In the garden...

Despite the cold and rainy weather thus far I have been able to harvest some veggies. In fact one zucchini went unnoticed and turned into something that resembles a club. Too big to use as a side vegetable but perfect for soup. And not just a simple soup to serve at home but a simple soup to serve at the diner...

I didn't make it because I don't cook all the time anymore, ...the cook made a large pot but she put most of it in the fridge, not thinking that soup on a hot day was going to sell, but sell it did, so I only have one picture to show you...at the end of the day this is all that was left.... Dana, you make good soup!

Magpie's special

Did you know it's hard to find blackboards? I didn't and I really needed one for Magpie's new location. How else can I post my specials? The solution, blackboard paint! It's expensive but a little goes a long way, but beware, it emits strong fumes. A small roller, a lick of blackboard paint and the specials board is done.

Opening day and beyond...

Well opening day at the Rodmay hotel has come and gone...which is the main reason I've not posted anything new.

I would love to say it all went smoothly but I would be lying. The last 3 days have been crazy...busy beyond belief.

I'm ready to throw my new grill out the window, if only I could lift it...but today was much better than yesterday and I'm positive tomorrow will be better than today.

Joan and Marion, the main hotel shareholders, together with many others at the hotel, were key players in getting Magpie's open on time. Thanks for all their help, we could not have done it without them.

And now....opening day video. Thanks Joan and Marion, it's lovely.

Magpies

I am lucky, so so lucky to have some of the best customers in the world. I hate to admit it but I don't know these customers names which is a tragedy because look what they gave me.

Sunday special at Magpie's

Cheesy corned beef hash.

A very loyal customer loves it so much that this is now a regular Sunday special and I hold some back for his Monday breakfast...

Diner...quote of the day

I have to set this up for you first. As you know Art and I own/operate Magpie's diner. I'm the cook and Art, my husband, runs the front of the house. Neither of us have ever done our current jobs in the past but I was a waitress for many years when I was younger...anyways....

Today was a busy, busy day but it's almost the end of the day and an adult son, his mom, and his little girl come in for lunch. This is their second time and they love our burgers, so two burgers are ordered and the little gal is having a simple grilled cheese sandwich, Art took the order.

I'm getting the food together and notice the grilled cheese has no bread preference, white or brown...so I ask Art " do you want white or brown on that grilled cheese?" Now you have to understand that out of 10 orders Art will ask about the bread type ONCE....we are fast approaching our one year in business, you would think he'd know to ask by now...

Anyway, the answer to the white or brown bread question? "Oh I don't care all that much, either one will do".

Now you know why my hair is almost all white....

Back with a vengeance

Well I'm back. I've managed to finish some projects, not all, and start some new ones. Biggest project that is almost complete is the Magpie's Diner website. I still have to add pictures of the food I serve, which I thought would be easy, but it's actually harder than I thought.
I was trying to take a picture of a dish before it was served....but by the time I could get the dish centered and focused the food would get cold. Best I cook a dish for myself, take all the time I need, then eat it, hot or cold.


New this fall at the diner is a special Italian dinner event. My sister and I are cooking a very special menu based on dishes my mom would cook for us on very special occasions.

If you are in Powell River and have no place to eat on Oct. 20th.....come on over.

Investment in the diner

A few months ago I added waffles with fruit and whipped cream topping to the menu and I had every intention of whipping my own cream but there was never enough time or space. So I had to buy whipped cream in a canister which is very good but also very expensive.

You would think that I purchased a huge piece of kitchen equipment considering how long it took me to make up my mind but I finally bought it, and here it is in all it's glory.

Can't wait to use it...

Another unexpected gift

This time from my youngest sister Iolanda. These cute little pegs are perfect for keeping the orders in place at the diner, all Art had to do was string up some wire.

Thanks Iolanda, it works like a charm.

