Days 300 - 305 Things are going very well at work!

So, week four at Saffy's is over and it's been a blast so far. All the staff are very nice, Saffy is as laid back as they come, and the customers seem to have taken to us as well. Happy days!

The week started pretty slowly, but gained momentum as it neared the weekend. That has seemed to be the pattern so far. We have been quieter in the mornings and in the early part of the week, but it gets busier in the evenings and over the weekend. This week we had 40 bookings for Sunday lunch, and ended up with 59 covers. Sadly we turned away a party of 8 quite early during service as there was no where for them to sit. Although we have an outside courtyard with extra seating, it's not quite warm enough to sit outside yet. When the weather warms a little, we will increase from 44 seats to around 80, so who knows what sort of totals we could be doing.....

I decided to make a chicken liver pate as one of the starters this week. Offal isn't my favourite food, in fact, I don't like it at all, but I can tolerate a good tasty pate. It helps when I know whats in it! I made it  in a loaf tin, (not ideal, but all I had), and this is how it turned out...

Not the greatest looking slab of pate, but you get the idea. Here's how it looked as a finished dish...

Having not served a pate at Saffy's before, I wasn't too sure how it would go down. I needn't have worried...., we sold out! I know it's only early days, but so far I am so pleased with the move. After the last 3 1/2 years of financial struggle, we can finally put a few quid in my wallet at the end of the week. All the stress has completely gone. Although we are working a few more hours, it's worth it for the peace of mind and stress free life...

Had a day off today and managed to have a coffee over looking the port in Altea. The journey was made more interesting by the fact that as we left Calpe, we noticed that 'Maryvilla', (an urbanisation on the side of a mountain about a mile away), was on fire! It started at around 3am this morning, and as we picked Harrison up from school this afternoon, it was still burning! Apparently, last nights strong winds had blown a pylon over, and thatw as the cause of the fire. A couple of our friends live up there, so we phoned to see if they were okay. One of the couples had been evacuated at 3am, and the other couple were still asleep when we phoned!!!!

I'm making a bit of a Thai inspired brothy type soup for din dins tonight, but as yet there are no photos, so once it's finished, I'll take some and post them on here.

I think that's about it for now. I'd best be off to start peeling some prawns...

Speak to you all soon and thanks for reading

Jimbo

Days 284-290 - Bloody dongles!

I seem to start several blogs with an apology and today is no exception! It may seem a lame excuse for not blogging, but a coouple of weeks ago the wireless dongle thingy packed up and after searching the local computer type shops, the cheapest I could find was 30€! No way was I going to pay that. So after a look on Amazon and local Facebook pages, we found one for 11.95€ and here I am!
 
I'd better let you all know how things are going at 'Saffy's'.... Really well actually! We are pleasantly surprised how quickly things have taken off. We seem to have been accepted by the regulars, which was an initial worry for me. I didn't want people thinking 'who do these two think they are coming in here', but it's been the complete opposite. Everyone has wished us well, complimented us on the food, and most importantly...., ordered it! As I have said before, it's not necessarily the food that gives me enjoyment to cook, but I still get satisfaction from the positive feedback. More importantly, for the first time in the 4 years we have been here, we actually have some money in the bank at the end of the week.
 
It's also so nice not to have all the worries that came with the old restaurant. At the old place, every day there would be someone coming in to see us for money and I was always having to make sure that the funds were available for whoever would visit. It was a juggling act that was proving harder and harder to achieve at the end of our tenure. Now all I have to think about is paying my food supplier! Simples! A HUGE weight has been lifted from my shoulders and although we are working an extra couple of nights in the week than we are used to, its all worth it for the peace of mind of having some money in the bank. It's so nice to be rewarded for hard work at the end of the week , instead of working your nuts off just to keep your head above water. 
 
As well as the normal menu doing well, our Sunday lunches are as busy as ever, with the added bonus being that with the set up of the new kitchen, we are able to serve the whole menu as well as the roast. Although my old friend the large oven is now defunct and still sitting in the courtyard outside the kitchen, with a little military precision, we are still able to produce Sunday lunch..... Phew! That was a big worry for me.
 
In general, all the food is going down very well, and we're even getting good feedback from the pool and darts teams that we feed on a Tuesday and Friday night! Very happy so far and I'm having to pinch myself that we are still in January....
 
On to my weight. I will be honest, as I have always been on this journey, and say that I have not been following the regime as I shoould. I haven't really done any exercise for about a month, but all that said, I am still the same weight that I was and I haven't gained. My head is back int he right place again and immediately after typing this, I have a date with my cross trainer!
 
I have also managed to persuade Laura that we should have a 30 minute walk before work every morning as we have half an hour to kill after dropping Harrison to school, so that will start tomorrow as well. Who knows, may even persuade her to do the same after work too!
 
On the home front, I went to England last week to visit my daughter Holly and to meet my grandson that she gave birth to on January 6th. It was lovely to see her and nice to meet little Marley. It was a shame that I couldn't stay longer, but the weather was closing in, and I just managed to get back to Spain before the snow set in. I got a few dodgy looks from people as I wandered around Tescos in my shorts and flip flops, but I'm used to it now! I'll never change.....
 
