Highlights. . .

We are staying busy at the cafe! Things have been smooth and mostly enjoyable. I put out a weekly special flier this week and it has seemed to help get things moving as far as specials are concerned! Desserts also did well this week, we sold out of everything the day it was made! The Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake Brownies were the fastest sellers, I think my waitress sold them all in less than an hour! She does a great job at pushing specials and dessert!
Speaking of waitresses, I have 5, one per shift, and they are all different and all great! I really appreciate all of them and all their help! They are also all well known in the community so I think people come in based on who the waitress is! I have one high school girl who rakes in the tips, but I think it's mostly because she is kin to *everyone* in the area and she is a sweetheart and they *all* love her!
Saturday I had to deal with a couple people who did not please me and who I'd rather they never come back, well, at least one of them. The other is a regular that will get a pop on the back of the head when he comes in again! The one I'd rather never see again was a guy who was stoned! I ended up making a phone call and getting the chief of police's wife (chief was in class) and she got me a couple LEO's headed my way. The guy ended up walking out without paying and I wasn't as worried about that as I was having him on the roads and in the public, police were not quick enough getting there, but we gave them the best description we could (personal and car). My young waitress did not do well with having to deal with that. I'm glad John was there in case anything came of it but all in all it was an unpleasant experience I don't want to have to deal with ever again! This is one reason I carry a gun ALL THE TIME!
I also had a regular come in who was skunk drunk, he will get a pop on the back of the head when he is sober and a little lecture. ;-) (he is just a year or so older than me and he needs to grow up!)
Saturday also held some good things! I had my first family birthday party at the cafe! I had a friend call and say her son (11) had picked my cafe as the place he wanted to have for his family birthday party! They came in after the dining room closed on Saturday and I fed them and they visited and I hope had a good time! I'm so glad I could have them!
I have my Valentines Special ready to go, word has begun to spread about it. . .

This weeks special flier is printed and ready to distribute.

I think I'm ready for another week! Looking forward to the blessings God has in store for the week!

THANK YOU!!!!!! And yes, it's still fun!

It's been a great 2 weeks with the new cafe! First off I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who has commented on my old post, who has wished me luck in person, and who has came in and ate at the cafe! It is encouraging to hear everyone loving the food and bringing their friends/family back for more! I also want to say a special thanks to Kimby over at a little lunch for her awesome blog about the cafe! Here is the link. I was SO surprised when she came in on opening day to see me! At least a 2 hour drive for her and the Man of Few Words! She is an awesome writer and I LOVE the pics, they are so much better than anything I could ever do! THANKS KIM!!!!!!!!
I would say that burgers are our number one seller, I made 48 at lunch one day!!!! That's a lotta burger! Breakfast is a slower time, I do have about 5 "regulars" who come in every morning and order the same thing, and we have a few stragglers throughout the morning, Saturday mornings have been the busiest, unfortunately everyone comes in at once, normally between 9 and 11 and then it puts us right into the lunch rush!!! I did have one lady change it up a little and now I'm going to put the "Vonda" Scrammble on the menu. She was wanting something with no carbs, eggs, sausage, onions, and cheese is what she got, and she loves it! I haven't had a lot of success with my "daily specials", it seems like everyone wants a burger and not a bigger meal. My most successful one was taco salad, and I think it helped having the waitress tell everyone when they came in what it was. She is a great "suggestive seller".
I do have 5 waitresses and 2 cooks right now. Waitresses are part time and the days they work vary, but they are all great girls and the community loves them all! My high school boy who cooks is doing a good job, he's catching on quicker than I thought, he still needs a lot of guidance but I think he'll get it eventually. And my other "full time" cook had been gone this week. Her husband has been in the hospital and she has been staying with him, totally understandable, but I'm glad he is out and she will be back to work Monday... Please pray he has no more complications, for his benefit and mine! The last 2 weeks I've worked about 15 hours a day and my feet and legs are yelling at me!
Well, that is a lot of randomness but maybe y'all got a little out of it. I will hopefully have a few less hours this week and will be able to update more.

Love from the cafe owner!

It's OURS!

