When Sandy mentioned their rental house in Tignall I was somewhat taken off guard. She told us it had a kitchen in it that had been approved once for commercial use when Ben had his catering business,but it didn't really register with me. I mean, the possibility of renting a little house complete with a commercial kitchen that was also great for entertaining in the next little town over was not in the hundreds of possibilities Reid and I had considered for where to expand our little business. I mentioned it to Reid when he came home and we both just kind of shrugged and said it was something to think about. It wasn't even until a few days later I decided I might as well look at it just in case. I really didn't get my hopes up too much. At the very least I'd get to see this house and maybe pick up a tip or two about arranging our basement kitchen better until we found our space.
I was picking up some vegetables from Lazy Willow Farm that week so I just jumped in the car with Sandy and we headed down toward Tignall to pick up some Tink's beef and then to see the house. (She was probably just trying to butter me up first by showing me how close I could be to a Tink burger at any given moment.) Once in the booming metropolis of Tignall, GA we went through a little neighborhood and onto a dirt road. All of a sudden we came up on this little house, with a tin roof, a nice front porch and a roundabout drive. Even though we had just gone through a bunch of houses, it looked like we were in the middle of nowhere except for a bunch of trees and a little house.
I kind of started to get excited and then we went inside. I wish I had some kind of noisemaker for when you just feel like the floodgates of heaven open and angels are trumpeting. That is how I felt when I walked inside the house. It was perfect. The most important thing that we needed (commercial kitchen) it had including an additional room that was certified as well so we could use it for dry storage or more fridge/freezer space down the road. The main kitchen itself was fantastic-all the sinks were there (3 compartment for dishwashing, 2 compartment for prep and 1 bay handwashing sink); an oven (which will eventually be replaced with our baby from downstairs); and a great big work table.
So even if the house just had the kitchen areas it would be well worth renting it. For the market and the weekday meals we didn't need any kind of retail space anyway. But incredibly, the house had way more than just the kitchen to offer. Two rooms (painted that "pool" color of our labels), two full bathrooms (painted the pink color of our labels), great closet space, a huge living area (painted that sage green color of our labels) with this really great wood burning stove/brickwork on one end and for the grand finale a timber frame screened in back porch with big ceiling fans and another oven for outside parties. Oh, and a fenced in acre pasture as well as plenty of outdoors space to landscape just waiting to be landscaped all cute.
I could have a real grown up office, a bathroom for customers to use if they are over planning a catering event, and a little place for Reid and I to stay when we're baking for the market all hours of the night or have a big order. (Or use it as our "guest house" when company comes!) Since the living area was completely separate from the kitchen, we had a ton of possibilities. So not only could it solve our kitchen problem, it also could solve our house problem.
Well, I called Reid when I got back in my own car and told him how perfect the house was for Southern Scratch. He warned "You didn't act this excited in front of Sandy did you?" I replied, "Umm no...kind of...yes, Reid, of course you know I did!" (I have never known how to "barter" and prefer to live in naiive bliss that everyone sets a fair price on what they sell based on the quality of the product and what they need to make a living. So in my feeble mind bartering could be forcing someone to take less than what they really need to get by just so they could have some cash flow and stay afloat. But I guess it is the whole perceived value angle that is a main determinant in deciding prices? I wasn't really worried that Sandy was waiting on my response to give me a lease amount so of course I told Sandy immediately about feeling like the angels were singing because the house was so perfect! Later on anyway we let the men play hard ball with each other while Sandy and I were still jumping up and down excited!)
Like most things, my mind had already raced to planning how we could offer a really nice, cozy Valentine's dinner at The Tignall House (that's what I had started calling it...) rather than think of all the logistics and paperwork that may be involved. So while I was ready to uncork a bottle of champagne and celebrate finding a kitchen, Reid of course wanted to see the house first for himself and you know, discuss, what all it would entail.
Reid and I went and looked at the house together and he kept trying to keep me on track saying "Remember, only take the kitchen into consideration." (Then he even scared me saying things like "this back porch is big enough for us to live in," causing horrible flashes of us living in what would probably be Reid's dream home of a little one room timber frame shack down by the pond with nothing but love, a gun and fishing poles to our name). Reid admitted he liked the house but told me we just needed to be careful and figure out all the steps it would take first.
So against my nature, I sat down and tried to really work it out on paper. How would moving from our home (where the business didn't pay it's own electric bills, etc.) to an outside location (where the business would have to start paying for everything) work out? Although I love spreadsheets (and can put some algebraic formulas to calculate estimated daily calorie needs with the best of them) I didn't have a great idea of how to merge all the variables that would go into having a real business. So like any smart idiot, I took my scribblings (which I think I would have brought the work I had done on Quickbooks but this was around the time my laptop decided to go on the fritz for a few weeks) over to Bambi and asked her to look over them. I laid it all out on the line and she helped me make it all make sense. Along with great advice, she gave me encouragement that we could actually take this next step (without sacrificing our grits & coffee of course!).
Just a few minutes after leaving Bambi's office, I called my older brother to ask what it would take to turn Southern Scratch into an LLC. He had just gone through the process starting Deals for Schools (like Groupon but with proceeds going to the school of your choice, in any city you want including Washington!). That night I recounted my meeting with Bambi to Reid and we decided we should at least go ahead and file as an LLC. So that night Reid and I filed everything online. (We felt like such grown-ups!). When we got confirmation of our "Southern Scratch, LLC" status we headed to the bank to open up a dedicated business account. (Well after having to go print out our forms at the library due to our computer issues...so professional. But at least now I have my library card!)
With our now legit business name, account & a call about our business insurance we were ready to take the next step. We had let Charles & Sandy know we definitely wanted to rent the house and while they started doing some work to get it move in ready we started to get ready to move everything out. Our goal was to move everything in the kitchen the weekend after Thanksgiving and try to get it inspected that week.
So in true Bussey woman fashion, I tried to pack in making Thanksgiving food deliveries, family time in Decatur, AL for turkey day, cook for the market Friday night, do the market Saturday morning and pick up the keys and start moving in all in a 4 day span. Surpringly we got most of it done but still had a long way to go. Sunday evening Opie came over with his truck and we moved the major items like the two refrigerators and some furniture. (Have I said often enough how awesome our next door neighbors are????)
That week, Carissa came and helped me set up all the racks that we had to tear down to move and put back up as well as get ready for a big festival we had planned on attending. (You know you've asked the right woman to help when she shows up with breakfast, a pocket knife, a truck and tools.) She also "initiated" me into Tignall with lunch at the KumBack Cafe.
Also going on that week was trying to get our website up and running, order forms for Christmas ready and baking for the festival. When we first started out, my brother helped me register the domain name http://www.southernscratch.com/ but we hadn't done anything with it. I told him at the very least we just needed a page with our name/contact info on it for the upcoming weekend. That way we could go ahead and start printing the address on our labels. Well Ben is kind of awesome too and designed our site so that I could go in and edit the words pretty easily from my end. So rather than have the site "go live" only half finished we both worked hard getting it finalized before the weekend.
My original plan was to ask the Health Department inspector to come out as soon as we got the equipment moved in but then decided it would be better if we had everything set up first. I may have mentioned this before but I really appreciate and kind of enjoy all the certification visits like The Joint Commission, CARF, Health Department, etc. Although it can be nerveracking for some to get ready for an inspection, the inspectors and you are all wanting the same thing. It doesn't benefit your hospital or restaurant to have an unclean work environment. It's not good for your customers, your patients, your employees or for you. So seeing these agencies as a source of information and accountability to help you acheive your goal of a safe and sanitary work environment is good for everyone.
So I thought if I had everything set up how I planned to use the kitchen the inspector could better pinpoint any problem areas he saw. I would also be able to play around and see areas where I could be more efficient and how I wanted to use the workspace. Then when January came we would be completely ready to go for Weekday Gourmet meals. My ServSafe certification along with my experience in both retail and hospital kitchens had helped tremendously from day one. It was so exciting then to put what has amounted to about 8 years total of "foodservice" experience (not counting all the time I got to spend going to work with my mom at the Susan Mott Webb Nutrition Sciences building at UAB growing up) into my own real commercial kitchen!
