Category Archives: cooking and baking

the perfect brownie

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You guys! So we’re having a brownie sale over at Fanny & Jane dot com.

I told you I’d tell you about, so now I am.

It’s called The Perfect Brownie Sale and it lasts until Monday. Our amazing brownies are 50% OFF!

And! We’ve also added a new feature to our online shop – Flat Fee Shipping. Meaning you can order anything you want and you’ll only pay $6.95 for shipping. Never more, never less.

To place an order, go to fannyandjane.com and, at checkout, use the code: browniebliss.

So, why a brownie sale, you ask?

Well, our brownies are really the unsung heroes of our menu. They’re the very first recipe we ever created, in fact. When Faryn and I set out to start a baking business, we initially thought we might do just brownies. We both loved brownies, spent years of our lives honing our abilities to recognize what we considered to be the perfect brownie. So when we started to try out recipes and play with ingredients, we just focused on the brownie.

Our desire to bake sweets quickly expanded to other varieties, but not before we tried a handful of brownie recipes, taste-tested them on our friends, and selected the one that made us go, “Whoa.” That was something we’d agreed upon before we started baking. Which ever one we end up picking had to make us say Whoa. And the one we chose ended up becoming the cornerstone of our menu. Our classic fudge brownie.

Some of our wonderful customers who supported us during 2009 started coming out of the woodwork to sing the praises of these brownies. We were flattered! It’s easy for the brownies to be forgotten when there are Red Velvet Cake Bites to consider, but they remain one of my very favorite sweets on our menu.

I’m almost reverent about them, right?

Well, they make me say Whoa.

the coffee shop

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Before I get down to a proper entry today, I have to wish a great, big Happy Birthday to the one and only Michelle Ward, the When I Grow Up Coach! Have a wonderful day today, Michelle! I have a feeling this next year is going to be huge for you.

………

So, my day to day schedule is a bit of a different animal right now than it was at the end of 2009. When I left my job in mid-October last year, I was able to spend a few weeks relaxing, enjoying my free time, and letting each day take me where it would. But my ambitions quickly got the best of me and I ended up diving headfirst into what would ultimately become the Fanny & Jane 2009 Holidaze Craze. During that period, I worked long hours, slept very little and always had a To Do list that was longer than there were minutes in the day for me to tackle it. If you were along for that ride, you know what a boot camp it was.

And now that December is well behind us, vacation has been enjoyed, and we find ourselves right in the thick of January, with its bitter winds and limited daylight, my days look very different than they did a month ago when I was constantly covered in chocolate, flour and anticipation. And figuring out what to do with all this unstructured time has been an interesting challenge. I’m met with a feeling like the one I had in the weeks just after I quit my job, before the bakery got really busy – What day is today? What am I doing with my time? How can I possibly be expected to wake up before 10am?

Of course there’s plenty to do, there always is. I could do laundry, I could clean, I could get a head start on my taxes. I could finally rearrange the light bulb/garbage bag/cleaning supplies cabinet under the sink.

But ugh! Who wants to do any of that!? Rearranging cabinets is the kind of thing I do when we’re already cleaning the house. Or when I can’t find something I need and I end up spilling everything out on the floor and throwing half of it in the trash in a furious fit of There’s Too Much Crap I Never Use In This House We’re Selling Everything And Moving To The Woods Are You Coming Or Not Pack Up The CAAAATS!

And why would I ever want to avoid that kind of frenzy? That stuff gets me up in the morning.

Kevin and I are both working from home now and as lovely as it can be, as happy as I personally am to be, say, sitting at my kitchen table sipping coffee at 11am on a random Thursday, rather than answering a constantly ringing switchboard, it’s a little harder to focus at home on days when there’s nothing urgent to be focusing upon.

I definitely have bakery stuff to work on – lots of it, in fact. I am committing in 2010 to growing and building Fanny & Jane to the best of my ability. I’m going to continue to be a full-time business owner this year and find out where that takes us. And that’s great. So some days I have to spend the entire day baking, which is a lovely way to spend an afternoon and certainly makes one feel productive. But other days, the bakery work is strictly computer work – bank accounts, customer service, invoicing – all the little administrative odds and ends that go into running this biz.

