Take a Walk with Me...

Hi friends...

I apologize that my posting here has been less than stellar over the last few months, but it's certainly not without cause!

I've been a busy little baker! Word is spreading like a grease fire in a kitchen, and PNP is booking new clients every week.

I'm here today to tell you about a special event that I am working on - tomorrow! - to raise money for multiple sclerosis.  Multiple sclerosis (or MS) is a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system (CNS), which is made up of the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves. Symptoms may be mild, such as numbness in the limbs, or severe, such as paralysis or loss of vision. The progress, severity, and specific symptoms of MS are unpredictable and vary from one person to another. Today, new treatments and advances in research are giving new hope to people affected by the disease.

Tomorrow evening, beginning at 6pm Pastries Not Potatoes will be one of many to donate sweets to a Cake Walk.  What is a cake walk, you ask?  Well, it's kind of like musical chairs!  Except that instead of left standing like a fool with no where to sit; you walk away with some awesome dessert!

The host bar, Lizards Liquid Lounge is located at 3058 W. Irving Park Road and the party begins at 6pm.  There is no cover, and tickets are available at the bar for both the cake walk, and a raffle for various other prizes.

If you don't have plans, please come out and support this incredibly important and worthwhile cause.

Sweets!
Melissa

Tic. Tac. Whoa.

What happens when you combine spiked coffee drinks, two hundred Yelp members, a limited seating area and unlimited board games?

Why, it's a Yelp Elite Game Night at Noble Tree Coffee House! And Pastries Not Potatoes catered it!

For two and a half hours last Saturday afternoon I made sure that the sweet tooths of fellow Yelpers were taken care of by dishing out loads of cookies, cupcakes, brownies and cheesecakes. Not just any cookies, cupcakes, brownies and cheesecakes though...board game themed desserts to matcht the event itself!

Domino brownies, PacMan cheesecakes, Trivial Pursuit cupcakes and Tic Tac Toe cookies were on hand to feed the crowd as they sipped on teas, spiked cherry hot chocolates and cinnamon whiskey. People came and went, and there were a handful of people who choose to linger and graze by the PNP table all afternoon!

Many thanks to Yelp, and Noble Tree Coffeehouse for all the hard work that went into such a successful event!

Sweets!
Melissa

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Happy Birthday Sarah Vargo!!!

On Saturday January 17th I had the pleasure of being able to take part in a fantastic birthday party for Chicago's own Sarah Vargo.  Sarah and many of her friends met up at Chaise Lounge, where Chef Cary Taylor designed a delicious menu for the evenings guests.  After dinner, I presented Sarah and her guests with mini chocolate passionfruit cupcakes - much to her surprise!

Sarah was recently named by NBC5 as THE Nightlifer to Watch in Chicago...how cool is that?  She is also a Managing Parter of Maven-Chicago, a publicity, promotions and event planning company.  They do some pretty amazing stuff; I really recommend you check them out.

At Chaise that night was also Jen Knoedl and Benjamin Mahoney - who collaborated on an insane video for Sarah to remember her night.  Ben was gracious enough to pass along a copy to me; and you can look at the entire video here. 

I feel so grateful to have been included in this party, and look forward to many more like it to come!

Sweets!
Melissa

Happy New Year!!!!

May 2009 bring you continued health, wealth and prosperity!

Sweets!
Melissa

Tis The Season!

As 2008 slowly draws to a close, there are many things to update in the world of Pastries Not Potatoes!

I'm not even sure where to begin, so let's just start with the biggest news!  On Thursday December 11, PNP was asked to help cater the Yelp Holiday Soiree held at Architectural Artifacts.   For those of you who are not aware, Yelp is a nationally based website that offers people the opportunity to become a member, log in and create reviews from everything to dry cleaners, restaurants, doctors offices and auto mechanics.  Several times a year they host parties for their most active members; and this holiday event was the first of many parties that I plan to be involved in.  There were more than 1000 attendees, and I was able to showcase three of my favorite desserts : gingerbread cookies with passionfruit buttercream, chocolate peppermint cannoli, and chai tea latte cookies.  Everything was a roaring success, and I was lucky enough to have even been interviewed by a member of the NBC5 Street Team!  Jen Knoedl and I had a lovely and surprising on camera chat, and you can find a portion of the interview here.  Jen has quite a bit to say about alot of things Chicago-related at her blog, www.jenchicago.com, and I highly recommend you check it out!  The Yelp event was an amazing experience!  I was able to network with a vast group of people, and heard some amazing feedback on the things that people loved!  Be sure to stay tuned...I'll be talking alot about Yelp in the future!

The holiday season also brought me a pretty big group of personal catering orders from PNP.  Flourless chocolate cakes, chocolate peppermint cheesecakes and a rather large chocolate caramel cake that traveled from Chicago to New York!  I got confirmation from the client just this morning that not only did the cake safely arrive in New York, but that everyone loved it and there were no leftovers to be had! Yay!

2009 is going to be an amazing year, and I am looking forward to all of the opportunities to come!  With two weddings in the works and dozens of other functions I am excited about being able to continue to bake for you in the new year!!!

Sweets!
Melissa