Today Magpie's was insane

There is a similar type restaurant, in town, offering the same type of food I serve at my diner, and about twice as big. I've eaten there a few times and it was always very delicious. Often I thought "what a nice little place" I would love to own this....hehehe!!!

Unfortunately the cook/owner, had an accident, and she had to shut her place down for the week while she mends, which is what I would have to do if the same thing were to happen to me, that's the way it goes for owner/operators. Well many of those customers made their way to my diner, and although I really appreciate their business, I can not wait for the other restaurant to open up again.

Today was just too much. We were so busy that I just could not keep up..the last few hours we just told folks that it would take at least 1/2 hour for their meal...and they still waited...for which I'm very thankful. It's over for today but I'm very scared to go back tomorrow...

The rest of the chickens seem fine, I spent my 15 minutes out there with them, and they are acting as they should, so fingers crossed that all goes well.

On the bright side, Art is saving his tips to buy a much better camera, and he is about half way there...he so thrilled..

Happy Sunday everyone.

Margaret

Advertising

My first color advertisement.
Watch out Madmen I'm gunning for you!!!

And with a little write up in the Powell River Living business section to.

.

It's my Friday night...

It's been a long week but it passed so very quickly and here I am, the night ahead is free and the day tomorrow is mine to do with as I please.

I don't often have my camera at the diner but today I made sure to have it so I could show you this:

An original piece of art by Rabideye a local artist. I'm thrilled. I meant to show it off as soon as I received but....

What's happening at the diner...

Life at the diner is progressing very nicely. Art and I are settling into a set routine and our days are less stressful.
The weekend was very busy but we got through it a little easier. I had much more food prepped which is a real life saver.

But...still so much to learn...this weeks lesson??? Do not buy all the meat on Friday to prep first thing Saturday morning. That was stressful and I don't know why I did it.

We bought our meat on Friday, brought it home, packed it into our fridge. 5:30am Saturday, we take all the meat out of our fridge, into the truck, and unpack it all into the diner. Divide it all, keep some for the weekend and freeze the rest. All the while, cooking sausages, bacon, mushrooms, onions, peppers, slicing tomatoes, cooking for our customers, and getting the soup ready...way to much!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to my family and friends. Your support during this past year has been outstanding and very much appreciated.

I have not been posting as much as I usually do...the diner seems to take up all my time but I'm slowly getting into the groove and my time management should be getting better.

The weekend specials at Magpie's are:

Saturday. - Spinach, feta and tomato omelet for breakfast, triple grilled cheese and fries for lunch and the soup of the day will be beef barley.

Sunday - 7 Dollar pancakes with two slices of bacon, one hand made sausage or one slice of Canadian back bacon, BLT and soup for lunch, and the soup of the day will be homemade cream of tomato and basil soup.

See you all at the diner...

My first week at the Diner

A good friend of mine asked me to write about our first week at the diner. What was it like, how did I manage, how did Art do, was I tired????

Right away I can tell you the first week was a whirl wind and hopefully I can remember each day.

I'll start with Monday, Dec 14th. Art and I were at the restaurant for most of the day. We picked up our meat order, our baking order and did our grocery shop. I prepared all the beef patties, chicken breasts, roasted a beef roast, cut the turkey, roasted the breast and made broth with the remainder, made chili. I wanted to start on my baking but we ran out of time. Around 4pm we had to go home and deal with the dog, the cats and the chickens and then back to the diner until about 8:30pm. That night at home I put the menus together, kept running through the to do list in my head but managed to be asleep by 10:00pm.

