Baking for the Troops

On my food blog surfing yesterday afternoon, I came across a blog requesting home baked cookies to be sent to the troops who serve our country. Since I'm so into baking I quickly answered the call. I know you can all guess what I baked - yup - my DOUBLE CHOCOLATE WALNUT BISCOTTI.

On that note, I've got to get to the Post Office to fill out the correct Customs forms and get my cookies into the process of being shipped overseas.

Anyone else interested in baking - you can go to this website: http://operationbakinggals.blogspot.com/ or send an email to:bakinggals@gmail.com.

Best,

Jane

Making Your Orders

for ties? You don't even have to get dressed to shop at Private Stock Menswear! Just point and click and press SEND and you can have your ties in a day or 2!

OK - well I'm back here in New Jersey after 5 days in hot sticky Manhattan. How did you like our display up at the NY Haberdashery? Wasn't it nice? I quickly bought 3 more of those tall ladder displays which we'll be shipping out to Chicago to trim our booth out there.

Last night in NJ we had horrific rain storms! Thunder and torrential amounts of rain. Gordie went to bed at his usual time - EARLY. Me, I've taken to staying up late watching my sister COOK MEALS ONLINE! My sister brings her computer into her kitchen and has 2 cameras and she talks and we the viewers Instant Messenger her while she is cooking. It's just the coolest darn thing. My sister has been keeping this cooking gig a secret from me for last the 10 months! She even hid away all the gear (wires and such) when Emily and I went down back in April for a visit. At any rate, her site is called www.JUSTOPIA.com. She broadcasts over this website called JustinTv (whatever that is).

Here are some photos I've snapped. Oh and I was able to post a few of my window box photos on Martha Stewart's blog. I had something like 50 hits a photo! AM I GETTING FAMOUS????????????? Nope, I'm JUST JANE!

OK leave me a comment so I know you are alive out there!

Best,

Jane

Getting back into my regular routine

We're baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack from the NY Haberdashery Show! Was another fine production pulled off by our fearless leader Debra Granger. Good job/show Debra and thank you for all your help! Although the aisles were less filled this season, we did our share of selling our ties and publications. Thanks to all who stopped by our booth to see our fine neckwear and accessories.

So it seems we were locked away inside the cool Warwick Hotel and were spared the tremendous heat wave going on the Tri State area. Only felt the heat to slip out to drive home or to go out for dinner. Speaking of dinner, our children really picked up the slack and prepared us some fine meals! Even did a few loads of wash too! Hmmm maybe my skills are getting passed down to the next generation - YA THINK?

I always bring my camera, but I never seem to take enough photos. I sometimes get a little bit shy to snap the pix. Oh well, I'm posting what I took.

OK then, August 1st it's off to Charlotte, NC -- after that -- August 9th it's Chicago or bust! Then it's time to come back, pack up our daughter for her Sophomore year of college and get to picking all the Fall Orders! Oh and Emily was awarded a bit more scholarship moolah too! YIPPEE! Russell is still plugging away playing ball in front of many many college scouts. Will he go to college for baseball - -who knows...but just being away at school will be a wonderful experience for him!

Best,

Jane

Stuff I've been doing

What...you think I'm just sitting around waiting for your orders or something? WELL I AM! KIDDING -- I've been busy as a beaver! I rarely sleep these days.

OK first things first, July 16th is here - the day after our lawn which usually turns to weeds. And guess what -- WE S-T-I-L-L HAVE GREEN GRASS! G-R-E-E-N grass! I can hardly take it. I'm taking pictures just to remind myself of the date and that we still have green grass.

See my front hall way? We have to be in NYC to the Warwick tomorrow morning by 6:30am! See how we can hardly walk thru the door? Tonight we intend to pack up our car to be ready for a speedy departure tomorrow morning. Will any of you be in NYC tomorrow ... COME ON BY AND SEE OUR NEW FALL 2008 LINE! We set up in the morning - but we always have time to show our ties.

Next up - I'M KNITTING A QUILT FOR OUR BED! REPEAT - I'M KNITTING A QUILT FOR MY BED! WHAT AM I COMPLETELY NUTS! Yes I am! I hope, #1 that I like how it comes out and #2 I hope it's not too itchy as it is completely made of wool. I think I will have to border the quilt with soft cotton fabrics just so that we don't itch at night! I'M KNITTING A QUILT FOR MY BED! I have to put this in writing to remind myself of the enormous task ahead of me. HEY, I'M WONDERING...HAS MARTHA STEWART EVER KNITTED HERSELF A QUILT????????????? I THINK NOT! Who knew this can be done???? I also must be nuts to take on a project in the middle of summer -- with a hot wool quilt on my lap knitting around and around! I'll be sure to crank up my air - speaking of air, it was on the fritz the other day, but the repair man came to my rescue! I was shaking ready for him to say, "Mrs. Cahn...you need a whole new system"- but nope, just a clogged pipe! YIPPEE FOR ME!

And last but not least - are you worried I won't have time to fit in baking for all you loyal customers???? RELAX - THE BISCOTTI ARE IN THE OVEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK hope to see you all over the next 5 days!

PS The last photo is of din-din tonight - turkey meatballs and spaghetti!

Best,

Jane

Just got Sam B's go ahead to

water my lawn!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was not allowed to put the sprinkler near it up until tonight. But he tells me I have to run my sprinkler for 2 hours! Is he kidding me? OMG - imagine what my water bill will be???!!!! I'm going to let it go for 45 minutes to 1 hour -- and he wanted me to do this job starting at 11PM! Again...please -- I'm up at 5:30-6:00 every day. No way am I staying up that late for my lawn. So, I'm watering right now -- I started at 8:00PM.

