Craziness this weekend. The cupcakery was slammed with work--part of it was due to not enough staff scheduled. We had two people for production (and I think we're the fastest at production, of the bakers there), and Sunday we were running out of things and frantically busting through as much as we could so that we had enough of everything to be able to bake today. So today of course is evaluation day, about why yesterday was teh way it was and how we can prepare better in the future, and so on. It's stressful, sometimes fun. More often a game. How can we do things better. How can we get ahead.

There isn't any getting ahead there (well, maybe with batter). There's only having enough on hand for the immediate future. But I think the mentality's going to have to shift. It's interesting, working at a business going through it's first year. They've never experience summer before. They don't know what it will be like, how the new store will take off depending on the influx of tourists from week to week, the crazy SF weather, and so on. We have to adapt, but we're not really sure what we're adapting to or how. Because of my restaurant background I see things differently, I think, than some of the other bakers who have only done culinary school to the cupcakery.

I told my boss about Frog Hollow, how I'm going through the same thing there but going it alone. I'm not saying I have the answers, or others don't, but...getting slammed one day when you're expecting it to be slow is one thing. Being in the weeds half the week is another. We've all got to figure out how to be prepared as best we can all the time, and it's nice to be invited inside that decision process. I do wonder though if there are too many cooks in the kitchen, to use the old metaphor. Of course, we do need another baker, and I suggested a culinary student might not mind working just part time, but I guess there's been bad experiences before.

Everybody's got to learn. At my first job, I called in "sick" several Saturdays because after a busy work of culinary school and graduate school, getting up at 6 to be at work by 7, just to bake off frozen cookies and roll put pie dough was not something I really had the energy or wherewithal to do.

I've been introspective a lot lately, writing a bunch. Cooking as always though. I made some triple chocolate cookies from an epicurious recipe that went over pretty well at the cupcakery. Tonight for dinner is mushroom-zucchini-onion enchiladas with tomatillo sauce, with zucchini from Full Belly Farm. While cooking this dinner tonight I realized how much time I spend cooking and how much more time I'd have in my life if I didn't cook. I had to go to Mi Ranchito tonight to buy veggies to cook with because I have no food (seriously, just rice and ice cream and salad stuff). I am not the sort of girl to eat fast food or eat out every day. I learned this when we lost use of all kitchen equipment save the microwave and toaster oven. I need to eat well. I get cranky when I don't. I wish all of America had this feeling. At Mi Ranchito tonight I saw all these Mexican laborers still in their work clothes (postal workers, electricians, painters) and buying food for dinner. I identify with that; it's my life too. Being too poor to afford nice meals whenever I want them. Cooking because it really is cheaper. Tonight I got two pounds of tomatillos, two avocadoes, 50 corn tortillas, two hot peppers, and several white mushrooms for only five dollars.

Tomorrow night I'm going to the Sox game (the A's game, but...really...the Sox game).