Maybe that is why last week I joyously scrubbed the kitchen down and spent hours going through food prep scenarios in my head to make sure there weren't any chances for cross contamination. So when the Health Department inspector showed up last Thursday afternoon I felt I had everything ready to go but was of course ready to make any changes. He was a great help in offering some suggestions and would approve the facility pending some more paperwork for the permit.
I was so elated but still wanted to obviously wait until we had the permit in hand before making any kind of official announcement. I had started these "Kitchen Evolution" posts about the time we started to move into the kitchen and have been spacing them out in anticipation of our final granting of that super imporant piece of paper. I got a call Wednesday to bring by my menu, etc. to the Health Department and after a little review was given our permit and initial inspection score, which was a 100!
I got in my car and just tried to concentrate on driving I was so excited. We had done it!!! After so much prayer, so much work, so much celebration paired with plenty of times of doubt, we were now officially a real business! I was more grateful than ever at that point for Reid's "not yet." He persevered through my eagerness to do everything at once and and helped me wait on God's plan for our little business. I would never have imagined we could have taken our little earnings from our yard sale and be able to grow that into being into a fully licensed commercial kitchen with equipment! I also love how God has shown us time after time that it takes Reid and I working together, not apart, to build this.
Also I can't believe all the people God put in our life to help us and encourage us along the way. I tried just now to start writing it all out but realized it would be ten pages long. Even though we have had some crazy setbacks and at times have thought we were in the middle of a disastrous romantic comedy with all the car & house parts that have broken in our less than a year of marriage, God has always provided a solution.
We have no idea how our business will look in a year from now but even with this step have faith that we can still enjoy our grits & coffee on Sunday morning without worrying about Monday!
Once I get my pictures organized we will do a before & after! Hope to see everyone tomorrow for our last Farmer's Market of 2010!
Friday, December 17, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Our Kitchen Evolution: Part 4 (Don't worry there are only 5 parts total)
Once we had finally gotten everything hooked up, cleaned up and set up in the basement I couldn't wait to start cooking down there. The space was three to four times as big as the little kitchen space upstairs (or the same size if you take into account we used the whole living/dining area as well during full market prep mode).
I definitely realize the easiest way to keep something clean is the whole "a place for everything and everything in it's place" approach. We had more space on racks to put hot pans to cool, a dedicated stainless table for the mixer & food processor and another dedicated prep table. Plus we had a rack for storage of the paper goods like treat bags and compostable take out boxes,an ingredient rack and a rack for baking pans, cake pans, etc. The organization made baking more fun and the kitchen easier to take care of.
Which was good because we had houseguests coming. This was in August and we had just started using the basement. A couple who used to be my next door neighbors in Warm Springs were planning a road trip to the lake and then to see Washington, Madison and a couple places in between. We were so thrilled about their visit. I missed my friends from my old "cute little historical town" and couldn't wait to show them my new "cute little historical town." The plan was that they would meet us at the market Saturday and then spend the night with us before leaving early to see Madison on their way home.
So even though our new kitchen was easier to clean, we cooked late into the night (sometimes all night) and then early in the morning so there were always dishes to finish when we got home. Unless Reid stayed behind and did all the dishes while I was at the market, we would be bringing our houseguests into a less than company ready home. I had already been secretly dreaming of hiring someone to do dishes so we discussed finding someone to go ahead and clean the whole house while we were at the market that Saturday. That way we could focus more on getting everything arranged better to have company and then someone could come behind us and do a good scrub on the house.
Well that Friday I was making Better Than's and noticed that my dough was really sticky, almost wet. It didn't make any sense because there isn't any water in them. I added some more flour and finally got it to a consistency where I could roll them up to slice. Well they baked up really funny looking so we tossed them. Then I tried making pound cake and had a similar result. Instead of crust forming the top looked almost wet even when it was fully baked. I finally had an "ah-ha!" moment and figured out it was the humidity. Rather than have everything I baked turn out off, I moved my mixer back upstairs. (I definitely got a great workout running up and down the stairs every time I forgot to bring up the baking powder, etc.)
At this point, I was soooo grateful we had already called Bertie Mae. She had assured me she and her sister would take care of everything Saturday morning and the house would be spotless when we came back home. So Saturday morning while we were loading up the car with treats, the two most wonderful ladies who I hadn't even met yet in the world drove up. They could have been riding a white horse. They walked in, gave me a great big hug and told me not to worry at all. I felt like a little girl who had gotten herself in way too deep and they were swooping in to rescue me.
Reid came to the market with me for a couple of hours and then went back home to put any final touches (I say final but I mean interim touches...I'm not sure our house will have final touches on it for a while!) on the house. He called me and said "Oh Sugar Britches, let's see if they will come every week. You won't believe this. Our house looks awesome." Those might have been the sexiest words he's ever spoken to me. Of course I wanted them to come every week! The thought of our house getting a fresh start every Saturday, especially while we were in the middle of trying to still move in and run a little business was beyond awesome.
When I was single the best thing I did for myself was have someone come and clean on a regular basis and before any dinner parties. I learned that even though I could "technically" (i.e. stay up all night) do it all myself, I enjoyed having company over a lot more when I just focused on the parts I was really good at and let someone else do what they were really good at. It also helped me keep my house in order because clutter never looks clean no matter how much you dust it. When we got married and I moved, I missed Ms. Betty dearly but I didn't want to seem like a high maintence wife so I tried doing it all myself again. (I loved Martha, one of the Green Overalls Club members, for reminding me at the market to know what you do best and let others do what they do best!) So when Reid called to say how great it was, I was beyond thrilled he was just as enthusiastic as I was about having some help!
The weekend with my neighbors ended up being so much fun, not the least part of which was coming home to a transformed house. They had brought a convertible so Reid showed them all of our gorgeous Washington homes riding around with the top down. We called some of our new neighbors over to eat dinner with us (which is when Ricky taught me how to fry onion rings-drop them in at 350 and take them out when the temp gets back up to 350) and had a great time catching up. (And a couple week's later Katy sent me the cutest apron monogrammed with "Southern Scratch" on it along with a list of bible verses that related to the "entrepenuer!" It was so sweet!)
That next week I went to Poss hardware and bought a hygrometer to measure the humidty. With that little tool and our dehumidifier we were able to bake a lot more wisely with better Better Than's and crusty pound cakes. A couple times we still had to run upstairs but for the most part we were able to do all the cooking in our "new" dedicated kitchen. We could keep the upstairs a "Southern Scratch Free Zone" which lent a lot more peace and order to the house even though we still felt some of the strain of having a business inside our home.
One issue with having the kitchen in the basement was that we still actually needed our basement. There was a wood burning stove which we would have loved to have a little den around, Reid would want to start working out again (and maybe drag his wife along with him!) and also give us a place to work on other household projects like the furniture I wanted to paint or the doghouse Reid wanted to build. There was already a built in work bench ready to go but of course we didn't want to risk doing any kind of non-food related work down there. So even though the space we used took up half the basement, it really took up all the basement.
The other issue with having the kitchen in the basement was that it would still need some renovations which a plumber & electrician would have to handle to be a fully certified kitchen. We just weren't sure if doing any kind of commercial overhaul on our house was wise. We had talked to one of my uncles who had recommended if we wanted the kitchen on our property to just build a new building (like one of those steel ones) that could be moved which made a lot of sense. (But didn't really want a steel building you could see from the road.) Then we went back to maybe building a little house for us closer to our pond and making the entire house the business (hey, it already had those gorgeous drop ceilings right?). But then we would be taking on a huge project and being in even more uproar than we already were. Or what about renting a cute place on the square? Well we didn't really need a "storefront" or full service restaurant so that would be kind of unneccessary and also force our little business straight into a "make it or break it" mode.
Another thing we had to consider was that Reid and I were in reality incredibly blessed. Like I mentioned earlier we had our "good car" as well as Reid's "red baron" (oh what a disaster...but a paid for disaster. If you see him at the gas station, yes he is using a claw hammer to get the fuel door to open since the lever broke off. And yes, it kind of makes you laugh and cry all at once if you are riding shotgun). We inherited this gorgeous farm and comfortable house and didn't want to make any risky business decisions that could compromise that or fall into what Reid calls the "I'd trade it all for just a little more" syndrome. So even when I would lie awake at night trying to convince myself (and sometimes waking Reid up to try to convince him) that if we just "went for it" and built our dream kitchen our business would grow, Reid would be the voice of reason and tell me "not yet." At times I thought he was just being too frugal or couldn't see the "big picture" but come to find out, his nearly decade more of life experience comes with some more wisdom too.