And when the sunlight’s pouring in the front windows and your boyfriend wants to chit chat and your favorite news anchor is just so delightfully dry and clever, it’s hard to sit down and focus on computer work.

So Kevin and I together decided yesterday that we had to get out of the house if we were going to get any work done. We got up, got showered and dressed (a bit later than we’d planned to, but nobody’s perfect) and finally made our way to a comfy coffee shop two subway stops from our apartment. It felt like a mini-commute, as I lugged my mom’s old laptop (thanks mom!) in my bag. We arrived at the coffee shop and instantly found two plush chairs and a table where we could nestle in.

I realize that the custom of someone without a regular 9-5 desk job spending some daylight hours at a coffee shop, borrowing WiFi and sipping something warm, isn’t a new one. But can you believe it’s the first time I personally have done it – perhaps ever? I never had my own laptop until my mom and step dad generously donated their old one to my cause. Plus, until recently, I’ve had a 9-5 desk job for as long as I can remember. So there just hasn’t been an occasion to do work at a coffee shop.

As you can imagine, I was smitten with the experience. It was a blast! And sort of a dream come true.

The sunlight was streaming into the window in my little nook, I enjoyed a bran muffin and a cup of coffee whose flavor I did not care for, but whose fancy mug, I delighted in. And I sat in that corner for several hours, accomplishing task after task. You really come up plenty to do on the ol’ computer when you’ve left yourself no other option. I banged out emails I’ve been meaning to send for weeks, I worked on spreadsheets, I brainstormed, I researched. It was a productive few hours. I’d like to think that I would have gotten that much done had I been at my desk at home, but we all know that’s not true. For one thing, Oprah comes on at 4pm and if I’m home for it, you can bet I’m watching it. (Unless it’s a rerun or one of her concert-shows, for which I do not tend to care.)

So all, in all, that coffee shop experience was a lovely time. And even though I am not able to pack up and head out again this morning, the excitement of getting so much done yesterday has inspired me to wake up early today, make some breakfast and coffee and sit down at my kitchen table, crack open the the laptop and officially get some more work done! I think I’m onto something here. Isn’t it nice when you find a way to trick yourself into being productive?

I wonder if I’m making it sound like I’m remedial when it comes to my time management skills. Let’s just say that I’m a recovering time-waster. As a kid, I could waste time like it was my career path. Now that I’m an adult, I try to keep a leash on that tendency, but my true nature is always there under the surface.

I have a feeling you’re going to be hearing a lot more about my trips to the coffee shop.

Oh, by the way! Stay tuned for a big Fanny & Jane sale this afternoon! If you miss it on Twitter or Facebook, I’ll post something this evening on follow my bliss.

back to work!

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Being home for the holidays was really nice. I actually feel mentally prepared to return to a working lifestyle tomorrow morning. I wouldn’t turn down another week of vacation – I’m sure I could find some way to fill the time – but I’m looking forward to returning to a bit of structure too.

It’s currently Sunday night, and we’ve been home since New Year’s Eve. We’ve done next to nothing during this long weekend back in Brooklyn and I, for one, have enjoyed that very much. Kevin and I have watched movies, gone to the movies, gone out to dinner, met dear friends for brunch and laid around the house. SO. GREAT. And I have a loose plan for tomorrow, a to-do list in place, and a plan to hit up a middle of the day yoga class in the city. A wonderful way to ease out of vacation, if you ask me.

As I said, being home was lovely. It wasn’t perfect. There was some minor family drama, about which I’d never go into detail here because a.) who cares and b.) you don’t blog about family drama, minor or major. I love my family very much and sometimes it’s challenging to all be together in a big group for a bunch of days at once. That’s okay. That’s how families are. Beyond the expected stress that the holidays can bring, I had a carefree trip.

We ate a lot, for one thing. And in keeping with one of my new year’s resolutions, I am not going to get all over my own case about that, because that’s silly. I simply state it as a fact. I think I met my quota of red meat, fast food and lack of nutritional value for a while. And I did so pretty joyfully. This guy didn’t seem to mind either.

