FFA Bake Sale

Why do I always to this to myself? When I get the call on October 10th asking me to bake/make goodies for the FFA Craft Show/Bake Sale on November 8, I think it is the most fabulous idea!

"November 8th? SURE! I'd love to!"

(Because in Andrea-land, November 8th is LIGHT YEARS away from October 10......sure! Why not? November 8 will never come! That's like a whole MONTH away! Surely in one month's time, I will have found the secret to organization, all those hours of watching HGTV will have worked their way into my psyche, and I'll be a new woman by then! November 8th? BRING IT!)

I immediately start planning the Martha Stewart Moments that await me: "Oh! I'll make a dozen of these, put me down for a couple of cakes, some homeade peanut brittle, some individual bundt cakes that I'll do up in fall colors with cutesy little leaves made of icing, how about some banana bread, a couple of pies, some snickerdoodles..........................."

Then the night before the event comes.

Let this be a warning to anyone reading this that might need me to volunteer for something:

Sadly, there is a HUGE difference between the "Month-Before-The-Event-Andrea" that you might speak to on the phone and the "Night-Before-The-Event-Andrea" that will actually perform the duty. (Goldilocks can attest to this phenomenon----she has preformed many a "You can do this" pep rallies during her tenure as my BFF, God bless her soul.)

Yes, I will come through with something..............it just might not be "exactly" what I described when eagerly accepting the challenge.

I suddenly realize all my sad, empty promises are now due and all I really want to do is curl up with my blanket, watch all the Oprah's I've got stacked up on my DVR and twirl my hair.

So on Friday night, I thought to myself, "I'll do 4 dozen cupcakes and just melt some chocolate, dip some pretzels in it, throw on some sprinkles and call it a day....how hard can it be?"

BAD IDEA-----Chocolate dipping pretzels is the messiest, most time consuming thing I have ever done in my kitchen. (Except for that one time I swept the WHOLE floor when we moved in) Melting the 87 pounds of chocolate that I bought to cover the 300 pretzels took FOREVER.

I had chocolate splattered on the counters, the sink, the cabinets, my clothes, the microwave, my eyeballs....not to mention the floor (thank GOD I have dogs......"Mopping is for people with no dogs").

Finally, almost four hours later, my creations were complete.

2 dozen strawberry cupcakes

2 dozen chocolate cupcakes

2 dozen chocolate dipped sprinkle covered regular pretzels (individally wrapped, by the way, with a cute fall bow adorning each and every one:-)

4 dozen chocolate dipped pretzel rods (cleverly packaged in sets of two so they wouldn't get lonely)

I also did some chocolate dipped ones with white drizzles, and some white chocolate dipped ones with chocolate drizzles........I think this is what created the slinging chocolate problem that adorned the walls.

After spending 6 hours cleaning up the kitchen and chiseling off the chocolate splatters from every vertical surface in the kitchen, the adjoining rooms, and three dogs, I decided to total up what my contribution actually meant to the success of the bake sale.

Melting Chocolate..................................$15.00

3 bags Pretzel Rods...............................$ 7.50

2 bags round Pretzels............................$5.00

Sprinkles/glittery toppings...................$10.00

2 cake mixes/2 icings.............................$8.00

CutesyPie bags........................................$7.00

CutesyPie ribbon.....................................$5.00

Baskets for CutesyPie Pretzels..............$5.00

Grand Total.............................................$62.50

Total amount all that stuff probably brought the bake sale.............$40.00

However.....the evening wasn't a total wash, I guess....(say this next part in your head in that MasterCard commercial voice)

"A clean kitchen...................Priceless"