We wanted to try to be responsible in growing our business so that we didn't give up the peace we had when we went to bed at night. Our view of "financial security" meant being able to sip coffee & make grits and eggs on Sundays before church without worrying about Monday. Starting the business from our yard sale profits and putting everything back into it had meant nine months of me not bringing in a paycheck but we had everything we really needed with Reid's job (but you better believe I sometimes mentally translate how nine months of me having a "real" job could have translated into painted walls and custom drapes!). Luckily Bambi held my hand and helped me with the numbers I'm not so great at and showed me what to do to keep us, our business, God and the government all happy. (She also informed me that enjoying coffee & grits on Sunday morning was not inherently exclusive to growing our business!)
We had been praying every night for our marriage and business and that we would make wise decisions regarding both. (I know our families were doing the same, probably in overdrive!) In the last months I felt like I was finally learning that "waiting on God" didn't mean "sitting around doing nothing" and that surprisingly, God didn't need me to "just help him out a little." (Oh if I had only learned this years ago...but then I wouldn't have half the stories totell hide from my children one day.)
Anyway, back to the basement kitchen and us scratching our heads trying to figure out if/where/when we needed to move to a fully bonafied kitchen. A little over a month or so ago I happened to be at the LeGette's house one evening picking up vegetables from Lazy Willow Farm and mentioned to Sandy I would be glad when we got a more permanent kitchen figured out, so for one we could then focus a little more on getting our house ready to be able to entertain. I told her Reid and I decided we had given up for the moment to figure out our next "move" but thought we may know after Christmas and would just be patient until God led us in the right direction.
Well, the next time I was over there, Sandy said to me: "Hey, I'm not sure if you would even be interested in this but we have this house out in Tignall that is great for entertaining..."
Next and final (I promise) post on this kitchen stuff: Three compartment sinks and a very important little piece of paper...
I definitely realize the easiest way to keep something clean is the whole "a place for everything and everything in it's place" approach. We had more space on racks to put hot pans to cool, a dedicated stainless table for the mixer & food processor and another dedicated prep table. Plus we had a rack for storage of the paper goods like treat bags and compostable take out boxes,an ingredient rack and a rack for baking pans, cake pans, etc. The organization made baking more fun and the kitchen easier to take care of.
Which was good because we had houseguests coming. This was in August and we had just started using the basement. A couple who used to be my next door neighbors in Warm Springs were planning a road trip to the lake and then to see Washington, Madison and a couple places in between. We were so thrilled about their visit. I missed my friends from my old "cute little historical town" and couldn't wait to show them my new "cute little historical town." The plan was that they would meet us at the market Saturday and then spend the night with us before leaving early to see Madison on their way home.
So even though our new kitchen was easier to clean, we cooked late into the night (sometimes all night) and then early in the morning so there were always dishes to finish when we got home. Unless Reid stayed behind and did all the dishes while I was at the market, we would be bringing our houseguests into a less than company ready home. I had already been secretly dreaming of hiring someone to do dishes so we discussed finding someone to go ahead and clean the whole house while we were at the market that Saturday. That way we could focus more on getting everything arranged better to have company and then someone could come behind us and do a good scrub on the house.
Well that Friday I was making Better Than's and noticed that my dough was really sticky, almost wet. It didn't make any sense because there isn't any water in them. I added some more flour and finally got it to a consistency where I could roll them up to slice. Well they baked up really funny looking so we tossed them. Then I tried making pound cake and had a similar result. Instead of crust forming the top looked almost wet even when it was fully baked. I finally had an "ah-ha!" moment and figured out it was the humidity. Rather than have everything I baked turn out off, I moved my mixer back upstairs. (I definitely got a great workout running up and down the stairs every time I forgot to bring up the baking powder, etc.)
At this point, I was soooo grateful we had already called Bertie Mae. She had assured me she and her sister would take care of everything Saturday morning and the house would be spotless when we came back home. So Saturday morning while we were loading up the car with treats, the two most wonderful ladies who I hadn't even met yet in the world drove up. They could have been riding a white horse. They walked in, gave me a great big hug and told me not to worry at all. I felt like a little girl who had gotten herself in way too deep and they were swooping in to rescue me.
Reid came to the market with me for a couple of hours and then went back home to put any final touches (I say final but I mean interim touches...I'm not sure our house will have final touches on it for a while!) on the house. He called me and said "Oh Sugar Britches, let's see if they will come every week. You won't believe this. Our house looks awesome." Those might have been the sexiest words he's ever spoken to me. Of course I wanted them to come every week! The thought of our house getting a fresh start every Saturday, especially while we were in the middle of trying to still move in and run a little business was beyond awesome.
When I was single the best thing I did for myself was have someone come and clean on a regular basis and before any dinner parties. I learned that even though I could "technically" (i.e. stay up all night) do it all myself, I enjoyed having company over a lot more when I just focused on the parts I was really good at and let someone else do what they were really good at. It also helped me keep my house in order because clutter never looks clean no matter how much you dust it. When we got married and I moved, I missed Ms. Betty dearly but I didn't want to seem like a high maintence wife so I tried doing it all myself again. (I loved Martha, one of the Green Overalls Club members, for reminding me at the market to know what you do best and let others do what they do best!) So when Reid called to say how great it was, I was beyond thrilled he was just as enthusiastic as I was about having some help!
The weekend with my neighbors ended up being so much fun, not the least part of which was coming home to a transformed house. They had brought a convertible so Reid showed them all of our gorgeous Washington homes riding around with the top down. We called some of our new neighbors over to eat dinner with us (which is when Ricky taught me how to fry onion rings-drop them in at 350 and take them out when the temp gets back up to 350) and had a great time catching up. (And a couple week's later Katy sent me the cutest apron monogrammed with "Southern Scratch" on it along with a list of bible verses that related to the "entrepenuer!" It was so sweet!)
That next week I went to Poss hardware and bought a hygrometer to measure the humidty. With that little tool and our dehumidifier we were able to bake a lot more wisely with better Better Than's and crusty pound cakes. A couple times we still had to run upstairs but for the most part we were able to do all the cooking in our "new" dedicated kitchen. We could keep the upstairs a "Southern Scratch Free Zone" which lent a lot more peace and order to the house even though we still felt some of the strain of having a business inside our home.
One issue with having the kitchen in the basement was that we still actually needed our basement. There was a wood burning stove which we would have loved to have a little den around, Reid would want to start working out again (and maybe drag his wife along with him!) and also give us a place to work on other household projects like the furniture I wanted to paint or the doghouse Reid wanted to build. There was already a built in work bench ready to go but of course we didn't want to risk doing any kind of non-food related work down there. So even though the space we used took up half the basement, it really took up all the basement.
The other issue with having the kitchen in the basement was that it would still need some renovations which a plumber & electrician would have to handle to be a fully certified kitchen. We just weren't sure if doing any kind of commercial overhaul on our house was wise. We had talked to one of my uncles who had recommended if we wanted the kitchen on our property to just build a new building (like one of those steel ones) that could be moved which made a lot of sense. (But didn't really want a steel building you could see from the road.) Then we went back to maybe building a little house for us closer to our pond and making the entire house the business (hey, it already had those gorgeous drop ceilings right?). But then we would be taking on a huge project and being in even more uproar than we already were. Or what about renting a cute place on the square? Well we didn't really need a "storefront" or full service restaurant so that would be kind of unneccessary and also force our little business straight into a "make it or break it" mode.
Another thing we had to consider was that Reid and I were in reality incredibly blessed. Like I mentioned earlier we had our "good car" as well as Reid's "red baron" (oh what a disaster...but a paid for disaster. If you see him at the gas station, yes he is using a claw hammer to get the fuel door to open since the lever broke off. And yes, it kind of makes you laugh and cry all at once if you are riding shotgun). We inherited this gorgeous farm and comfortable house and didn't want to make any risky business decisions that could compromise that or fall into what Reid calls the "I'd trade it all for just a little more" syndrome. So even when I would lie awake at night trying to convince myself (and sometimes waking Reid up to try to convince him) that if we just "went for it" and built our dream kitchen our business would grow, Reid would be the voice of reason and tell me "not yet." At times I thought he was just being too frugal or couldn't see the "big picture" but come to find out, his nearly decade more of life experience comes with some more wisdom too.
