Sugar Rush

A few months ago I was somehow talked into volunteering to run the US booth at a huge "Celebration of the World" cultural event at the school this Saturday.  It is the PTA's biggest fundraising event of the year.  26 countries are being represented this year.  Each country is given a (VERY!) limited budget to decorate a 10x10ft booth with a theme that shows an aspect of their culture, and provide food for a minimum of 1,000 people.  The US and Brazilian booths however are twice the size (10x20ft), but still given the same budget to pull it off, but with the added pressure of being a "host" country (it's an "American" school, in Brazil) and the expectations of it being something fantastic.  Anyways, the crafter in me couldn't wait to start in on the challenge!  With the help of some very generous donators, I was able to collect enough mullah to hopefully make our booth this year one that won't soon be forgotten!  That being said, I have less than 48hrs to pull this off and it is officially CRUNCH TIME!  In the past 24hrs I have made 2,000 cookies.  TWO THOUSAND COOKIES!  Any idea what that looks like?  Crazy.  That's what.

This is only 1/2 of the dough I made.. I ran out of large bowls to put it all in one shot.  I will be completely content if I never see another cookie again.

Start rolling.

Keep rolling.  Allow your brain to go completely numb - you'll be there for a while.

Chill the suckers and bag them if you're too tired to frost them all right away.

Start dipping!  I added a little US of A flare in the sprinkles.. I chose the theme of Hollywood for the booth, but wanted to incorporate our red white and blue somehow!  It just wouldn't be right otherwise. :)

I ran out of sprinkles faster than expected.  Sadly they don't sell sprinkles here unless you want the chocolate kind for brigadeiros, so I had to get creative and "borrowed" red from my Christmas stash...

...and blue from my winter stash...

What have I learned from this experience?  I could never, NEVER be a baker.  I LOVE making a few dozen cookies, but a few thousand??  Next time I think I'll pass.

Up next: cubing 80lbs of cheese, cooking 100lbs of sausage, and making the biggest bowl of salsa you've ever seen (among others things).  It sounds sporadic I know, but the idea is hor dourves.  Trust me and I'll post pictures soon! :)