Denied :(

I'm so sad :(. I had no idea yelpers were so sensitive. As I mentioned previously, I just recently discovered the world off yelp and was totally stoked on it. I was ready to get my reviewing fingers typing on all the places I eat, see, taste and smell!! But I've been booted :(. I'm so bummed. I wanted to get some reviews written on the cookies so I approached 2 high profile yelpers and asked if they'd be willing to write a review if I sent them some cookies to sample. I swear it was totally innocent on my part - I didn't ask for a rigged review or anything. I figured once they tasted the cookie deliciousness they'd for sure want to YELP about it..but I guess they got a little pissed and booted me from the site. So anyway, I just wanted apologize if I've been a little "spammy" in trying to promote cookies. I really don't mean to be...

TGI...M?

Thank God it's Monday!!...not becuase I'm a workaholic and just love working....even though I don't really have a real work week anymore so I guess everyday could really be a Monday or a Friday or anyother day... wait what day is it? ... but becuase it just means it's a fresh week with new goals and thank God today got off to a much better start than last week's Monday. Last week was a frustrating week for me...and I guess all of America too. :( It's hard when you know you've got a great product and you know people just love them but you still need to convince them to actually pay money for them or to trade some oro blanco grapefruit for them - so good! (Thanks for the hook-up Polito Farms - your fruits are delish!) But anyway, with the start of a new week,I'm re-energized and feeling pretty solid after a super encouraging day with lots of cookie love, including a cookie shout out from Hillary on FM94.9 middays. Thanks girl! It's all about the cookies!

Fallin for you...

my favorite rounded friend...the pumpkin!! I must say pumpkin is probably one of my most favorite flavors - you just can't go wrong with it. How excited am I for this....you ready for it...Pumpkin Cheesecake stuffed cookie So good! Just a little shelf life testing to do and soon it'll be ready for sale.

Where have I been?

So I know I must be totally decades behind but I just discovered the big wide world of yelp.com. I love it! I've been doing it for my whole life really but now it's just documented. Whenever I'd have a fantastic experience of course I'd have to tell everyone how awesome it was and whenever it was crappy oh you know I was telling the first person I saw. How cool is it that I can tell hundreds of thousands of people all at once now! It's also a good place to do a little cookie promoting. I've listed The Cookie Chew as an official business even though it's not an actual location (I don't know if that's okay actually), but oh well, so if you've had an ejoyable cookie experience, go ahead and yelp about it!

Awesome article - way to go City Beat!

I never read the City Beat but a friend just so happened to stumble on an awesome article they recently wrote and sent it to me. It's awesome!

http://www.sdcitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/limbo_in_the_north/7301/

Once you pop you can't stop!

It's one of those mornings again! I've had a couple insane days of baking and tasting, baking and tasting, more tasting and now I've a got a three day crazy sugar hangover and a belly still full of cookies!! Agh...!! Can someone direct me to some meat?! I even tried just putting the cookie in my mouth and chewing it but not swallowing thinking I'd still get the full taste of the cookie but nope... it tastes totally different! Oh, the sacrifices I make to make sure you guys are eating a delicious cookie! :) It wasn't all in vain though becuase I've finally perfected the COOKIE CUBES! Bite sized cubes of cookie, super popable, totally unique and of course super yummy! Even better, I've made three of them to mirror cocktail drinks, like the Cosmo, Raspberry Chocolate Martini, and White Russian. Working on a whole happy hour menu so any other suggestions? I'd love to hear them!!

Speaking of Heros...

...just thought I'd give a little shout out to my hero - Jen Cassel! She's been an amazing friend and total support through all the recent cookie madness. She's been at every cookie event helping me promote cookies, raves about them to all her friends and is constantly looking for new cookie opportunities. She's awesome! It's a good thing that she't totally okay with being paid in cookies too! Thanks for all your help these last couple months - love you girl! You rock!

The other 1,500 cookies...

Wow - why is my life just flying by right now?! It's totally crazy! I feel like everyday is just a busy blur with cookies swirling in the eye of the hurricane and before I know it I'm passing out in the batter only to get up and start another crazy day all over again. It's totally a good thing though. Anyway, my whole point is too apologize for taking a few days to tell you guys about the Heros on the Harbor event on Saturday because I know I promised to do it on Sunday. It was fantastic! I had never been aboard the U.S.S Midway before so to see the ship and explore all the historical aircrafts on board was totally cool. I learned that more people are qualified to perform brain surgery than to land a carrier. It's crazy hard and pretty scary to do! The setup of the event was beautiful and pretty much covered the entire flight desk of the ship. It was huge! I think there had to be at least over 20 wineries there, Jers Chocolate and my cookies were there and many others as well. The highlight of the night had to be Michael Israel's performance though. I had seen some of his youtube videos so I knew what to expect but those don't even compare to actually watching it in person. It's incredible! I was stoked too because he loved the cookies! Afterward, I think each painting got auctioned for no less than $10k, they were amazing! All in all it was a fantastic night and I'm so glad to have been able to take part in it. To see so many people show up to volunteer and attend and contribute to such a great cause again reminded of why I love this town so much!

1,587 Cookies Later....

