vday recap

after last year, i wasn't sure if i would ever attempt meal delivery again. time management, organization & logistics have never been my strong suits, but i thought i'd give it another go & hopefully learn from my mistakes.

i have to say, i'm glad i went for it. i had almost double the # of orders with about 1/2 the stress!

there were lots of contributing factors. i had help planning my route several days in advance so i was able to confirm orders, give tentative delivery times & get a better idea of where i was going... and print it off! last year i was driving around with my laptop in the passenger seat figuring out where to go - not really a good scene.

i also had a better handle on my prep time & was able to get on the road much earlier in the day, make it all over halifax & dartmouth and be finished before rush hour. making the dessert sampler really helped with this. while it was a lot of work prepping all the goodies, it was much smoother when it came to packaging & putting together each order. making one tray & a couple containers of cupcakes was ultra-efficient.

each household got 2 chocolate bars, 2 chocolate truffles, 2 salted caramel blondies, 2 red velvet minis, 2 pink grapefruit minis & chocolate covered strawberries. according to most people, the sweets were the highlight of the meal.

i think another major improvement was purchasing a large, reusable bag for each house. i labelled each bag with the recipient & their order. when i was packing things up to hit the road, i was about a million times more organized than last year. then when i was running around, i could grab just one bag at each stop instead of rooting through coolers to find every component to every course. i even loaded my car up in chronological order cuz i'm just that much of a nerd. 

i think the biggest lesson i learned last year was that packaging takes an absolutely ridiculous amount of time.

this is a cross-section of one fridge. all the desserts were in another one. let me just say, i hate filling all those little cups!...and keeping track of what goes where...and making sure i don't forget anything. not gonna lie, there were a couple of hiccups along the way, but still a vast improvement over last year.

at the end of day though, it was worth all the trouble. everyone was so appreciative. i got cards & treats along the way and lots of thank you texts & e-mails. all-in-all it was a good day... except for the four hours i spent doing the dishes at the end of it all ;)

thanks again everyone for all the orders!

next up: saint patrick's day delivery - corned beef & cabbage, guinness stew, soda bread... 

i'm kidding.