Happy Saturday or How to Keep Up Morale When Nothing Else is Going Right

Fired. I am fired. From writing about my career and thus thinking deeply about it. There is really no excuse, but let me tell you a a little bit about why I haven't written since November.

Do you recall that production of The Cherry Orchard that I was working on in the summer? Well, for reasons I still do not fully understand, I faced a battle to get paid my fee when everything was done. I did, in fact, get paid (Hallelujah!) but it really put a damper on my feelings about working in theatre. The occurrence called into question the integrity of the field and the economic viability. And since then I've been thinking of a way to talk about the situation without 1. whining or 2. bad-mouthing the whole experience and possibly getting sued for libel. I wanted to write up a post about contracts and wording for contracts, but, as is obvious from the situation I faced, I have no clue about designer contracts. (I didn't ever sign one-- yes, yes, I know!) And then I wanted to write about artists supporting each other and everyone being open and honest when financials don't measure up, but, well, since I don't understand what happened, again, I didn't want to possibly get in trouble with libel. Combined with the rather rude comment I got on my post about sewing made me just feel like there was no good to come out of this field right now.

And then fast-forward to my life right now, and, well, things have been looking bleak.

That's why I've made a concerted effort to look on the bright side of things. Because of this, I'm bringing back the blog (especially after reading The Pioneer Woman's "Ten Things I've Learned About Blogging") and a tradition I started when I was trying to decide on a pie recipe for Thanksgiving: "Happy Saturday." Basically, when I was trying to find the right recipe for a Turkey Day Apple Pie, I had to test them out. But I didn't want to eat lots of pie. So after one successful Friday night of pie-baking, I brought half of the pies to work at CTC for the cast/crew/whoever was in the building. I wrote a note with a description of the pies: "Happy Saturday!" Because, let's be honest, working on Saturday stinks. I baked pretty regularly on Friday evening (who can go out partying when you have to be at work the next morning and either use power tools or at least paint within the lines?) and brought in a portion of the goodies to work Saturday morning. And, not surprisingly, the company members at CTC started to look forward to this little ray of sugary delight at the theatre on Saturdays. After Christmas I decided to stop because, well, it does cost me money and time. And people were sad. Combined with the very arduous task of our annual Fund Drive and our bleak financial situation, I needed to resurrect my baking. And so "Happy Saturday" returned this past weekend with Cranberry-Orange Coffee Cake and Apple-Cinnamon Coffee Cake. It was a rousing success. This time I put out a donation can so that people can help pay for the treats if they can, and, well, along with the compliments for the goodies, I got some money to help offset the tradition. And it's awesome. I'm happy to be back in the kitchen as it were, and I know that it's something everyone enjoys looking forward to.

This is all to say, I'm glad I can bring some good to my place of work, especially when I could just be a dark, doom-and-gloom rain cloud. This is not to say that things are peachy and I'm happy with all of the decisions being made by management, but I want to make sure my peers--my company--have some happy in their lives. So, here's to an awesome tradition and pictures of last week's Happy Saturday treat and recipes from The Joy of Cooking:

Apple-Cinnamon Coffee Cake

 

Cranberry-Orange Coffee Cake

Have all ingredients at room temp.
Preheat the oven to 350°
Grease a 9-inch square baking pan or a 9-inch spring form pan

Combine
.5 c sugar
2 T all-purpose or rice flour
2 T unsalted butter
Blend until crumbly then add
.5 t cinnamon
(.25 to .5 c of nuts if you'd like)
This is your streusel topping. Set aside.

Whisk together:

1.5 c of flour
1.25 c of sugar
2 t baking powder
.5 t baking soda
.25 t salt
(1 t cinnamon for Apple Cake)

Beat well in a large bowl:
1 c sour cream
2 lg eggs
(1 T grated orange zest for Cranberry-Orange Cake)

Add the dry ingredients and beat until just smooth. Overbeating tends to toughen the cake. Spread batter in the greased pan.

Add

2.5 c dried cranberries or diced, peeled apples (depending on type of cake)


Sprinkle with streusel.
Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 40 to 45 minutes. Cool on a rack.

Enjoy with your awesome friends!