Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Oh Snap! It's been 4 months!!

Time is sure flying by. We have been especially busy since we are now opening our 3rd location at the Kansas City Kansas Community College. We were awarded the contract to take over the deli and we will add our bakery fare as well. It is quite an undertaking but you know what they say, "If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space!"

The Legends location keeps cranking out new cupcake ideas as Gerry keeps us on our toes with innovative and fabulous flavor combinations.

The Power & Light Bakery keeps everyone smiling with their fast, friendly and wonderful lunches.

Here's a great recipe for these hot days: Cucumber Lemonade - 1 cucumber, 2 to 4 cups water, 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice, agave nectar to taste. Use blender until smooth. Make it as sweet or tart as you like. It's fabulous.

I'll make a better effort to post, I promise. During these busy times I need to remind myself of the quote from the movie Gone With The Wind:
"Do not squander time for it is the stuff life is made of."
Oven & Out!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Kansas Day and Valentines Day

On January 29 our great state of Kansas turned 150 so the Legends had a "lets Celebrate Kansas" weekend. Our contribution was a free slice of birthday cake for every customer cut from a fabulous cake creation honoring Kansas with sunflowers and even a windmill. The cake was, of course, one of Cassie's designs.
We had the local news here at 4:30am that day for an interview about the cake and the Kansas Celebration. Sloan Heller, channel 41, was the reporter. We just love Sloan and she has been a great friend to our bakery. We visited about what questions she would be asking me and I mentioned to her that it was also MeMa's 86th birthday.
Sloan got so excited and asked if I would mind if she interviewed MeMa instead. I thought it was great! I couldn't think of a better birthday gift than to have Mom
honored in such a way and if you happened to catch the interview, she did an awesome job. When asked what is so special about the people in Kansas she replied, "they are genuine people". So true. To be 86 years old and handle herself so eloquently is amazing.
The promotion was a huge success, we gave out over 500 pieces of birthday cake. The customers were so appreciative and it brought in a lot of people.
Valentines Day is upon us. So far it seems to be a cupcake holiday, people are cupcake crazy! We are also providing our "Valentine Dinner for Two" again this year. We will most likely make about 60 dinners of McGonigles steaks, twice baked potatoes, green beans, salads, rolls, desserts & 2 chocolate dipped strawberries from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.
With the weather finally breaking things are looking up!
I'll leave you with this quick tip: try making your own hot chocolate mix, it's so easy. 1 cup sugar, 3/4 cup non-dairy creamer, 1/2 cup powdered milk, 1/4 cup cocoa and a pinch of salt. It takes 1/3 cup of mix to a cup of hot water or to your taste. It stores great in the cabinet and has a lot less chemicals than the store-bought kind.

Happy Valentines Day!
Oven and Out!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

New Product Time At MeMa's Bakery

Wow, I can't believe it's already January 13! The whole month of December is a blur. We are very thankful for a prosperous Holiday Season of sales. Now it is time for the winter freeze to set in. The last few days have been dismal for sales but both bakeries are taking this opportunity to dive head first into "R&D"(research & development) for new products.
The Power & Light Bakery has come up with some new sandwiches and are expanding the cupcake line including a fabulous cherry cheesecake cupcake (check it out on Facebook).
The Legends Bakery is putting a healthy twist on some of our existing products. We have developed a new Whole Wheat Cinnamon Roll, low in fat, calories and sugars. Also new is our Healthy Bread, made with yogurt & flax seed and amazingly tastes great! 2 points per slice on Weight Watchers. The cinnamon roll is 3 points.
The healthy products will be featured on FOX 4 Sunday morning (Jan 16) at 8:50am.
I'm sure we'll link it to our website if you miss it.

A personal note to our "Mayor" and his wife: Thank you for your continued interest in our bakery and especially your encouraging words today. You snapped me out of the dull drums!

Hope it warms up soon!

Oven & Out

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

A Real Life Santa

With Thanksgiving and Black Friday behind us we are now ready to tackle the Christmas Season.

I would like to say a few words about Black Friday. We had a top notch staff for the night when utter chaos ensued. Our little bakery at the Legends was packed with shoppers from 10pm right up until 3am! I remember checking on Pam, new to our family and the bakery, as she was making hot chocolates. She, in a very frantic, almost quivering voice said, "hey, I learned to make 3 at a time!" Then as if she needed self-assurance that she could make it through the insanity mumbled,
"yea for me!" Welcome to the family Pam!
We got through it, thanks to Cassie, Ashley S., Maddie, Ashley R., Pam and my husband Mike. Great job guys!

It is very easy in the retail environment to get the Bah Humbug Syndrome. We try our best to not let that happen by helping each other through every day as our production schedules get longer and longer. No matter how prepared we may be the demand for povitica bread and strudels grows each year, creating quite a challenge for all of us.

How about a Christmas Story. MeMa, my mother, has told this story for years, I'd like to pass it on. All throughout her childhood she remembered each Christmas getting exactly the toy she and her nine siblings wanted. An amazing thing, especially when you consider that her parents barely got by. Many times they were forced to leave one farm, pick up and move to another. Rich with love and caring, this family knew poverty and doing without. So, how could it be that each of Henry & Eva's ten children were adorned with the exact toy that they asked Santa for?

Well, when MeMa was about ten years old, her older brother DanEddy (who, by the way, lost his life in Korea) discovered the truth. While at midnight mass, a man walked up the aisle and DanEddy whispered, "hey guys, there's Santa!" They all laughed at him quietly, thinking he was being silly. When they got home, though, he told his story.
With his siblings hovered around him he explained that earlier that day he had seen their neighbor Mr. Paul Doege, a young man who had never married, putting the toys into their barn.
Apparently Mrs. Doege, Paul's mother made the rounds with all of the local mothers, got their list of toys for each child and her son Paul purchased them and secretly delivered them. A real life Santa!

