Matt's Debut

As I just got off the phone with one of my consultant's who has been struck down with the flu, I had a flash back to one of my least favorite things ... sickness! I'm sure you can imagine how disturbing it would be to have someone cooking for you that was sneezing, coughing, or worse, feverish. But as an independent consultant, also known as "self employed", there are no sick days. Well, sick days, yes, sick pay? No. So here goes the story of one show that I ALMOST had to cancel.

It was a Sunday, 2pm show and the hostess was my friend Amy*.  You remember the one, that gal that I pushed down when she was learning to walk? Amy, the one that I call "Betty Crocker".   The gal that told me "if you ever get invited to a show, go because they have really good food!" (*see September Blog posts) YES, that Amy.   Amy typically hosted a show for me every year, without fail. But Amy, worked full time and was picking up an extra weekend job and this was going to be her last show for a long time. It was Sunday morning, very early, and I woke up to a terrible sore throat. As someone who got Strep throat for every year of my life, from age 6 on up, I recognized the symptoms. I knew I had Strep. So I told my husband I needed to go to the clinic and get a strep test. Shortly after we returned with a positive result. At the time, like most other times, we really needed the money that the show was going to bring in. So I said to my husband, Matt, that Amy was probably not going to be able to reschedule. An idea popped into my head, "I wonder if Matt would do the show for me???". As soon as the thought bubble reached the top of my head, Matt said to me "so, do you want me to just go and do it for you?"  He had read my mind.

I was hurriedly thinking of how to explain the recipe that I was going to make, it was a rather complicated one. And he started getting dressed with his khaki pants, a button down and he grabbed the denim apron. I had packed the night before, so he was pretty much ready to go.  I started to explain this 8 step recipe to him and he said " I have a better idea, how about I just make a cake and show them the cool decorator set?"   And so it happened. The crowd was very friendly (my Grandma, my mom, Amy's family and neighbors were there). And Matt, donning his denim apron, dazzled them by decorating a chocolate cake. It was a great show with over $500 in sales. And he still brags about how his show average is $500. Once in a while, I slip in that you have to have 3 shows to have an average. Most of the time, I just smile. He is really cute.

The Dreaded Muffin Top

Oh, Muffin Top! It has at least two meanings to me. I am thinking of how one was directly related to the other for me tonight. I have a compulsion to please... as you may have read in an earlier blog. And because of the nature of my business the pleasure medium I tend to work in is food. So how I got involved with muffins is a short story that has to do with a Business Leads group that I am involved with. Fox Valley Business Connections is the name of it, and we have been meeting in a location that does not have a cafeteria. So 20-25 people meet at 7:30am in the morning on Tuesdays and have no breakfast unless someone buys it and brings it.

So how does that involve me you ask? I of course volunteered to make something to bring. No, i didn't say BUY something to bring. It is against my genetic make up to BUY breakfast food. I make breakfast food, I just can't seem to help it. SO I racked my brain and came up muffins as the perfect solution. Now I'm not talking about an Otis Spunkemeyer type of muffin. I believe that if you are going to spend the time to make something at home, there should be one of three reasons: 1. It tastes better. 2. It is WAY cheaper or 3. It is WAY healthier. Now when you are talking about a "cupcake type muffin" theirs probably would TASTE better, but when I make a muffin, it is CRAZY cheaper, and WAY healthier. So I dug around for a good recipe online and found a recipe called "Easy Oatmeal Muffin" that got great reviews. So I'm off to the kitchen! A couple weeks ago I woke up at 6am and made these muffins (you know the ones with great reviews?) and they totally taste BLAH. I had no time to make something else, so I brought them anyway and everyone was very kind. They not only were bland, but the top was flat. They did not "crown" like a good looking muffin does! I'm not sure why, but I volunteered to make muffins again, (maybe to redeem myself?) and they all said "GREAT!" which makes me think they have either no tastebuds, or they are just all really cheap and don't want to buy breakfast... so I agreed again!

Now this time, I am not messing with the oatmeal recipe. I'm making the tried and true Zucchini bread muffin recipe that is delicious and I have made many times. Because of my weight watchers way though I half the fat and do a substitute of flax seed meal. (Can't help it). AND I have a lot of people so I better double the recipe. So it's 10:30pm and I decided, I will make these now, instead of getting up at 6am and I researched how to make the Muffin crown properly so I'm ready to try it out!  I am so excited as I take out these perfectly crowned muffins and I thought, well, I better taste one... BLAH! They are not sweet at all. I just realized I didn't double the sugar! UG. I had already put ALL the muffins in the oven and so I start taking them out and sprinkling sugar all over them and then I rolled them in sugar etc. And now my kitchen is covered in sugar. So sadly I ate 3 of them testing them with cinnamon butter, a cinnamon/sugar glaze...and rolled in sugar.  I bet you have guessed where the second Muffin Top comes in.... feeling fat, I am heading to bed. And I will just apologize now for the beautiful but odd low sugar, low fat muffins, drenched in sugar on the outside... Seriously I have got to stop baking.

Party Train

Since I have been in Direct Sales, for years, my company would host two Conferences. One always traveled to different cities, and the other would be in Chicago in the summer. This was a forum where many consultants would gather and learn how to make the most of their business. We eat, sleep and socialize together and I envision it the way I would Summer Camp. So imagine, a company made up of about 99.9% women, varying in ages from 18-80 descending upon a town. In my company the personalities range as vastly as the ages. We have diversity of age, creed, race, and even family structure. So a giant melting pot is a good way to describe the group.

There are always those that head right to the hotel room after the dinner or banquet and settle in to a good book or a phone conversation with the husband and children. There are some that resume work and begin brainstorming and re-hashing the meetings or classes. There are the party animals that hit the strip of "establishments" as fast as lightening.  And then there are the rest of us that do a little of each!  One night, we got sprung a little early and the ladies I was with were interested in going to a local piano bar. Cocktails consumed, dancing began and as I looked around I noticed that we were not the only conference in town.  Gentleman dressed with their business casual/convention attire surrounded us. I am sure I saw a name badge swinging from a lanyard or two. The group of ladies I was with numbered about 12 and as the night went on different trios of the group started to head back to the hotel, the morning meetings were fast approaching.

As I looked out on the dance floor I noticed one of my friends dancing closely to a new friend. As a couple of us danced up to her, we said "Shirley, we are going to get going... are you ready?" And a very intoxicated Shirley very decidedly said "NO, i'm staying here with Jeff!"  A five second internal struggle happened, as I thought to myself, this really isn't my business ... and then I thought about how unhappy Shirley's husband and family would be with me if I left her at this bar alone with "Jeff". So the three of us that were left, hatched a plan. We started all dancing in a circle around Shirley and acted as if we too were going to stay! And then I whispered to my co-conspiritor to "hop on" the party train. We began a conga line/ party train and yelled, "Shirley! Party Train!" And as we sandwiched her in the middle we party trained right out of the bar and into a cab that was waiting and off to our hotel.  Shirley was a little unhappy with us for a minute, but then she fell fast asleep and then thanked us many times the next day!