Ok, that's it for now. Now that I have internet access again, I will promise to keep in touch a little more! I'm off now for some hell on the cross trainer! I'm guessing that it's going to be hard work as I haven't been on itfor ages! Wish me luck!
 
Speak to you all very soon
Jimbo :0)

Days 279 - 283 - I've been weighed, I've become a Grandad and started at the new kitchen

I will start with the announcement that today I became a Grandad. No matter how I try and make it sound better, it makes me sound like an old git! Gramps, grandad or grandfather......, doesn't matter which is used, I sound old! I have just turned 45 and have the mental age of a 10 year old! That aside, I am off to England for a couple of days next week to see my daughter and her little boy. I will take some photos and post them when I return.

Had a day off today, so while out, I decided to weigh myself on one of those futuristic modern scale things. To my deep joy, I have not put on any weight since I was last weighed about 5 weeks ago! I haven't lost any, but to be honest, after my indulgences over the festive period, I'm quite happy with the result. I am back on the trail now, so hopefully the pounds will start to fall off again.

On to work... We opened our new kitchen at Saffy's bar on January 2nd and after a slow first day, we have done pretty well. It's been nice seeing some faces from the old restaurant and meeting some new ones. It seems to be working pretty well so far and it's much less stressful than running the other place. I think we're going to be much happier here than we were there. Even though I'm not really getting the chance to cook the food I want to cook, I realise that sometimes you have to compromise a little in order to make something work. Our menu is a pretty standard English pub type menu, but I'm still putting my all into every plate of food that leaves the kitchen and trying to do it better than the rest! All the food is still fresh and freshly made to order and I'm still going to be able to show them a bit of me with the Sunday starters. This week it was only a simple tomato & mozzarella salad, but it's light, looks good and most importantly, tastes good. Here it is...

It's also a big help that Laura is able to cook all the food as well, as it takes the pressure off of me and I can get on and do other things. It's been really hard this week as we no longer have my all singing, all dancing oven and we are having to use a much smaller one which we are not used to. I managed to burn some of the Yorkshire puddings this week, but I'd made plenty, so we didn't need them! Sunday went pretty smoothly with 28 covers and all in all, it was a very successful first week.

I will bid you all farewell for now and look forward to filling you all in soon!

Jimbo xx

Days 270 - 278 The end of 1 adventure and the start of another...

Forgive me father for it has been 9 days since my last confession, (blog). During this time, we have served our last meal at 'Laura's', (on Christmas Day), moved EVERYTHING from the cafe and restaurant to our new kitchen, (at Saffy's bar), made food for 70 people on New Years Eve and collapsed for a day!

My God, the move was stressful! You cannot begin to imagine the amount of stuff that had to be transferred from one kitchen to the other. If I were to tell you that it took four of us to move my commercial oven from our old upstairs kitchen just in to the van, and it took over an hour, it might give you a little idea..... We had to saw the banister off the rails just to get it round the corner at the top of the stairs. Of course we only found that out when the bloody thing was stuck on the bend! It also weighs over 200 kilos, so not fun at all. The fun continued when we got the oven to the door of the new kitchen, only to find it was one inch too wide to get through the frame....Noooooooooooo! Enough stress already! At the moment the oven is sitting in the courtyard, (safe and secure), while we wait for a chap to have a quick look at how easy it will be to remove the door frame etc. As its all PVC, its not straight forward.... So my plan was to position the oven door right outside the kitchen door, so that I could gain access to it that way, if only a temporary measure until we could find a way of getting it through the gap. We then hit ANOTHER problem! There is no '3 phase' electric cable in the kitchen and the oven runs off 3 phase. Simple you say. NOT WHEN THERE IS NO 3 PHASE SUPPLY TO THE FUSE BOARD. !!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! We are now waiting for the word on whether or not we can actually have 3 phase or not. Could be disastrous if we can't.

Then there was every pot, pan, plate, glass, knife, fork, spoon, to move. Baring in mind we used 6 different types of plates and had 40 of each, it gives you an idea. If I said it took twice as many hours to move from kitchen to kitchen as it did from the old house to the new, that should give you a little insight as to how hard it was. Combined with the fact that there is now a zebra crossing directly outside the restaurant, (you remember the one!), parking anywhere near was a nightmare. Still, it's done now and we are up and running at 'Saffy's'. He's a top bloke and I think we could have a long working relationship together...hopefully.

Although we did the food for their New Years Eve bash, today was our first day at the new kitchen. It was a pretty quiet day, but it gave us a chance to settle in a little better and get some order in the kitchen. We still have some shelves to put up and some re-organising to do, but we're more or less in now. Just need my oven! Although I have an oven under my cooker, its not nearly big enough for Sunday lunch etc, so this week should be fun!

I'm going to leave it there for a while as I'm tired and still got loads to do, so I will just say happy New Year to you all, hope you all had a spiffing Christmas, thanks for reading and I'll be back soon!

Jimbo