October Kitchen - July 2021

This is our way of saying you are important to us, and we truly value your business. Please feel free to pass this newsletter on to your friends and neighbors. ENJOY!

THE NOURISH LETTER

JULY 2021

OctoberKitchen.com | 860-533-0588 | 309 Green Rd., Manchester, CT 06042

Meet the Team Behind Your Meals

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THE LAST QUESTION A DOCTOR EXPECTED TO HEAR

Practical Jokes at October Kitchen

never supposed to be goat cheese on those salads anyway.

In every restaurant I’ve ever worked in, humor was always

a key factor to relieving stress as well as being successful. There have been so many times during work hours at October Kitchen that

But perhaps the best prank that I’ve ever pulled off was on a new staff member. He was a young kid with a great attitude, and even though he was really green, I took him on to train him under our wing. Although he isn’t part of our team anymore, he gave us a memory we’ll never forget.

my staff will look at each other and say, “We’d have the best reality TV show on earth if we filmed this kitchen 24/7.” The hilarious shenanigans and pranks that people play on each other are nonstop and so much fun. Not everyone would assume that a kitchen would be a ripe atmosphere for good humor, but it is! Once, a staff member stood in a freezer for 15 minutes with a werewolf mask on, just to scare one of our bakers. (It worked and the commitment made it even better.) Maybe having a slightly twisted sense of humor can help keep people on their toes. I’ll give you a personal example. When we put together salads, we put together hundreds of individual bowls at a time. It’s a pretty detail-oriented job. Right when my staff gets close to finishing, I love walking past them to say something like, “Don’t forget the goat cheese on that.” They have the most incredible panicked look on their faces — until they realize there was

One Sunday morning, he sent me a text message saying that he can’t come in to work. “I’m in the hospital,” it read along with a picture of his hospital wristlet. “I don’t feel good and I’m not sure how long I’m going to be here.” As part of getting my new guy acquainted with our workplace humor, I ran my prank idea by my guys, and we agreed that, just to mess with him a little, I’d reply to him: “Okay, let me know when you get your test results! But before you go, tell your doctor that you need to have a pap smear.” As a naive young kid, I knew there was at least an 80% chance he’d really ask a doctor for the test — and hot dang, he really did it.

Not everyone would assume that a kitchen would be a ripe atmosphere for good humor, but it is!”

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Mike enjoys cooking, especially in the warm months. If it’s barbecue or grilling, he’s all about it. During the winter, he makes an awesome lasagna and spaghetti sauce. But if he has to cook every day, then it starts becoming an interruption in his busy work schedule. And as Vice President of Facilities Operation at University of Connecticut, he’s always busy! Here’s a fun fact: University of Connecticut is off the grid with its own water system and sewage system. In many respects, it operates like its own town. He also has to manage all trades, cleaning and landscape, transportation, motor pool, vehicle maintenance, central warehouse and much more. With his demanding schedule, Mike started looking into a few different delivery options. Meal kits appealed at first, but it’d still be a lot of work to go through the recipe steps every night. Then, he learned about October Kitchen through a friend. He later found out, in his words, “You guys are the best.” There are several reasons why Mike prefers October Kitchen to any other food delivery out there. First, it’s convenient! Mike doesn’t have to take a break from his work schedule to ‘YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST’ How October Kitchen Helps UCONN Professional Stay Healthy

cook or even pick up his meals. His delivery can always withstand hot days. Second, he doesn’t have to think about portion control when it comes to our meals. It’s famously difficult to cook for one person and even more difficult to eat it all as one person. “When you cook on your own,” he told us, “you have a tendency to have a little more food than you may need to eat.” (We totally agree! It’s a great thing we have nutritionist coach Chef Paul on our side.) Mike is also very impressed with the variety of the menu at October Kitchen. “You can have lasagna one night and jambalaya the next.” He loves coming back home to walking his dog and having a decent meal. He’s also been able to eat a lot more heart-healthy foods, which has been a great companion to improving his health alongside exercise. Thanks so much for your support, Mike! We love to hear that it’s been so helpful and tasty to you. We’re thrilled that our food continues to help power you through your very cool job as well! Of course, not all of our humor is pranks! Every time I see our fishmongers, I love to bring them a new joke. Besides getting fresh fish for our customers to enjoy, that’s a moment I always look forward to. Humor can bring just about anyone together, no matter who they are or what walk of life they’re from. Whether you’re in or out of a professional kitchen, always be prepared for a good joke, whether you’re the one delivering it or not. I think that’s a pretty safe, healthy motto to live by!

