And here we are. The cookie cutters have been put away. My fridge is devoid of all but a single stick of butter. And with couple of special exceptions, all goodies have been delivered or shipped. Here is how it went down in the last week.
The dining room was staging area one.
I think some of you thought I was kidding when I said I use workbooks for planning. Dear Excel, I would be nothing without you. This shot is of the distribution list. The colored columns were different categories of treats. The rows, recipients. Lines were greyed-out when packaging was complete on the individual unit (a final column indicates status of delivery).
If it’s business in the dining room, it’s party in the kitchen. Once the goodies were in a box they went to the kitchen for trimmings.
Which included this year’s label. Erin Condren gets all the credit for the design work here.
Because most people got anywhere from six-to-nine different treats, I packaged them individually and then labeled the ones with stronger flavors.
Here we are about 2/3 of the way through the process. This year, because I had an unusually large volume of packaging to do, I actually spread it across two evenings and a Saturday.
Finally, FINALLY, it’s all over but the eating. This is actually only about 2/3 of the packages (I made an early delivery to USC last Friday). TD helped me to package all that needed to be shipped and we were in-and-out of the LAX Post Office in five minutes (on a Sunday no less).
For those of you who got goodies, it probably would have been smart to take a picture of each, label it and then add the recipe link. Coulda’, woulda’, shoulda’…didn’t even think of it until today. In lieu of that, here is a breakdown and links to the recipes:
Sugar Cookies (sprinkled and iced)
Sour Cherry and Pistachio Sables (a variation on this recipe)
Caramel Crunch Bars (which should really be named Toffee Crunch Bars)
Altoid Brownies (you’ll have to stay tuned until Thursday for my updated take on this recipe)
Brown Butter Blondies (the recipe for these will post on 12/20).
And now the moment we’ve all been waiting for. The poundage.
TOTAL POUNDS OF BUTTER UTILIZED: 20.125
To give some context, those 20 lbs translated into just under 1500 individual cookies, bars, brownies and candies.
Jeanette was the big winner with a guess of 20 lbs. Jeanette, my dear, you should have gotten your prize on Friday. If not, I have a notion of who may have abducted your bag of Schweddys.
Amber, Nancy and Ann, there is a little something headed your way as well. Normally, I am a strong believer in meritocracy. BUT. You three have been long standing supporters of the Misanthropic Hostess and I couldn’t resist a little thank you.
…and that’s all I have to say about that.
Yay! Can’t wait. It is an amazing production… My husband thinks I go overboard, and I assure you, compared to you I’m tiny potatoes! Thank you!
I’m so excited to taste all the things I’ve read about on this blog (that I am too lazy to make myself). Thank you, Ms Misanthropic Hostess! Happy holidays to you all, including the Kitchen Gods!