Monday, November 29, 2010

News, News, News!

I went on a somewhat spontaneous blogging break and mini-vacation over the last week... Things were incredibly hectic, and I was generally unprepared for Thanksgiving (unusual for me, I'm usually ready to go the week before Turkey Day!)...

So yeah, the bloggies got neglected. But our Thanksgiving was wonderful, cozy, and small, and although I very nearly burned out the first three days of the week, Thanksgiving weekend was blissfully full of doing absolutely nothing. How was yours?

Anyway. We're BACK!

And we have news!

For the first order of business, I am now in the process of baking our first-ever batch of VEGAN pumpkin muffins and brownies. After having several requests for vegan goodies, I decided to try it, and fortunately, our recipes adapt well to their vegan ingredients. The ingredients for most of our products are mostly vegan anyway, so it was a pretty easy switch. They smell heavenly, and if they taste as good as I think they will, they'll definitely be a hit with our vegan customers. Yay!

Secondly, in case you haven't been on here in a little while, you may notice a new page up top, entitled "Holiday Specials." Yep, that's right, for the holidays only, we are running a couple of REALLY AWESOME specials. All of the details are on that page, but to give you the short version here's what we're doing:

1. Local baked goods delivery. Order a minimum $15 in baked goods, and for a small fee, we'll deliver fresh, organic,  gluten-free, and TASTY baked goods to the residence or business of your choice.

2. Gift baskets. Love our stuff? Want something more than just baked goods? For the holidays, we're offering three different sizes of gift baskets, starting at $35.

Also, to go along with our specials, we're offering a wider selection of baked goods. Not only do we now have a selection of vegan offerings, but we're also including mini-loaves (two-in-a-pack, like the mini-muffins), and CAKES. Oh yes, cakes. Fabulous!

And don't forget, now is the time to order aprons, if you want one in time for Christmas or Hannukah. They will have their own page very soon!

So, check out the page, send me an e-mail, order, order, order! It really is the MOST wonderful time of the year... Happy Thanksgiving, happy fall, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Merry Making...

Or, "The Episode Where Kristen Discovers That She IS Crazy - In A Good Way, Of Course - AND New Recipes, All At The Same Time."

Yay!

So today was the Making Merry in Berry Hill event. We DID IT.

It was AWESOME. I am utterly exhausted. In less than 48 hours (MUCH closer to 24 than 48), we baked, labeled, and packaged nearly 400 baked goodies.

As evidenced here by Mount Muffin, as it was christened by the girls. Ha! 

Mount Muffin

The photo doesn't hardly do it justice, but it took up very nearly half of our GINORMOUS dining table and was not all that far from the pulls on the overhead light fixture.

So yeah, 400-ish (I think it was more, but I lost count at around 200) baked goods in 24 hours. And then 10 hours spent selling today. Wow.

I mean seriously, WOW.

But we did great. Not quite as well as we would have liked, but there were less people than expected, and now we have extra baked goodies for other stuff. Which is fine. Less for me to do next week, as these freeze well.

And I now interrupt this program to announce, "I love muffins," which my daughter, KayKay, has said I "must" write.

Anyway. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

So we unveiled some new products today, which were received with rave reviews... These will be shortly followed by some new mixes and... (As you listen with bated breath) NEW RECIPES. They are:

Brownies!!! (AH-MAZING Brownie Mix to come soon!)

Cookie Bars! (Super-tasty, although I don't know if I'm going to do a mix for these or not... HOWEVER, they will be available for our business delivery service in the next couple of weeks... The raspberry ones are AWESOME. :O)

So yeah. Hectic, sure. Crazy, totally. Worth it... ABSOLUTELY!

Today was SO great, and we met so many wonderful people, and were really blessed by the people who were running the event as well. So, thanks everyone!!!

Adieu. I am going to go crawl up the stairs and into bed before I permanently meld with my chair. G'night and happy fall!!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Am I Crazy?!?!?!

Happy November!

Today is Veterans' Day, and before I go on, let me say thank you to each and every one of our veterans out there. My husband is a vet, and even now, years later, I ache for him and the experiences he had during his time in the military. So thank you, vets for all of your sacrifices. They are immeasurable.

As to today's post, here's the deal... Great news!

We've been invited to participate in Making Merry in Berry Hill, a Christmas street festival in Berry Hill, YAY!!!!

A street festival expecting several thousand people. A street festival whose people will want muffins... Wait... Muffins. Several thousand of them. Or hundreds, at least. Wait... HUNDREDS OF MUFFINS. Am I CRAZY?!?!?!

So I'm either going to go curl up in the fetal position or start baking...

I think it'll be baking. I am SO excited! This is a big deal for us! And the gentleman who is coordinating this event has been so accommodating toward us... This is a blessing that's fallen straight out of the sky. So yes, it's official. I'm crazy. And loving every minute of it!

So we'll see you there, right?

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Seasons, Ending & Beginning...

So the Woodbine Farmer's Market season is officially over. The really, truly last market was Tuesday, and it was great! We were so glad to go, and enjoyed seeing a number of repeat customers along with a dear friend! Thank you customers and friends for supporting us in these, our earliest days... We so appreciate all the support and encouragement we've gotten!

But while we are sad to not see our market friends until the spring, we are moving into a new season of selling muffins!

Last week was our first foray into selling muffins at local businesses, and it was such a success that we went back again this week, just before the farmer's market was to begin. In just a few hours we sold nearly ALL of our muffins - so many, in fact, that we barely had enough to sell at Woodbine! And we were (yet again) asked to come back regularly by several of the businesses... Yay! This is fantastic for us!

We would like to work toward selling muffins two days a week, but balancing homeschooling and muffin-making has not been easy thus far. Especially since this is our first year homeschooling, and there have been some transition issues for everybody. So for now, I think we are just going to work on selling muffins on Tuesdays, and maybe in a few months, after the holiday rush has died down, we'll consider moving up to two days a week.

In the meantime, if you are looking for muffin or pancake and waffle mix, feel free to drop me an e-mail or call. We can drop off, or if you're not local, we can ALWAYS ship!

I would love to hear some suggestions of local businesses who might enjoy having a weekly or bi-weekly muffin delivery set up, so if you know of anyone, please pass the word on... And as always, tell all your friends about us!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

The Really, Truly LAST Farmer's Market

Good Tuesday! Happy November! And lots of other great stuff! :O)

Don't forget, this afternoon is the really, truly LAST Woodbine Farmer's Market of the 2010 season! You'll remember that last week was canceled because of some amazingly crummy weather we had here, so we'll be there today, selling mixes and muffins. It runs from 3:30-6:00.

Today we have: pumpkin chocolate chip, banana nut chocolate chip, and cranberry orange pecan muffins... And of course our basic muffin mix as well as the pancake and waffle mix. Come out and visit us!