Boutique Day

No posts for almost a week means exactly what the title of my last post said - crunch time! There has also been no cooking at my house this week. The days before a show are always crazy because I'm trying to get a million things done. The boxes of candles need to be unpacked and re-organized because at the end of a show all I usually want to do is get the heck out of there, so I end up throwing them all back into the boxes with reckless abandon. I don't know which scents ended up in which boxes, and it's always a mess. I also need to take inventory so I can replace any popular sellers that are running low, and this time I made some new ones because I added a couple of new scents this week. Since I'm on my own for this show, I have to make sure I have the supplies I need in case I actually sell something - shopping bags, tissue wrap so the candles don't bang around inside the bags, business cards, pens, calculator, tablecloths, lots of small bills to make change... you get the idea. All the vendors were also required to donate an item for the door prize raffle. Of course, in the midst of all this work, I still have to go to work at my real job. Making the candles is the fun part, but I still have to do the packaging, labeling, adding price tags and warning labels, and then there is cutting and tying those cute little strips of homespun that I think adds a unique personal touch to my candles. It can all get pretty tedious though, especially when the cat decides one of my tubs or boxes is a good place for a nap, or when I stand up for a split second and sit back down on one of the dogs. Damn, those girls are quick!

This is a little bit of my week in pictures:

Freshly poured candle wax waiting to set up and cool. The little strip of red at the bottom of the jars is the color they will be when they are finished.



I wanted to use my new mini-cinnamon bun mold to make some more tarts. These are just cute little chunks of scented wax that you can melt in a tart warmer, there is no wick and no flame. I wanted to make them look more realistic so I experimented with coloring the wax and adding some real cinnamon. The "icing" is scented wax colored white. If I add the icing while the wax is very hot it looks more like a glaze, but if I let it cool a bit it looks more like thick, rich frosting. I was very pleased with the result. Don't these look good enough to eat?



I wanted to do something creative with some quart jars I had on hand, so I stocked up on those cute little fall "picks" at Hobby Lobby when they were 1/2 price. I spent a few hours one afternoon cutting them up and filling the jars, then topping it with a votive cup and one of my own hand-poured votive candles. I want to do the same thing with Christmas lights and tiny ornaments, but since this boutique was held in a synagogue I was not allowed to have any Christmas items. I think these would make a lovely Thanksgiving centerpiece - and I still have a few left!



I finished all the last minute preparations yesterday, and we loaded everything up last night. We were up bright and early this morning so I could be there by 8 am to set up. Last night was pretty cold, so once everything was set up and the jars started to warm up, it was funny to listen to some of the lids go "ping" just like they do after you've been canning and your jars begin to cool. Anyway, here is my display table all set up and ready to go:



Another view:



Today's boutique was a short one, only 5 hours. I met some new people and reconnected with old friends, and even sold a few candles! It was all good. Next weekend I will load it all up again and spend a fun afternoon at my friend Carrie's house. Carrie is a Pampered Chef consultant - she started after I quit, and unlike me, she has been very successful. She is having an open house and has graciously invited me to bring my candles. We did this last year and it was great fun! She invited a few other ladies as well - there were purses, jewelry, and Dove chocolate. You heard me. I hope she's back again this year, because there were samples.

The next step for me is making a decision about whether or not I want to continue doing these shows next year. I would by lying if I didn't say that all the hard work and preparation with no guarantees of selling a single thing isn't getting a little old. There are some options I need to explore first, but it's possible that there might be a website in my future. Stay tuned...

Crunch Time!

Sunday is my second craft boutique this fall, so this week is crunch week. I have plenty of inventory left from last month, so mainly I just need to re-group, re-organize, and try to make a few new things by Saturday. Now, I've had a full month to get ready, but one of the things I do best is procrastinate, so here I am, with only 5 days left, wondering how I will get it all done. Somehow I always do, and if I don't accomplish everything I wanted to, then so be it. I am learning to let go of thinking that I have to be super-woman and crank out a massive inventory each year. Now I think I will get done whatever I can and not stress over it if I don't.

