2nd Annual Blogger Bake Sale

Do you ever find yourself wondering how the week flew by?  This is how I felt this week.  I try really hard to stay on some sort schedule for all the things I need and want to do during the week.  The weekend general gets packed with family obligations and my “to-dos” for the household.  I take advantage of the weekdays to do stuff for myself or short errands.  Mondays always turns into my “homework” day.  I have a bad habit of being a procrastinator and until I’m done with school, this will be my freak out day each week.  Tuesdays is my lack of sleep day.  This is always due to writing a paper until the wee hours of the night but I also start a blog post on the stuff I made over the weekend.  Lately I have been so tired, I end up writing gibberish.  I found that writing on 3 hours of sleep may result in some entertaining reading if you understand my sick sense of humor.  Luckily by that evening, I become a little more awake enough to write a cohesive sentence.  This week was the exception.  With my maternity leave quickly approaching, I was not able to to stare into my computer trying to write a post for hours at work.  Instead I had staring at spreadsheets trying to
1. Stay awake
2. Find data information that does not make sense (FYI, I used to to be a techy turned analyst – boring huh?)
3. Trying to finish the mountain of tasks that I set up for myself so I wouldn’t have to deal with it when I got back
These are the times when I just wish money did grow on trees.  I would get to do all the things I want to during the day instead of putting on my to-do list.  I also wish I was five.  Five was a good age with next to no responsibilities and I was able to eat what ever I wanted to without gaining weight.  Since I’m on the topic of being five,  last Saturday the Great American Bake Sale in hopes to help end childhood hunger.  There was so many goodies, it transported me back into my childhood (someone made puppy chow). 
We were able to raise a whopping $1,040 and any left over we had was donated to our local Ronald McDonalds home at the Children’s Memorial Hospital.   We had a lot of participate which included multiple bloggers and a few local companies.  I even conned my friend Anna in joining.  Than again, she is my partner in crime when it comes to these foodie stuff. 
Here are a few of the participates:

• Marvi Clemente (www.famwellfed.com)
  
• Beth Marrier (www.ezbakesoven.tumblr.com)
  
• Kate Bernot (www.thefeast.com/chicago)
  
• Anna Goldberg (www.blondiescakes.com)
  
• Joy Alegria (www.joyjoycreativeoutlet.blogspot.com)
  
• Sarah Skerrett (www.mrfoodblog.com)
  
• Blair Chavis (www.recipelionblog.com)
  
• Matthew Kaplan (www.favedietsblog.com)
  
• Jackie Kolber (www.foodiereflectionscom)
  
• Richard Rocha (www.bullseyebaking.com)
  
• Caroline Supataraporn (www.engineerandanoven.blogspot.com)
  
• Vanessa Druckman (www.chefdruck.com)
  
• Emily Paster (www.westoftheloop.com)
  
• Kelly Alesso (www.pink-apron.com)
  
• Kristin Hilleary (www.everydaynutrition-thelast5pounds.blogspot.com)

It was a bit overwhelming with all the food.  Keep in mind, I had to be there by 10:30.  It took a lot of will power not to buy everything and gorge on sweets.

I brought my Japanese cheesecake in cupcake form and some WCP Cookies (White Chocolate and Pretzels Cookies).  I am happy to announced that I finally made cookies successfully.  I remembered to refrigerate them before baking.  I did get some citizen from The Husband (of course) that I was cooking them too long.  What does he expect?  Pepperidge Farm?  I think not, I am just amazed they are not so hard that I could throw them and seriously hurt someone.  I did get a little overboard with the cookies.  I just needed 2 dozens.  I ended up with a good 6.  Luckily, my friends were coming over the next day and I was able to send them home with a couple of batches. 

This is how my dining room table looked like

The Japanese Cheesecakes

My packaging

WCP Cookies
(Adapted the basic cookie recipe from Joy of Baking)
White Chocolate Covered Pretzels – broken in little pieces *I used about 3 Cup but you could use more or if you like
1 Cup of Unsalted Butter *Room Temperature
3/4 Cup of White Sugar
3/4 Cup of Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 1/2 Tsp of Vanilla Extract
2 1/4 Cups of All-Purpose Flour
1 Tsp of Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Salt
Direction

1. Cream the butter with both sugars at a med-high speed until it become fluffy. 
2. Lower the speed to low (or you might a little messy) and add the eggs one at a time.  Than add the vanilla. 
3. While the butter is creaming, mix together the dry ingredients. 
4. Shift the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until it is completely incorporated.
5. Slowly add the pretzel pieces.
6. Chill for an 1/2 an hour to 2 hours depending on how wet the dough is. 
7. Pre-heat the oven to 375F.
8. Scoop out the cookies to the desired size and bake for 10-14 minutes. 
9. Serve

*I like the recipe since I could freeze it ahead of time. 

I finally got rid of my ever constant pretzels in my house.  It amazes me how long it takes to get through a large container of pretzels.