Good morning one and all. I will admit that I jit my snooze alarm as many times as I thought I could get away with this morning. I was just not in the mood to get up. No real reason other than i don’t like mornings. I was fine once i got going, but it was just the getting in motion that I was having trouble with. But motion has been achieved so let’s get ready for the day. We’ll start as always with the morning prompt. Are you ready to flex your brains? Good deep breath now, and we are off.
You know, I did not actually expect this writing to come from this prompt. I was certain it would involve a visit to a fishmongers. I rather like the story that came out today though. I’m going to have to circle back to it at some point. At the very least i may mark it as a possiblity for next year’s Fifteen minute novel. I always mark story ideas I like throughout the year so I have a list to choose from when December rolls around. This may be the first on the 2024 list of possibilities.
Wednesday, February 8th: The salmon was fresh.
The salmon was fresh. I sighed with relief. That was a big worry out of my mind. With the whole fresh salmon I knew there would at least be something to work with. I looked over the offerings in the rest of the kitchen. I worked my way through the refrigerator, the dry goods in the pantry and then surveyed the garden.
Ten minutes prior it was announced that we were about to be inundated with visitors. We weren’t expecting them. While supplies could be gathered for the remainder of their stay, once we learned how long that stay was to be, for tonight I would need to use what we had to create what we needed.
As others scrambled through the once former grand home, about to be turned boutique hotel getting newly renovated rooms ready for their first guests in over a century, I formed a plan. I had a basic timeline in my head. They would need refreshments when they arrived, lunch, afternoon tea and supper.
“It is going to be a stretch,” I told myself as I rolled up my sleeves. I took out a piece of paper and began jotting down the list of items I would need to create. While I spent time in many professional kitchens over the years, I had no intention of running this one. However as the renovations were newly completed and no official guests booked, an actual cook had yet to be hired. I came by to see the final renovations and to congratulate my parents on finally getting it ready for the public and to spend a little time with them in the lull f activity, both theirs and mine. They could finally take a breather after construction and I was transferring from one job to another and added a few days between the transfer for this visit.
I pictured a show and tell of each jewel box of a room and lazy mornings touring the grounds. As I completed my list and began gathering my ingredients the cynical thought that this was in fact planned in an effort to get me to stay drifted through my mind. Was I the only one caught off guard?
I didn’t know. It wouldn’t surprise me if I was honest. However I knew that to dwell on it now would not be a good idea. I knew that even if I had been tricked, this was an important event for my parents and for their new hotel. Their guests needed to be fed and fed well. I would do that while I was here and deal with the consequences of possible expectations later.
The veg and herbs required an extra step as it had to be gathered in from the garden and washed before it could be prepared and soon all thoughts except doing what needed to be done slipped through my mind. I chopped, sliced, diced and then boiled, sautéed, glazed, baked and poached my way through the time allotted. I heard the noises of a possible arrival and one of the housekeepers came scurrying in.
“We need the..” She gasped out. I pointed to the tea trolley already loaded with the arrival refreshments. She bobbed her head at me and took a deep breath before wheeling it out of the kitchen and out to the guests. There were noises as people moved around the house but I blocked them out. Eventually the tea trolly came back was unloaded and the dishes washed. It was then reloaded and sent out with lunch. The process was repeated with tea and then finally many loops down the corridor with the cart were made as the various components of the meal were ferried to and set up the dining room. As it was the first meal even the decorative vase and table cloth had to be taken out of kitchen storage before being ferried to the dining room. One of the maids was detailed to un wrap the silverware from its plastic shipping wrap and rinse it off and dry it before it too was sent up. Only then, did we start on the food.
Ten til Midnight 