How did I get myself into this? About nine years ago (honestly, I've lost track of the time, but I think it was about nine years.) a friend of mine was holding a craft show in her barn. She had this really cool old rustic barn that she had allowed some friends to clean up and use as a place to sell their crafts. I stopped by to check it out, and happened to be wearing an old denim shirt that I had taken some black craft paint mixed with fabric medium and stamped big moose all over it. My friend's crafter friends loved my shirt so much they invited me to make more of them and join them in their next show. Long story short, this blossomed into some great friendships and a group of five women who spent the next 5 years or so renting a U-haul truck and hauling our stuff all over the area to every craft show we could get in to. After awhile I felt like I hadn't really found my niche yet. I was making wreaths, stamping shirts, but I needed something that was just mine. Two of the girls sewed, one did woodcrafts, and the other specialized in apples. She made huge caramel apples the size of a small third grader - seriously, you could cut it up into chunks and feed a room full of people they were so big! I got to thinking that it would be nice if we had some candles, and I also found an instruction book on how to paint canning jars and turn them into cool candle holders. I searched around online and bought little bits and pieces of candles supplies and asked a lot of questions, and started making votive candles in my kitchen. I only ever intended to do votive candles, but I loved it so much I kept branching out. I watched and learned, and now I am making all kinds of really cute things. Painting jars became another passion, and in the process I became a jar junkie. I now have a modest collection of old canning jars, but a gazillion boxes of jars that I just know I will get around to painting someday. At least if I don't, I can always fill them with yummy scented wax, right?!

I painted these jars last year. Unfortunately, we had a rough summer at work and I didn't get any painting done this year, but I'm anxious to start again for next year.



After awhile, we all agreed that the physical labor of doing all the shows was taking it's toll and we didn't want to do it anymore. Besides all the work that went into making the merchandise, there was loading up all the tubs and boxes along with our display pieces. Then we drove to the venue, unloaded the truck, set everything up, and then stood on our feet for 6-7 hours hoping people would buy our stuff. At the end of the day we had to pack up, load the truck, drive home, and unload it again. It was beastly hard work! The downside was that there is no guarantee your lovingly made crafts will sell. One show I might sell $600 and the next time not even break $100. You have to really love it because you aren't necessarily going to make any money. Now I just do a few shows on my own, and sell to anyone who asks. I have considered a website, but I never seem to have the time to set something like that up. I'm happy with what I do now though.

Here are some candles I made last year using the cheese-shakers jars I got from a restaurant supply website. This one is made in Citrus Blackberry scent, I made the berries using a silicone embed mold. The "crust" is make with Grandma's Pie Crust scent. I poured the wax into a small cake pan, and when it was almost hard but still warm I scraped it up with a fork so it would look like crumbs.



This one was a little simpler, the yellow is made with Lemon Meringue Pie scent.



Apple Pie here. I didn't make these apple slices, but I now have a mold so I will be able to do it myself. I painted the outside with the same red wax to make it look like apple peel.



Another view with the lids on:



I don't have the jars to make them this year, but I would like to do them again because they were very popular and I sold out of them last year.

These are the petite cinnamon buns I made for this year. I used to make them bigger, but I like these better. They are a little bigger than a votive candle, and the pan saves you from having to find something to burn them on.. when it's done just toss the whole thing. Of course, you always have to use common sense when burning candles, and watch so the pan doesn't get too hot when the candle burns down.

Aren't these cute?




I made them by pouring the pillar wax into a jelly roll pan lined with heavy duty aluminum foil. The pan really needs close watching, because you have to catch it before the wax becomes hardened or it won't roll up. When it's set all the way through but still warm and soft, cut the wax into strips and carefully roll it up in the shape of a cinnamon roll. I set the roll on a flat surface and mold the whole thing in my hands until I get the shape I want. I will then poke a hole in the center using a bamboo skewer, and put in the wick. When it's fully hardened I drip white wax over the top to look like icing. I use a blend of two different Cinnamon Bun scents to get the perfect cinnamon roll scent. This is another one of those occasions where the kids would think I was baking, they smell that good.