I introduced him to some essential midwest cuisine including Culvers, where the cheese curds are world-famous. He liked ‘em.

We did a lot of driving too, which is something we never get to do in New York because we don’t own a car. We drove five hours down to my grandparents house in Quincy, we drove down to the city of Chicago a couple times, and we drove all around Crystal Lake, up and down the roads where I learned to drive, where I dropped high school friends off at their houses before curfew, where I became independent. It was a blast.

I read a lot, got to spend some time with my mom’s cats and my cousin Trisha’s dog, watched a lot of bad TV and basically left the crazy baking weeks that led up to this vacation behind me. There was even a point surprisingly early on in the trip when I actually felt like spending another day baking and packaging and being on my feet all day might not be so bad. Truth be told, there was never a time when I swore off the whole experience entirely. I learned a ton from all the work we did – what I want, what I don’t, when I need to ask for help, how to potentially grow this little business. It’s very exciting!

The lovely thing about making your own schedule is that when it’s not an overwhelmingly busy time you can give yourself a little leeway and take things as they come. Still, I am looking forward to waking up tomorrow morning and putting my vacation goggles away for a little while.

vacation earned

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The Fanny & Jane end-0f-year madness is finally coming to a self-imposed end. I think I’d be in traction right now if I hadn’t put some boundaries on the work load. But we got it done. Kevin, James, Katie, David, Blue, Marina, Faryn, Meg, Tim, Clayton, Rebecca, Billy, Jessica, Matt, Steve and Daniel. We all worked tirelessly and got it done. I have an amazing group of friends.

Kevin made over 3000 cake bites, ran dozens and dozens of errands all over Manhattan and Brooklyn, shipped countless packages, made business decisions, designed packaging, directed troops and never faltered. Katie baked hundreds of cookies, made pounds of batter and offered to come back to do more again and again. David made SIXTEEN pans of brownies in less than eight hours. Marina did any job I put in front of her with ease and grace, including baking over 1000 cookies in less than three hours. Meg packaged sweets and assembled boxes like a pro. James saved my life on numerous occasions and was a sounding board, a work horse, and a wealth of knowledge. He also quietly rolled hundreds of cake bites in one afternoon without my even asking him to do so. Faryn made heavy batches of cookies and ran errands in the pouring rain. Tim made countless batches of cookies, packaged brownies, wrapped cake bites and filled boxes nonstop. Blue made so many red velvet cakes that I lost count, and kept Kevin and I laughing and cheerful the whole time she was here. Steve and Daniel both worked diligently with our boxes and tissue paper, and both schlepped out to Brooklyn when they probably didn’t want to. Billy carefully  sliced ten pans of brownies into little bite-sized pieces, which might not seem like a big job, but is actually one of the most awful parts of the process. It took him five hours and he did not stop once. (If I had done it instead, it would have taken me eight hours plus, no doubt….Hmm…I think I might need a new brownie slicing method, come to think of it.) Jessica and Matt, who’d both generously helped out with baking earlier in the week, were here the morning of one of the big shipments and were part of the most intense little assembly line this apartment has ever seen. The understanding postman basically waited at the door as we wordlessly taped and labeled too many boxes to count and got it done in a flash.

This is a messenger taking away one of the two big corporate orders we shipped. This was the smaller of the two orders, but it still filled three massive boxes.

Those huge boxes are filled with baked goods! And that was the smaller order?!

I am eternally grateful for my supportive, generous friends. And let me tell you – you really learn who your true friends are when you’re up against the wall in a situation like this. I cannot say thank you enough times to the people who saved my butt. They’re probably sick of hearing me say it – but THANK YOU, ALL OF YOU. You are wonderful friends and I hope for an opportunity to someday return the invaluable favor.

Yesterday marked exactly two months since my last day at the desk job. It feels like a lifetime. So much has changed in such a short period of time, and more interestingly, I have adapted so quickly to this new way of life. I barely remember what it was like to commute an hour to work every morning, to sit behind a desk answering phones for 9 hours a day, to leave the office when it was dark and wake up the next day and do it again.

I am a lucky young lady.

