I Dream of Pepperoni Rolls

When I posted A Hand-Crafter’s View of Etsy a week ago (December 15), I’d had 160 sales in my Etsy shop. A week later, I’ve had 226 sales. Do the math, you know what I’ve been doing! All of those sales weren’t pepperoni rolls, but probably half of them were. I’ve never made so many pepperoni rolls in my life. I was determined to get everyone’s packages delivered by Christmas Eve. The post office’s last day to deliver priority mail to 3-day zones by Christmas Eve was Wednesday. From December 1 to Christmas, the post office runs two trucks. (Normally, there is just one truck per day.) I was worried about being on second truck on Wednesday. I was determined to be on first truck. I came home from the post office on Tuesday, took a short break to do farm chores, then started working, preparing boxes and labels, and by the middle of the night, I was baking. I baked all night long and into the morning, and was at the post office early on Wednesday to make first truck.

The kids were standing there when I put the last batch of pepperoni rolls in the oven. I told them, “The next batch of pepperoni rolls I make, you can eat them.” Morgan said, “THE HELL IS OVER.” Imagine how difficult it was for my kids to watch dozens of dozens of pepperoni rolls pass before their eyes and not be allowed to touch them!

I came home from the post office, made pepperoni rolls for the kids, fixed chili in a crock pot, and went to bed! For 14 hours!

But hey, it was fun. Even the all-nighter. I hope all those packages make it by Christmas Eve. I know I did everything humanly possible to make it happen. Today I took pepperoni rolls to the post office in Elkview, WV, and gave them to the employees. Apparently, I’m not tired of making pepperoni rolls, and I wanted to thank them for all their hard work and all the help they’ve given me in chatting with me every day when I’ve toted in my eight or ten or twelve boxes for the day, helping me understand shipping and packaging and how the post office works better–so that I can do better at getting packages delivered on time and at the best rate.

New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are coming up! I’m taking this weekend off, but I’m taking orders even while I’m off (I’ll be back to work Monday morning, baking and shipping), and I can ship all the way to Wednesday, December 28, for 3-day zones. If you’ve got family coming in or you’re having a party, don’t you need some pepperoni rolls? Or fudge, or…. I’ve got about 90 other things for sale!

Visit my Etsy shop here, and you can find my pepperoni rolls here. My Authentic West Virginia Pepperoni Rolls are made with hand stick-cut pepperoni, mozzarella, and banana peppers if you like! You can choose banana peppers, or NO banana peppers–and, NEW, you can also choose hot or mild banana peppers. (I’ve made them up to now with mild peppers only, but I’m going to offer them with hot banana peppers now, for those who like it spicy, or mild if you don’t, and NO peppers if you just don’t want ’em.) You can also choose to have them made as 12 large rolls OR 24 party-size rolls. If you want them by New Year’s Eve or Day, get your order in early! Last day to ship to 3-day zones for New Year’s Eve/Day delivery is Wednesday, December 28. Last day to ship for 2-day zones is next Thursday, December 29, and last day to ship for 1-day zones (West Virginia only–except Morgantown, which is a 2-day zone) is Friday, December 30.