We wanted to try to be responsible in growing our business so that we didn't give up the peace we had when we went to bed at night. Our view of "financial security" meant being able to sip coffee & make grits and eggs on Sundays before church without worrying about Monday. Starting the business from our yard sale profits and putting everything back into it had meant nine months of me not bringing in a paycheck but we had everything we really needed with Reid's job (but you better believe I sometimes mentally translate how nine months of me having a "real" job could have translated into painted walls and custom drapes!). Luckily Bambi held my hand and helped me with the numbers I'm not so great at and showed me what to do to keep us, our business, God and the government all happy. (She also informed me that enjoying coffee & grits on Sunday morning was not inherently exclusive to growing our business!)
We had been praying every night for our marriage and business and that we would make wise decisions regarding both. (I know our families were doing the same, probably in overdrive!) In the last months I felt like I was finally learning that "waiting on God" didn't mean "sitting around doing nothing" and that surprisingly, God didn't need me to "just help him out a little." (Oh if I had only learned this years ago...but then I wouldn't have half the stories to
Anyway, back to the basement kitchen and us scratching our heads trying to figure out if/where/when we needed to move to a fully bonafied kitchen. A little over a month or so ago I happened to be at the LeGette's house one evening picking up vegetables from Lazy Willow Farm and mentioned to Sandy I would be glad when we got a more permanent kitchen figured out, so for one we could then focus a little more on getting our house ready to be able to entertain. I told her Reid and I decided we had given up for the moment to figure out our next "move" but thought we may know after Christmas and would just be patient until God led us in the right direction.
Well, the next time I was over there, Sandy said to me: "Hey, I'm not sure if you would even be interested in this but we have this house out in Tignall that is great for entertaining..."
Next and final (I promise) post on this kitchen stuff: Three compartment sinks and a very important little piece of paper...
Monday, December 13, 2010
Locally Grown & Easy to Cook Beets!
Reid and I bargain with beets in our house. When we were dating I roasted beets for him and he has been hooked on them ever since. So if I really want something I'll say "Well how about if I make some beets this week for you...?" (I know, who else on earth would that persuade?)
Made right, beets can be beyond delicious. Some sugar comes from beets so they've got to be good, right? (But plopped out of the can they are not so delicious). A month or so ago when the LeGette's at Lazy Willow Farm told me they were growing beets I got so excited. I couldn't wait to surprise Reid with them and was already trying to figure out what I could bargain for them. I was lucky enough to get some of the second batch of beets they pulled. (The first batch they thinned out went to their lucky goats). The beets were still small but the leaves are just as good which I added to some soup.
I usually roast them (recipe follows) but last week with our beets from the market I tried something new. We had thawed out some of Tink's ground beef to make burgers and there was some beef fat left in the pan. I decided to make "scalloped beets" so I peeled and thinly sliced them. I added those along with some arugula to the pan and let them cook down. Then a little flour, grass fed milk and blue cheese. Although it looked pretty horrible (blue cheese + pink creamy sauce=not appetizing), it tasted pretty awesome. (I sent the leftovers with Reid to work the next day and he said he got a lot of questions about what the heck he was eating). So although I would probably never make this recipe for a meal night, it does show you they can be a versatile vegetable.
But this is how I usually cook beets which is super easy and always turns out:
Ingredients:
Fresh beets (preferably with leaves on)
Walnut oil (or olive oil but walnut really adds more flavor)
Fresh thyme (or any fresh or dried herb-but stick with just one)
Coarsely ground sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice beet root away from leaves. Peel and cut into quarters or eighths depending on the size of the beet. Arrange on baking tray and drizzle with oil, add a tiny bit of sea salt and black pepper to taste. Top with fresh thyme. Toss together and put in oven for 20-30 minutes until they can be easily pierced with a fork.
For the beet leaves, you can chop these up and cook them as well. Add about 2 Tbsp walnut or olive oil along with the zest of an orange and a minced garlic clove in a skillet. Heat slightly to crisp the zest a little then add the beet leaves. Meanwhile, peel and chop the orange and add the fruit to the skillet as well. When the leaves are cooked down slightly (but not totally dead), remove from heat.
Enjoy!
Made right, beets can be beyond delicious. Some sugar comes from beets so they've got to be good, right? (But plopped out of the can they are not so delicious). A month or so ago when the LeGette's at Lazy Willow Farm told me they were growing beets I got so excited. I couldn't wait to surprise Reid with them and was already trying to figure out what I could bargain for them. I was lucky enough to get some of the second batch of beets they pulled. (The first batch they thinned out went to their lucky goats). The beets were still small but the leaves are just as good which I added to some soup.
I usually roast them (recipe follows) but last week with our beets from the market I tried something new. We had thawed out some of Tink's ground beef to make burgers and there was some beef fat left in the pan. I decided to make "scalloped beets" so I peeled and thinly sliced them. I added those along with some arugula to the pan and let them cook down. Then a little flour, grass fed milk and blue cheese. Although it looked pretty horrible (blue cheese + pink creamy sauce=not appetizing), it tasted pretty awesome. (I sent the leftovers with Reid to work the next day and he said he got a lot of questions about what the heck he was eating). So although I would probably never make this recipe for a meal night, it does show you they can be a versatile vegetable.
But this is how I usually cook beets which is super easy and always turns out:
Ingredients:
Fresh beets (preferably with leaves on)
Walnut oil (or olive oil but walnut really adds more flavor)
Fresh thyme (or any fresh or dried herb-but stick with just one)
Coarsely ground sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice beet root away from leaves. Peel and cut into quarters or eighths depending on the size of the beet. Arrange on baking tray and drizzle with oil, add a tiny bit of sea salt and black pepper to taste. Top with fresh thyme. Toss together and put in oven for 20-30 minutes until they can be easily pierced with a fork.
For the beet leaves, you can chop these up and cook them as well. Add about 2 Tbsp walnut or olive oil along with the zest of an orange and a minced garlic clove in a skillet. Heat slightly to crisp the zest a little then add the beet leaves. Meanwhile, peel and chop the orange and add the fruit to the skillet as well. When the leaves are cooked down slightly (but not totally dead), remove from heat.
Enjoy!
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Our Kitchen Evolution: Part 3
To begin with, there was already a small kitchen in the basement. Reid's granddad had some twin beds and a little game/fish kitchen for his hunting buddies. On one wall there was an old oven (which didn't work), and a 2 bay sink and stovetop area with built in shelves that had curtains for doors on top and the bottom. So it wasn't a huge stretch to think of putting our Southern Scratch kitchen in the basement. And, our original "dented" oven (which worked great besides it's cosmetic defect) was already down there just waiting for a chance to get an LP line connected to it.
We were downstairs a couple nights after the "lasagna week" and were just kind of staring at everything and thinking of where we should start. Reid's workout equipment was down there as well as his motorcycles, some tables, and still a ton of my moving boxes. We decided the shelves above the stovetop/sink area needed to go. I think they were made of particle board to begin with and weren't very strong. So we thought we'd tear down about 3 feet of them so there was just a little area above the sink left.
Well...it kind of turned out to be what happens when you try to cut your own hair. Just a little bit more to make things even ends up with no top shelves at all. We just kept saying "Well, it will be better to have hooks there and hang things instead."
The next night or so the stovetop came out along with a few more feet of built in countertop. The wiring was shot underneath and even if we got it fixed we knew it wouldn't pass muster that close to the sink in a commercial kitchen. Once we finished tearing everything out, only the sink and a little counterspace around it remained with the storage space underneath for cleaning supplies.
For a few days after that I started to make a pile of things that could safely be stored in the barn until we had room for them/cleaned out the barn. (Who knows what kind of treasures I'm going to find in five years...) Opie & Reid hauled everything out to the barn one night and we finally looked like we were getting somewhere.
The next project was Reid's "weight room" It took up a quarter of the basement and was in the half we planned to use as part of kitchen storage/Southern Scratch office area. Before we (actually just Reid-no way I can lift 80 pound dumbells. Oh how I love his country boy biceps...) could move all that we had to find a place for the two twin beds I brought to our union. In Warm Springs I had a dormer room which fit my grandmother's two white twin beds just perfectly. Here though we really didn't have a great place for them. The guest bedroom had my queen bed already in it along with a desk/printer for Southern Scratch (and still more boxes).
