*A quick note about holiday cookie orders - We are in FULL holiday cookie production mode! Yippee!! You are welcome to view our six holiday collections by clicking here. We are making a lot of cookies, but we will have a fixed number of orders available for each collection that we will produce by Christmas. If you want to order now, but have the cookies ship at a later date, please email Anne Yorks at anne@flourboxbakery.com. We would be happy to make that happen for you!*
Is life NUTS at your house and work? It is here!
I wish I had hours to blog, but life is happening and I don't. I don't think I can cram all my updates into this one post, but I'll do as much as I have time for and then I'll post again tomorrow or another time really, really soon.
I still feel pretty stuffed from all the good eats. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, croissants, apple pie, and salad. We brought (Topher made it while I NAPPED for the first time in a very long time) Maple Glazed Roasted Vegetables. It was the star of the show! Rave reviews are guaranteed. Topher's mom made this a few times and shared the recipe with me. You won't be disappointed.
I debated on whether to share this photo with you. You see, this was my lunch yesterday. The very last of the veggies. It's been reheated at least 4 times and is now quite mushy. But the flavors were still so, so delicious. Since I hate to post a recipe without a photo...here you go. Just keep in mind the first version (eaten on Turkey day) was a lot less mushed up.
1-1/2 lbs brussel sprouts, trimmed and cut in half
1 large red onion, peeled and cut in one inch pieces (about 2 1/2 cups)
1 large acorn squash (about 2 pounds), halved, peeled, seeded, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
1 1b parsnips, cut into 1 inch pieces (about 3 cups)
2 tsp Herbs de provence
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Toss with oil and herbs. arrange onlarge baking sheet. Roast 450 degrees about 35 min or until knife tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from oven and drizzle with glaze. Roast 5-8 minutes. Garnish with parsley.
Glaze:
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup toasted pecan halves
On medium heat in saucepan combine above ingredients.
CAN MAKE A DAY AHEAD. REHEAT 30 MIN AT 350 DEGREES.
Just a side note - we added in cauliflower, broccoli, and substituted the parsnips with carrots and sweet potatoes. Yum! Yum! It was awesome!
Do you know what else is awesome?
I'm up to 503 fans on the Flour Box Facebook page. I posted a question to the fans...how should I celebrate? Free cookies is what they told me. I wasn't going to do that since I just gave away (and shipped) four free Halloween gifts. But I'm a sucker for having fun and now I'm working on a holiday giveaway to celebrate. I'll have the details pulled together soon. I hope it won't disappoint. Stay tuned!
I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving orders! It's a shame turkey time is over. I really enjoyed making these cookies!
Thanks to all my Thanksgiving customers! We sold out both collections (the turkeys and the harvest collection). I hope they made everyone's turkey day just a little sweeter!
Just before Thanksgiving, I also completed a custom order for a company's end-of-year clients gifts. I did 115 dozen boxes of cookies for them to send to their clients. They are veterinarian consultants, so they requested a cookie with the veterinary caduceus symbol.
What a cool cookie, but time consuming! Thankfully, the boxes only included two of these in the assortment! Since the orders were shipped before Thanksgiving, there were also leaves in the box (not pictured because I was rushed for time).
I delivered this order just days before Thanksgiving. Once it was complete, I felt like a ton of bricks had been lifted off my shoulders.
Just before Thanksgiving I also had the opportunity to make a custom order for the Penn State Alumni Association. My customer sent them to the PSAA as a thank you. Of course I always want to do my best work, but because this order was sent to the Executive Director, I wanted them to be perfect. My client was a new friend I met at a Penn State tailgate. Since so much of my business is repeat clients, I always like to make a good first impression so that I build a relationship of continued orders.
So I got to work on the cookies. He wanted football cookies with a PSAA cookie too. I finished the order and then realized I put PSSA on the cookies. UGH. I took a moment for a meltdown, then got back to work remaking the cookies. It wasn't funny then, but now I can smile about it. I'm just glad the mistake was discovered before the cookies went out the door.
And here they are packed up and ready to get delivered. All cookies are packed in a heat-sealed bag with an FBB logo label on the back. If the order is for favors (event, birthday, wedding, etc), the bags are tied with a satin ribbon.
I was told that the cookies were placed in the breakroom and it took exactly 17 minutes for 2 dozen cookies to be eaten. Cool. Love those real time stats.
Here is one other project that happened to pop up during this busy time.
A custom collection that I donated to a Geri Reeve Ovarian/Breast Cancer Fundraiser. The event was held at the Seven Mountains Winery. The event coordinator was wonderful to work with (she is a friend of a friend). She asked for wine bottles and glasses, grapes, and pink and teal ribbons.
I decided to put the Seven Mountains Wine Cellar logo on the bottles to make it a little more personal. Here is the logo...
Here is a close-up of the cookies...the grapes are cute. This took some time because the icing has to be decorated (with time in-between to dry) in layers.
I added some clear sugar to the glasses to make it look like the glass had condensation.
I have more cookie pictures to share, but I think this is it for today. Getting all this stuff done has not been an easy feat when you consider I also have a family and house to take care of. After all, these other orders are going on while I'm trying to get the 115 dozen out the door and the Thanksgiving cookies. So while in the midst of the cookie craziness, one of the things that has saved me is my new coffee maker. Our last one took an entire hour to brew. No joke. We bought a new coffee maker and it worked for a week, then it went kaput. Then we got the Bunn.
I just have to say. Nothing Brews Like A Bunn. I can barely survive on a few hours of sleep a night. On low sleep my jokes are flat, my immune system goes to crap, my mommy skillz are reduced to shadow puppets in the closet, and my homemaker skills go from homemade to takeout. Seriously. This was reality the past couple of weeks.
Enter The Bunn, my new best friend.
This guy brews coffee in less than 3 minutes!!
Now even on no sleep, I'm peppy. I'm not poping out of parties and I don't think I'm un-poopular. Anyone get this reference? ;)
This is just a short term fix. After the holidays, I plan to resume my normal eat, sleep and exercise routine. Until then, bring on the coffee.
Time's up blog friends - I have to wrap this up. I still have several more orders to share, plus a BRAND new birthday collection I can't wait to add to the site!
More coming soon!
Anne
A message from Anne
“My blog is a collection of tidbits about the things I love... sugar cookies, baking, great food, cute stuff, and life in Happy Valley. Check back often for updates!!”
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