🎄fishing village (4 book series)

Our fishing valley in Northern Maine is where everyone accepts each other, and we all help our neighbors. We have known each other since our arrival or from birth. The village held two thousand three hundred and forty people, and I owned a local coffee and dessert cart that was a staple in our community. The cart was at the corner of my own property, across from our local fishing pier. This is our community and it's story.

My alarm went off at three that morning and I groaned. My husband Charlie reached over and said, "Lannie its time to get up. We will have construction workers lining up in two hours."

Curling up I said, "We should not have watched that movie last night."

He got out of bed and said, "Oh you loved it!"

Sitting up in bed I said, "I need coffee."

He laughed and said, "Well, thank god we have it at work."

Getting up I pulled on jeans and shirt with my business logo. I had these shirts made for Charlie and me a few years ago, then I messed up the order and bought way to many so they are now our official uniform. I brushed my teeth, pulled back my hair and put on my sneakers as Charlie let our dogs out in the back yard.

 

Walking downstairs, I put the lights on and grabbed my change bag out of the office. Walking to the coffee truck I flipped on it's lights and turned the ovens on. Looking at the proofer I saw that my sourdough rolls were ready to bake. I went into the cooler and pulled out the dough for the cake doughnuts. While my oven and fryer preheated I put the griddle on and started the coffee. Walking over to the hot water maker, I filled it with fresh water and put it on so it was piping hot. My oven came to temperature and I put the rolls in to bake. 

While those baked I took the pan with the fresh bread out and scored the top. Charlie walked in and said, "I am going to star the bacon, sausage, ham and eggs. I know the road crews are going to try beating the weather today due to the upcoming snow."

I stopped and looked at him. He used to be part of the road crew, but one day a driver hit him, and he couldn't go back to that life. But by them I had opened the coffee truck and when he was healed enough he joined me, expanding the menu. I asked, "Do you miss it?"

He laughed and said, "Yes, I mean my new boss is a slave driver and makes me do so much."

We both laughed as he put the bacon on the griddle and made sure all of our cups were stocked and all the foil was ready for the sandwiches we were going to premake and place in our warming tray. Looking at the sky I said, "We should make some pancakes as well, people will want breakfasts. I think plain and blue berry. There are blueberries in the freezer."

He looked out the window and said, "Your right. I will grab the butter out of the fridge to soften and I will grab the syrup packs as well."

Over the next hour we prepped everything and filled the warming bins. As the fresh bread came out of the oven and the next batch went in we saw more cars start to pass. I wrote todays menu on the board and when I done we had our first customer come to the window. Looking up I saw Mrs. Pierce. Looking past her I saw her two teenagers in the car. Opening the window she said, "Hey Lannie can I get 2 hot chocolates, a black coffee, two of the specia donuts and three ham, egg and cheese on your fabulous rolls."

After she paid and as I was bagging up her order I said, "Your up early."

She said, "It looks like snow later today and you know how the students can be. You might want to get ready I know from chat this morning I will not be the only teacher coming through here."

She left and Charlie said, "We have two loaves of cinnomin sweet bread left and three plain I am going to make some french toast. While that is going I will use yesterday's rolls, warm them on the grill and make some egg and cheese rolls. We will prabably be slammed. We should also get the lunch food ready to as soon as we can because you know as well as me that days like this can be chaos."

I nodded and said,  "Thank god I made the egg salad, tuna, and chicken salad yesterday. The bread is ready to slice and I will get the fruit, chips ready and I will have the first batch of half french breads and sour dough mini loaves bagged up as soon as they are cooled enough. Cream cheese, peanut butter cups, and butter packs are ready."

For the enxt hour we wrang our early birds and got all of todays food ready. I also prepared a double batch of muffins and cookies. By the time our morning rush hit, we were overstocked and ready for the day. When the 1pm slump hit I started to mix the sour dough bread and rolls for the next day. Charlie made the salads and said, "We might want to make more for tomorrow with the weather being about the same. I was thinking we can make some of the egg omlet cups and the breakfast muffins. We can prep all the dough for that today."

Looking at the almost empty bins, I said, "You're right. I did make extra rolls, bread and I have cinnamon bread and sweet bread ready proofing now to go in for French toast. When we close at three, we will have to drop the day's profits to the bank and go to the store."

We prepped everything we could for the following day. After we closed I emptied the hot water bin and cleaned it while Charlie washed the dishes. I took all the breads we could use the next day and placed them in a plastic tote. Noticing there was not a lot, I sighed and thanked heaven we were making the breakfast biscuits. I took the remaining premade food and bagged it up. We made sure the inside of the food truck was ready for the next day and took about half our cash profits to the bank, dropped off the food to the local food pantry who hosted nightly dinners and then headed to the towns grocery store to get what we would need for the next day.

2340 residents

1. Charlie 2. Lannie

3. Ms Pierce(teacher) 4. Mathew 5. Sam