The turkey roasters are on as we speak, melting my wax so I can start cranking out new, yummy candles. Time to get busy!

Apples, Apples and More Apples

Autumn and apples just go together. Like pumpkins and Halloween. I don't think about apples all that much during the rest of the year, but when fall comes I can't seem to get enough. My dad loves anything made with apples, so this time of year is when I like to take him his favorite treats. During the summer I brought him freshly made apple fritters from the Farmers Market in Omaha's Old Market. They were made by a Greek family from Lincoln, they own a restaurant there called The Parthenon. I've never seen apple fritters that big before, when I brought one home it took us 3 days to eat the darned thing! I have lots of apple recipes, but this time I made an easy batch of applesauce because I was pressed for time this week, and that big bowl of apples sitting on my countertop were losing their shine and needed to be dealt with. I will happily share more apple recipes another day.

We had two apple trees in our backyard when I was growing up. Red Delicious. Our neighbors had an apple tree that supposedly grew seven varieties of apples. I don't know if it did or not, but it made for good conversation. It was fun to chomp into a fresh picked apple right off the tree.. sometimes we even ate the green ones. The worst part though, was when my dad mowed the lawn. He would always send us out to pick up the apples that dropped on the ground so he wouldn't chop them up with the mower. I hated picking up the nasty brown mushy rotten ones or finding one with a hidden treasure of either an icky, gross worm, or even worse, a honeybee. I always seemed to manage to find the ones with the bees, after which I would run into the house and have my mom take care of my latest beesting.. which turned out to be a sort of mixed blessing because it got me out of helping my brothers finish the work of picking up the fallen apples.

When my own kids were younger we would load up in the fall and head to one of the many orchards found in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. There was one over near Oakland, Iowa that I remember well. We would come home with 3 or 4 of those big brown grocery bags full of all kinds of different apples. I would then put on my Domestic Goddess hat, get out the canning supplies, and put up pints and quarts of applesauce, apple pie filling, apple jam, apple butter, and more applesauce. Okay, I confess I only attempted to make apple butter. I am many things, but patient is not one of them when I'm waiting for a big pot of applesauce to cook down into apple butter. Apple butter never really happened in my kitchen. I really tried though. Really. I love apple butter, I even put it in pumpkin pie sometimes.. but I am content to buy jars of thick, delicious apple butter made in someone else's kitchen.

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I don't really have a recipe for applesauce. I tried to find one online, but the ones I saw were for small batches, and I had a lot of apples.



So, I got out a big pot, and started to heat up some leftover apple cider. I had about 3/4 of a half gallon jug, so I dumped it all in. Water works just as well though. Be sure and use good cooking apples. I had McIntosh and Cortland apples, but Jonathans would work as well.

While the liquid is warming, cut your apples into quarters and remove the core. You can peel them too if you like, but I leave the peels on because I like the pinkish color the peels give the finished product. Add your quartered apples to the pot. Leaving the peels on is good to do also if you are making jam or jelly because apples have natural pectin.




Some of the apples disintigrated and some of them still clung to the peels even though they were nice and soft. This is what they looked like:



I used a large slotted spoon to move the cooked apples to a big bowl to cool. It was taking longer than I wanted for them to cool, so being the impatient person that I am, I dumped them all into a big, rectangular pan. They cooled much quicker in the big pan. When they were cool enough to handle, I removed the peels. Some of the peels were already separated, and some I had to scrape the pulp off. I had thrown in some Gala apples that I needed to use up, but ended up throwing them out because they didn't cook well. They were still hard after cooking, and I couldn't even get the peels off. Now, if you have one of those stainless steel food mills, you can just run everything through that and be done much more quickly. You will get a much smoother applesauce if you use one. Of course, then you have to clean that thing up. Good luck with that. I have become much less of a gadget person because I hate cleaning it all once I'm done with it.

I prefer a more rustic, chunky applesauce, so once I got the peels off, I squished up the remaining apples with my hands until I got the consistency I wanted.