We opened Tuesday Dec 15th at 7:00am, I was awake 3am and I could not go back to sleep for love nor money until about 5am, yay!!! But we were up at 6:00am not so good! Our original plan was to be at the diner by 6:00am. I was beat, tired beyond belief.
At the diner I bake muffins, scones, brownies and carrot cake. Art cuts the fries and takes care of the first frying. I make cream of mushroom soup and prep the fried onions, fried peppers, bacon and sausages. We get one client from the church, he's happy we are open because there is a small group of folks that go for coffee after daily mass. I'm thrilled.
Where are all the people? Where are my signs? Art starts phoning the local papers and radio stations to get advertising info. They are at the diner in a flash and they all buy lunch. Good plan Art, we have some money in our till. Not sure who we can call tomorrow but we will worry about that later.
It's 3:00pm, closing time. It was not too busy so clean up is pretty fast. Back home, deal with the dog, the cats and the chickens. Dinner is leftover soup, salad and bread from the diner. Bed is at 8:00PM... So tired!!!!

Wednesday, Dec 16th. Not a soul until the group from church comes in. Lord bless them! The man kept is word, he came back and brought is little group. They order muffins and a small breakfast. While Art takes care of them I'm getting soup ready, turkey vegetable. And again I'm surprised that we have lunch customers, not many but enough to get some practice in.
The signs are ready!!!!
We close at 3pm and by the time we clean up, hang the signs it's almost 430PM. Another long day but Art and I are exhilarated but we decide that we want to close shop at 2pm.

Dec. 17th, I think!! I'm loosing track of my days. I boil up some beef bones for beef barley soup, bake some blueberry muffins. I'm feeling at ease and ready for the lunch crowd that never show up..oh oh, what's going on, do we need to change our hours?

Dec 18th, much like yesterday, the church group has come in every day and there is another customer that has come in every day. He loves us, well loves the food and he orders the same thing, sausages and eggs, thank you, thank you and thank you.
Today we ran out of eggs. I go to the farm..."Can I buy some eggs"? I'm told "nope" what do you mean nope? The chickens are not laying right now, yikes. My menu says "farm fresh eggs" where will I find eggs? I start calling around and find them from another farm. They are good but the yolks are not very orange, not sure what they are feeding their chickens but I really want orange yolks so I'll have to keep looking but these will do for now.
We get customers after 2pm but we are closed and we are now second guessing ourselves but I stand firm, we close at 2pm.

Dec 19th. Nothing, nobody on the street, nothing going on. We decide that our sandwich board needs to go down the block to the main road, maybe that will help. We shall see.
The church group comes in again, I'm thrilled! And then nothing. We really think this will turn out to be a stinker of a day and them bam!!!! We are hit, all the tables are filled in five minutes around 12:30pm. I'm in a fog, Art is in a fog, and I hate to admit it but I was very nasty to him, he didn't deserve it but the stress was killing me and I took it out on Art. And they keep coming..they all saw the sign on the main road. Just shy of 2:00pm we have a lull and Art gets the sign off the street and Open neon sign is turned off.
Art and I are stunned, not sure we want to put that sign down there again, we are scared. I'm scared of myself and who I turned into for that hour when we were really busy. People are still coming but the door is locked!!!! Art talks to them and tells them our hours...they will be back next week they say. I hope they do!!
I really have to come to terms with the way I acted today. I think about it all the way home, I'm getting ready for Saturday night mass, still thinking about it and ask God for help all through mass. Tomorrow is another day and I'm only human, I hope to do better.

Dec. 20th. Again nothing for most of the morning. I know we will get some folks after church but I'm ready. Pancake batter is done, strawberry compote is simmering. The soup is heating, the bacon and sausages are half cooked, I'm in good shape.
10:00am and slam, again, all the tables fill up at once. I mess up the church groups order, you know the ones that come in every day, I forget one of their orders. How could I??? Art comps their breakfast, he is doing a fantastic job, talking it up, topping up everyone's coffee. I'm feeling the stress starting to bubble, feel the explosion, start to get snarky again, and Art just says "Margaret stop! We are both doing our best". And he is so right, I calm down, and get on with it.
They all leave around 11:30am and I have no potatoes and we are out of eggs again. My son and his wife show up and he makes an egg and potato run. I'm quickly cooking up some more bacon and sausages..the second mass lets out around noon...and I'm freaking out! I don't know if I can handle it. This is not what I signed up for. I want to cook, put parsley on the plate, make it look nice, take my time, but this??? This is just crap!!!!
Noon comes and guess what no one comes in, deep down I'm happy but now I worry. Where did they go?
And then a table comes in, just one, oh joy, I can take my time. About 10 minutes after that, another table, I'm ecstatic, this is what I envisioned. And that's how lunch went, a table every 10 minutes or so until we closed. Nice and steady but not slammed. The day ends! Art and I are happy and we go home after we clean up to think up a plan of attak for next weekend.
Oh right it's Christmas!!! We will be closed..

