The oven is cold

Over the weekend I realized it has been over two weeks since I have baked anything!

I can’t tell you the last time that happened. It is just crazy! I keep thinking I am forgetting to do something. :)

With Super Bowl Sunday just a week away I know this break will soon be over and I will be back in the kitchen.

If you are looking for something yummy to bring to your festivities, I am happy to provide. Now I just have to figure out what I am making for my gathering.

Catching Up

Life has been a bit hectic recently and the blog has suffered, so I thought I would take a minute to share a bit.

A couple weekends ago I had my niece over for the weekend, and one of the things we did was bake. She got to pick what she wanted to make and cupcakes were her choice. This actually worked out great for me, I am a leader for our girls club at church and I am teaching a group of them how to bake, and my plan is to have them make cupcakes by themselves for their final project, so this was a great opportunity to do some experimenting. When I picked my niece up she informed me that her homework for the weekend was to take home the class stuff bear, James, include him in the weekend’s activities and write about it in James’ journal. So James “helped” us with the cupcakes.

Here he is watching them as they cool.

The cupcakes turned out pretty good and I think my girls will be able to make them. It has been fun teaching these young girls a skill they can use for the rest of their lives. When I was there age I was already baking regularly, but these girls had not had that opportunity. Just watching them work together to accomplish a single goal was amazing – too bad they are not that good during our lessons. :) I am really looking forward to continue the lessons and hope they enjoy baking for the rest of their lives.

Some of the end results.

Glamour

I am guessing you are wondering how I ended up being a guest blogger on Glamour Magazine’s political blog “glamocracy” I actually just kind of fell into it. I was going to one of the candidates rally on Monday night as I was doing some research to try to decide who I was voting for. A former co-worker of mine had received a phone call from Glamour asking if they knew of any young republican women who were interested in doing a blog post about Tuesday’s primary. This former co-worker asked me if I was interested and I said maybe? So I put a call into Glamour. Initially the person I spoke to said she was not sure if they were still looking for anyone, but asked me a few questions. I think once I said that I was still undecided, which was true and that I was attending as many events as possible to make up my mind, she was interested. Over the next couple hours I had a few conversations with her and her editor and had to submit writing examples and a picture. I think finding a picture was the hardest part of the task. :) After reviewing my info they asked me to write a piece on my thoughts and ask some of my friends who they were voting for and why? I sent out a mass email asking for some opinions, but knowing that many of the people I was asking worked for organizations or people who have not endorsed any presidential candidate, I offered the use of an alias and several of them took me up on the offer. I enjoyed coming up with some new identities for my friends and even made a couple of them a few years younger. I figured if you are going by an alias you might as well be younger. :)
I have everything into Glamour by mid morning on Tuesday, but did not hear for a while if they were going to publish it or not. I actually saw it online before I got the call. I have to admit I was pretty excited. I can’t say that getting published has been a life long dream or anything, but it is pretty cool. Granted it is Glamour we are talking about – I don’t think I have ever even read the magazine. And I am not sure I want any one to vote if they are relying solely on Glamour to learn about the candidate. But I did see this as a great opportunity – how often does a magazine like Glamour give a voice to a conservative republican? I thought this was a wonderful opportunity to show the opinions of several republican women to a forum that usually dismisses their views.

Long Story

I don't have time to get into it all now, but I was asked to blog about today's primary election for Glamour Magazine and I got published! Check it out

NEWS

I have some news. On one hand it is wonderful news. A few weeks ago I was offered and accepted a promotion at my day job (the full time, 9-5, M-F job that I have had on top of Erinn’s Edibles) This new position is an answer to many prayers. It offers me some financial stability and benefits including health insurance. It also has potential and a future. While it may not be the place I was a couple years ago, it is a giant step in that direction and I am both extremely thankful and excited about the opportunity.

BUT… on the other hand, the Erinn’s Edible hand, the news is not as great. This change means it is no longer necessary for me to go to the Farmers Market each week next summer and I already know of a few weeks that I will not be able to go. I have not made the decision yet if I will scrap the Farmers Market entirely. That is something I am not going to worry about for a little while. I still intend on doing special orders and will for sure do the holiday season next year – since it was such a smashing success. But other then that things are pretty much just up in the air.

I will continue to keep you posted as things develop.

Current Weather

It's 7:45 pm

Current temp...

Current radar...

Current watches...

Is it January or July?

Only in Michigan!

Update - 9:45 radar - the crazy weather continues....

Jan. 5, 2008, What are you thinking about?

