If you don't mind my saying, I'm pooped! Having just returned from a six hour stint in Benedict's Bakery - even with a two hour break for Mass and dinner - my back is letting me know .
Even so, to be a part of this great group of women mucking around (you can muck things other than manure, can't you?) in sugar and butter, flour and buttermilk, cranberries and pumpkin, and any number of other ingredients is good fun (since several of us tend to be messy I'm afraid it doesn't qualify as the 'clean' kind) even if it is hard work.
Arriving at nine a.m. I found Maria making Alaska Wilderness Lodge cookies that looked and smelled good enough to die for. Each of the eight Dough Dough Girls has her specialty; Maria's is cookies. When she finished with that batch she was on to Snickerdoodles. On the other side of the work table, Clara and her sous chef, Mary Jo, began the first batch of quick breads...banana nut. Before they would call it a day they would have cranked out pumpkin-pecan and cranberry-nut, eight mini loaves of each. They are a real team. Mary Jo is from South Dakota and is a barrel of fun. It isn't surprising that Clara caught Lyle's eye as a teenager. She's still a pretty woman and the only one of the bunch that bothers with make-up! Both have hearts of gold as, of course, does Maria.
Nancy M. from Iowa (there's a Nancy from Minnesota, too) came in but didn't find much space to work so hung around lending a hand washing bowls and utensils, wiping counters, wrapping anything ready to be wrapped. As for me, I make the scones. Because my back tires, I measured the dry ingredients yesterday, came up this morning and mixed them up and cut them out and put them on a cookie sheet in the freezer.. They'll be baked fresh on Friday morning - two batches, orange-cranberry and dried cherry with white chocolate chips. When I left, Nancy M. claimed my spot and began mixing the cranberry-almond biscotti.
After dinner (the main meal is served at noon and all who volunteer eat with the community) it was back to work. Nancy was making good progress on her project - biscotti are time consuming - enough so that I could find room to start on the 'volcanoes' (actually they are cinnamon-chocolate mini bundt cakes, but they look like volcanoes, so that's what they'll be sold as.) With only one pan with twelve molds, it was a two stage process to make a full recipe. Mary Jo will add the glaze before the sale begins at 10 on Friday.
And there's still tomorrow! Thelma - who happens to be the same Mrs Meyers of the 'Clean Day' cleaning products - will make pineapple upside down cake. Nancy B will crank out two pans of almond bars, Sherry will make brownies and pecan bars and then Nancy M will make a double batch of cinnamon rolls that will be frosted on Friday morning and Marilyn will make pecan rolls, blueberry muffins and lemon bars.
Dorothy Ann is the bread baker and she'll come in at the same time I do on Friday morning to finish her artisan bread, while I mix up some British Flapjacks (which in no way resemble a pancake, but are yummy) and bake the scones and bran muffins (I mixed a mega batch on Monday.)
It's a busy three days, yet it's fun and the folks that come week after week, year after year wouldn't miss it. Wish you were nearby, I would love to be able to take a break and have a goodie and a cup of tea with you!
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