This is an e-mail interview with my sister-in-law, June, which went on over a period of days from November 18 through November 24. She has given me permission to use names, dates, places, and other incriminating, but scrumptious information.
June: ReNee and JoLeen and I (3 of the 4 Pistachio Sisters) are going to start our Christmas baking blitz this coming Saturday. ReNee and JoLeen each had 1 or two orders and I had 8 from our building here. When I actually delivered the cookies, several people saw me hauling platter after platter of goodies in that day and asked about it. They said to let them know if we decided to do that again this year. We didn't actually keep track of how much we spent baking and buying ingredients...but we DID laugh about the number of POUNDS of butter we went through. There were 8-10 pounds of butter in my fridge at the beginning of each baking session, and we usually emptied it out by the end of the day. We'll do two all day baking blitzes. The first one is cookies, bars, etc. that freeze well; then the last day closer to Christmas, all the fancy dipped and decadent cookies. Usually none of us can even walk or stand up anymore by the time we put in a 10-12 hour baking day. Guess we're getting old. :-)
Elaine: We had a ton of questions, and I wanted to call, but Greg said you would be baking or resting.
He wants to know who washes all the dishes after the project----he's the dish washing guy here, so of course, that is what he is mainly interested in.
June: Funny!!! The dishwashing thing goes like this. Whoever has the first dirty dishes, runs a sink full of hot soapy water and tosses their things in. If you need something right away, you wash it yourself. If you have a couple of minutes in between making dough and baking, you do up what's in the sink. No dish wiper...they just drip dry but the towel is always there if you need it. We actually go through about 3-4 dish towels because they can't dry out fast enough. Another rule, if you use peanut butter in a measuring cup, you clean that yourself...or listen to a lot of complaining. They are the worst...along with shortening. After that, it's usually time to change water again.
Elaine: I want to know all the stuff that goes on the plates.
June: We got a ton of stuff made on Saturday. I'll try to remember what they were. I know there were 14 different things, so I may miss one or two. Most of the items below were a double batch.
June: ReNee and JoLeen and I (3 of the 4 Pistachio Sisters) are going to start our Christmas baking blitz this coming Saturday. ReNee and JoLeen each had 1 or two orders and I had 8 from our building here. When I actually delivered the cookies, several people saw me hauling platter after platter of goodies in that day and asked about it. They said to let them know if we decided to do that again this year. We didn't actually keep track of how much we spent baking and buying ingredients...but we DID laugh about the number of POUNDS of butter we went through. There were 8-10 pounds of butter in my fridge at the beginning of each baking session, and we usually emptied it out by the end of the day. We'll do two all day baking blitzes. The first one is cookies, bars, etc. that freeze well; then the last day closer to Christmas, all the fancy dipped and decadent cookies. Usually none of us can even walk or stand up anymore by the time we put in a 10-12 hour baking day. Guess we're getting old. :-)
Elaine: We had a ton of questions, and I wanted to call, but Greg said you would be baking or resting.
He wants to know who washes all the dishes after the project----he's the dish washing guy here, so of course, that is what he is mainly interested in.
June: Funny!!! The dishwashing thing goes like this. Whoever has the first dirty dishes, runs a sink full of hot soapy water and tosses their things in. If you need something right away, you wash it yourself. If you have a couple of minutes in between making dough and baking, you do up what's in the sink. No dish wiper...they just drip dry but the towel is always there if you need it. We actually go through about 3-4 dish towels because they can't dry out fast enough. Another rule, if you use peanut butter in a measuring cup, you clean that yourself...or listen to a lot of complaining. They are the worst...along with shortening. After that, it's usually time to change water again.
Elaine: I want to know all the stuff that goes on the plates.
June: We got a ton of stuff made on Saturday. I'll try to remember what they were. I know there were 14 different things, so I may miss one or two. Most of the items below were a double batch.
Dream Bars; 7-layer bars; Butterscotch/cashew bars; Cut out sugar cookies; Macaroon cookies drizzled with dark chocolate; Maple/Walnut cookies; Craisen/White Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies; Spritz; Chocolate Spritz; Chocolate waffle cookies; Caramel rice krispie balls; Chocolate Balls (cornflakes/cocoanut/peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate); Chocolate no bake cookies
Elaine: Wow!! What a lot of work! You girls are so organized!June: We used to just hate making the cut out sugar cookies because they take so long, but we've learned you can make a double batch of them. ReNee and I roll out dough, and cut them out. JoLeen decorates them with sugars, etc. and puts them in the oven, takes them off the trays and washes or wipes off the sheets for the next cookies. We can whip through a double batch of those cutouts in about 1 1/2 hour. We only have 5 good baking sheets that we swear by, and then we have about 4-5 more cookie sheets that we don't bake on...just use for dipping things, etc. I plan to buy one more of these cookie sheets yet this year and seriously consider tossing away other cookie sheets. I've had air bake ones, dark colored ones and everything in-between, but these commercial grade ones are the best. They never burn or get the cookies too brown on the bottom. ReNee loved my two so much that she went out and bought 3 of them for herself. With 5, we could still use at least one more when we really get moving. The biggest back log of sheet space is when I'm pressing out the Spritz. I bought a Pampered Chef Spritz cookie press about 3 years ago and I just love that one. I can whip through a double batch of spritz in a little over an hour, too.
Elaine: I understand you also designed a “signature” cookie.
June: Yes, we came up with a 'signature' spritz cookie a few years ago by mistake. I was making some light pink cookies, then I had a tube of light green, then my last tube was yellow. When I got done, there was maybe a cup or two of each of the colors left, and I just put all of the dough into the spritz maker at once and made them. They were multicolored pastels and both sisters thought they were much prettier than the solid colored ones. So now...each year, I tint some dough green and some pink, then put sections of the white and two colors into the press and start making cookies. They are very pretty and something you don't see all the time.
I brought in the first tray today here at work. The corporate side of the building has ordered 5 small trays (one each week until Christmas). The Fargo Branch side of the building has ordered 7 small trays to start on December 9th. Our Fargo Branch employees also just ordered 12 small trays to be delivered on December 12th. They will give them to all of the county recorder offices that they do business with.
John thinks we are totally nuts and doesn't know how I'm going to have time to do that this year with the house planning I need to do. I guess I'm going to find out just how well I can multi-task this year. :-)
Greg: I'm on my way now to help you girls with some "quality control".
I figure if I drive straight through I'll be there...oh never mind!
Guess I'll go whack a couple cookies off the roll of Toll House dough I bought, poor me.
The dish washing sounds like it's not too bad actually, except for the peanut butter, I can understand that!
Tell your sisters I think you all are some super bakers and you should be really proud of yourselves for all your sales. And tell John if you didn't multi-task so well, he'd be eating store bought Toll House cookies like me!
June: Well...I do feel a bit sorry for you if that's the best cookie in the house. :-) Here's one that you could make, which are pictured at the top of the page. We make them for our trays. Even though they are not homemade, they are very 'crafty' and really look cute on the trays. It's Nutter-Butter Peanut Butter cookies decorated up: white almond bark for beards and hats, hats have a sprinkle of red sugar on top section and then a white chip, red hot for the nose, with two mini chocolate chips for eyes. The absolute worst part of making these cookies is putting down a bit of almond bark for 'glue' for the eyes and nose. I just bought 4 bags of these cookies. Last year, I made 3 bags of them and we ran out fairly early. This year, I'm limiting each tray to only 2 of these cookies, because after I get 4 bags done, I will NOT want to make any more of these things.
Elaine: These little guys are just adorable!
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