1 cent cookie sale

Nice cool morning. I stepped outside in the middle of the night, and it almost smelled like pumpkin pie. About ten more degrees cooler. Should be a good weekend, business wise. Although folks have one more week until it's back to school. Our bakery is on a corner. There is an alley that runs behind our bakery. The alley entrance is on Maple street. Just across the alley from us, is a new orthodontics office. Big office, gotta have four chairs. They just opened a week ago, seems like they are keeping summer hours for now. I expecting big things from them. I can see a lot of mom's droppin' kids off and coming to the bakery. We sent a cake over to them that other day, and we heard a lot of good response. My dad walked it over there. A woman was sitting there, waiting, and she offered that the bakery was her next stop. I don't really care where they come from, as long as they turn up here.

Once they are back in school, things really heat up here. As you might know, we are on the campus of Northwestern University. We really don't do much directly with the students, but it has a huge impact on the downtown area. we do a lot with birthday cake deliveries to the campus, as well. We bake for the sorority and fraternity houses. The restaurants that we bake for, really step it up, when the campus is full.

Once school starts, shortly thereafter, we start baking for Didier Farms, out in Prairie View, Illinois. Yes, that is a place, actually I think it's an intersection. Aptakistic and Buffalo Grove roads. Huge, huge business. Everything pumpkin. Pies, breads, cookies, muffins, sourdough bread and loads of sack apple pies. On Monday, Columbus day, it's their busiest day of the season. Ya gotta see it to believe it. They have the Lake County sheriff there directing traffic. School buses parked, lined up like German soldiers, for as far as one can see. I'd like to think it's our baked goods that do it, but I think maybe not. They have hayrides, haunted house, pumpkin patch and they fry donuts right there. We go out there with a van full of stuff, about every other day.

Back to school means we run our "Back to school, 1 cent cookie special". We offer all of our large cookies, buy a dozen, get a second dozen for a penny. We started it once I became a parent, and I realized how out of money everyone is, around mid September. Been doin' it for years. There are a couple varieties we only make for the cookie sale, English rocks and ginger molasses. Both are old school original Bennison formulas. The English rock cookie has raisins and walnuts in a butter cookie type dough. The ginger molasses cookie is turned over into coarse crystal sugar and topped with raspberry jam before it's baked.

Gotta get started upstairs. Got plenty to do. Markets should be busy tomorrow, weather is on our side.