Happy Belated Thanksgiving everyone! I have finally emerged from pie shell madness :) Needless to say, last week was filled with 12 hour days and a couple of nightmares about pies but other than that everything went fairly smooth for such a big holiday. Susan, the owner of the bakery, was in our store on Wednesday for pie pick ups and was very happy with the way the day went *pats myself on the back!* until about 4pm when the store in the city was mysteriously missing 14 pumpkin pies! We double, triple, quadruple count the pies for this specific reason and still to this day have no idea what happened. Luckily, we had just the right amount of pie shells and had just finished making new filling and were able to bake them right away so they could get to the city hopefully before the customers arrived to pick them up. I wish I could have been with my family for Thanksgiving but it just wasn't feasible. Thanksgiving day was actually not too bad though. Two other managers from work were also not going home so we all got together at one manager's apartment because she cooked the turkey (thank goodness because she was the only one that did the actual culinary part of culinary school!) and made stuffing, cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes. The other manager made a sweet potato casserole and a corn souffle. I was in charge of appetizers which was brie and crackers, shrimp cocktail, strawberries with marshmallow puff, and a new recipe I tried Parmesan-Scallion Pastry Pinwheels. They were really easy to make and actually quite delicious for being so simple. Ultimately, I ate way too much but slept like a rock that night (probably a combination of exhaustion and food coma!) I didn't have to be at work until 7:30am on Friday so I threw caution to the wind and braved the Black Friday shopping! First stop, 5am Sports Authority. I bought myself a new pair of warm fuzzy boots that were $30 (half off!) It has been pretty chilly here lately. My car even lets me know when it's cold because it *dings* and then a picture of a little snowflake appears on my dashboard! Next stop, Target. Nothing too exciting. Just bought a new duvet cover. Cashier commented that it was odd I was buying sheets and not electronics. Guess it was busier earlier but I didn't have to wait very long in any lines (or get violent with anyone for that matter!) Next stop, the mall in San Rafael that I had no idea existed until not too long ago. Kohl's wasn't that crowded and I grabbed 4 new bath towels for a grand total of $11 with tax. Walked over to Zumiez to get a new hat for EJ and then half off a hat for myself (I got complimented on my hat the next night which ultimately confirmed that it was a fantastic purchase!) Then I headed down to Mill Valley to Best Buy to get a new electric tooth brush that was $30 off (I have a mail in rebate form for $10 so it's pretty much like I got it for half the price!) and then went to Bed Bath and Beyond only to be disappointed in their sheet selection and left the store with water filters instead. Stopped at Starbucks to get an eggnog latte and a bagel and then headed into work. Yup, all that in 2.5 hours :) Impressed, aren't you? Here is a picture of a Jedi Lego-man cake that I did recently although I think it looks a little bit more like a Beatle Lego-man:

And here is the 3-tier dummy cake that I did for Christmas. The bottom tier is a ring of gingerbread people and each one is named after someone on our team: