Wipe out!

Rid here....
Well, it's the height of demo season for us. We are setting up our tables and sampling our luxurious simmer sauces to store customers around the Delaware Valley. Man....the response is fantastic. So many people are loving them! They try them and then they buy them. Well, duh, that's the idea, right?

They love that we're local. they love the crew we've hired to do the demos. They are doing a terrific job. Michael and I are doing some demos as well. It's tough being on your feet for 4 hours at a time, but hey, that's the deal. No way around it. Today, Michael cleaned out the McCaffrey's store in Yardley, PA. Not a friggin jar left. One of our demo pros, Amanda, cleaned out the ACME store in Newtown Square as well. Today, we sold over 64 jars of sauce. That's a good day...no?!! These stores are happy to order more....and so are we!

We've learned that demos need to take place on a weekend. That's when folks are doing their big week's worth of shopping. Unlike me, who bounces into my food store almost every day to buy a few things. I love to see these dads and moms dragging their kids around the store on the weekend. We end up being a "culinary oasis" where they can stop for a moment and sample the good stuff during their mad dash up and down the aisles. Even the kids love our sauces. It's funny too, how the kids will sample the sauces and then tell their mom to buy some. Yes... we always get mom's permission to serve the little ones. And yes....mom will buy a jar or two.

Tuesday we do a big food show at ACME corporate offices. All their buyers and managers will be there. We'll be sampling up a storm there, too. All four sauces. What stores we're not presently in will now get a chance to taste the world's finest simmer sauces.

We have a serious problem in this country. It's the food you buy at the local food store.

There is so much sodium in the foods we buy that it's shocking. We are quite literally saturating our bodies with it. Most people don't know this. Or care. Well, you should. The long term effects of too much sodium aren't pretty. High blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

In a recent report form CDC in Atlanta, it was eye opening to read that 40% of our sodium intake is from the following popular foods; bread, cold cuts, pizza, poultry, soups, sandwiches, cheese, pasta dishes, meat dishes and all those snacks out there. These are foods that we eat all the time--every day! Even when you make a "healthy" homemade soup using chicken stock, the stock you use can have over 900mg of sodium in just 1 cup of stock! Those popular frozen entrees that many people eat to help them lose weight? They average around 400-600mg. of sodium. Even the chicken breast you buy at the store has probably been dipped or sprayed with a sodium solution to preserve it and give it extra flavor. It is obscene.

So why do they put all this sodium in food? Simple. For taste. They cut back on the good, flavorful ingredients to save money and make up for the lack of taste by adding sodium. It's what America is used to. And craves. Americans average over 3000 mg. of sodium per day. People over 51 years of age should limit their intake to around 1,500 mg per day. Yikes!

So why is Lizbeth Lane featuring this information? Because we care about the quality (or lack of) in the food we buy. Many of the processed foods produced in the US are SO loaded in sodium and SO bad for you---and your children--and your grandchildren! We want to educate you whats really out there in your local food markets. And....what you can do to counter this menace.

Habit one: Read those nutritional labels and learn. Read the sodium content for every item you pick up in a food store. You will be shocked. You will be disgusted. And, you may become a little dismayed at how hard it is to buy food that's not loaded with sodium.

We will keep you in informed. Check back in a couple of weeks to learn more about "Our War on Sodium".

Check out this link to get the basics on sodium use:
CDC Vital Signs- Where's the Sodium

New horizons to consider

Rid here... am now spending time getting to know our new customers throughout the ACME Market chain. Almost all say our sauces are doing well. Others are still waiting for their delivery.

We are also looking for good, friendly, honest, self-starting demo people . Michael A. and I cant be doing demos all the time. We need to run the show and keep it moving forward. So, if you live in the Philly area and are reading this and would like to make a little spare moola, let us know!

Now....for our next act.

We are beginning to proceed with our next great line of gourmet sauces. All new. Unique. Delicious!  Nothing like them out there at all. Wonder why.... Oh well, we think it's a great idea.

