Livin' the Dream in Lima

So, just wanted to share a bit about Valentine's Day.  You see... Valentine's Day is like the Olympics of bakery life. We spend all year talking about it, getting ready for it ('training', if you will), anticipating  dreading it, and psyching ourselves up for several days of craziness. We partnered with Yazel's Flowers & Gifts  here in Lima and offered fresh roses at the bakery! Last year, I was completely  blindsided by how busy we would be. We sold out of goodies (for the first time) by 10:30am! At one point during the day last year, we ran completely out of butter and powdered sugar. I might have found myself out back crying in the woods - no shame. I had a much better plan in place this year, and things went sooo much more smoothly. We advance prepped like crazy and that helped so much! Little things - cutting out heart cookies, dicing strawberries, pureeing strawberries, and stocking the freezer with strawberry mousse frosting - saved us

Hello?? Hello? Anyone still out there? My hubby & I recently got back from a trip away, and spent some time talking about what we wanted to focus on for the year 2018. (Better 3 weeks late, than never, eh?) [This is what we look like, in case you forgot.] I came up with 3 personal goals (unrelated to my business). Yes these are sort of random, but here they are: Play the piano at least 30 minutes a week.  Eliminate ALL bottled salad dressings from our fridge. Just another step in my journey to cook higher quality food. [Only exception: MONICAL'S Sweet & Tart. You know it.] Revive this lil ole' blog of mine.  I'm realizing as I grow older (almost 30, yikes!!) that I really enjoy going back and reading about my life in the years prior. If I am not recording anything, how am I going to re-visit these days 5, 10, 20 years from now?? My memory is not the best and I'm sure it will only go downhill from here. So here we are... over a year si