Somehow I made space for them in the guest bedroom and with the help of a ton of underbed storage boxes managed tohide store everything in the boxes out of sight. I also made space in our bedroom for Reid's antique armoire and my other grandmother's Lawson (which at the beginning turned our bedroom into our "den" once we propped the laptop up with DVD's of The Beverly Hillbillies and Clint Eastwood movies. I think for about three weeks we made no progress on the basement at which point we realized definitely could not get cable or we would never get anywhere).
Finally we had everything we could moved out, moved over and cleaned up. I bleached the concrete floors and shop-vac'd everything, multiple times. Then we started painting.
It started out as kind of a fun job. The change from cinderblocks to white changed the whole look. It could see it being transformed from a dark basement to a white washed Grecian island abode (a la the set in Mama Mia!). After about an hour of painting, and going over the blocks several time since the paint seemed to just soak in and disappear, I stepped back and looked at my job. And realized I had painted maybe 3 square feet in all. I couldn't believe how slowly it was going but I guess since the cinderblocks had never been painted before they just soaked up the paint like a sponge.
Meanwhile my mom asked about the twin beds and possibly using them in her house. They were also redecorating and thought they would be perfect for a grandchild room. She knew we were struggling with where to put all the furniture and I gladly told her she could come up and haul everything except our toothbrushes away if she wanted! I was so sick of not having living SPACE. (At one time i think I even contemplated just moving everything out to the barn and slowly allowing things back in one at a time. I think I didn't because I was afraid we would love having nothing in the house too much and end up being uber crazy minimalists with no TV and no couch). They also had the fridge from my Warm Springs house in the warehouse to bring to us. I told my mom to just pretend she was doing missionary work and come on up.
So I did what every sneaky little daughter does and bought a couple 5 gallons of Kilz white primer and extra paintbrushes/rollers for their visit. I made sure there was plenty of food on hand and by the end of the weekend Reid and my dad had finished the walls of the future kitchen. They left the fridge with us and disappointingly only brought the rug back with them which was not the big furniture purge we had hoped for. (But looking back probably good we didn't just up and give away everything we had to sit on or eat off of in our house).
The following week the guys from South Star came out and ran the LP line. With a sink, an oven and a fridge all ready to go we were almost ready to start baking. We moved my desk back downstairs (this mammoth white thing I built in college when I got my first power drill) as well as a china cabinet (repurposed as a ribbon & gift packaging storage area) and shelves (that I built from old cabinets also repurposed as a cookbook/display containers storage area).
After another oh-so-romantic trip to Sam's, we had a couple more stainless rolling work tables and some storage & stainless baking racks. It was finally beginning to look like a real working kitchen! Luckily it was just in time for our first non-family houseguests...
In part 4: Housekeepers, humidity & hygrometers....
We were downstairs a couple nights after the "lasagna week" and were just kind of staring at everything and thinking of where we should start. Reid's workout equipment was down there as well as his motorcycles, some tables, and still a ton of my moving boxes. We decided the shelves above the stovetop/sink area needed to go. I think they were made of particle board to begin with and weren't very strong. So we thought we'd tear down about 3 feet of them so there was just a little area above the sink left.
Well...it kind of turned out to be what happens when you try to cut your own hair. Just a little bit more to make things even ends up with no top shelves at all. We just kept saying "Well, it will be better to have hooks there and hang things instead."
The next night or so the stovetop came out along with a few more feet of built in countertop. The wiring was shot underneath and even if we got it fixed we knew it wouldn't pass muster that close to the sink in a commercial kitchen. Once we finished tearing everything out, only the sink and a little counterspace around it remained with the storage space underneath for cleaning supplies.
For a few days after that I started to make a pile of things that could safely be stored in the barn until we had room for them/cleaned out the barn. (Who knows what kind of treasures I'm going to find in five years...) Opie & Reid hauled everything out to the barn one night and we finally looked like we were getting somewhere.
The next project was Reid's "weight room" It took up a quarter of the basement and was in the half we planned to use as part of kitchen storage/Southern Scratch office area. Before we (actually just Reid-no way I can lift 80 pound dumbells. Oh how I love his country boy biceps...) could move all that we had to find a place for the two twin beds I brought to our union. In Warm Springs I had a dormer room which fit my grandmother's two white twin beds just perfectly. Here though we really didn't have a great place for them. The guest bedroom had my queen bed already in it along with a desk/printer for Southern Scratch (and still more boxes).
Somehow I made space for them in the guest bedroom and with the help of a ton of underbed storage boxes managed to
Finally we had everything we could moved out, moved over and cleaned up. I bleached the concrete floors and shop-vac'd everything, multiple times. Then we started painting.
It started out as kind of a fun job. The change from cinderblocks to white changed the whole look. It could see it being transformed from a dark basement to a white washed Grecian island abode (a la the set in Mama Mia!). After about an hour of painting, and going over the blocks several time since the paint seemed to just soak in and disappear, I stepped back and looked at my job. And realized I had painted maybe 3 square feet in all. I couldn't believe how slowly it was going but I guess since the cinderblocks had never been painted before they just soaked up the paint like a sponge.
Meanwhile my mom asked about the twin beds and possibly using them in her house. They were also redecorating and thought they would be perfect for a grandchild room. She knew we were struggling with where to put all the furniture and I gladly told her she could come up and haul everything except our toothbrushes away if she wanted! I was so sick of not having living SPACE. (At one time i think I even contemplated just moving everything out to the barn and slowly allowing things back in one at a time. I think I didn't because I was afraid we would love having nothing in the house too much and end up being uber crazy minimalists with no TV and no couch). They also had the fridge from my Warm Springs house in the warehouse to bring to us. I told my mom to just pretend she was doing missionary work and come on up.
So I did what every sneaky little daughter does and bought a couple 5 gallons of Kilz white primer and extra paintbrushes/rollers for their visit. I made sure there was plenty of food on hand and by the end of the weekend Reid and my dad had finished the walls of the future kitchen. They left the fridge with us and disappointingly only brought the rug back with them which was not the big furniture purge we had hoped for. (But looking back probably good we didn't just up and give away everything we had to sit on or eat off of in our house).
The following week the guys from South Star came out and ran the LP line. With a sink, an oven and a fridge all ready to go we were almost ready to start baking. We moved my desk back downstairs (this mammoth white thing I built in college when I got my first power drill) as well as a china cabinet (repurposed as a ribbon & gift packaging storage area) and shelves (that I built from old cabinets also repurposed as a cookbook/display containers storage area).
After another oh-so-romantic trip to Sam's, we had a couple more stainless rolling work tables and some storage & stainless baking racks. It was finally beginning to look like a real working kitchen! Luckily it was just in time for our first non-family houseguests...
In part 4: Housekeepers, humidity & hygrometers....
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Grown Up Christmas Gifts & Vacuum Cleaners
This is kind of "off-topic" in the sequential kitchen development posts but I thought it was too funny. I got an email from my parents santa last night sent to my siblings and me about ideas for Christmas gifts for us this year. I love my family. They make me belly laugh just like my friends do. (So this may not seem quite as funny as it did to me!). Anyway, here's the original email:
Santa would like to bring some surprises to the Bussey children - this is
what Santa is considering:
luggage (light weight and easy to pack like what he brought Kathryn and
Reid last year)
new mattress and box springs and/or bedding
vacuum cleaner
ski attire
do any of these ideas get you excited? Are there other items that Santa
should know about? Please help Santa by responding to this email with your
preferences
I guess you are officially a grown-up when "necessities" become exciting. (Actually all of these items are really luxuries in most cases just kind of more utilitarian luxuries).
And if anyone is looking to buy a vacuum cleaner, do as my mother told me and only buy a really good one. I took her advice: I borrowed a friends and used a broom until I could go to the Oreck store and pick out my beauty. The way I see it this is good advice on three counts:
1.) You have a lifetime guarantee and annual "tune-ups" are included so you will never have to buy another vacuum cleaner again.
2.) If you haven't been using your vacuum cleaner as much as you should have then you can just set it out when company comes over. Then your company is pretty sure you are really serious about housekeeping but just got tied up cooking dinner for them or saving small children.
