Cafe Marche and Baking ... stuff...

Eiko says...

I open the door to the 3rd floor where we bake all of the cafe's yummies, and I'm hit with the sickeningly sweet smell of sugar, vanilla, and chocolate, and I feel nauseous. After being in the kitchen all day baking cookies, muffins and the like, I feel sick just smelling anything in the baked-snack category! The worst part about the whole deal is that my room is situated right next to the kitchen, so I can't really escape the smell without breathing, and since not breathing is NOT an option, I am forced to smell everything that I've been baking all day. PLUS, the smell is in my hair and clothes!! Definitely no escape there!

I would open the windows wide for ventilation, but Mr. and Mrs. Narita don't like the warmth of the room escaping, and therefore, I am stuck in a stuffy, sweet-smelling kitchen, suffocating... slowly... slowly...

Like I mentioned before, we are extremely short-staffed. It's no secret. After giving the kids devotions tomorrow, I have 10:30 AM till 5:00PM to get as much baking finished as possible for the next day, and from 5:00PM till 10:00PM, I have a shift at the cafe. Everybody else is cooking the Home's meals, doing clean-up duty, taking a 5~7 hour shift at the cafe, teaching and caring for the kids, doing the dishes, home laundry, shopping, etc.

I am going to become a complete coffee addict.

I am going to start hating anything with sugar in it very soon.

I am desperate to find a way to keep my hair from smelling like whatever I was baking. Perhaps I should wear a hat of some kind while I'm in the kitchen?

I am going to have to seriously figure out a way to get my exercise time in there... Might start waking up earlier... or there's always the option of working out after we close shop.

This is my very random Cafe Marche/Baking-woes post.

blood, liver, candle light service

Eiko says...

Contrary to popular opinion, I can cook. I'm not exceptionally good at cooking, but I know the basics, and since I find myself in the kitchen a lot more than when I was at T.O.M, I imagine my cooking skills are improving.
I used to hate cooking, and whenever I'd find my name on the schedule slot for dinner or lunch cook in T.O.M Home, my day was ruined. But since coming over here, cooking is actually fun, and something I look forward to in my day. I think it's mainly because I'm only cooking for 8 people, and therefore, a greater variety is possible.
The other day, I pulled out a huge hunk of beef from the freezer and was planning something along the lines of a meat sauce or yakiniku, but to my horror, it turned out to be liver!
I HATE liver! Its smell turns my stomach, it BLEEDS way too much, and the texture makes me wanna puke, PLUS it feels wrong when you're cutting it, as it oozes its way between your fingers and finger nails... *puke*
I was so disappointed about the beef turning out to be liver, that I couldn't even think straight, much less cook the liver nicely. I quickly pulled out some left over chicken, and made a chicken pasta, which turned out nicely. But since I had already defrosted the liver, I had to cook it sooner or later, and that so happened to be today. I heard that soaking liver in milk would take away it's awful smell, and although I had my doubts on the fact that anything could make something so horrible smelling and tasting smell and taste anywhere near edible, it worked, and to my pleasant surprise, my family gobbled it all up, with no left overs for the fridge.



Me in the kitchen
Liver blood galore! Yuck!!!

It bleeds like crazy when you try to cut it.
Japanese phyco!!

And we had candle light service that night. It was delayed due to the work Boris and I had from the 1st to the 3rd, but we still did it and that's what matters.

I sorta bake

Eiko says...

I baked a chocolate chiffon cake and a macha chiffon cake today for a birthday party.
I love the way they rose so high!

Apple pie

Eiko says...
Yuriko and Non-chan and I felt pretty left out since the JETTs and JRs of the home are off having a blast at the teen camp, so we decided to do something about it!

We made Apple pie!!
And since when are apple pies suppose to look so good? Yumm!