And now it's Monday morning. I've taken care of the accounting for the last week, our bank deposit is ready. We have to take our garbage to the dump and sort our recycling. I have a catering job tomorrow night so I'm getting that list ready...and I have to think about our Christmas dinner? Duck I think...

Buon Natale Aanz..che cosa e saponnette?

The downunder connection

I am a member of the Down to Earth forum and via the forum I received an note from a fellow member known as Coffeee who lives in Western Australia. In the note Coffeee mentioned that she knew someone from Powell River, an elementary school teacher. I asked her if she knew the name of the school, you see I live very close to an elementary school, and could the world be that small...well actually it's even smaller than I thought because although Coffeee didn't know the name of the school, her friend knew about my diner. She walked by many times while the windows were papered. Well we opened and here she is with her fiance. Very cool but I still don't know the name of the school she teaches at.

Furthermore...it turns out that the fiance is a farm boy, known and cowpoke. Very experienced in all farm things, good and bad, if you catch my meaning, so if any of my chickens get sick....I know who to call.

Busy, busy and busy

Well Magpie's diner finally opened yesterday. Everything went off without a hitch, except for the fact that neither my husband or I remembered to get a cash float. Thankfully my son has been saving his loose change and was able to lend a hand ( and a penny or two).

I don't have a lot of time so I'll just post some pictures for now.

My sign...I love it. Thanks to Jeff at Cranberry Signs.

Not photographed but just as wonderful..a sandwich board and a pole sign.

Front door

Seating

My baking..except for the pie.

Art's coffee station

The worst job of all that both Art and I share.



And this is my domain..I have a stainless steel work table on the opposite wall.

Magpie's Diner - the menu

Here it is the menu:

All day breakfast

“Magpie’s Big Breakfast” $12.00
The ultimate “big breakfast” 2 hand made pork sausages, 4 slices of bacon, 2 large fried or scrambled free range eggs, hashbrowns, 2 thick slices of buttered toast.

“Magpie’s not so big breakfast” $8.00
1 large fried or scrambled free range egg, hashbrowns, 1 thick slices of buttered toast and 1 hand made pork sausage or 2 slices of bacon.

The Diner Breakfast $9.50
2 large fried or scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, thick buttered toast, 2 hand made pork sausages or 4 slices of bacon.

“Eggs in a basket” $9.50
Two eggs fried in toast with 2 hand made pork sausages or 3 slices of bacon and hashbrowns.

“Stack’m high” $7.00
4 buttermilk pancakes with butter and syrup
“Stack’m not so high” $5.00
2 buttermilk pancakes with butter and syrup

Add 2 hand made sausages $3.00
Add 2 slices of bacon $2.00
Add fruit compote and whipping cream $3.00

“French Toast” $6.00
Three thick slices of French bread or raisin bread dipped in a special egg custard served with butter and syrup.

Add 2 sausages $3.00
Add 2 slices of bacon $2.00
Add fruit compote and whipping cream $3.00

Omelets your way $6.00
3 large fresh free range eggs, hashbrowns and thick buttered toast.
Add your toppings: $.50 per
Peppers, tomato slices, cheddar cheese, mushroom, onions, bacon

Breakfast Bagel $4.50
Toasted buttered bagel with a fried egg, 2 slices of bacon, cheddar cheese and tomato slices



Lunch Platters
All platters are served with home cut fries or soup and Magpie’s salad. Everybody needs to eat their veggies ..no salad substitutions!