The new year is a mere 5 days old but the holidays already feel like they were months ago due to the rapid switch of focus by so many facets. Now every year people start to get back to real life after the holidays relatively quickly, but this year it has been faster then normal. What are you focusing on?

IF you are the retail community it is Valentines Day and in some places St. Patrick’s Day. While doing some errands this afternoon I saw center isles filled with pink and red hearted items and a few end caps with green shamrocks. With these major holidays being 40 days and 72 days away respectively I guess I should not be that surprised, but I am. I remember studying for my exams in High School late in January and taking a study break with my sister to go to Meijers to see if the conversation hearts were out yet - they were not always available 3 weeks before the big day. Now we have almost 6 weeks – crazy. With Easter being early this year I would expect to see bunnies and eggs hitting the shelves any day. Of course while I am on the topic of Valentines Day – if you are thinking about giving someone special in your life some chocolates, consider Erinn’s Edibles are your source. :)

IF you are following current events the biggest stories right now are the Presidential Primary and Brittney Spears. Which to tackle first?

Britney Spears – what can you say about that girl? She obviously is in need of some major help and I wish that someone in her family, maybe her parents, would get some sense and get her committed until she can get that help. But considering her family’s track record, I don’t see that happening. Thankfully those babies are away from her unharmed. At least the Judge had some sense in that one. Does anyone else see the parallels to Anna Nicole Smith’s life? I am not going to be surprised if Britney’s has the same ending. I don’t bring this up to be gossipy, but just because watching this travesty unfold it has made me so thankful. Maybe I have not had the easiest of years and maybe I have a few issues, but compared to that mess, it is nothing. I continue to be thankful for all the blessings in my life and the people surrounding me who really care.

Presidential Primary – if you are in Michigan we are just 10 days away from voting for our choice for President. I know that I will be voting on January 15th, but still have no idea who I will be voting for – none of the above is not an option. Admittedly I have not paid as much attention to this campaign as I have in years past, but that is in part due to the fact that I am not real excited about any of the candidates. But tonight I sat down and watched the big New Hampshire debate, both parties. It was pretty interesting, I have a bit of a renewed vigor to make sure the “other side” does not get elected after hearing them talk, but not sure who can do that. I guess sometime between now and leaving the voting booth I will decide.

2007 Year in review

What a year it has been!
The inception and planning of Erinn’s Edibles began in March and after doing a ton of research I hit the streets in May. My first week was at a friend’s home during their neighborhood garage sale and then I moved to the Westside Market, where I continued selling every Saturday, except for one, until the end of July.

The time at the Westside Market was a great learning experience for me. With the market being so small I was able to work out all the kinks and prefect my systems. I was also able to complete the process of getting my churches kitchen licensed by the state and move all of my baking work into the church. The downside of the Westside Market was that it was not very profitable. I am not sure if the neighborhood just cannot support a market or if the market was too new without enough marketing, but by the end of July I knew I needed to look into a different venue.

The first weekend in August I made the move over to the Byron Center farmers market and completely sold out with an hour to go. I knew then, that was the right move. Over the next several weeks I continued to increase my volume levels and continued to almost sell out every week. On top of that the people at the market were so nice and friendly I actually enjoyed my time there. Plus I cherished all my friends to stopped by to visit. It was so encouraging to see a familiar face in the crowd and loved the little surprises like hot chocolate on a chilly autumn morning. With the high amounts of product to sell, the longer it took for me to bake everything, so before long it felt liked I was living at church, I was there Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings and sometimes I had to go back on Saturdays. One week when I had lost the electricity at my house I seriously considered sleeping at church. I did enjoyed it when people stopped by when I was there, but it did get me a bit off rhythm.

While the farmers market season was extremely successful for me, I was so happy for it to come to an end. I was completely exhausted by the packed schedule I was keeping, working at my day job full time and then baking 20-25 hours each week. I had intended on taking my goods to some local coffee shops to see if I could pick up some contract, but due some family medical issues that took place 4 days after the final market Saturday, I was not able to follow through with those plans.

Once those issues were taken care of it was almost the holiday’s and I decided to launch some Christmas specials which included the candy I have made and given away for the past 15 years or so. I thought they would make nice Christmas gifts for others to give away and they proved to be a great seller! My Christmas orders not only surpassed my expectations, but blew them away. It was a great success! Which brings me up to now.

Erinn’s Edibles first calendar year of business was a great success. Going into this endeavor I had certain goals I wanted to achieve, admittedly these goals were not overly ambitious, but instead what I needed. I more then met all of my objectives and can say this year was profitable. I am not sure what happens next – I am always accepting special orders (hint hint) via email and looking to explore other options.