The pan full of applesauce then went back into the big pot of apple cider cooking liquid, and I added some Splenda, a little sugar, and cinnamon. Taste your sauce, because the amount of sugar you use depends on the type of apples you have. My apples were sweeter, so I'm guessing I added about a cup of Splenda/sugar to the whole pot.



I turned the heat down to medium-low, and let the applesauce simmer down for a couple of hours to let some of the liquid cook off so it wouldn't end up a runny, drippy mess. If you are canning, at this point, you can fill your jars and proceed according to your instructions for water bath canning. I filled a few Ziploc containers and am storing them in the refrigerator.

My dad will be happy to see me tomorrow morning when I drop off another of his favorite apple treats! I love you Daddy.

Halloween Cupcakes

I love Halloween! I used to love it a lot more when the kids were little. It was so much fun to decorate the front porch, and I had a large wooden spider that I had purchased at Rainforest Cafe in the Mall of America that I would strategically place in different spots on my scrub top and wear to work. There was always someone who would see the spider and think it was real. I loved that thing. Then there were the spider earrings. I hate spiders, but on Halloween I loved them. I would hang little ghosts from the low tree branches in the front yard, drape the front porch in fake spider web and stick lots of little spiders in it. One year I even wrapped a rubber rat in it.. the more gross things I could find the better! My son Matt had learned in one of his theater classes how to make fake blood out of corn syrup, peanut butter and red food coloring. It looked amazingly real. Then there were the jack-o-lanterns... I would buy about 4 or 5 pumpkins and carve them all with one of those carving sets with the cool patterns. On Halloween night it was so much fun taking the kids out trick-or-treating, and at home it was fun seeing all the cute little kids in their costumes. Now it's not so much fun because we're getting older. Our sneaky stealth cat always seems to come out of nowhere and manages to bolt out the door at every opportunity, the dogs don't like it, and it's not so easy to be up and down off the couch every few minutes when a new group of little goblins knocks on the door. Still, I do love Halloween. If I have the night off I will still walk out to the end of the sidewalk, look up and down the street at all the kids out and porch lights on, and it always makes me smile.

My lovely daughter in law Marnie loves Halloween as much as I did when I was her age. The scarier the better! She recently graduated with her Masters degree and decided to throw a Halloween themed party a few weeks ago to celebrate. My contribution to the event was to make cupcakes in some kind of Halloween theme, and this is what I came up with:

Mummy Cupcakes




This idea came from the fall/winter issue of MixingBowl.com magazine. It's a Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest publication. If you can still find this in the store, look on page 39 for a cool picture of their finished cupcakes. Pictured above are the ones I made.

Here's what you'll need:

1 package cake mix, any flavor. I had thought of using Devil's Food, but when I saw the Red Velvet cake mix I chose that because of the deep red color. Part of the cake will peek through, so I thought the red would be appropriate. It was, it looked great. The red cake batter looked like a big bowl full of blood. It was awesome. Be careful if you use Red Velvet cake mix though, because it stains. Even my fingers were stained red from wiping the drips off my cupcake pan.

2-16 ounce cans white frosting. If you have a good recipe you can make your own, but for this I was all about making the process as easy as possible.

1 tube each of the pre-made Red and Black decorator icing. This can be found in the cake decorating aisle.

Disposable pastry bags Also found in the cake decorating aisle.

Couplers and decorating tips - you will need a Basketweave tip for the tape and a small, Plain Round tip for the eyes. Couplers are what holds the tip in place on the pastry bag.

Bake your cupcakes according to package directions, and of course, use whatever cute Halloween cupcakes liners you like. Let them cool completely.

Take a pastry bag and cut off a tiny portion of the tip. Place the coupler over the tip of the bag and attach the basketweave tip, then screw the ring part of the coupler over the decorator tip. Fill the bag with white frosting, then pipe the frosting over the top of the cupcakes in a random pattern. Make sure some of the cake shows through. Then do the eyes using the plain round tip and use a new bag for each color, and wash out the round tip in between colors. This is actually really easy and fun, even the kids can help!

