Playing Nice Together

Montello, where my shop is located is a friendly, quiet town. Everyone knows everyone and people help out each other whenever they can.  

WELL, almost.

Our little city is probably best known for its biggest tree, ( the plaque was removed after a large limb fell off ) the CourtHouse, it is on the historical list and the Granite waterfalls.

That was until a few weeks ago when the water was turned OFF. Yes, turned off, they are man made from the old granite quarry. Tonight there is a city council special meeting to see if that water will come back on or if the falls as we all know them are a thing of the past. I will have to catch you up on all the details after the meeting. I would'nt want to give out any bad info.
Other than that....

Our group, meets every Wednesday to try and get Montello back in the tourist mode and get the tourists back visiting on a regular basis. We have so many things for families to do. From fishing and boating, to swimming and bike riding, bird watching, maybe some quiet time alone. An Amish community, great shops, good food and all without the remote or batteries. We are close enough to the Dells that you could camp here ( much cheaper) and visit the Dells for the day and save so much money and enjoy the vacation!
All summer , in fact all year we have great events planned to help show us off. We have fishing, hunting, snow mobiling, ice fishing, bird watching and this has been declaired the Year of John Muir in Wisconsin. His exhibit is at our Historical Society right downtown.
July 3rd  Taste Of Montello at the City Park followed by Fireworks

July 24th Christmas in July in the downtown shops

August 21 & 22 Father Marquette Days ...food, crafters, parade, womens Club pie sale and so much more

August 28th
 September 25th Harvest Fest, bike ride for the Food bvank, Bird watching tours,  fall craft show and more

October 23   Oktoberfest

October 30th Withes night out

November 26,27,28  Holiday Happening Downtown Montello

So there is much in the planning, but although I do not belong to the Rotary Club or Lions Club , I do not mind pitching in to help find vendors for the events or help fill the parade and get them advertisied. Our end result is the same MONTELLO back on the map. Now, if I can just get that concept across to everyone else. We will have smooth sailing !  COOPERATION has been in short supply and that needs to come to a halt right now. It is far better to market a whole area than one shop or business at a time. My work is cut out for me , but I am emailing crafters , posting on calendars and inviting everyone to come and see Montello!

Time to Ponder......so many

recipes and so little time.  Beofre the rain came today the shop was fairly busy. It is very nice to see visitors walking the sidealks and checking out the shops. Past visitors coming back to visit is also a very good sign that things are picking up in the area. Sales were good, not amazing but good. The painted door from the other day SOLD !!!!  Now I can paint more, I hate to paint more big pieces if those I have are not selling, silly maybe but that is my thought process these days,
  With next Saturday our dairy Daze, a big deal in Wisconsin and the theme for our bake sale being ice cream I have been hunting high and low on blogs to find just the right cupcakes, having not heard back from the other bakers in our group . I am going off on my own and baking what I want.
Root Beer Float Cupcakes'
Servings: 12
Prep time: 20
Cook time: 20
Total time: 40
Ingredients:

1 cup rootbeer soda
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 cup rootbeer soda, reduced to 3 teaspoons
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp root beer extract
1 1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
pinch salt

Vanilla Bean Frosting
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup shortening
1 tablespoon milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon vanilla bean pods or paste
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350
Cupcakes:
Combine rootbeer soda and apple cider vinegar, and reduced rootbeer soda,allow to sit for a few minutes. Add sugar, vegetable oil, vanilla, and root beer extract.

Sift together flour, baking soda and baking powder. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients being careful not to over mix.

Pour batter into cupcake molds, 2/3 the way full. Bake for 18-22 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool completely.

Frosting:
Combine all ingredients and beat with a mixer until fluffy.
Top cupcakes with the vanilla bean frosting, and enjoy!

Arent these just adorable? I am going to make Big cupcake and mini cupcakes!

CREAMSICLE (ORANGE-VANILLA) CUPCAKES

Ingredients:
•½ cup unsalted butter, softened

•2/3 cup sugar

•3 large eggs

•1 tsp. vanilla extract

•1 tsp. orange extract

•1 ½ cups all purpose flour

•1 ½ tsp. baking powder

•¼ tsp. salt

•¼ cup milk

Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and lightly butter or line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

2.For the Cupcakes: Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and orange extract.
3.In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
4.With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
5.Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost.
The batter was thick,
Frost them with vanilla buttercream if you want to go for the Creamsicle effect,

Well, I am off to find just the right icing for a hot fudge sundae cupcake and then home to try out a batch or two. There is time enough to get back on the diet, and kids are home to taste test. Tomorrow I will be at the Garden center cutting out the end of our cows for dairy daze and then getting mine painted and decorated, I will get photos up as soon as it is done. This is just one of many events we do to get people back into town and visiting us, After the floods 2 yearsa go and the loss of some of our tourists we try anything to get people back in town,  NOW if ice cream themed cupcakes don't do it maybe nothing will LOL

Great information...shared

Yesterday morning I attended a meeting given by Fred Clarks office in Portage. There he had gathered people from SBA, Dept. of Commerce , Small Business Developement Center and more. They described just what they could do for small businesses in Wisconsin and there was a question and answer session after . Alot of very good info was exchanged. Now I have come in to the shop early to get more work done today so tommorrow morning I can go to Madison and attend a breakfast sessiion with Kathryn Jeffers. From what was said yesterday she is a wonderful speaker and can help you turn things around in your business. I don't know of any business who would'nt like to be better. So there I paln to be from 7-9 and then back to the shop until it is time for the Montello NOW meeting at 5:30. That is another heavy meeting, we should be able to find out from the answers given what Steve Krueger will do with The Great American Moose Fest next year. Enough heavy stuff, I am off to paint fun things, not sure just what as each piece of wood is so different. The weekend had been busy at the shop and with Memorial Day right around the corner I do need to get some pieces done. So, I came ready to paint and enjoy myself, that reallly matters or the painting just doesnt work.
Still pondering my cupcake recipes, my grandson Mike 11, thinks we should try them all out ahead of time and then decide. Taste testing seems to be the answer so I will let you know what we come up with. Also if one seems to be great I could enter it in IRON CUPCAKE MILWAUKEE I am leaning towards all of them myself. A huge bake sale would be wonderful!