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We soon learned after the doctor told him that he was clear and good to go, our kid told him, “Hey, thanks, but I need to have a pap smear before I can go back to work.” The doctor stared at him for a moment and then walked out of the room. The doctor brought in two other doctors and a nurse and said, “I’m going to need you to repeat what you asked me to do.” He did and suddenly, these medical professionals were completely undone, buckling with laughter. The kid had no idea what was going on. The doctors eventually explained that he doesn’t have the organs for a pap smear to be necessary. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, we laughed until it put us in serious physical pain. In fact, hearing this story made me laugh for the entire week. The kid had a great attitude, even if the position didn’t work out in the end.

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HOWA HOMELESS NIGERIAN BOY BECAME A CHESS NATIONAL MASTER

_____________________________ Write your name here and fax the completed puzzle to 860-533-0585, send it via empty delivery box or bring it to the shop and receive 10% off your next order . Limit one per customer. Expires July 31, 2021.

In 2017, Tanitoluwa Adewumi — known by most as “Tani” — as well as his parents and brothers were refugees, fleeing Nigeria to escape violent attacks on Christian families like theirs. They resided in a homeless shelter in Manhattan and with the help of a local pastor, Tani began to attend a local elementary school. There, one of his teachers Russell Makofsky taught his students how to play chess. Tani was immediately drawn to the game. Coincidentally, Makofsky also taught a chess club at the school and when Tani couldn’t pay the entrance fees, Makofsky waived the costs and allowed Tani to compete anyway. Chess wasn’t easy for Tani right away. In Tani’s first chess tournament, he got the lowest score of any student. But, just one year later, in 2021, Tani became the state chess champion, beating out 73 of New York’s best players from grades K–3. Even though Tani is only 10 years old, he’s already become an official Chess National Master with an incredible rating of 2223. He’s the 28th youngest person ever to achieve the title in the States and the first competitor ever to win a state championship on his first try! It’s hard to imagine that this little world-class chess player spent many nights on the floor of a homeless shelter, dreaming of becoming the world’s youngest Grandmaster. But at least when he achieves his dream, he’ll do it while living in a proper home of his own. Makofsky set up a GoFundMe page that raised over $250,000 for Tani and his family to find a permanent home and now, Tani and his family live happily in Connecticut. And with a strong fan base, three film companies vying to tell Tani’s story and multiple scholarship offers, Tani certainly has a bright future ahead.

ALIEN BALLPARK CHERRY FIRECRACKER

FLAG INDEPENDENCE ORCHID PADDLEBOARD

PATRIOTIC SUNDAE

SUNSCREEN TRAMPOLINE

OCTOBER KITCHEN IS GOING ON VACATION! The Kitchen will be closed Friday, July 2nd–Sunday, July 11th. NO deliveries or store front hours the week of July 4th. HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! Store reopens Monday, July 12th. Phone calls and emails will be returned Sunday, July 11th.

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309 Green Rd. Manchester, CT 06042

INSIDE ‘Doc, One More Thing …’

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How October Kitchen Helps UCONN Professional Stay Healthy

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Word Search

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We’re Going On Vacation!

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Meet a 10-Year-Old Refugee and Chess National Master

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The Miraculous Mountain Cat

The Meow at 10,000 Feet

Cyril noted. “We picked her up and carried her when she was too exhausted to walk uphill anymore. We were definitely confused. I felt really sorry for the cat. She was really exhausted on the ridge underneath the summit.” The cat stayed with them for some time before they met up with another group of hikers who were headed down the mountain. The cat joined them for what would hopefully be a journey back home. And it was! Remarkably,

High on the slopes of Bristen, a mountain in the Glarus Alps in central Switzerland, a pair of skiers discovered something unexpected. At 4:30 a.m., the skiers climbed toward the summit of Bristen when they realized they weren’t alone. They were being followed by a cat — not a lynx or a wildcat, but a little mewling house cat.

How does a house cat end up on the slopes of a snow-covered, 10,000- foot mountain? This was an answer the skiers wouldn’t get. They weren’t even sure what to do with a cat in general. It’s likely that it simply wandered away from one of the nearby towns or villages near the base of the mountain, but even for a human, that’s a major undertaking. Lost, the cat followed the only sign of civilization it could find: the skiers, Cyril and Erik Rohrer. “She started to shiver and her paws began to bleed from the hard snow,”

the cat’s owners were found. They revealed that their cat had vanished four days earlier and apparently followed yet another group of hikers up Bristen. “Animals do weird things. And they are way tougher than humans. They’ll never give up. Even though they are hurting really, really bad,” Cyril said of his feline hiking companion. Hopefully, that will be the little feline’s last trip up for some time!

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