Chef Dave
12-09-2007, 09:29 AM
Prior to having my culinary arts students produce gingerbread and assemble gingerbread houses, I modeled production and assembly by building a Victorian mansion over a period of several days.
The completed mansion was fairly large. The front of the house was nearly two feet long. The side of the house was about one and a half feet. The house stood about 18 inches tall. It had a turret, a bay window, a porch, and an upstairs balcony.
I landscaped the front yard with white frosting and dusted the house with powdered sugar to create the illusion of snow. I then took several jpeg pictures using my digital camera, uploaded the pictures to an e-mail, and invited all district employees to participate in a silent auction.
A silent auction is precisely that - silent. Each person may submit one bid. The amount that is bid is kept confidential and when the time limit for the auction expires, whoever bid the most money, wins.
I advertised the house and waited for replies. The replies came flooding in with offers for as low as $5.00. Most offers were in the $10 or $15 range. A few were in the low $20s. The highest bid received was from a young elementary teacher for $25.50.
I sold the house for $25.50 and the young woman came to my culinary arts department to collect her house. The teacher was accompanied by a large broad shouldered man who turned out to be her fiancé. The young man took the gingerbread house and as the two were walking out the back door, he ducked his head and bit the head off the gingerbread man who had been standing on the balcony. He then started to lick the frosting that was dotting the roof.
My aide gasped and the elementary teacher turned to see her fiancé eating the house. "Is it good?" she asked.
"HMMMM - MMMM," he replied through a mouthful of gingerbread.
As large as the house was, I am not sure it arrived home intact. It turns out that the woman bought the house as a gift for her future husband. Unable to resist the temptation of the gingerbread, he began eating it as he carried it to the car.
I can only imagine what happened to the house after he was seated and had his hands free. :)
The completed mansion was fairly large. The front of the house was nearly two feet long. The side of the house was about one and a half feet. The house stood about 18 inches tall. It had a turret, a bay window, a porch, and an upstairs balcony.
I landscaped the front yard with white frosting and dusted the house with powdered sugar to create the illusion of snow. I then took several jpeg pictures using my digital camera, uploaded the pictures to an e-mail, and invited all district employees to participate in a silent auction.
A silent auction is precisely that - silent. Each person may submit one bid. The amount that is bid is kept confidential and when the time limit for the auction expires, whoever bid the most money, wins.
I advertised the house and waited for replies. The replies came flooding in with offers for as low as $5.00. Most offers were in the $10 or $15 range. A few were in the low $20s. The highest bid received was from a young elementary teacher for $25.50.
I sold the house for $25.50 and the young woman came to my culinary arts department to collect her house. The teacher was accompanied by a large broad shouldered man who turned out to be her fiancé. The young man took the gingerbread house and as the two were walking out the back door, he ducked his head and bit the head off the gingerbread man who had been standing on the balcony. He then started to lick the frosting that was dotting the roof.
My aide gasped and the elementary teacher turned to see her fiancé eating the house. "Is it good?" she asked.
"HMMMM - MMMM," he replied through a mouthful of gingerbread.
As large as the house was, I am not sure it arrived home intact. It turns out that the woman bought the house as a gift for her future husband. Unable to resist the temptation of the gingerbread, he began eating it as he carried it to the car.
I can only imagine what happened to the house after he was seated and had his hands free. :)