The first of fall dessert

Last few months have been insane!  My workplace had our grand opening on the 29th of September and all of us have been busy.  I've been working anywhere from 10~14 hour shifts, 6 days a week.  Yeah.  So when I get home, I just did not have the energy to do anything other than grab a bite to eat and getting to bed.  But things have started to settle down, and I'm down to about 9 hour days now.

 

Work itself has been...well, it's been complicated.  It's my first managerial job, and my lack of experience have been frustrating both to my peers and myself.  I didn't know firsthand what this "managing" thing consisted of.  I thought I was going to be the baker of the crew, but we've been so busy there hasn't been the time to prep anything.  The job description that I applied for kind of went out the window.  So now what?  I can't use my baking skills, so what do I do now?  Where do I fit in?  The whole thing was very overwhelming.  I literally felt like I got tossed into the middle of the Pacific ocean and was told to "Swim."  So I lagged behind others, trying to navigate through this.  Thanks to input and pieces of advice from my (very) patient co-workers, I'm finally starting to figure things out, and what I really need to be doing.

 

First off, managing involves "delegating"--i.e. pretty much telling and asking others to do things, get things done.  This is a very new, foreign concept to me.  I tended to do everything by myself--it's the whole OCD thing.  That and I feel bad asking others to do things for me, when I can very well do it myself.  But as a manager I need to ask others to get tasks done.  And to do that, I need to be very aware of my surroundings--what needs to get done?  Are there any problems that need to be addressed?  Finally, I need to know why these tasks have to be done. 

 

These need to get done to make the restaurant/deli better, the best deli, and keep it that way.  For the customers.

 

It was as simple as that.

 

Now that I finally started to focus on prioritizing, things at work have been a little better the past few weeks.  Unfortunately, the baking situation hasn't changed much.  I've been continuing to provide treats for my church, which has been a great therapy for me.

Yesterday, I wanted to make something pumpkin--it's that time of the year when pumpkin show up on everything from cookies to soups to drinks.  But I wanted to make something a little fancier than the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that your average grocery store carries.  So this is what I came up with...

 Pumpkin Brownies!  I used a brownie mix to make this, topped it with pumpkin cheesecake batter and baked it.  I marbled the top and it turned out very pretty.  The cheesecake part can be thicker, so I'll double the batter next time.  They were devoured in less than ten minutes!

 

My kitty has been very happy and doing quite well.  She is a very hyperactive kitty, so we let her outside as much as we can to burn off all that energy.

"...!!!  I...I didn't do it!"



She's quite mischievous as well.  She gets into everything, kinda like human babies, so we have to almost baby-proof our house.
That's it for today.  Hopefully things at work will settle down a bit more, so I can update more often.