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Pizza Crust Nightmare
Feb. 19th, 2015 09:32 pm[Content Note: Anxiety/anxiety disorder]
So today was not quite as bad as the coconut macaroon incident, but it was a near thing. In fact, it probably would have been as bad if I hadn't had a lot of help from a coworker and at least one student intern towards the end, so many wonderful thoughts to them.
( Cut for nightmarish pizza crust endeavor )
I was ALMOST OUT THE DOOR when one of the lead people from the restaurant proper (and coincidentally Geeky Coworker's boyfriend) came over to say that he thought that the whipped cream was a little bland. I tasted it, kinda agreed, and, after nearly deciding to do otherwise, ended up re-whipping it with some more sugar and vanilla to make it an acceptable sweetness level. (Which is not about pizza crust, but I was so done with EVERYTHING at that point that I thought it may as fricking well have been.)
Anyway, tomorrow I get to teach all the student interns how to make some basic animals out of fondant! Except I'm still not entirely sure which animals I get to teach them to make on account of Boss Related Shenanigans. I want to teach them to make a small basic bird (because it's fast and simple and you can make slight alterations to customize it to be practically any bird, especially songbirds) and stegosaurus (because it's a fairly basic shape and I came up with a great shortcut where you can use almond slices and slivers for the fins and tail spikes respectively), but it's seeming like I'll have to teach them to make at least a more complicated bird and maybe an ankylosaurus/crocogator??? Or possibly a lion. My boss mentioned me using something called scissor clips and told me she'd show them to me/explain them today, but we never got around to it, so.
I have one hour, maybe one-and-a-half, to teach the students in. Basic bird takes me about five minutes if I rush and don't bother to paint; stegosaurus takes me about fifteen. If I assume the students will take two to three times as long as I do when making these, an hour should have been enough time. Meanwhile, the more complicated bird takes me four colors of fondant (though technically two are just little smidgens for the eyes and beak) and fifteen minutes and cannot be customized; it's just a robin. I have no idea what she wants me to do for the crocogator/ankylosaurus, though the last (and so far only) crocogator I made took me about half an hour; ditto to the lion (though the first lion I made took me a whole hour, so at least this one's an improvement on that). Assuming the students take only twice as long as I do, and allowing for minimal individual attention for fourteen of them, that's still half an hour more time than I'm budgeted. Meanwhile, they're learning two complex things with limited applicability: the simple birds, as I mentioned, are super customizable, and can be anything from doves on a wedding cake to the state bird; meanwhile, stegosaurus is way more instantly recognizable than ankylosaurus*, and more popular than crocogators (outside of Florida at least, one assumes, though maybe even there).
None of that matters, though. Or, at least, that's the last I knew of it. Maybe my boss will have changed her mind, or will be willing to change her mind, before four-thirty tomorrow afternoon. Here's hoping!
* Though it turns out that ankylosaurus is actually one of our interns' favorites! Sadly, at least two of my coworkers had no idea what it even was without explanation ("The armored dinosaur with the clubbed tail?" "Doesn't ring a bell." "Maybe if I saw a picture..."), and my boss didn't know the proper name for it/its family. Maybe the intern can stick around a few extra minutes after the main workshop if we don't end up making ankylosaurus for it.
So today was not quite as bad as the coconut macaroon incident, but it was a near thing. In fact, it probably would have been as bad if I hadn't had a lot of help from a coworker and at least one student intern towards the end, so many wonderful thoughts to them.
( Cut for nightmarish pizza crust endeavor )
I was ALMOST OUT THE DOOR when one of the lead people from the restaurant proper (and coincidentally Geeky Coworker's boyfriend) came over to say that he thought that the whipped cream was a little bland. I tasted it, kinda agreed, and, after nearly deciding to do otherwise, ended up re-whipping it with some more sugar and vanilla to make it an acceptable sweetness level. (Which is not about pizza crust, but I was so done with EVERYTHING at that point that I thought it may as fricking well have been.)
Anyway, tomorrow I get to teach all the student interns how to make some basic animals out of fondant! Except I'm still not entirely sure which animals I get to teach them to make on account of Boss Related Shenanigans. I want to teach them to make a small basic bird (because it's fast and simple and you can make slight alterations to customize it to be practically any bird, especially songbirds) and stegosaurus (because it's a fairly basic shape and I came up with a great shortcut where you can use almond slices and slivers for the fins and tail spikes respectively), but it's seeming like I'll have to teach them to make at least a more complicated bird and maybe an ankylosaurus/crocogator??? Or possibly a lion. My boss mentioned me using something called scissor clips and told me she'd show them to me/explain them today, but we never got around to it, so.
I have one hour, maybe one-and-a-half, to teach the students in. Basic bird takes me about five minutes if I rush and don't bother to paint; stegosaurus takes me about fifteen. If I assume the students will take two to three times as long as I do when making these, an hour should have been enough time. Meanwhile, the more complicated bird takes me four colors of fondant (though technically two are just little smidgens for the eyes and beak) and fifteen minutes and cannot be customized; it's just a robin. I have no idea what she wants me to do for the crocogator/ankylosaurus, though the last (and so far only) crocogator I made took me about half an hour; ditto to the lion (though the first lion I made took me a whole hour, so at least this one's an improvement on that). Assuming the students take only twice as long as I do, and allowing for minimal individual attention for fourteen of them, that's still half an hour more time than I'm budgeted. Meanwhile, they're learning two complex things with limited applicability: the simple birds, as I mentioned, are super customizable, and can be anything from doves on a wedding cake to the state bird; meanwhile, stegosaurus is way more instantly recognizable than ankylosaurus*, and more popular than crocogators (outside of Florida at least, one assumes, though maybe even there).
None of that matters, though. Or, at least, that's the last I knew of it. Maybe my boss will have changed her mind, or will be willing to change her mind, before four-thirty tomorrow afternoon. Here's hoping!
* Though it turns out that ankylosaurus is actually one of our interns' favorites! Sadly, at least two of my coworkers had no idea what it even was without explanation ("The armored dinosaur with the clubbed tail?" "Doesn't ring a bell." "Maybe if I saw a picture..."), and my boss didn't know the proper name for it/its family. Maybe the intern can stick around a few extra minutes after the main workshop if we don't end up making ankylosaurus for it.