3.) When the luster of the new vacuum wears off and your company figures you out, then you can hire a housekeeper who will enjoy getting to use an awesome (instead of poorly crafted and powerless) vacuum cleaner and make your home look as nice as your cleaning supplies.
On that note, I'm going to go start baking cookies...and put aside some for Santa.
What is Santa bringing to you this Christmas?
Santa would like to bring some surprises to the Bussey children - this is
what Santa is considering:
luggage (light weight and easy to pack like what he brought Kathryn and
Reid last year)
new mattress and box springs and/or bedding
vacuum cleaner
ski attire
do any of these ideas get you excited? Are there other items that Santa
should know about? Please help Santa by responding to this email with your
preferences
I guess you are officially a grown-up when "necessities" become exciting. (Actually all of these items are really luxuries in most cases just kind of more utilitarian luxuries).
And if anyone is looking to buy a vacuum cleaner, do as my mother told me and only buy a really good one. I took her advice: I borrowed a friends and used a broom until I could go to the Oreck store and pick out my beauty. The way I see it this is good advice on three counts:
1.) You have a lifetime guarantee and annual "tune-ups" are included so you will never have to buy another vacuum cleaner again.
2.) If you haven't been using your vacuum cleaner as much as you should have then you can just set it out when company comes over. Then your company is pretty sure you are really serious about housekeeping but just got tied up cooking dinner for them or saving small children.
3.) When the luster of the new vacuum wears off and your company figures you out, then you can hire a housekeeper who will enjoy getting to use an awesome (instead of poorly crafted and powerless) vacuum cleaner and make your home look as nice as your cleaning supplies.
On that note, I'm going to go start baking cookies...and put aside some for Santa.
What is Santa bringing to you this Christmas?
Monday, December 6, 2010
Our Kitchen Evolution: Part 2
So the very first market we baked everything in our home kitchen with the dented oven. The first batch of cookies I made in it burned, which I think is some kind of universal law of using a new or unfamiliar oven. I still so clearly remember that very first morning. I was going by myself to the market because Reid was going to stay here for the yard sale (i.e. combining 2 houses into one, so pick the better one of each and sell the other sale. Conveniently most of my stuff was still in boxes and not sold.) I had only been down to the Washington market once the previous summer before the 4th of July party and wasn't completely sure what to expect. I also wasn't completely sure what time it opened so I thought my 6:30 am leave time from the house was really late for a Farmer's Market.
We still had basically the same kitchen set up for the next market except by this time our new oven had arrived. By then I knew the market didn't officially start until 9am and Reid went with me which was way more fun than being there alone. I had more ingredients than I normally would have on hand in my own kitchen but everything still fit just fine in the pantry (which was another big clean out-repaint-repurpose back to pantry from closet project). After the second market, Reid and I realized the big thing we were missing down there was hot coffee. (Well, we missed not being able to sip on coffee Saturday morning so we figured everyone else must feel the same way!)
So after the second market we went on our first "Southern Scratch" shopping trip to Sam's. As a card carrying big box club shopping member since high school (on my parent's membership) to being single with my own card (justifying it because of organic spring mix and individual portion size containers of half and half), I was super excited to finally be shopping for a kind-of-sort-of-almost real "small business."
Oh what fun was to be had. All the commercial boxes of things like 3,000 feet of aluminum foil and 1,000 count sheets of wax paper were finally something I would feasibly need for the market. I threw some more half sheet baking pans in the cart along with a box of a hundred or more coffee cups and I think a box of 500 coffee lids. The trip was even more fun when our joint fascination with people watching was indulged over a piece of pizza and big 32 oz. cokes analyzing (judging) the contents of shopping carts. (Kind of hypocrital but we called it "food anthropology research" on what was really "date night" instead.)
I tried making space for the boxes in the pantry but then it made it harder to fit all the bags of flour and half gallon of baking powder on the shelves too. I also had pulled out extra pink tulle ribbon, glassine bags & labels leftover from our wedding to the dining room table for packaging up treats. Pretty quickly the entire upstairs had a little Southern Scratch on it.
So I went to Fred's and was super excited to find big plastic totes in turquoise. Ah-ha! These would be perfect. I bought five of them and then ran home to label them (so organized, right?) by category of all the things we needed to bake/set-up for the market. The boxes were labeled:
1.) Ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, etc.)
2.) Coffee cups & lids
3.) Cake plates
4.) Gift packaging (ribbon, bags, scissors, etc.)
5.) Tablecloths, spatulas, etc.
My plan was to keep everything in the boxes stacked up neatly at the foot of the stairs and then bring them upstairs on Thursday or Friday when I started baking for the market. Then after the market Saturday I would make sure everything was in it's right box and it would be out sight again.
Well, remember what I said in the last post about organizing things then not following the organization system? Case in point here. It ended up that I did manage to get things back in their boxes, but the boxes always stayed upstairs. And the gift packaging supplies moved to our guest bedroom where I had set up a desk and my printer after another order from Nashville Wraps and Sam Flax. And our dining room table (thank goodness for those thick mat things that go over them) was constantly overrun by flour bags and things like 3,000 foot aluminum foil rolls.
At this point Reid put up with so much from me. (He still does). Here he had married this girl who had said she was going to take a little while off work "to get the house set up so we could live happily ever after with home cooked meals and clean laundry" and now he is coming home to the inside of a bakery/office upstairs and his man basement covered in this girl's furniture and moving boxes. To top it off, I'm asking him to do things like wrap brownies up individually or put pink labels on pound cakes and stay up all hours baking on Friday nights instead of him relaxing after a long week at work. Oh, and the amazing number of dishes he has washed for me instead of going fishing.
We both knew we couldn't cook from our house forever but also knew we didn't want to take a huge risk and open up any kind of storefront until we a) knew where we were headed and b.) knew where we were headed. Still, living inside my biggest project yet was overwhelming. Even though the "facilities" were adequate to do the comparatively small amount of baking and cooking we were doing, it invaded our living area. We slowly started to realize we might really be able to build up a little business if we stuck with it, but we had to find somewhere else to do our little business.
In mid July was when I think we reached our peak of craziness.
Reid's "second mama" Angie was putting together a benefit which included selling tickets for meal plates. We were so excited to be a part of it and get to make the plates up which included from scratch lasagna (noodles, sauce from locally grown tomatoes, etc.), salad with homemade dressing, yeast rolls and brownies. The benefit plates were for Saturday afternoon so we planned to do a small market in the morning then head over to the benefit.
I did the brownies and made up ranch dressing on Thursday. Friday I started on the lasagna. Anyone who has roasted forty or fifty pounds of tomatoes, then made sauce from them knows you are bound to get some everywhere. And with the flour of rolling out noodles and mixing up big bowls of ricotta cheese, organic spinach and cage free eggs, we had quite an operation going on. We set up all of our folding tables plus a baking rack (that we had traded for meals) in the kitchen with the sofa pushed back against the organ. (Because everyone has an antique organ in their kitchen, right?) So once the lasagnas were completely assembled we brought those, the salad fixings, and the brownies over to Lori's house close to where the benefit would end. They would be out of town and had a great big refrigerator so we could fit all the pans, etc. in them. (We still just had our one fridge and otherwise would have had to skip the market and just make lasagna all morning...which it's always better anyway if you let the flavors kind of ripen together first so it worked out perfectly).
That morning we went to the market with cinnamon rolls, orange rolls, scones, cakes and other goodies we had baked in the midnight to 8am time frame from dropping off lasagna and start of time to set up for market. I left early around 10ish to head back to our house and make yeast rolls for the plates. We had the rack still set up (tables were at the market) and all the sitting furniture pushed up against this organ save for one chair that swivvles that someone could turn and squeeze into. The oriental rug (which never even had a chance in this house before I sent it back to my mother's house after having a year long love affair with it in my little cottage) was still rolled up against the wall too. Laundry was left in a forlorn pile in front of the door to the laundry room. Dishes that didn't make the Friday night cut-off to get washed were (somewhat) neatly stacked in those plastic dish bussing tubs closer to the other side of the room. The dining table was covered in cellophane, tulle,a stack of receipts and display containers that didn't make it to the market. If they didn't know better I'm sure a passerby would have probably called the police and reported a break-in.