Kevin and I leave Brooklyn for Chicago this afternoon in fifteen minutes! (our afternoon flight was canceled!) and as I’ve said several times in the last couple weeks, I’m really looking forward to it. All the bakery madness meant I didn’t get out to soak up quite enough Christmas spirit this December (and Kevin vetoed the overplaying of Christmas music in the apartment…What a scrooge!), so I’ll have a lot to make up for during this next week at home. I’m excited to see my fabulous family, to spend time catching up with my cousins who are some of my best friends in the world, and to relax, eat, sleep, exercise, see movies, shop, chat, see old friends, give big hugs and be surrounded by warmth, love and home.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

the light!

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It’s dim, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, you guys!! Last night, after making major headway by putting some time consuming finishing touches on a huge order that’s going out this morning, I crashed into bed and slept like a rock. I woke up at 7am on the dot and although I hadn’t slept more than six hours or so, my body was ready to get this DONE. Today is the big day. One huge order will be picked up by a messenger this morning (we’re talking 30 large cake boxes that are currently stacked in my living room), and the other, even larger order will be packaged up all day today and shipped out tomorrow morning.

I. Cannot. Wait.

Today is going to be a long one. There’s a lot to get done. There’s some final baking to do. And then there’s just so much to package up. I have spent the last several days dreading this day because of how many little things have to finally come together. And I have spent the last several days embarrassingly begging friends and friends of friends to come over here and help Kevin and me today. I hate how much help I’ve had to ask for over the course of these last couple weeks, but I remind myself that my friends are probably happy to help. (They’ve all been so adorable about it. “It was fun!” Hmm..I wonder.)

Luckily, I think I have a small army of people coming over throughout the course of the day today. Kevin and I are both beyond grateful for that. We are both exhausted, achy and our minds are spinning. We will put the last of today’s huge order in boxes, slap shipping labels on them, and they will leave this house – hopefully via a pickup from the post office – tomorrow morning. And I might cry when that happens. Our workload won’t be over, but it will be significantly reduced. I might actually lay down on the couch and watch an Oprah tomorrow and stare off into space.

Oh my God, that will be heaven.

We’ve decided, this season, to package up our Red Velvet Cake Bites in these adorable little candy wrappers. I love them, they’re cute as can be. And I think they make the sweets that much more exciting to eat. The photo doesn’t really do them justice. (But I’m not at a stage to care right now.)

This has, without question, been one of the most challenging experiences of my life. I’ve never run a marathon, but this might just be my marathon. There are moments that occurred a few days ago, when we were just drowning in lists of things to bake, that I cannot believe we pushed through. And here we are and it’s almost over. I’ve learned a ton about myself in a very short time. Thank you for allowing me to go on and on about it.

repetition

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It’s a little painful to me that I haven’t been able to write more this week. But then I think, What would I even write about? Even though each day is different, they’ve all started to blend together. I think something that happened yesterday actually happened three days ago because I’ve lost all track of time. I don’t think I stepped foot outside yesterday. What day is it? Oh, I’m kidding. (Am I?)

We’re really in the home stretch here. Although, I suppose home stretch implies that we can see the finish line. And that’s not entirely true. I know the finish line exists somewhere – six or seven days from now – but I can’t exactly see it. In the restaurant industry, I think they call this being “in the weeds.” We’re definitely in the weeds.

It’s not the end of the world by any means. It’s a million different things, including wonderful and exciting.

Mostly, beyond being pretty tired and pretty sick of smelling chocolate, I’m really proud of what we’ve been able to build here. It’s rewarding. And I know that I will enjoy this Christmas vacation in a serious way.

Am I repeating myself? ;)

cats and humans

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These two are so precious lately. I think they’re really loving having us home all the time. (Kevin and I both work from home right now.)

The little girl, Kaia, the fluffy one, is technically my cat. And it’s almost like she knows it too. We both feed them regularly, we both pet them regularly, but Kaia seems to prefer me to Kevin. I don’t mind this one bit, since I’ve almost never been a cat’s preferred human. (I semi-tortured our cat when I was a kid. Let’s just say, I tried to dress her up one too many times. And my mother is convinced that it traumatized her for life, which is why she spent her last years never coming up from the basement and hissing at anyone new.)

