Crunch Time

Let's look at our current timeline to hosting a home cafe:

Today is April 1st - no I'm not joking - and I'm hosting on June 22nd. That is 83 days, which is not a lot when broken down.

Between now and then I am out of town a total of 25 days which reduces my days to prep to 58 days.

Now, let's look at all the things I still have to do:

• Choose a name

• Create a menu

• Learn how to make everything on the menu

• Make invites - and send them out

• Prepare my house to be turned into a magical cafe (more work there than you may think)

I think the things that will take the most time are the 3rd and 5th items on the agenda, but shoving everything into 58 days will still be tight. (Especially since I'm in school full time still too)

Here is there this blog and series comes into play - you, anonymous reader, are my accountability. I have some deadlines that I'm hoping you will keep me honest to.

Deadline one: By the end of April have my menu planned, the name chosen, and know how to make at least half of the items on the menu, plus a plan for what my house needs to look like. OH! And have the invited made and sent out so everyone can RSVP with plenty of time.

On the invites and menu front I have some great help in one of my best friends, who has a magical gift for design which she offered to use to help me!

I just have to nail down menu options.

And on that note - here's the current plan:

April 6-12 :

• Chocolate Croissants (regular)

• Queso

• Grapefruit Pound Cake

• Salted Caramel Coffee Syrup

April 13-19 :

• Chocolate Chip Muffins

• Vanilla Coffee Syrup

• Almond Croissants (regular)

• Soda Bread

April 20-26 :

• Scones - unsure of the variety

• Bagels

• Quiche

• Brown Sugar Coffee Syrup

April 27-May 3 :

• Sourdough - croissants

• Sourdough - bread

• Sourdough - bagels

• Sourdough - anything else I can make out of it

Ideally I will make all of the food from scratch with the exception of some elements - i.e. jam, nutella, chocolate inside the croissants, etc. (I'm ambitious but truly not crazy). I think it also helps that I have already been making my own chai concentrate so i don't have to add that to the experiment list.

Then in may I'm out of the country for TWO WEEKS so I'll spend the last two weeks adjusting any recipes that didn't work out, and re-trying them.

And in June I'll spend the month getting my house ready for everyone to come over.

And the final requirement - I will document my process each week. That means I'll have a blog post up for every attempted recipe by the end of the week - ideally the same day I attempt it.

I guess I should get started then!

Cheers!