Monster Cupcakes

I used purple and orange paste food coloring to dye some more white frosting for the rest of the cupcakes. The "monster fur" effect was a lot of fun to pipe on using a multi-hole tip. When I made these I took the pictures to post on Facebook, but I didn't take a close-up. You can get a better view of how cute this looks in the Mixing Bowl magazine on page 36. The eyes on these were Gummy Eyeballs that I found at Target. When I ran out of eyeballs I just used some Halloween sprinkles.

"But Mom, We're Hungry!"

I’m not sure if my kids ever really said that to me, but it serves to illustrate what it was like in my house during the fall crafting season. I have been making fabulous candles in my home since somewhere in the beginning of this decade. At first it was just a few melting pots and votive molds, but over the years it has progressed to melting 25 pounds of wax at a time in two turkey roasters. I have cooked turkeys in my adult life, but I have never cooked a turkey in a turkey roaster… and I own two of them. I used to do at least 6 craft boutique shows in the fall with a group of friends. As we all got older, we got tired and the group eventually split up. Craft shows are very hard work, especially with candles because the boxes are heavy. There's the setting up, then standing on your feet for 6-7 hours, and then you pack up and haul everything back home. It can be frustrating because one day you can sell $700 and the next time you might be lucky to break $100. I'm not totally ready to give it up though, now that my knee is fixed I am back to doing 1-2 shows in the fall on my own.

My two sons were in high school when I started making candles, and I remember very clearly one crisp autumn day when I had made my favorite apple crisp recipe. The next day it still sat on the counter untouched, and the response I got when I mentioned that I had made apple crisp was; “Oh, we thought you were making candles.” Occasionally they would come home from school to some delicious aroma coming from the kitchen only to be left disappointed and salivating over several pots of melted wax, so I thought “But Mom, We’re Hungry” would be an appropriate title for this place where I will share my very favorite recipes for actual real food.

Back to the apple crisp… I got this recipe in 1989 from a friend at work named Bill. Bill was a respiratory therapist who also worked as a fire fighter. He brought the cherry version to work one night and I knew the topping would be perfect with apples, it was the best I had ever tasted. It had that perfect combination of brown sugar sweetness with a touch of spice, but not too crunchy. He sometimes made this for dessert at the fire station when it was his turn to help with the cooking. In my opinion the cherry version is a bit too sweet. I would suggest using a sugar-free pie filling if you try it. The apple crisp recipe started quite a stir a few years ago when I posted it on a discussion board where I was once a moderator. One poster complained that it needed something – she suggested adding that caramel stuff you get when you boil down a can of sweetened condensed milk. I replied that I wasn’t looking to induce a diabetic coma anytime soon. Really, don’t mess with this because it’s just that good. I like it with vanilla or cinnamon ice cream, but I am not above eating it for breakfast. Who can argue with fruit and oatmeal?

Thanks, Bill, wherever you are.


APPLE CRISP

(This makes an 8 x 8 square pan. I always double it.)

4 medium sliced tart apples. (I used to use all Jonathans, now I use a mixture. Granny Smiths hold their shape the best, Cortlands and McIntosh turned too mushy)

3/4 cup brown sugar, well packed

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup oats (either quick or whole oats, it doesn’t matter whatever you have on hand is fine)

3/4 tsp cinnamon (I prefer Penzey’s cinnamon, we’ll talk about Penzey’s Spices later!)

3/4 tsp nutmeg (you can also omit the spices and just use 1 1/2 tsp of Apple Pie Spice)

1/3 cup softened butter (if you double this, 2/3 cup = 1 stick + 3 Tbsp. Don't substitute, it has to be real butter!)

Peel, core and slice apples, place in buttered 8 x 8 square pan. Sometimes when I'm feeling a little bit spicy I will sprinkle some cinnamon over the sliced apples before I add the topping. Mix remaining ingredients (a pastry cutter works well for this) and sprinkle over the fruit.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

For CHERRY CRISP: Use 1 21-oz can cherry pie filling, and only add 2/3 cup brown sugar to the topping.