When I wake up in the morning, Kaia has usually been laying next to me snuggling for the last little while. She eventually runs into the other room before I’m out of bed. But the moment she hears the covers rustle – the very moment – she comes DARTING back into the bedroom, jumps up onto my side of the bed, and mews and demands more cuddles. It’s the best! She never does this with Kevin. She tolerates him, but he just doesn’t get it DAD.

Chawser, on the other hand, adores his Dad and I will never compete. He literally climbs into Kevin’s lap on a regular basis – this is something I’ve almost never seen a cat do in my years with cats – and wants to be held, pet, smooched and generally tended to. It’s precious. He does it several times a day and he also loves for Kevin to pick him up and carry him around the house.

He wasn’t always this way. When Kevin first got him, he was terribly skittish, really nervous and rarely liked to be touched by anyone. Now he will even tolerate plenty of smooches from his annoying Mom.

Kaia was also much jumpier when we first got her. In fact, she hated us for weeks. The fact that she’s come around as much as she has – even if it’s just for me, even if she still hides in our bedroom whenever there’s anyone new in the house and does not come out until they leave, even if she spent an entire 12 hour period hiding in the window when I had some girl friends sleep over one night – the fact that she’s come around is pretty amazing.

Cats seem to be resilient and constantly changing in that way. A cat’s personality one year may very likely be totally different the next year. I suppose people are like that too, it just takes more time for their changes to be apparent.

I’m happy working from home. I love being here all day long to spend time with Kevin and our cats, who obviously bring us a lot of joy. It can sometimes be frustrating for both of us humans who live here to be trying to work together in one relatively small space, but we do okay. We get to eat breakfast and lunch together, we get to advise each other on aspects of our businesses and careers when we need help and it’s nice to see each other more often.

As much as I’m working hard to get this little bakery of ours through the holiday season, as much as it sometimes feels unfair that my friends get to go to parties and dinners and spend time with each other when I have to work an event or bake a cake, I’m still glad I made this choice. I’m having a lot of fun, and I’m learning so quickly, more than I ever imagined I could, about what it means to own your own business. I feel like an adult. And I’m really proud of what I’ve created.

thankful

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I wish I had more time to blog today, but it’s just not happening. I’ve gotten smart about how I’m actually going to get all these Fanny & Jane orders out the door before we leave town in less than three weeks. I learned from the Thanksgiving rush that if I don’t plan way ahead of time, organize myself in a major way AND ask for help from some volunteer Fanny & Jane elves (a.k.a. My darling friends who are generous and kind and are going to save my life this month.) it will never get done. So I’m planning to do those things this time around. Get organized, ask for help and use my time wisely.

I had a great therapy session yesterday where I talked about how stressful the Thanksgiving rush of sweet-selling was, and she kept saying to me, “It’s really hard,” over and over. She’s right. It’s not impossible, but certainly challenging.

Again! I’m not complaining! Just observing. This is hard work. And if I don’t, for example, wake up every day and exercise, exercising is not going to get done. And if I don’t sit down every day and have lunch, it’s not going to get eaten. And I’m going to have to cancel plans with friends when I don’t want to, and buy frozen meals to have for dinner when I don’t want to. Because that’s just the situation I’ve put myself in. I’m not sorry I’m in this situation at all. I’m learning a ton. And it’s an adjustment.

I apologize if I sound like a broken record.

I got up early again today, in the 8 o’clock hour – that’s two days in a row! – and I did an hour of yoga. And now, I’m going to finish up some computer work and get to baking. We have an event tonight, another one tomorrow, a bazillion orders to get out the door by the weekend (Thanks for your orders, all!! I love seeing them roll in…). We also have a holiday party to cater, and then one, maybe two, large corporate orders to get out the door next week. Yikes. And that’s just what I already know about. I’m sure things will come up that I don’t expect. So I’ll be in the kitchen this afternoon. And I’ll be in bed at a reasonable hour tonight. So that I’m ready to get up early tomorrow and do it all over again.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with some choice photos from our Thanksgiving weekend. Because that’s all I got.

the holiday season

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Thanksgiving weekend was a blast! I had a great time visiting my good friend Adam’s family in Voorheesville, NY. We ate, drank, played indoor and outdoor games, and relaxed a ton. It was just what the doctor ordered. And now that we’re home, I’ve begun decorating the house for Christmas!!

