Of weekends, Mondays and Chowder

My my my does a weekend and a Monday go by on the fly!
After a lovely off weekend filled with rugby, chicken curry and a braai on the beach; I'm back in Victoria Eatery and Monday is on it's back already!
Off course I couldn't stay away from the "baby" entirely this weekend, so I popped in on Saturday for a quick cup of coffee, which only ended an hour later after a coffee, a rusk and two beers with some regular customers (since it was my off day, and the birthday of one of those regulars, I allowed myself to indulge a little).

Tomorrow is pensioners day again and I'm making the special - I started wondering about it last night and began going through recipes etc, but then I remembered that I made a wonderful fish stock a couple of weeks ago using a Cape Salmon that I had on special and that that stock is still waiting for me in the freezer and out came the bouillabaisse, chowder and bisque recipes. I don't know about you but to me a soup has to have some body, I'm not very fond of these watery, consomme like soups - it's just coloured water if you ask me (unless the flavour is so unique and distinct that the consistency has to be watery so as not to compete with the flavour). Anyway, I can't serve consomme to my customers as a light lunch. Which means - fresh Hake and mussel chowder with our home baked seed loaf for lunch tomorrow.

This morning started early, with the first coffee seekers walking in here at 07h15 again (I'm starting to wonder if these people know that our official hours are only from 07h30)- but at least the first pot of coffee only takes a couple of minutes to make and as long as they don't mind waiting for it and sitting down while we're still setting up the shoppe, I don't mind serving them.
My planning for the day was to bake the carrot cake around 08h30, go Chowder ingredients shopping at around 10h00, be back in time to help serve if needed for lunch and start with the chowder after lunch ....
Things didn't work out that way.
Along with the first coffee customers this morning a good friend that I haven't seen for a while, showed up looking for coffee and a chat, so I sat down and had a cup of coffee and a visit (Maritzi handled the other customers and the carrot cake could wait) - it turned out to 2 mugs of coffee each and at 9h00 the conversation ground to a halt. I jumped into the kitchen and started baking the carrot cake. Lulu (our cleaner) was sitting there in the kitchen and I began teaching her the basics about carrot cake baking - which turned into a running commentary while I grate, mix, sieve and whisk, explaining the reason behind every step, why we sieve dry ingredients, why we use eggs at room temperature, why we can't let the cake mixture stand and wait for the oven to get to temperature before baking etc etc etc, it looked like she was really interested ... I hope she has learnt something - maybe she can become the next official Victoria Eatery carrot cake baker????
Then just as I planned to run off to the shops to go buy the fish and seafood for the chowder, another friend from church showed up wanting to see me, so I sat down and had a cup of tea with her - after 2 double espressos in mugs earlier I couldn't face another coffee (bless Maritzi for being able to cope on her own), as this friend got ready to leave, my parents showed up for coffee. During all these visits, I pinched off a couple of minutes every now and again to teach Lulu how to make the icing for the carrot cake - luckily it's easy, just throw the ingredients together and whisk until creamy.
By 13h30 after another friend showed up just as I wanted to walk out the door and we had a cuppa (I drank water by this time) I finally got into my car and off to the shops!
To make a long story short, I only started with the soup at 15h30 and now I'm waiting for it to boil (it's 17h00). During the chopping and frying I also taught Lulu how to ice the carrot cakes, she did it all by herself and it looks good - she also looks so proud of them!
And As Edith Piaf sings her heart out in Victoria Eatery, the night's chill starts to creep under the door and I have to stop writing because that soup is calling me to go finish what I started.
Goodbye and goodnight!