Magpie’s Wildwood Burgers $10.50
Pick your patty
-1/3 LB. fresh lean ground beef
-whole chicken breast
-Veggie Patty
With grilled onions, mushrooms, melted cheddar cheese, and lettuce and tomato on a grilled buttered kaiser (white or whole wheat) with Magpie’s special mayo and mustard.

Grilled Turkey Club Platter $11.00
Two thick slices of sourdough bread, roast turkey, bacon, Swiss cheese, tomato slices all grilled to perfection.

Roast Beef Cheese Melt Platter $10.50
Tender slices of seasoned roast beef, with fried onions and grilled peppers and melted Swiss cheese on a grilled hoagie.

Chili dog Platter $8.50
A plump all beef dog topped with homemade meat chili and shredded cheese on a toasted hoagie.

Soup with a slice of home made bread $5.75

Simple Green Salad $3.50

“Big Salad” with a slice of home made bread $7.50
Greens with shredded cheese, chopped turkey and eggs.

Salads are served with Magpie’s balsamic vinegar and olive oil vinaigrette.

Drinks
Coffee $1.75
Tea $1.75
Pop $1.50
Juice $1.00
Magpie’s Hot chocolate $2.50
The hot chocolate is thick, creamy and made on the stove with real milk, cocoa and sugar, patience is required but well worth the wait.

Home baked goodies

Muffin $1.00
Jumbo Muffin $2.00
Sour Cream donuts $1.00
Brownies $3.50
Carrot Cake $3.50
Loaf cake $2.75
Apple or Berry pie $3.50
a la mode $4.50
Cookie $.95

Feeling like a hypocrite!

So...I'm opening up a diner...HMMMM!! Exciting? Yes. A good idea? Maybe. Good for my community? Not so much. Staying true to my beliefs? Not at all.



What do I mean? For a long time I've worked towards simplifying, being self reliant and being kind to this Earth we all call home. It's always been my dream ... homesteading! Well the dream was alive and well when I had a paycheck every two weeks. I assumed the company I worked for practiced it's business in an ethical way. I guess I just thought about the way I wanted to live my life and not so much about the company I worked for. But now the buck starts and stops with me. Will I conduct my business in an ethical and moral way? Will I do anything to make a dollar?


I'm asking myself how a diner with not very healthy food is going to work? How am I going to feel good about it all? The health regulations don't easily allow for cloth hand towels, I hate single use anything....Paper napkins and placemats, take out containers...


Bleach and other chemical sanitizers are encouraged..vinegar, lemon juice and baking soda are virtually unknown.


On a positive note - I have decided to try and use local food where I can, not easy during winter, but I will try. And I will try my hardest to shop locally rather than having a National food supplier deliver to my door in an effort to keep my neighbours employed. The local butcher, fish monger, bakery and grocery store will supply my food and miscellaneous supplies. It won't be easy, it will definitely take more time, and it might turn into a logistical nightmare but I'm giving it a shot.


Food waste will be go to my chickens, my neighbours pigs and I will compost whatever I can.

Tomorrow I'll be visiting my local farmer's market..I heard there is a seller who is certified to sell her home made jams made from her homegrown fruit and I want to source out some locally baked sourdough bread, I heard it's also very good. Well wish me luck!!!

Magpie's Diner

Opening Soon - Magpie's Diner

These are the before pictures and with some new paint and a good scrubbing the joint should look pretty good.

The menu board

Table and chairs.

The blue will be yellow...soon.

The fryer will be between the grill and stove once the electrician gets it all set up.

We hope to have the diner renovations done by early next week and then I can start trying out my recipes. Stay tuned.