I’ve really only gotten the “mantle” (or top of a long, short bookcase) done so far. Hopefully we’ll be getting a tree sometime this week, and I also plan to string up a few more lights here and there.

I had a great time throwing a bunch of our holiday decorations up on the mantle in what appears to be a chaotic fashion (but it wasn’t, I promise!).

That batch of greens I bought a few weeks back were just minding their business in our living room. So I commissioned them to don some fancy flare and anchor the Christmas Mantle.

I adore some of the old ornaments I have – they were handed down to me by my mother and grandmother. I saved some good ones to put on our real tree too, but some of the most adorable three dimensional ones, especially ones that could stand up unassisted, earned a spot on the Christmas Mantle. This little Santa on a tricycle might be my favorite ornament of my entire collection. Look at him! And the tricycle’s wheels actually move!

This is another favorite ornament. I’ve hung it on the little greens tree this year because whenever it goes on the big tree, it always gets lost among all the other decorations. It’s a tiny copy of The Night Before Christmas, which I knew by heart at age two and would recite often.

Best of all, the entire story is printed inside.

I had fun putting these decorations up last night and I’m looking forward to filling our apartment with delicious smelling sweet treats today, as I begin to do some December baking for Fanny & Jane.

I love this time of year. As stressful, overwhelming and constant as it can sometimes seem, it’s also festive, nostalgic and comforting. The countdown to December 25 has begun. I keep almost buying Advent Calendars and then deciding against it. I’m never a fan of the cheap chocolate they use.

Our Fanny & Jane holiday shop is open for two more weeks. We will accept our last order on Monday, December 14. I expect to be very busy between now and then. And I’ve decided that the best way for me, personally, to tackle these next two and a half weeks (I leave town for Crystal Lake, IL on December 19) is to make sure I get in some exercise every day, and that I keep myself and my sanity as a top priority.

I’ll leave you with this slightly terrifying creature, a large Santa from my grandmother’s collection of Christmas decor. He’s almost nightmarish.

But he’s nothing compared to another figurine I have, one that I refuse to photograph. It’s a fat little Santa smoking a pipe and holding a clown doll. And he looks way too jolly for anyone’s good. If we get through the season without that thing coming to life and eating us in the night, I will be pleasantly surprised.

feelin’ festive

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I love this time of year.

I spent the day finishing up odds and ends that need to be taken care of before we go out of town tomorrow. Oh and I also took a nap. Mmmm..

I had some last minute Fanny & Jane shipments and deliveries to make this evening, along with a quick trip to the grocery store to get the ingredients for our contributions to the Thanksgiving weekend (garlic mashed potatoes from scratch, a big salad, and apples, cheese and crackers as an appetizer) and now I’m home for good until we leave tomorrow evening to drive upstate. I can’t wait!

The city has a magical feeling about it right now. The holidays are in full swing. Everyone’s out and about buying gifts and flowers and food and wine. People are already traveling, lugging suitcases on the subway and hailing cabs to the airport. I just love the idea that so many people are working at once toward the same event, the same big meal, the same indulgent afternoon that they will share with family, friends or even strangers.

Of course there are many people who won’t get to have that this year, who never get to have it. And that makes me incredibly grateful for this blessed life I’m living.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone! I’ll be back next week!

p.s. Faryn and I are gearing up for Fanny & Jane Holiday Craze. I’m excited, nervous, terrified and thrilled to embark on this holiday season as a baker and sweets purveyor. Last year right around this time, I came up with the idea of baking sweets for my friends and family instead of buying gifts for people for the holidays. I just wanted to get a little creative with my gifts, save money, and stop the pattern of buying people a bunch of crap they don’t need or want. Even so, it blows my mind to realize that now, just a year later, I co-own my own little sweets company, I’m a small business owner. And the first spark of that idea happened last year when I was baking and gifting sweets for my friends. I would not have believed for a second, 12 months ago, that I’d be in this position now. But here I am.

Again. I’m really lucky.