So by 12:30 I was deep in yeast dough with some dough resting, some rising, some baking and some still letting the yeast mix with warm milk and sugar first. One thing I learned working at the donut shop in college was that you shouldn't be stingy with your floured surface when working with yeast dough. So stingy I wasn't and thus had flour covering my stainless table and the floor around my stainless table which fell off when you rolled out dough. On one hand I felt like a half crazy housewife who had gotten herself in way too deep, but on the other hand I felt kind of like an accomplished baker who could make fifteen dozen yeast rolls at once.
Watching the clock I thought "Wow-we are really going to be able to pull this off! After I get home and get a nap I'm going to spend the next few days getting my kitchen back to normal and maybe then we could invite some friends or neighbors over."
Well, as if she had been somehow psychic summoned with my wish to have company over eventually, my neighbor showed up. And not the ones from next door who had been in and out of our house and loved us anyway. But our neighbor from a few houses down on an adjacent street who I had only met a couple times pre-wedding when she helped us do our registry in town at Bee Southern. I heard the car pull up, realized it wasn't Reid, and froze. Then the knock on the door. I quickly calculated that it was too late to just duck down and hide and thought "Well, to heck with it." I opened the door and just said "Hey, welcome to our craziness!"
Pam re-introduced herself, gave me a hug even in my flour covered clothes and asked if I needed any help, darlin? She had heard I was doing the benefit plates and also wanted to do a donation. Since she just lived around the corner she came over to put in her order and just check on us. I didn't need any help at the moment (and wasn't bold enough to put her to work washing dishes!) so just invited her to come sit for a while, apologizing profusely for the house. She found the only chair, made herself at home, and made me feel a million times better about the whole state of affairs going on. She actually made me feel more comfortable in my own home and for that immediately endeared herself to me. It was like my own mom telling me "everything would be fine and that it takes years to set up your house the way you want it." (A month later her husband would teach me how to fry onion rings properly and endear himself to me too! Pam still gets the award for being in our house at "peak crazy time," and like our other neighbors Opie & Michelle, I think she still loves us anyway!)
Late that afternoon, across town, Reid and I ended up getting all the plates ready on time with piping hot lasagna, fresh yeast rolls and even some homegrown veggies from the market that morning with the salad. Although we were pretty exhuasted, Reid and I kept saying to each other "We did it. Now we know the two of us can make 120 lasagna plates from scratch. We did it!!" It was definitely a fun moment and great learning experience for us. And one thing we learned was that we had to get Southern Scratch out of our kitchen/living room/dining room as soon as possible!
After getting some rest we got the kitchen cleaned up but left the furniture as it was. On Monday we started ripping things off the wall in the basement for our new dedicated Southern Scratch kitchen...
Next: Priming cinder blocks, August humidity & more stainless kitchen equipment...
We still had basically the same kitchen set up for the next market except by this time our new oven had arrived. By then I knew the market didn't officially start until 9am and Reid went with me which was way more fun than being there alone. I had more ingredients than I normally would have on hand in my own kitchen but everything still fit just fine in the pantry (which was another big clean out-repaint-repurpose back to pantry from closet project). After the second market, Reid and I realized the big thing we were missing down there was hot coffee. (Well, we missed not being able to sip on coffee Saturday morning so we figured everyone else must feel the same way!)
So after the second market we went on our first "Southern Scratch" shopping trip to Sam's. As a card carrying big box club shopping member since high school (on my parent's membership) to being single with my own card (justifying it because of organic spring mix and individual portion size containers of half and half), I was super excited to finally be shopping for a kind-of-sort-of-almost real "small business."
Oh what fun was to be had. All the commercial boxes of things like 3,000 feet of aluminum foil and 1,000 count sheets of wax paper were finally something I would feasibly need for the market. I threw some more half sheet baking pans in the cart along with a box of a hundred or more coffee cups and I think a box of 500 coffee lids. The trip was even more fun when our joint fascination with people watching was indulged over a piece of pizza and big 32 oz. cokes analyzing (judging) the contents of shopping carts. (Kind of hypocrital but we called it "food anthropology research" on what was really "date night" instead.)
I tried making space for the boxes in the pantry but then it made it harder to fit all the bags of flour and half gallon of baking powder on the shelves too. I also had pulled out extra pink tulle ribbon, glassine bags & labels leftover from our wedding to the dining room table for packaging up treats. Pretty quickly the entire upstairs had a little Southern Scratch on it.
So I went to Fred's and was super excited to find big plastic totes in turquoise. Ah-ha! These would be perfect. I bought five of them and then ran home to label them (so organized, right?) by category of all the things we needed to bake/set-up for the market. The boxes were labeled:
1.) Ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, etc.)
2.) Coffee cups & lids
3.) Cake plates
4.) Gift packaging (ribbon, bags, scissors, etc.)
5.) Tablecloths, spatulas, etc.
My plan was to keep everything in the boxes stacked up neatly at the foot of the stairs and then bring them upstairs on Thursday or Friday when I started baking for the market. Then after the market Saturday I would make sure everything was in it's right box and it would be out sight again.
Well, remember what I said in the last post about organizing things then not following the organization system? Case in point here. It ended up that I did manage to get things back in their boxes, but the boxes always stayed upstairs. And the gift packaging supplies moved to our guest bedroom where I had set up a desk and my printer after another order from Nashville Wraps and Sam Flax. And our dining room table (thank goodness for those thick mat things that go over them) was constantly overrun by flour bags and things like 3,000 foot aluminum foil rolls.
At this point Reid put up with so much from me. (He still does). Here he had married this girl who had said she was going to take a little while off work "to get the house set up so we could live happily ever after with home cooked meals and clean laundry" and now he is coming home to the inside of a bakery/office upstairs and his man basement covered in this girl's furniture and moving boxes. To top it off, I'm asking him to do things like wrap brownies up individually or put pink labels on pound cakes and stay up all hours baking on Friday nights instead of him relaxing after a long week at work. Oh, and the amazing number of dishes he has washed for me instead of going fishing.
We both knew we couldn't cook from our house forever but also knew we didn't want to take a huge risk and open up any kind of storefront until we a) knew where we were headed and b.) knew where we were headed. Still, living inside my biggest project yet was overwhelming. Even though the "facilities" were adequate to do the comparatively small amount of baking and cooking we were doing, it invaded our living area. We slowly started to realize we might really be able to build up a little business if we stuck with it, but we had to find somewhere else to do our little business.
In mid July was when I think we reached our peak of craziness.
Reid's "second mama" Angie was putting together a benefit which included selling tickets for meal plates. We were so excited to be a part of it and get to make the plates up which included from scratch lasagna (noodles, sauce from locally grown tomatoes, etc.), salad with homemade dressing, yeast rolls and brownies. The benefit plates were for Saturday afternoon so we planned to do a small market in the morning then head over to the benefit.
I did the brownies and made up ranch dressing on Thursday. Friday I started on the lasagna. Anyone who has roasted forty or fifty pounds of tomatoes, then made sauce from them knows you are bound to get some everywhere. And with the flour of rolling out noodles and mixing up big bowls of ricotta cheese, organic spinach and cage free eggs, we had quite an operation going on. We set up all of our folding tables plus a baking rack (that we had traded for meals) in the kitchen with the sofa pushed back against the organ. (Because everyone has an antique organ in their kitchen, right?) So once the lasagnas were completely assembled we brought those, the salad fixings, and the brownies over to Lori's house close to where the benefit would end. They would be out of town and had a great big refrigerator so we could fit all the pans, etc. in them. (We still just had our one fridge and otherwise would have had to skip the market and just make lasagna all morning...which it's always better anyway if you let the flavors kind of ripen together first so it worked out perfectly).
That morning we went to the market with cinnamon rolls, orange rolls, scones, cakes and other goodies we had baked in the midnight to 8am time frame from dropping off lasagna and start of time to set up for market. I left early around 10ish to head back to our house and make yeast rolls for the plates. We had the rack still set up (tables were at the market) and all the sitting furniture pushed up against this organ save for one chair that swivvles that someone could turn and squeeze into. The oriental rug (which never even had a chance in this house before I sent it back to my mother's house after having a year long love affair with it in my little cottage) was still rolled up against the wall too. Laundry was left in a forlorn pile in front of the door to the laundry room. Dishes that didn't make the Friday night cut-off to get washed were (somewhat) neatly stacked in those plastic dish bussing tubs closer to the other side of the room. The dining table was covered in cellophane, tulle,a stack of receipts and display containers that didn't make it to the market. If they didn't know better I'm sure a passerby would have probably called the police and reported a break-in.
