I was invited to sell my Wildtree products at a Holiday Open House this weekend. It was at a friend's house. She had about 10 other vendors there. For me, it was my first huge success! I had about 6 orders and was able to meet some very nice people. I really enjoyed myself.

Last Monday I walked the neighborhood with a friend and put catalogs and an invitation to an open house tasting for Wednesday in all the newspaper boxes. I passed out about 25 catalogs. Then Wednesday I set up the dining room and set out some delicious foods from Wildtree. Then I waited...

And waited, and waited. I know people have busy lives, but this is silly. I even put out a sign on the road leading the way to my house. Nobody. Well? That's how the cookie crumbles. The good news is, I had MOPS the next morning so I could share all this good food with all the ladies.

I didn't want to seem like I was taking advantage of snack time at MOPS to sell my stuff, so I didn't put out catalogs, but I wonder if I should have.

I'm rethinking my strategies and maybe doing cooking demonstrations would sound more interesting to people. The food sells itself! I just have to give people a chance to taste it.

Well, I have successfully completed my first Wildtree Launch Party. I had a lot of fun setting up and making things pretty. I had five ladies show up out of 25. I think from industry standards that's pretty good. :) I had my sponsor with me to help me get all the correct and important information communicated and she was also a big moral support for me. I got four orders, 1 booking, and a partridge in a pair tree! My mom signed up to be a representative (friendly competition, I'm sure). Overall, I think my launch party was a success!

I prepared a lot of my samples the day before. Let me just say, THAT was an experience! Not because they were difficult to make, but because they were being made by a mommy of 5 younglings, all of whom "needed" something from me or had questions about this or wanted to tell me about that. Or just wanted to be cuddled. Throw in the mix that it was nearing dinner time and my brood was getting peckish. 

At one point, I dumped 3/4 of a container of cinnamon into the Banana Banana Bread mix because I was talking to my daughter about something and didn't realize that the sprinkle lid had a flap you lift to make it sprinkle. I proceeded to look at my daughter, unscrew the lid of the cinnamon and shake vigorously over the bowl. Oops. I managed to scoop out the mountain of cinnamon and double the recipe with another bag of Banana Banana Bread and save the day. 

Then there was the Flax Seed Beer Bread incident. Apparently, you shouldnt use "fancy" beer to make this mix. I just used the only beer I found in my fridge, which happened to be a really strong dark ale from Bend, Oregon. The bread looked beautiful, but the taste was, shall I say, lingering. So, the moral of this story is, go cheap and go light. My second batch was a much better success, though I had trouble getting that first taste out of my mind.

Non-Dairy Chocolate Mousse Recipes

My Heavenly Chocolate Mousse turned out fabulous, with out any comical errors. I even made two types of Dairy Free mousse for my guests with non-dairy needs. Wow! Did they turn out awesome, I must humbly say! 

One was made with none other than avocados and balsamic vinegar and the other was simply the cream from a chilled can of coconut milk (full fat, not light). The recipe for this one is below.

Non-Dairy Heavenly Chocolate Mousse

2 cans Chilled Coconut Milk
1 pkg Wildtree Heavenly Chocolate Mousse Mix
2 Tbs sweetener, optional (I used powdered sugar)

Chill the cans of coconut milk in the refrigerator upside down. This makes it easier to open the can of coconut milk with a standard can opener because then you can open the top of the can (the bottom of the can has a different shape, making can openers give you trouble). All the water will settle below the cream while it's in the fridge, so when you invert the can to open it you can easily pour off the water and scoop out the cream.

Put just the cream in a bowl. add the sweetener and mousse mix. blend together until smooth*. Voila! Deliciousness!

*If it takes on a "grainy" consistency with tiny bits of cream, you can warm it in the microwave slightly until the cream melts (it doesn't take long) and then blend it all together and put it in the fridge to chill. This makes a very nice, smooth mousse.

Both my non-dairy mousses (or is it mice when it's plural?) had rave reviews at the party.