MONROE - Cookies, cookies and more cookies. Carol Blum of Brodhead is surrounded by cookies.
Six hundred cookies, to be exact.
That's how many sugar cookies Blum stirred, rolled, cut, baked and decorated for the Wisconsin Community Bank's annual holiday open house. The open house is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today at the bank.
This is the 21st year Blum has made the mounds of cookies for the bank. After so long, she knows how to approach a task that would be overwhelming for a less experienced baker.
"I start in November, if I get a chance," Blum said. She'll make one or two or even four batches in a day. She freezes them and then decorates them closer to the time of the open house.
Blum has baked plenty of other goodies through the years, for all sorts of occasions. She's done cakes - "all kinds of cakes" - before switching her emphasis to cookies, she said.
It's always been a hobby, and she's never worked in a bakery. Instead, she learned her technique at home. "My mother was a very good cook and baker - she taught me how," Blum said.
After so many years, Blum is ready to give up her tradition of supplying WCB with its collection of fanciful confections. "It's getting harder" to do, she said.
But her family needn't worry: Blum said she'll continue to bake for her husband William, four grown children and 10 grandchildren.
She couldn't just stop cold turkey, after all.
"I just like to bake," she said.
Six hundred cookies, to be exact.
That's how many sugar cookies Blum stirred, rolled, cut, baked and decorated for the Wisconsin Community Bank's annual holiday open house. The open house is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today at the bank.
This is the 21st year Blum has made the mounds of cookies for the bank. After so long, she knows how to approach a task that would be overwhelming for a less experienced baker.
"I start in November, if I get a chance," Blum said. She'll make one or two or even four batches in a day. She freezes them and then decorates them closer to the time of the open house.
Blum has baked plenty of other goodies through the years, for all sorts of occasions. She's done cakes - "all kinds of cakes" - before switching her emphasis to cookies, she said.
It's always been a hobby, and she's never worked in a bakery. Instead, she learned her technique at home. "My mother was a very good cook and baker - she taught me how," Blum said.
After so many years, Blum is ready to give up her tradition of supplying WCB with its collection of fanciful confections. "It's getting harder" to do, she said.
But her family needn't worry: Blum said she'll continue to bake for her husband William, four grown children and 10 grandchildren.
She couldn't just stop cold turkey, after all.
"I just like to bake," she said.