The Kitchen is Closed

DIARY OF A BAKE SALE
by Menchu

• 5 ladies
• 40 hours in 5 days in 2 weeks
• 50 pounds of flour
• 50 pounds of sugar
• Lots of eggs and butter
• And tons of fun and laughter.
  

Our kitchen is now closed. We made our last delivery, reached and exceeded our goal and gave our small part to help end childhood hunger. Thank you to our family and friends!!! Our kitchen goodies are now gone and we share rounder faces (and bigger hips) to show how much we’ve also enjoyed them. The best parts of these five days are the stories that we have and memories that we will keep. So, allow us to share them with you.

Day 1 (April 3) – WHAT’S YOUR TALENT?
Our first day determined our job in the kitchen. It was an easy process… you are the Master of a Trade if you expressed interest in learning a procedure or have demonstrated best quality of work. Dishwashing particularly of the tart molds proved to be most challenging so we shared the job and agreed that we will not have it in our repertoire for next time or price it really high for those who crave it.

• Innah is our “Cookie Mom”. Baby Keo would be her most faithful customer for Chocolate Crinkles.
• Cecille found her calling; she is “Head of Packaging Department”. She also molds the perfect boat tarts giving Marissa a run for her money.
• Marissa is our “Miss All Around, Most Talented”. She can cook, bake and keep us entertained all while answering emails via her blackberry.
• Marivic is our “Lunch Lady” and “Director of Marketing”. She could have gotten us hundreds of orders nationwide if we allowed her.
• And me, I am basically in-charge of scheduling production, marketing and stocking the pantry and keeping sanity of what would be a crazy kitchen.
  

Day 2 (April 4) – FIRST DELIVERY
April brought not just spring showers but thunderstorms in Mckinney and Allen. So, all of us were skeptical that we will have another stormy day and I was scared I won’t have bakers for the day. But good and reliable friends always showed up. So our second day started with what is now a routine: coffee, breakfast of hotdog or longanisa, talk, BAKE, lunch, talk and BAKE again. At around 2:30, everybody would rush to finish the last batch of baking and packaging so they can be home to pick up the kids. We also found a way to divide the “rejects”, i.e. goodies that did not make it to quality control. So, all of us have some way to show our families that we actually baked something. Otherwise, we would enlist Keo (Innah’s son) and Josh (Marivic’s son) to be our witness.

This was a Friday and we made our first batch of deliveries to my neighbors and a couple of friends from my husband’s office. In total, 108 pandesal rolls, 156 chocolate crinkles, 156 peanut tarts and 4 mongo breads.

Day 3 and 4 (April 7 and 8) – EXPERTS and PROFESSIONALS
We agreed to meet early on the week because Marissa had to travel. Our goal this time is for Marivic’s customers. It was easier, because by this time, we were “experts”. For efficiency, I would wake up early or work in the evening to prepare the dough for the chocolate crinkles and peanut tarts and/or the pandesal dough for the first rising. Manang Tina came by to help us too so work became a bit easier. We were inspired by wonderful comments regarding our packaging. Some friends even donated extra because of it. Cecille and Marissa were the only ones who can do the perfect packaging and we were quickly dispatched back to the kitchen if we can not do it right. In addition, they made sure that we only had no more than one taste test until we were sure that we had enough to meet orders. The pictures do not seem to show it but this was no ordinary kitchen, we were a team of professionals.

As if two days were not enough, we celebrated Cecille’s birthday on April 9 at Lavender Tea House. This time, we ate like ladies with salads and tea sandwiches. We missed Marissa because she was on her way to the airport, but Tet joined us for lunch. To our and her dismay, we found out that she changed e-mail address and did not get our invitation for the baking days. But, not to fret, we still have one more day to bake and we made sure she was going to be there.

Day 5 (April 15) – FINAL BAKING DAY
Today is our final baking day; I am a bit sentimental that I’ll miss all the laughter in my kitchen. I made a preliminary balance during the weekend and informed the ladies that we had already exceeded our goal. Tet finally made it and we “initiated” her on the job as soon as she got in. I contacted Dallas Morning News to see if they were interested in our project and they had been positive about. So with a promise of being stars in the paper, we requested our friend and budding photographer, Wawie, to take our pictures. Per Marissa’s instructions, were were to be in black shirts so the aprons that she will custom design will stand out and don’t forget the makeup! Unknown to Marissa, we were also to surprise her with a luau-inspired celebration for her uhmmm, 32nd birthday. We were to cap this project with a celebration of April anniversaries (Innah & Werner and Marivic & Dave) and birthdays (Cecille, Marissa, Nick, Rex and Werner) the next weekend – another project on its own. So much fun and laughter!!!

What We Stand for…
It was hard to come up with our “official name”. We named our group and products “PHAT 5 Creations” for Pretty, Hot and Tasty ;), “Tinafay’s ni Menchu” and another Greek sorority name that Cecille and Innah had come up with. The official website has our team name listed as “UP Maroons Bake Sale Team” but we are not the official UP alumni association. We honor our school and country with this small contribution to our community. Friends suggested that we should finally make our individual dreams of owning a restaurant come true, after all it seems like we have the recipe for success. We can continue on dreaming. As of now, we are content with once a year projects such as this bake sale where no one is Master Baker, Executive Chef, CFO or COO and we do not care how much we make per hour. Today, we are simply friends and foodies who love to cook and eat together. The kitchen is our office and good food to share is our only product.

Special Thanks

Thank you to our husbands and kids for enduring our five days out of the house. Please be assured that we were out for a good cause :) Thank you to friends who purchased our baked goods - we hope we've satisfied your craving for Filipino favorites. And there are special people who we would like to mention for their hands on help: Manang Tina and Tet for helping us complete the orders and Wawie for the photographs. To my good friend, Mitos, and my Mommy for the recipes and inspiration in the kitchen.