Restaurant Adventures

We have been pretty busy in the restaurant and the farm. I have learned how to dead head roses and mike has learned to drive the tractor. He has been in the fields slashing the tall grass. We have also been picking fresh tomatoes from the garden.

I have been able spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking and baking, which I have enjoyed. The other day I made strawberry jam, sticky date muffins, scones, strawberry ice cream, and I roasts butternut squash (which they call pumpkin here) to put into a lasagna with the fresh picked tomatoes made into sauce. The lasagna was a hit.

I have been getting into the flow of the restaurant when we have the dinner rush. I actually quite enjoy the prep work and then putting it all together for the guest's meals. Claudia is really big on food presentation, which I am as well, and it is always great to see the reactions of the guests when the food comes out. They always remark on how good it looks or the beautiful presentation. Claudia enjoys sharing that I am a Canadian and that I left -35 and three feet of snow. No one believes here. I had a pretty fun incident with a guest last night:

Guest: "My son is in Toronto right now!"
Me: Cool! I live on the other side of the country.
Guest: Oh really? Like Vancouver?
Me: Not quite, more inland.
Guest: (quite puzzled), what city lies between Vancouver and Toronto?
Me: Have you heard of Calgary?
Guest: Oh yes! I have been to the Calgary stampede!! Very interesting! I also think Lake Louise and Banff have to be the most beautiful places

I didn't explain to her that I live farther north than Calgary. It made me laugh pretty good. Nobody seems to know much about Canada over here. We often tease people that Mike is a polar bear wrangler.