Papers are signed, keys handed over, tax stuff taken care of, workers comp taken care of, utilities switched over to us. It's official, we are now business owners!!!!!! One of these days I'll have time to write more but right now I'm a busy business owner!

We are very excited!!!!!!! Doors will open Jan. 2, 2012! Come see us if you're in the great state of Oklahoma!

My Cafe, Candy Making, Christmas Lights, and Smith

Here's some pics of the cafe J and I are buying.  It is the oldest building in Agra and I love it!  I will have to take pics of the inside after I take over ownership.

I love the mural on the side of the building!  I would like to do something similar on one of the walls on the inside.

Now for some candy making and family time.  This is the 2nd time some of my family has come over at Christmas time and made candy.  We started out with breakfast at "my cafe" where I cooked for them, then went to work on making candy.

This is Pilar, I am SO proud of her and how she's grown up over the last year!  She is now an "Army Wife" and lives a long ways from home!  Like the state of Washington, That's almost as far away from Oklahoma as you can get! 

Cousin Pilar, Sister Katie (aka chubby wubby (can you tell she's pregnant?) (skinny people make me sick) )  and my Mom

Amber had her hands full with a cousin and a son.  I think her son was a little jealous of Kyson!

NeNe taking Kyson on for a little bit.  He is a VERY lovey baby!  AND AND AND HE HAS RED HAIR LIKE ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stirring.  You do a lot of stirring when you make candy!

More stirring going on!

Kyson loved popsicles, they made his teefers feel better!

And the candy.  Toffee. . . Thanks Pilar for bringing the recipe, it was much better than last years!

Chocolate covered pretzels, toffee, bon bons (coconut/pecan), turtles.  We also made fudge but Chubby Wubby put too much milnot in it and it didn't set up.  It taste good but you have to eat it with a spoon.

Turtles.

Divinity with Grandma Carolyn's recipe.  Not sweet enough for me and it was sticky.  One of these days we'll get divinity to work right!

And Christmas Lights. . .

Is that a fiddler on the roof?  He's on the roof, and he's fiddling with something.  :D

Old school big bulb red Christmas lights!  LOVE THEM!

And last but not least.  Smith.  He's getting big!  He love playing with balls and fetching, he loves his sock monkey, and he loves fighting with me and the other dogs.  Isn't he cute! 

Exciting News!!!!!!!

So, it's been a few days since posting and a lot has happened since then!!!  (I know I'm a horrible sporadic blogger, I'll try to do better)

Drum Roll Please.........................................................................................

I'm buying a cafe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

J and I will take ownership of the turn key ready to go place on Jan 1.  We will open for business on Jan. 2 at 6 am!

It's called the Main Street Cafe and is the only one in our small town!!!!  It is a hole in the wall type of place (and literally has a hole in the wall which is awesome) and serves home cooked type of food.  I love it!  The only changes I'll have to make starting out is adding pies and cheesecakes and daily specials but those things are fairly minor! 

Here's how it "went down".  J and I have been praying about a business opportunity for a couple years.  We've looked at different business from gun shops to archery shops to bakeries to cafes to who knows what else.  On Friday the 18th, less than 2 weeks ago we were at a basketball game here in Agra (we like to go to games for the heck of it even though we have no kids) and the guy that owns the cafe here in town sat in front of us.  I've joked with J about just buying it so kinda serious kinda jokingly I said, "Hey James you ready to sell me your cafe."  He said, "Yes, come see me next week."  So we prayed about it over the weekend , I went and saw him Tuesday and bought his cafe!  Quick fast and in a hurry but everything has fallen into place perfectly and I'm so excited!!!!!  I have visited with the owner a few times and we talked about how things work and then this morning I went in and cooked for a couple hours to get the hang of things.  It was great!  I have never cooked in a restaurant setting but I'm praying it will be a smooth transition! 

I have several family members and friends who think I'm crazy and a few who are ready to murder me because I'm leaving my current job and they love me so much there (that is not a sarcastic remark).  But I don't care, I'M EXCITED!!!!!!!!!  I even did a happy dance a couple times!!!!!!!!!!!!  

