

Work today was fantastic! While we are still not in the kitchen, we did get to have our big giant Food and Beverage meeting where we all finally got to meet one another. Front of the House and Back of the House all in the same room together for the very first time!
Orientation meetings are always hard to stay awake for, and this one was no different. However, at the end, Jason our GM, ordered us all to rush down to the lower level of the building we have been meeting in and once we got down there...I almost started to cry. Jason, and all the other managers were standing around a table with wine and glasses and they passed out red wine to all the ladies and white for the boys and we all toasted and it was just so wonderful. During the little speech there was honestly a time when I turned to the girl next to me and said "Oh, gosh! This shit is going to make me cry!" I made it through with no tears, but I can not even put into words how excited and proud to be a part of this opening I am!

Mmm bacon.

For the first time in a very long time there was bacon in my house! So, I decided to go wild and make Sharp Grilled Cheese, Bacon, and Cherry Tomato Open Face Sammies with Old School Green Beans with Onion, Bacon, and Mushrooms. So yeah, I am fairly close to a delicious heart attack.

Today I got to see the kitchen for the very first time. I was underwhelmed by the space, but was crazy impressed by the equipment. I'm talking super high end stuff! The kind of stuff we will be taking classes on learning how to use. Oh, and not to mention the stuff I could not even identify. Which is sort of surprising since I like to pride myself on my flashy kitchen gadget knowledge. I am still totally unsure where, exactly, I will be working in the beast but I am eager to get this show on the road. However, since there is still tons of work to do on finishing the place, I am guessing I will have to wait a bit longer!
Ah, I am sure this will be a bit more interesting when I actually have something to report on my whole restaurant experience.

xo.

Not the best picture, but this is my Roast cooking away in my new crock pot. The recipe was pretty simple, and sort of a grab bag of a million other recipe. I started with some pretty great Chuck from Whole Foods in Franklin, which I hate, more on that later I am sure. Then in went two cans of Mushroom Soup, some Basil, Oregano, and a ton of Carrots, Potatoes, Mushrooms and Onions. I set it to cook for 6 hours and that was that. It came out a bit more wet then I would have hoped, but for my first time ever using a Crock Pot I was pretty thrilled.
I also made Baby Cakes, which are pretty much just mini Crab Cakes. I also made a Baby Dill Sauce to go with them. Unfortunately I was not able to take any pictures of them before my family ate them all. I was not in love with them, but I have never been much of a Crab Cakes fan.

I thought I might throw in a picture of my gift from my brother. I have never owned such nice knifes! I can't wait to start using them! They were just what I needed to help me get over my intense envy over Piper's gift from Dad! I guess she would have more of a use for a beautiful mixer then me. NOT! But, she has made some pretty great things with it so far!

Santa also brought me a mini Deep Fryer, but there won't be pictures of that baby until my brother leaves and I get to bust her out!

xo.