Busy Week!

Today is Monday and I have vowed to not get out of my pajamas until 5pm. This past week was a very busy week. I had 2 Personal Chef clients, and 2 catered events (one that went overtime!) I also had to spend a day shopping and doing paperwork for each of the the caterings. I am wearing pink pj's and flipflops and doing nothing all day. So there.

Friday's event was hectic, then dead. I was onsite at 11:30 for a party that started at 3pm. clarification: was to have started at 3pm. The apps were to be ready at 3, and the entrée at 5. at 5:30, with only 2 guests there, I grilled up a few handfuls of chicken, beef and shrimp... and that took them a long time to eat. at 7:30, it was still only the 4 of them. at 8:30, a few more people showed up. they were expecting 30 people, but they only got 12. and those 12 drank plenty, but they hardly ate. I felt bad for the hosts. they were SOOOO sweet and VERY nice and I can't imagine why the people they invited didn't show up, except for the flake-factor that every host has to deal with. My all-girl crew rocked. Kecia was crankin' out everything I gave her to do, and kept me entertained with her stories. Michelle was amazing, and very patient with how slow things were going. We got a whole bunch of cleaning done early since there was nothing left to do. The clients were happy, anyway, and the guests enjoyed the food and one especially friendly guy made everyone give us a round of applause.

Sunday's party was a baby's christening, with the cutest blue-eyed tow-headed baby you ever saw. Repeat clients rock... but they'd moved from the last time I cooked for them, in their bungalow in West Hollywood. We were out in a part of town that was Very Very Hot... and the menu consisted of grilled chicken, grilled burgers, and grilled veggies. My poor sous-chef, Victor was a trooper, tho. I called him Saturday night to tell him that he could wear a white polo, shorts, and decent shoes...(a variant of my servers' summer uniform) but he insisted that he wanted to wear a chefs jacket and checks. And he did...and he sweat like a pig. poor thing. I tried to get him in the air-conditioned kitchen as much as possible. oh man did I love that we got to work in an air conditioned kitchen! This was another one where the guests were late. The food was to be ready at 1pm, but nobody hit the buffet until 2:30. It was so hot, and they took so long, the mustard dried out. My greens were wilting. The grapes on the cheeseboard were becoming raisins before my eyes. No matter, one of the grandmas was exclaiming over everything, going around to people saying, "Did you try the rice salad? Did you taste the burgers? Have you had any of the Caesar dressing yet? She made it from scratch!" I wanted to hire that lady as my own personal ego boost. The whole thing was supposed to be torn down at 3pm, but I approached the host about it and he asked if we could hang on until 4pm. I let Victor go, he said he had another job to go to (!) and asked if the girls would stay on.

I had Caroline as my Kitchen Assistant, and she is just a ball of energy, washing things before I even ask, and asking for more to do. Michelle pulled a two-fer with me this weekend, working hard and intuitively knowing how stuff should be done.

here's something wonderful: Alicia and Zach worked for me at the "Above Coldwater" party on the 7th. (L.A. people will get what that means) Carolyn is Zach's mom, and Michelle is Alicia's friend. How cool is it that the people who work for me refer other people to work for me?! That's the best.

Oh... and finally I cut a cake for service without having to teach the people who work for me how to serve cake. Hurrah! Before we left, the hostess/mom let us all pick as much fruit as we wanted from her backyard. I left with about 15 lbs of lemons, tangerines, grapefruit and kumquats. I have visions of marmalades, lemon curd, sorbet and granité... but we'll see!

Last thing I ate or drank: rainbow sherbet

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