Emily and I are watching the dog down the street this weekend. We had him here for dinner time, but then he sat by our front door crying so we brought him back to his house. We will go and check on him at 10 and maybe bring him back here for a sleep over. We'll have to see.

Next week we'll be packing up our line and getting ready for the show!

More soon!

Best,

Jane

Another Tuesday

means Sam B. came to work his magic on our front lawn. I'm telling you, out lawn is a battle from Mid March when it starts to greens up until Thanksgiving when the last of the Fall leaves are down and picked up! Sam B. has sprayed his myriad of weed killers, fungus killers, oak grass killers to whatever else he has in his 1969 Chevy truck! And today was no exception. I always get a ring of my doorbell, Mrs. Cahn I just sprayed, please keep the dog off the lawn for a day - people too! I'm generally cooking or baking when he comes to do my lawn, so I always give him a cookie or a brownie or whatever else I have in the house!

I'm also posting my garden with more marigolds that I planted last night. Em and I felt we needed to get out for a bit after dinner and Home Depot was having a great plant sale. The deer do not EAT the marigolds, but I see they just walk and trample all over them! I hope these flowers make it until Fall! I love it when they get to big and bushy. Notice how Gordie seems to get into EVERY photo!

Oh we are looking after Gordie's best friend Webster who lives down the street. Remember him from last summer? He was our naughty house guest. We'll have to see how it goes this coming weekend! I'll be sure to have my camera out.

Best,

Jane

Getting Ready

for next week and the Trade Shows! I decided to make this pocket square "board" for easy ordering. Some cone on now...make your orders for these really cool squares! Buy'em in all the colors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I have to start writing my list of ingredients so I can start baking next week as well.

Busy busy busy!

Best,

Jane

What to do on another not so nice day out

So what do you think I'm doing this cloudy dreary Sunday? YUP -- COOKING!!!!!!!!!!! You see I am ADDICTED to food blogs. A-D-D-I-C-T-E-D! When I see something I like (the pictures just have to grab my attention)I always think, I CAN MAKE IT ALSO! Gary already requested a rotisserie chickie tonight, so I had that in the back of my mind when I found this easy recipe for BBQ sauce! I made my OWN BBQ sauce and it was soooooooooooo easy! Here are some photos.

The last photo is of our Coco Pellie that we bought 10 years ago on a trip to Arizona. I always had him inside, but I decided to take him out, maybe bring us some good luck and SCARE THE DEER AWAY from my garden. We'll have to see!

Tomorrow is work...the sample lines will be going out to our salesmen and the last minute details of our booth will be coming together.

Best,

Jane

After July 4th

Comes this morning, JULY 5th! And ... it's another yukky, humid, gray, misty day here in NJ. The kids went out last night and we stayed in. Our town cancelled the fireworks celebration due to lack of funds FOREVER. Was probably a good thing in light of the miserable weather. The kids went to the town next door and watched the fireworks display - said it was lousy. They think the fireworks stank because of the rain. Oh well - WHATEVER!

I decided we should have our own STEAKHOUSE dinner last night. We bought 2 Porterhouse steaks at the store and made baked potatoes, creamed spinach and tomatoes and onions. Sounds yummy right? Sure was! We even used the Weber Grill because in my opinion it really makes the food taste grilled! We were lucky the rain held off for our cookout. Too bad we couldn't eat outside, but it was just too hot and muggy. I don't think we've eaten outside yet this season.

On that note, it's time to plop myself in front of the TV to watch the Ladies Tennis/Williams sisters.

Oh, and the last picture is of Gordie - I just couldn't resist adding that photo!

Best,

Jane

I should walk into town more often!

I decided to save on gas...why give away my HARD earned money when I can walk to our brand new gourmet market in town? I had a hankering for grilled fish tonight. I put on my favorite pair of CROCS and out the door I went. I got so far as 5 doors down my hill when I ran into our neighbors the Rebhorns. Have any of you out there heard of Jim Rebhorn the actor? He's been in many movies. Do you recognize him? Anyway, he's a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge NY MET fan as are my boys - so we were discussing their horrible favorite team. We also caught up on all the kids and what colleges and extra stuff they are doing in their lives.

Got to the Eden Gourmet where I picked up my fish. I had to ask MORE THAN ONCE for a bag of ice since I was walking home. Paid my bill and out the door I went. I was walking through our town pool parking lot where I ran into an old friend who I had not seen in YEARS! We met 16 years ago waiting for our husbands every night at the train station in town! They moved off to Asia for a number of years, and when they came back -- well we went our own ways. We chatted for a bit and I continued my walk home with my fish.

Now I'm back - in need of a cold drink of water. I will close for now and post photos our yummy (I hope) fish dinner!

Happy July 4th!

Best,

Jane

I want to cut these flowers

AAAH - my neighbors down the street have this gorgeous color hydrangea blue shrub that I so badly want to cut a few blooms! The next best thing was to snap a few shots. Oh wouldn't they look so lovely in a vase in my kitchen? I love hydrangeas!!!!!!!! Thank goodness the DEER don't!

I have finished swatching the FALL 2008 Private Stock neckwear line! What a major job it was - but being that I'm super organized helped A LOT! Today, I'm sending out all our salesmen their lines. Our photographer has finished up photographing all the sets and 1/2 the line is already up on this site. Call me if you need a username and password.

July 4th is tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be baking something Patriotic and I'll be sure to post some photos. I'M ALWAYS IN THE KITCHEN! I love to bake!

Best,

Jane