cookie factory

My brother in law is participating in a small local charity event tomorrow and offered to let us have a small display at this booth. We decided to offer up a tray of cookies for people to snack on and we also have our own raffle going on. The winner will get an oversized sampler of some super tasty stuff. For anyone who wants to stop by, the details are;

Salt Lake sCiKoTiCs Birthday Bash
and Teddy Bear Patrol

Day / Date: Saturday August 1 2009
Time: 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Place: Iceberg Drive Inn
Address: 13400 South 5049 West, Riverton UT 84065

Scikotics are just a local car club that love Scions, no need to protect the young and elderly from this group :).

Tonight we've been playing cookie factory and baking a lot of cookies. Mike has become involved in the baking and he made all the cookies tonight with minimal supervision. I've been told that I have a talent when it comes to baking but sometimes I feel that anyone can do it, it's just following instructions. Well, tonight we found out that my instructions are not very clear. When I typed out the recipes I didn't bother with all the details of how long to mix things and what size the cookie dough should be when placed on the baking sheet. These are all details that I know, that are engrained in my soul and I didn't consider the fact that someone else might be using my recipes. Oops. Everything still turned out great and now my recipes are in tip top shape.

just because they're quick doesn't mean they're easy

I've been working out and testing recipes for quick breads and it's a lot of work. So far I've come up with a bunch of duds. I tried my hand at a blueberry oatmeal bread and it was so bland and dry. Since I had 2 loaves I tried to make good use of it by making french toast out of it but it was so dry that it fell apart. I just had to move on, too frustrating!

I tried out an apple rhubarb bread that I absolutely loved the flavor of but it was very ugly and the texture was off. Rhubarb is a little difficult to get and the taste isn't super common so I'm wondering if it's even worth messing around with to get the texture right. My sister liked it so maybe I'll mess around with it a little later on.

I've also tried to master a sweet potato bread. I love sweet potatoes and in my world there is nothing tastier than a sweet potato french fry. Mmmhmm. I tried two variations of a recipe and both turned out way too sweet and spicy and the sweet potato flavor was completely lost. The looked beautiful, smelled beautiful but in the end I was left with just another sweet bread with no impressive flavor. I am definitely going to mess around with the spice and potato ratio, I love sweet potatoes too much to just give up on this one.

busy bee

So I've fallen off the face of the earth since a week or two before my sisters wedding and the few weeks after. I am happy to say that I have rested and am now ready to get my butt into action regarding the bakery. I've been doing research today and was elated to sign up for some free workshops and counseling at SCORE. The SCORE gang offers free advise to those of us who are crazy enough to start their own business. I think that after these meetings I'll not only be super pumped to get this puppy rolling but I'll have some advice as to which direction to put my energy towards.

For the time being I'm still working on recipes but need to focus more on packaging. I'm one tiny step away from finishing the kitchen before scheduling the inspection with the dept of ag. One of my sisters friends offered to help with photographing my items now I just to find someone to help me with my graphics for the website and marketing.