Long Live Steve!

Entrepreneurial Saga continues: It's all about Steve, the wrapping machine!
Those of you who might be following my blog already know that Steve is an awesome vintage wrapping machine that wraps our caramels. We just purchased it a few month ago and named it Steve: that's how much we loved it already! Today marks the 1st official day of Steve's life in our production facility. Our mechanics Larry and George of Elite Machinery delivered Steve, all wrapped up in tarp in the back of their pick up truck and installed it in our space. Steve runs like a song, has a few modern additions that make operating it a breeze and wraps up to 120 candies/minute. I was so excited to play with Steve, that I neglected lunch and bathroom breaks and wrapped all of the caramels I had on hand at the moment.
Tomorrow I will post a slide show on Steve so that everyone can see what a wonderful guy he is!
But for now: is Whole Foods venturing into energy now? See below. I hope you'll find amusing. I did!

Top Chef?

Due to the violent storms in our area I was not able to view Wednesday's Top Chef on Bravo at all: all I got was static. Damn you satellite TV!

Turns out, that after much prolonged Restaurant Wars (as if the creative team at Bravo run out of ideas for new elimination challenges! The should have gotten Brian "fired" after the 1st challenge) the very awesome Tre gets axed. Tre? Seriously, Top Chef judges you must have lost it. Tre was the only guy I (and thousands of others out there or so it seems by the passionate response from the blogging community) could vote to become a Top Chef. Calm, collected and true to his roots: a welcome change from the bitching, whining, back stabbing majority of chefs on this season's program. Perhaps he did not hold enough "controversy" potential? All he did was cook and competed fairly (except for the eavesdropping accident, but so what- that's nothing compared with Howie's constant bullying!). I believe he was eliminated because he was clearly too good for the fake reality show where everything depends on editing and people's merits are based on how much controversy they can stir up. Isn't it what the reality TV is all about?

Girls Gone Mild

Today I heard a very interesting interview on Chicago NPR Station: it was interview with Wendy Shalit , the author of the recent book "Girls Gone Mild". In short it is about the emerging modesty movement among girls, which is often driven not by the religious values but by their desire to live dignified life.

Now this topic is near and dear to my heart since heiress Das just turned 16 and so far has behaved very well. She is a true "Girl Gone Mild" which makes me very proud. As I was listening to the radio debate today I realized that to the large extent the path to "Mild" typically start at home, and it is parent's job to ensure that they stay involved and pay attention to what is going on in children's life. Not just nod or agree with everything they say because it's easier or because "we're too tired to argue" or, perhaps, because " my parents were very strict so I will give my child a longer leash no matter what". It is our job to be their parent, not their friend (they have many already!).

Here is the link to the full interview with Wendy Shalit : enjoy!

What do you think about the modesty movement: is it here to stay?

Oh, sweet memories of corporate life...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A magazine recently ran a "Dilbert Quotes" contest. They were looking for people to submit quotes from their real-life Dilbert-type managers. These were voted the top ten quotes in corporate America :
"As of tomorrow, employees will only be able to access the building using individual security cards. Pictures will be taken next Wednesday, and employees will receive their cards in two weeks." (This was the winning quote from Fred Dales, Microsoft Corp. in Redmond WA )
"What I need is an exact list of specific unknown problems we might encounter." (Lykes Lines Shipping)
"E-mail is not to be used to pass on information or data. It should be used only for company business." (Accounting manager, Electric Boat Company)
"This project is so important we can't let things that are more important interfere with it."
(Advertising/Marketing manager, United Parcel Service)
"Doing it right is no excuse for not meeting the schedule." (Plant Manager, Delco Corporation) "No one will believe you solved this problem in one day! We've been working on it for months. Now go act busy for a few weeks and I'll let you know when it's time to tell them."
(R&D supervisor, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing/3M Corp.)
Quote from the Boss: "Teamwork is a lot of people doing what I say." (Marketing executive, Citrix Corporation)
"My sister passed away and her funeral was scheduled for Monday. When I told my Boss, he said she died on purpose so that I would have to miss work on the busiest day of the year. He then asked if we could change her burial to Friday. He said, "That would be better for me." (Shipping executive, FTD Florists)
"We know that communication is a problem, but the company is not going to discuss it with the employees." (Switching supervisor, AT&T Long Lines Division)

Because I am a girl....

... I am constantly worried about my weight. shopping has long become a treasure hunt in what I can eat "for free" i.e. without spending any precious "Weight Watchers" points. So I thought I'd post a list of all foods that I love that have very little points:

1. Crunchy and delicous Indian Papadams: they're sort of like wafers, but typically savory and spicy. So full of flavor and yet so less calories (perhaps 80-90 depending on the brand). Be sure to microwave them: some Indian cookbooks recommend deep-frying which clearly adds a load more calories