Stories like this help us to keep the real meaning of Christmas in our hearts and minds as we work through the long, busy hours of the holidays.

Oven & Out!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Three Feet Long Forks

This has been such a hectic week! The bakery is really buzzing as we prepare for Thanksgiving sales and the Black Friday madness here at the Legends.  A couple things happened last week that I thought I would share.

One of our customers at the downtown bakery, Claudette, invited us to a performance she was giving. For one hour, this little powerhouse of a woman put on an extraordinary show about the lives of the Vanderbilt Twins. There were nine of us there and it was amazing to see all of us captivated by her stories of a time gone by.
What a great evening for all of us to share together and experience the grace and elegance of a very fine lady.  We are so proud of you Claudette and thanks for being such a great supporter of the Bakery!

Also last week Cassie made the birthday cake for the Polar Bear at the Kansas City Zoo!  Sounds easy right?  Well, they only eat lard and fresh fruit but our Cassie loves a challenge. She molded an adorable cake in the shape of a cupcake out of lard and garnished it with the fresh fruit.
Nikita loved it!
I guess I better get back to pumpkin pies, dinner rolls, strudels, etc.  One more quick story:

A man from heaven and a man from hell had the opportunity to visit one day.  The man from heaven asked "what's it like in hell, is it awful?"  The man from hell replied "it is awful, but the worst part is that we have all this fabulous food, anything you could ever want, but the forks are 3 feet long, impossible to use."
The man from heaven replied "Oh, we have those same forks in heaven too - we feed each other!"

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Oven & Out! 
 

 

Monday, November 15, 2010

Perfect Baking . . . Ha!

With the holidays approaching we  here at MeMa's Bakery have got it under control.  There is no time for mistakes or mishaps.  Well, I guess I don't need to mention the red velvet disaster of today.  Even at this level of baking sometimes things just don't turn out the way you want them to.   In these times we refer to our favorite expression, "crumb it out!".  (This means we grind it up into crumb for the dry mix in our homemade apple strudel).    Lemons into lemonade.

Tomorrow is Taco Tuesday at our downtown Bakery.  What started out as a Cinco De Mayo gimmick has turned into controlled chaos each Tuesday.   We have a great time in the back getting ready for the swarms of people who stop in, probably wondering "what in the heck is a bakery doing making tacos?"  We are full of surprises, you have to be to continue bringing in new customers.    Our DT (downtown) staff, Cassie, Ashley and Kaylee are awesome, fearless under the pressure of a line out the door.  Limit 4, por favor!

This is going to be a very busy week with a lot of activities, I'll try to share as we get through it.

Oven and Out!




   

Monday, November 8, 2010

Introduction and Dedication

Small Town Bakery?  I realize the name is a bit odd for my blog since we now have two bakeries, both located in rather large cities but we started out small and our concept and the overall feel of the bakeries remains that of a "Small Town Bakery".
The actual name of our bakeries is MeMa's Old-Fashioned Bakery.  MeMa is my mother, for whom the bakery is named affectionately after.  Although I have been blessed with many "Guardian Angels" that have helped me build this business literally from the ground up I would like dedicate this first blog to three people, more about them later.

Lately, especially, I have been wondering what it is that keeps me fighting for this business.  It's no secret that the economic climate is rough right now and I know that I am not alone.  All across this country there are hardworking business owners struggling through each and every day.  I have discovered that for me the answer to why I do this comes from these three people:
First, my mother, MeMa.  I remember when I was a little girl and Mom worked at a small childrens clothing shop. I would pretend to be sick from school so I could spend the day with her at the shop.  We had the best time and I learned a lot about retail and the importance of customer service.  Later, when I decided to open the first bakery Mom had recently retired from her job and wanted to help.  We work so well together and have a great time every day.  I also discovered from visiting with Mom that when she was 12 years old  her family lost their farm and had to start over.  She understands the struggle of losing everything and fighting your way back. Her passion for this business to succeed is empowering and a source of strength for me each day.
She is 83 years old and still enjoys coming in each morning and putting on the coffee and helping us get the fresh case filled.  Inspiring, to say the least.
Second, my Dad.  When Mom & Dad were young and just starting out, he was faced with an opportunity to go into business with a friend.  The challenge of having a growing family and getting a business started forced him into a difficult decision; to take a secure job with the railroad or continue on with the business.  He took the railroad job and retired from that industry many years later.  I think that being around the bakery has helped him to fulfill  his dream of seeing a fledgling business succeed.  Dad is 85 years old and also enjoys coming in each morning to check if we have any local deliveries that he handles quite nicely with his small push cart. He is often heard saying "All this and retirement pay too".  ( I think that means he's pretty darn happy hanging around here.) 
I am so blessed to spend each morning with both of my parents and cherish each day.
Third, my daughter Cassie.  The past few years have been a huge challenge for our business and our family.  Cassie has stepped up to challenges that people twice her age have never faced.  Her courage to continue on everyday is amazing.  She runs our downtown location while sharing her quirky style with the customers and  has built great customer loyalty there. Not to mention she is a fabulous and talented cake decorator also.
Although we don't always get along, like most mothers & daughters, we agree on one thing.  We will fight for this bakery to succeed.
Well, that was pretty heavy.  From now on I'll try to lighten up.   There is a lot of fun that goes on here that I would like to share as well as baking tips and recipes.
Till next time - Oven and Out!