Thomasville

I am not sure if anyone even looks at this blog, but I wanted to update it just in case!

The Raybons are settled in Thomasville, and I have successfully completed my first Christmas season of baking cheesestraws! I didn't think I would even do them at all this year with a new baby, but sometime in October I decided that I wanted to try...

Well 3 months later I have baked and baked and baked - cheesestraws are about to come out of my ears! I discovered Hawkins takes his best nap for (usually) 2 hours in the morning, so that is when I did my baking. I would be up shredding cheese by 7am! It's worked out great because I can get it done and cleaned up by lunch.

THANK YOU to my new Thomasville customers who have supported me and spread the word about my cheesestraws. This year was a great success and I plan to continue!

Merry Christmas!

How long will cheesestraws stay fresh?

I am often asked how long cheesestraws will stay fresh in and out of the freezer and if they need to be thawed if they have been stored in the freezer. Cheesestraws stay fresh on your countertop for about 2-4 weeks, but can stay very fresh in your freezer for up to 2 months. I always have mine in my freezer until I know I am serving them, so they will stay fresh longer.

They need minimal time to "thaw out", so I would pop them out of the freezer the night before or even the morning before you give them as a gift or serve them at a dinner party. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

xoxo frances

Great gift sizes for the holidays

Here is a picture of the $15 option with 6 dozen cheesestraws in a cello bag.

My new $10 option is this same look - just in a smaller cello bag with 30 cheesestraws.

Both are great gift options!

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a Happy and safe Thanksgiving weekend. I will be spending time with the Raybon's in beautiful Charleston, SC. Robbie and I are so blessed and have so much to be thankful for in our first year of marriage. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

I am also lucky because I am still young enough not to have to cook for Thanksgiving =) My only contributions are cheesestraws, chocolate chip cookies and pecan pies. I have never baked a pecan pie before, but I think they turned out pretty well.

Happy Turkey Day!

Busy fall weekend!

I had a busy weekend baking cheesestraws and wrapping Christmas presents. I have already received several Thanksgiving and even Christmas orders and have been busy busy stocking my freezer with the delicious goodies.

*Please remember to go ahead and get in your holiday orders!

YES, I did just mention wrapping Christmas presents and we are not even in December yet! This is my first year of marriage and we are beginning the "rotation" for holidays this year. We will be visiting my husband's family for Thanksgiving next week and swapping Christmas presents then as well...so I have been busy in the wrapping room!...I have literally turned one of my guest bedrooms into my wrapping room.

I attended a wrapping class at Davonshire (a fabulous home and garden store in my neighborhood), and it was so much fun. I learned so much about how to make the wrapping personal to the recipient, and how to make it beautiful with little additions such as an ornament or trinket on the outside. We always spend so much time looking for the perfect gift for our friends and family and then hurriedly wrap it in cheap paper or a quick gift bag from Target. I learned that that reflects badly on who you are giving the gift to...why not spend just a few extra minutes and dollars to get the pretty ribbon and an extra ornament (that the recipient can keep also) to make a special presentation?!

They compared wrapping a gift to getting dressed in the morning or decorating a room. If you start out with a plain base, black pants or a solid colored sofa, then you can put some extra punch in your top and jewelry or pillows and drapes - use extra colors and sparkle.

*Other tips I learned:
-always use double sided tape so you cannot see any tape on the gift
-have a pair of scissors that you ONLY use for ribbon. When you use scissors on paper, wire, etc and then use it on ribbon it frays and tears the precious material.

It was truly a wonderful experience and I learned so much. You are talking to the world's worst wrapper, so I am pretty excited about the results!! I hope this can inspire you as you get started on your Christmas wrapping in the next few weeks =)

How do you think I did so far??

New blogger...

I have given in and created a blog! I love reading blogs about family and work, and I am always asked if I have a website for my homemade cheesestraws. This is as close as I can get to a website, and it is a fun way to talk about my passion for baking my mother's famous recipe.

For my first post I will tell you how this began...my Mother has been baking cheesestraws for as long as I can remember. I have memories of sitting at our long wooden kitchen counter as a child waiting patiently for the baked goodies to come out of the oven. I could barely wait for them to cool before I gobbled them up!

My sister, Virginia, started baking them a few years ago, but I did not begin until last year - exactly a year ago this month actually. I lost my job and needed a little extra income as we were approaching the holidays =) My cheesestraws were tremendously popular with people in Atlanta as well as all over Georgia.

I continued baking them year round and have really developed a passion for supplying my friends, family and customers with this one of a kind treat.

Please contact me with any orders or questions.

My prices are below:

$15 - 4 dozen in a clear cellophane bag decorated with ribbon and my logo
$25 - 6 dozen in a white 2 lb. gift tin decorated with ribbon and my logo
$35 - 10 dozen in a gallon Ziploc freezer bag

I deliver in Atlanta or ship anywhere!

I hope you enjoy them.
xoxo
frances