So by 12:30 I was deep in yeast dough with some dough resting, some rising, some baking and some still letting the yeast mix with warm milk and sugar first. One thing I learned working at the donut shop in college was that you shouldn't be stingy with your floured surface when working with yeast dough. So stingy I wasn't and thus had flour covering my stainless table and the floor around my stainless table which fell off when you rolled out dough. On one hand I felt like a half crazy housewife who had gotten herself in way too deep, but on the other hand I felt kind of like an accomplished baker who could make fifteen dozen yeast rolls at once.
Watching the clock I thought "Wow-we are really going to be able to pull this off! After I get home and get a nap I'm going to spend the next few days getting my kitchen back to normal and maybe then we could invite some friends or neighbors over."
Well, as if she had been somehow psychic summoned with my wish to have company over eventually, my neighbor showed up. And not the ones from next door who had been in and out of our house and loved us anyway. But our neighbor from a few houses down on an adjacent street who I had only met a couple times pre-wedding when she helped us do our registry in town at Bee Southern. I heard the car pull up, realized it wasn't Reid, and froze. Then the knock on the door. I quickly calculated that it was too late to just duck down and hide and thought "Well, to heck with it." I opened the door and just said "Hey, welcome to our craziness!"
Pam re-introduced herself, gave me a hug even in my flour covered clothes and asked if I needed any help, darlin? She had heard I was doing the benefit plates and also wanted to do a donation. Since she just lived around the corner she came over to put in her order and just check on us. I didn't need any help at the moment (and wasn't bold enough to put her to work washing dishes!) so just invited her to come sit for a while, apologizing profusely for the house. She found the only chair, made herself at home, and made me feel a million times better about the whole state of affairs going on. She actually made me feel more comfortable in my own home and for that immediately endeared herself to me. It was like my own mom telling me "everything would be fine and that it takes years to set up your house the way you want it." (A month later her husband would teach me how to fry onion rings properly and endear himself to me too! Pam still gets the award for being in our house at "peak crazy time," and like our other neighbors Opie & Michelle, I think she still loves us anyway!)
Late that afternoon, across town, Reid and I ended up getting all the plates ready on time with piping hot lasagna, fresh yeast rolls and even some homegrown veggies from the market that morning with the salad. Although we were pretty exhuasted, Reid and I kept saying to each other "We did it. Now we know the two of us can make 120 lasagna plates from scratch. We did it!!" It was definitely a fun moment and great learning experience for us. And one thing we learned was that we had to get Southern Scratch out of our kitchen/living room/dining room as soon as possible!
After getting some rest we got the kitchen cleaned up but left the furniture as it was. On Monday we started ripping things off the wall in the basement for our new dedicated Southern Scratch kitchen...
Next: Priming cinder blocks, August humidity & more stainless kitchen equipment...
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Our Kitchen Evolution: Part One
Reid and I met on a Monday night. He came over for a dinner party I was having two days later on a Wednesday night. And on that Friday night he called me Kathryn Bussey...Filipiak.
So on my first visit to Washington a month or so later I had no qualms to go ahead and get started on what we were both pretty sure was my future kitchen. I am not the best at what they call "home maintenence" but I do love a big home project. (I think they probably have some diagnosis for people who really like organizing things but then don't follow their system so it's still...unorganized?). And his kitchen was a really big project. Luckily Reid trusted me because he willingly took five trash bags to the dump of things I deemed not fit for the kitchen without even asking questions. This included the usual like going through the fridge and pantry and tossing anything expired. It also included a massive plastic elimination-I hate anything plastic in a kitchen. (You shouldn't heat things up in them or use them scratched so I just use glass for any storage containers/leftovers like Pyrex or Anchorware). And all the butter tubs and yogurt containers? Tossed.
I then ran all the surviving dinnerware through the dishwasher (many loads) and separated them. After a good ShopVac on the remaining space we had made great progress. Reid eventually finished the job after I had gone back home and it was a big step in the right direction.
A few months after that I decided to host a Fourth of July party at his house. I ended up with a five day weekend so we had fun getting everything together for the party. I replaced some of the things hanging above the cabinets with patriotic flair which was another improvement. (This is also the trip when I put the first coat on the bathroom to cover up the wallpaper because as they always say "If you have a clean bathroom and clean kitchen people will forgive everything else.") The only caveat to planning the menu for the party was that I couldn't make anything that would have to go in the oven. Because Reid didn't have a working oven. (He said he would just dig a hole in the ground if he needed to bake anything..you know, like squirrel.)
Well a little while later on Labor Day weekend we got engaged and any of my kitchen/house renovating projects went on the backburner planning a wedding.
So when Reid lifted me over the threshold intohis our house, we had no oven. For the first month or so I cooked using a plug in skillet and a toaster oven. Luckily we had gotten a great bread maker and a panini press for wedding gifts so we pretty much just ate fancy sandwiches for dinner most nights.
We started looking at ovens as soon as I finally got everything moved in. After a couple romantic trips to Lowe's and hours searching online we found exactly what we wanted: 5 burners, warming drawer, gas, professional level but not a huge commercial range. We ordered it from a place in New York and I was sooo excited when it finally arrived. Then bummed when it had a dent in it and the warming drawer didn't work. The people told us to just start using it and they would send a replacement.
So we did. And this was the first oven we used to bake for the very first market!
A few weeks later, our replacement oven came. When the delivery guys from New York dropped the new one off, they conveniently didn't take the other one. We were ecstatic even though we were still pretty sure someone would show up at the house to get it but after seven or eight months I don't think they're coming for it...
Next stage: Crazy upstairs kitchen and Southern Scratch in boxes...
So on my first visit to Washington a month or so later I had no qualms to go ahead and get started on what we were both pretty sure was my future kitchen. I am not the best at what they call "home maintenence" but I do love a big home project. (I think they probably have some diagnosis for people who really like organizing things but then don't follow their system so it's still...unorganized?). And his kitchen was a really big project. Luckily Reid trusted me because he willingly took five trash bags to the dump of things I deemed not fit for the kitchen without even asking questions. This included the usual like going through the fridge and pantry and tossing anything expired. It also included a massive plastic elimination-I hate anything plastic in a kitchen. (You shouldn't heat things up in them or use them scratched so I just use glass for any storage containers/leftovers like Pyrex or Anchorware). And all the butter tubs and yogurt containers? Tossed.
I then ran all the surviving dinnerware through the dishwasher (many loads) and separated them. After a good ShopVac on the remaining space we had made great progress. Reid eventually finished the job after I had gone back home and it was a big step in the right direction.
A few months after that I decided to host a Fourth of July party at his house. I ended up with a five day weekend so we had fun getting everything together for the party. I replaced some of the things hanging above the cabinets with patriotic flair which was another improvement. (This is also the trip when I put the first coat on the bathroom to cover up the wallpaper because as they always say "If you have a clean bathroom and clean kitchen people will forgive everything else.") The only caveat to planning the menu for the party was that I couldn't make anything that would have to go in the oven. Because Reid didn't have a working oven. (He said he would just dig a hole in the ground if he needed to bake anything..you know, like squirrel.)
Well a little while later on Labor Day weekend we got engaged and any of my kitchen/house renovating projects went on the backburner planning a wedding.
So when Reid lifted me over the threshold into
We started looking at ovens as soon as I finally got everything moved in. After a couple romantic trips to Lowe's and hours searching online we found exactly what we wanted: 5 burners, warming drawer, gas, professional level but not a huge commercial range. We ordered it from a place in New York and I was sooo excited when it finally arrived. Then bummed when it had a dent in it and the warming drawer didn't work. The people told us to just start using it and they would send a replacement.
So we did. And this was the first oven we used to bake for the very first market!
A few weeks later, our replacement oven came. When the delivery guys from New York dropped the new one off, they conveniently didn't take the other one. We were ecstatic even though we were still pretty sure someone would show up at the house to get it but after seven or eight months I don't think they're coming for it...
Next stage: Crazy upstairs kitchen and Southern Scratch in boxes...
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