I'm not sure why it surprises me every year... October hits, and I realize how fast the year has gone, and how quickly the end of the year is creeping up on me. You really would think I'd get used to it, wouldn't you?
Today marked the first day of the Renaissance Festival season in Plantersville, Tx. My eldest is working there this year. I'm not sure if I'm ready for him to be exposed to some of the bawdiness of the festival, but the apron strings have to be cut sometime, don't they? At least his boss is an absolute sweetheart! His male counterparts are all older, so he's the "baby" of a group that consists of a LOT of young ladies... the woman running his section made a point of telling all of the girls that he's off limits! He's just a young man, not even legal for y'all! - I totally loved her for that! LOL (He actually is 18 years old, but I'm more than happy to NOT admit that for these purposes.)
I picked him up this evening, and he had held up well, he said. His partner had gone home sick after only 3 hours, so he was on his own for a significant portion of the day... he did well in tips, though. Close to $60 in tips for the day? He's a happy camper... and he'll be getting a paycheck on top of that. Hopefully it'll make him hungry for a "real" job after the RenFest is over.
I've begun stocking up for the winter baking season. I picked up pie tins for the pumpkin pies that will get sold, 100 lbs of flour, 4 restaurant sized cans of pumpkin, and 25 lbs of sugar so far... I have all of the cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, etc that I'll need. I do need to pick up more poppyseed, though. I think I have enough for one batch of kolache filling, and that's just not going to cut it. Especially this year, since I'm also adding a poppyseed pumpkin pie to the repertoire. (My husband is totally thrilled that I figured out how to make it without "mingling" the layers.) I learned the poppyseed filling from his grandmother, so it's the old Czech method of doing it.
I'm going to come up with some new cookie recipes this year, too... I'll still keep my homemade ginger snaps - those are soooo yummy! The chocolate macaroons are here to stay, too. I think Jessica would rebel if I didn't bake a ton of those LOL The pumpkin cookies are here to stay, also, but I'm thinking about playing with that recipe a little. I'd love to have them come out as crispy cookies instead of the super soft cookies that they are. Picture a pumpkin spice snap cookie? The lemon drop cookies will stay, too... and the fudge crinkles... maybe I'm not getting rid of any of the recipes, goodness! I'll add some new ones, though. I'm planning on making the Oreo balls and cake balls, too. Those will be new this year. What about a red velvet cookie? I could convert a recipe for that, I think. Can't you imagine the flavor of a yummy red velvet cake, with the texture of a nilla wafer? Totally yummy!
Any other ideas are totally welcome... I know Andrew will probably be gone for a week in November to stay at Grandma's for deer hunting, so I'll spend that week playing with new recipes. That gives me a few weeks to come up with some new ideas.
Hope everyone else has their October off to a good start... I'm obviously skipping Halloween and heading straight towards Thanksgiving and Christmas with the baking LOL - I'm bad about doing that every year.
Y'all have a great night!