I'll post pics and all the other exciting things after I own it!  (only a few weeks away!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's been a great Thanksgiving day for me!  I am so thankful for all the blessings God has provided! 
We went to J's grandparents, they live about 2 hours from us, for lunch.  We got there about 9 and had a very light breakfast, biscuits, homemade blackberry jelly and pumpkin roll, then R and I helped Grandma in the kitchen.  It is a huge blessing to be able to cook next to someone with so much experience, even though she is getting older and taking a lot of short cuts it's still fun!  (R, I'm not talking about you, even though it was fun cooking with you too and hiding our laughs)  The rest of J's family got there and we visited and finished cooking, had lunch at 11:30 and had a good visit around the table!  After lunch and dishes J's sisters put up Grandma's Christmas tree, with the help of their dad, while Grandma, my wonderful Mother-In-Law and I watched, oh and J and Grandpa took a nap! 
My favorite part of the day.  We were packing up to leave and J's Grandma said, "Well, lets pray before you leave."  That is awesome and it gave me chills!  It is so great having someone to pray with you and for you and praying as a family is even better! 
We drove back home, I helped J with chores.  Now we're sitting on the couch watching football.  Again, it's been a great Thanksgiving Day!!!  Thank you Lord for you blessings!  Thank you for a wonderful husband and family to spend time with!

Thanksgiving Dinner at Church! (With some recipes)

Last Wednesday night I fixed a Thanksgiving meal for the kids/youth and a few adults at church!  We served 111 and had *just* enough.  We normally only have 80-90 so 111 was a few more than I had planned for!  I went in on Tuesday and made peach cobbler and got the stuff ready for green bean casserole and did a little prep work.  Wednesday I got to the church kitchen about 10 and put my turkeys in the oven, and started my chickens boiling. . . Then waited, cleaned up my mess, read a book, kicked up my heels for a little while. . . I had a helper show up about 1 and we visited for a little bit until it was time to start other things.  I ended up making homemade egg noodles (if you want to buy frozen egg noodles for 100 people it will cost you a fortune!).  Got those going.  Got turkeys out of the oven and got Mrs. Angie working on getting those off the bone.  Green bean casserole in the oven, stuffing and mashed potato water boiling and the kitchen was humming!  We took a few short cuts and made stove top stuffing and instant mashed potatoes (who wants to peel enough potatoes for 100 people?)  Oh, boiled the neck and giblets to make gravy with also. . . Here are a few pics, at the bottom I'll put a few recipes.

Mrs. Angie with her giant fork, carving up the turkey!

I had a few extra helpers serve for me!  I appreciate them volunteering! 

We had turkey, stove top, mashed potatoes, gravy, egg noodles, green bean casserole, 5 cup salad, and hot rolls, oh and peach cobbler!

Happy faces!!!

Recipes:
French Style Green Bean Casserole

3 cans French style green beans

1 stick butter

a lot of pepper

1 can cheddar cheese soup

1 can onion rings

Pour half the liquid off the green beans and pour into a sauce pan with butter and pepper

Cook about half an hour or until all the juice is gone

Add cheddar cheese soup

Pour into 10" casserole dish and top with canned onion rings

Cover and bake 30 minutes in 350 oven

Watch out, the onion tops may burn

This is not your *normal* green bean casserole, it is MUCH better!

Instant Mashed Potatoes

Well, that sounds yucky doesn't it?  Well, we tried to make them better!  We added BUTTER and heavy cream along with salt and pepper.  The butter and cream really make them taste better.  Also use a good brand, not cheap ones!

5 Cup Salad

1 Cup Sour Cream

1 Cup Coconut

1 Cup Pineapple (either tidbits or chunks)

1 Cup Mandarine Oranges

1 Cup Marshmallows

Mix together and chill about an hour before serving.  

This is a good recipe to make the day before and is very simple!

Peach Cobbler

1 Stick Butter

1 Cup Milk

1 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Self Rising Flour

1-2 Cans Peaches or a few fresh peaches

In a 9x9 baking dish put the stick of butter and put it in the oven and turn the oven to 350.  Let the butter melt while the oven is pre-heating and you mix the batter.

Mix the milk, sugar, and flour.  Pour into pan of melted butter.  Pour peaches over the batter.  Bake at 350 for about an hour or until the center sets.