Process Improvements for Mochi Day December 27, 2010

Yesterday, our Uesugi ‘ohana cooked roughly 100 pounds of sweet rice to make our yearly stash of mochi to celebrate New Year’s.  It seems that as the years pass, more and more of the responsibilities are starting to be passed down to my generation.  I think that’s good but at the same time, the child in me says “NO!”

For example, the pounders and machinists (teen boys) hardly had any supervision yesterday from Uncle Stan.  He peeked in once or twice at the start and then let the boys take over at that point.  It was hilarious to hear the boys tell each other what not to do and Micah took great pride in explaining how you mist the cooked rice with the water spray bottle!

We set a record this year by finishing around 11-ish and that was due to having two burners going at the same time.  Huge time saver!  I also finally got around to developing an order sheet so we know exactly what kind and how many mochi each family requires.  Of course, there were immediate comments about how to improve the order sheet and I think we settled on something electronic that can be projected on a big monitor so the cutters can see the order.  Hmm…sounds a bit complicated.

Uncle Walter, master cutter (the guy who cuts the hot mochi dough for the shapers), also made a change.  He announced that every family must provide their own cutter.  This year, my nephew Jack, my husband Barry and my cousin Todd made their debut at the cutting board.  Our family has no mercy for these rookies.  We were yelling at them to “cut faster,” “make the cuts bigger,” “throw it down to the end of the table.”  Sheesh!  So my engineer husband said we need to make templates for the cutting board so they know exactly where to cut.

All in all, it was a great day.  The cousins have decided to get together on New Year’s Day and write down these various “process improvements” so we can create a mochi instruction book.  Even my brother, who is missing the OCD gene, got organized this year and had an order form for next year’s t-shirts.

Here are some pictures from yesterday.  Wishing you a Happy New Year and don’t forget to eat your mochi!

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Happy Holidays! December 17, 2010

Last night I posted a reply to my sister’s Facebook comment about her wishing there was a pause button for Christmas. I replied that I enjoy watching her self-destruct as she tries to finish everything before next Friday. Yeah, kind of snarky but who told her to go on a ten-day trip at the beginning of the month? Besides, I’m her older (and wiser) sister and it’s my job to give her a hard time. Love you, sis!

Every year, I’m chastised by friends and family because I finish my holiday preparations usually by the first week of December. That includes shopping, wrapping, getting the tree, decorating the house, and doing the cards.

I admit to being OCD and I probably should join a support group but I firmly believe in avoiding the self-imposed stress of the holidays. To accomplish that requires serious organization. I make lists – lots of ‘em – and I schedule time for the holiday tasks. This is imperative because I get zero help from my family (well they do help with picking up the tree but even that is a fiasco and a topic for another blog).

So now it’s a week before Christmas and other than the baking and cooking, I really have nothing to do except enjoy the holidays and watch everyone else go bonkers. If she didn’t live on the other side of the island, I would offer to help my sister with her wrapping.

For the record (and this is directed at my family), I wasn’t the first to get my cards out this year. I didn’t even get my tree until AFTER Thanksgiving (Vegas got in the way). I think I may be losing my edge a bit but WHATEVER! I still rock when it comes to extreme OCD holiday planning!