2. Trader Joe's High Fiber Cereal: 2/3 cup for 90 calories and 7g fiber/serving. It also has great little pieces of dried fruit and even nuts!
3. Low Fat Vegetarian Black Bean Soup from Panera : 1-8 oz serving - 160 cal, 11 grams fiber
4. Dannon plain fat free yogurt: serving- 1 cup, 110 cal, tons of calcium and you can flavor it with anything you want.
5. TLC Original 7 grain crackers: 15 crackers/serving, 130 calories, 30 from fat, 2 g. fiber.
6. Carrots and Hummus (I make my own, but Athenos Hummus has approx 50 cal/2 tbsp)
7. Fresh fruit (Apples- 65 cal/1 cup serving 3 g fiber, Bananas - 200 cal/cup, 5.8g fiber)
8. Pumpernickel Bread: (68 cal) + fat free salmon cream cheese (fat free cream cheese is about 15 cal/1 tbsp+ 1 oz of smoked salmon 33 calories/serving)
9. Fat Free Farmer's Cheese, e.g. Lifeway: 25 calories/2 tbsp. You can also use fat free cottage cheese instead, but the texture of it is slightly different
10. Vegetables and Salads. My favorite salad is just a garden salad: any greens (the darker the better), tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, snap peas, whatever. Drizzle or spray with olive oil, vinegar (use fruit vinegars or red/white wine will do) and season with salt/pepper. Enjoy the salad with selection #8

Successful trial

We started up our new facility with only a few issues on Friday! Of course, this is a good start but we're not yet out of the woods. Here is what we've accomplished:
1. Made 50 lbs of caramel (with lavender) - it was yummy!
2. Cleaned up some equipment that we did not use that day,
3. Additional nesting activites included shelving ingredients and bickering about miscellaneous things
Steve the wrapping machine will be installed next week.
Here are some learnings
1. Copper kettle burns easily
2. It's easy to overheat the caramel in the final stages, therefore making the texture too hard (in which case it's difficult to say that our caramels are "deliciously soft")
3. We have a lot of space in Das Foods facility that will hopefully be filled by all kinds of exciting candy making gadgets soon!
On the emotial level however, the place still feels empty and unlived in. It has the same kind of feel as a new home, when there is no furniture, no clutter, no pictures on the walls and no bed to sleep in. The only thing that's missing is a bare lightbulb that is hanging from the ceiling on the bare wire.
A weird absence of excitement is somewhat buffling: we worked so hard to get here and yet it's somewhat anti-climactic, perhaps because there is not a lot of activity yet.

Making caramels at our new facility!- Entreprenural Saga, Chapter 2

Tomorrow is our "official" start up at the new facility: I am extremely excited but also scared since I know from multitude of my previous experiences that there are SO many things that can (and undoubtedly will) go awry.

The wrapping machine (named Steve- see my prev. posting) is not going to be up and running until next week. However, even before we start wrapping the caramels, I need to ensure we can actually making using our new equipment.

Typically, the best way to make caramels is to use copper kettle- a candy stove (below) Copper is a great heat conductor and the caramel mix cooks quickly and thoroughly. It also looks great: check out the faux antique "lion paw" legs!

The other essential piece of equipment that is necessary for caramel production is a cooling table. It is a steel table with water pipes running under it and is used for cooling the caramel quickly so that it's ready for cutting and wrapping.

Finally, caramels are wrapped and packaged in neat little boxes

I can't wait until tomorrow: I think we'll emerge victorious! More later....

Salt Story Necklace

Sometimes it feels like this business is one big party where I meet wonderful and gifted people that I otherwise would have never known!
For example, my new customer Karen McGovern has created this beautiful Story Necklace. She's handmade all the beads and pendants from polymer clay, and there are two bowls from antique sterling silver salt spoons in the design. The salt is inside recycled glass perfume sample bottles. With this necklace she's included a "story book" about the history of salt, folklore, and legend. She also included a wonderful poem about salt and it is on the cover of the story book:
This salt in the salt cellar
I once saw in the salt mines.
I know you won'tbelieve me,
but it sings, salt sings,
the skin of the salt mines sings
with a mouth smothered by the earth.
I shivered in those solitudes
when I heard the voice of the salt in the desert.
Near Antofagasta the nitrous pampa resounds:
a broken voice,
a mournful song
This series of art jewelry is called "Spice of Life" and this necklace is called "Salt of the Earth". I am making a matching ring, and perhaps bracelet using smaller glass vials, etc. Unfortunately, the necklace is already sold, and will be displayed in one of two galleries Karen work with (Gallery 50, http://www.gallery50.com/, or WildChild Gallery, http://www.wildchildgallery.com/).

Wine+Caramel

Yesterday we bought new wine, Bodegas Alejandro "Las Rocas" Garnacha '02, ($8 at Binny's Beverage Depot in Chicago). Being only a novice at tasting wines, here are my impressions
- Great nose: blackberry and dark chocolate- yum!
- Decent finish
- Gorgeous color, although not as deep as Zinfandels are
- Great value overall!
We also ate a few caramels with it: Classic with Lavender and Ginger/Pistachio - what a great discovery! Prior to this tasting I always recommended to pair our caramels (except for Dark Chocolate and Toasted Walnut) with Viogniers or Chenin Blanc (our fav: Boony Doon Pacific Rim Chenin Blanc . Turns out that when paired with full bodied fruity reds, caramels just blossom with flavor and the sweetness and spiciness of ginger is intensified dramatically. Yum- yum. Perhaps I will make an attempt to develop wine+caramel tasting guide.

can you find Das Caramelini? check out map below!