What a day! At least 1,587 cookies were put in mouths of San Diegnas between the Little Italy Farmer's Market this morning and the Heros on the Harbor event on the U.S.S Midway tonight. You know how you don't know how tired your feet are until you finally sit down and they start to tingle insanely, well that's kind of how I'm feeling right about now. It's so nice to sit. Ah.....and I'm super sorry for the blog hiatus this past week but preparing for the 1,582 cookies to put in the mouths of local San Diegans has made my life into quite the whirlwind of flour, sugar, mad rushes to the store, and late night emails. I'm so glad this day is coming to an end and I can finally come off this week long sugar high but even more so I'm so glad it was super successful and so much fun!

From what I hear the market this morning was the slowest it's ever been so it wasn't the mad amount of money I didn't make that made it so successful but more the super cool people I got to meet and chat with that made the day so great. I love the community feel of the markets and just really getting to know the people in the neighborhood and the faces behind all the great products this great city has. Plus with Chi Chocolat displaying their delicious and absoultely gorgeous chocolate and desserts I must say our display was fantastic! Oh and how could I forget, a local food editor was checking out the markets today and decided to check out our booth. She happened to sample a peanut butter and from what I can gather was thoroughly impressed. You can see what she has to say here, http://www.sandiegofoodstuff.com/2008/09/new-at-market.html Yay! My very first review! So exciting! Although, getting up at 6:30 on a Saturday isn't really my idea of a good time, I'm totally stoked to go back next week, if anything I've found the most amazing grapefruit I've ever had - I can't remember what they're called but they're from Polito Family Farms and super super sweet. I'll find out next week becuase I'm sure I'll be getting some EVERY week!

Okay - super tired...will blog about the U.S.S Midway tomorrow... :)

"I could make people smile. All they had to do is eat the cookie. That was a magical thing."

...as said by Debbie Fields.  And yes, they did recently file for bankruptcy...so sad... but I just finished reading her book One Smart Cookie and it's actually quite inspirational.  No great secrets to success exposed and when she started of course the economy and times were completely different, but I was able to identify with her in more ways than just cookies so to hear about the hurdles she encountered and overcame in building her cookie empire was actually quite encouraging.  Sometimes, I totally get discouraged and freaked out that I'm actually trying doing this so to know that just one housewife with only a cookie recipe was able to create, run and establish the Mrs. Fields empire, or how three academics who shared a love of coffee and tea could create a whole new way of experiencing coffee, or how a small town man cold sell a delicious secret doughnut receipe to a health crazed society and then to the world, actually comforts me.  For all you women foodprenuers I recommend picking it up.  As cheesy as it might be she offers five tips for success:

1: Make Your Critics Eat Their Words - 
“The greatest failure is not to try. Had I listened to all the people during the course of my life who said, “You can’t. You’ll fail. It won’t work. You don’t have…,” I wouldn’t be here today.”

2: Passion is the Key in a Successful Business Recipe 
“You have to have passion when you’re finding a recipe for a career. If you love what you are doing, you’ll never work a day in your life.”

3: Let Your Customers Try and Buy Your Product 
“I learned how important what I call ‘try and buy’ was. I didn’t want to advertise and say my cookies are the world’s best. It would be presumptuous of me to say that. Instead I wanted people to actually experience the product, try the product, and if they thought it was worthy, if they liked it, then they could buy it.”

4: Good Enough Never Is 
“Good enough never is. Set your standards so high that even the flaws are considered excellent.”

5: Stop Doing What is Not Working 
“I was a woman with a mission, I would stop people, even buses I would stop and say, ‘Here, you’ve got to taste these cookies. Just try them."

If you've got a success story to share - I'd LOVE to hear it!

$15 Dinner for Three

Still blogging from Oregan but today we left Portland and drove out to the coast, Seaside to be exact. It was quite a scenic drive...actually I slept most of the way but when I had to wake up to pee it was really pretty. I must say Oregan is incredibly green. I kind of miss that in San Diego. Anyway so, I'm traveling with my sister and her new husband, Certonie. And it's kind of cool that we've all recently quit our incredibly stable but slightly boring corporate jobs to explore new opportunities in areas we're more passionate about. Mine is obviously the cookies and my sister and Certontie are models/actors in Miami. You know the typical Asian professions. :) So all being unemployed, we've had to become quite creative in cost saving methods for this vacation. It's actually been more than a coincidence, all the ways we've managed to get a lot for a little in our hotels, rental car, and food. I think today was the first day we've actually had to pay for food. Each morning our hotel in Portland had a ridiculous breakfast buffet. Seriously, I mean ridiculous. Belgian waffles, pancakes, cereal, eggs, potatoes, sushi, oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, bagels, toast, biscuits and gravy, french toast, sausage, granola....it was insane. But that would last us for the rest of the day until dinner which was taken care of with wedding related events. So tonight, sitting around our small little round table in our sticky floored, but ocean front, hotel, eating our $15 dinner of wheat bread rotissuere chicken sandwiches, broccoli and carrots with hummus, and fresh blueberries and cherries we couldn't help but laugh. We know one day when The Cookie Chew donates its 20 millionth dollar to Uganda, and Lilly Chou-Cook has been booked for the new Dolce and Gabana campaign and Cerontie Cook has produced and starred in a world renowned film recognized for its innovative outlook, we'll remember back in the day when we had dinner from Safeway and had to wash and save our plastic forks. Actually, I hope we never forget.