All natural gourmet PIZZA SAUCES.  You might say--so, whats the big deal?  Well, the big deal is that none of our four new pizza sauces will be a typical red sauce.  I can't say what the flavors are ...yet.  But they are mind blowingly good.  Now people will be able to expand their pizza making skills and impress the hell out of other pizza lovers.  We will also stress the need to make pizzas using large flour tortillas instead of thick, (fattening) pizza dough.  Try it. Take two large tortillas and put one on top of the other.
Put tortillas on your cookie sheet or whatever... Build your pizza and bake in a 450 degree oven til the tortilla pizza crust starts to brown around the edges. It's light, crispy and far less  doughy, heavy and "carby".

Let us know what you think of a marketing new and different flavored pizza sauces.

Oh, happy Monday!

Gettin' ready for just another Monday....with plenty to do.  Think it's a breeze--where you can hang out and just send emails and chat it up with clients and friends?  Uhhhhhh....no.
Take a look at our list of "to do's" for this coming week alone.

1. Visit new upcoming client stores
2. It's almost tax time! Ugh.
3. R&D for new sauce ideas
4. Call on all ACME store managers
5. Demos and more demos
6. Contact PR-discuss strategies/news items
7. Point of sale options- finalize
8. Discuss new food chains to pitch with broker
9. Get into local WFs
10. Contact Virginia distributor about 2012
11. Make sales calls around Baltimore
12. Get in future DM meeting in Malvern.
13. Find co-packer for small runs of new sauce ideas
14. finalize new sauces-costs/logistics 
15. Prep for Export show in Feb
16. Application for NASFT
17. Valentines promo--HTML EMAIL
18. Firm up customer email lists
19. Assemble sales kits for our distributors
20. Call existing retail customers
21. Reserve space for Fancy food show
22. Finalize powerpoint presentation for sales force
23. Send out Superbowl recipe idea--HTML email (tues.)
24. Rank form submitted to upcoming Export Show
25. Prepare first PR release to send out on PR Newswire. 

See? We are quickly growing and now running with the "big dogs".

Bigger is better!

Lizbeth Lane Cuisine is moving slowly towards that goal of being a big enough company to be able for us to actually pay ourselves. We haven't yet, but it's looming somewhere out there on the horizon.  I met with one of our distributors last week and she informed me that we will now be going into 50 ACME markets in PA, DE and NJ. AND.... Redner's Markets in central PA. This is fantastic! It also means we need to hunker down and get working to provide these stores with demos P.O.S. and get in touch with all these stores to introduce ourselves.

The demos are a long, tough day. They are also very amusing, frustrating, informative, tiring and anything else out there that can wear you down. It's great to see people loving our simmer sauces...and they do! Some people love them and simply walk away...."Hey! Where ya goin?"  I had one customer yesterday at a McCaffrey's Market in Princeton, NJ tell me that her child was gluten intolerant. She sampled the Red Pepper and the Marsala. She bought one of each of our flavors! Wow...

We also were presented to the regional office of Whole Foods last week by one of our distributors, Avenue Gourmet. We are waiting for that answer. We were hoping to be in the local Philly WFs this month but it hasn't happened.  Michael A. needs to fill out an updated vendor form and submit it to the regional office for approval first.   It's hard to believe but we started our push to get into Whole Foods almost one year ago and still nothing has happened.  Nothing moves quickly in this business....

We are also looking at other chains in the NYC area....a Fresh Direct . They deliver to New Yorkers throughout the five boroughs. An awesome company that's growing rapidly.  We sent out our samples and a sales kit.  Will let you know how it's going.

Finally....the CNN thing has finally calmed down. The upside to this is that we are getting more online orders that before the story ran. We are getting repeat customers. We are getting accolades from so many "sauciers" out there. We are loved.....awwwwww. (thanks!)

Another push for us has been to get our social media working harder. I set it up when we started out a couple of years ago... what a friggin mess I made! So we hired Kelly to tear it down and set it up as it should be. She's done a great job. We now even have our own YouTube Channel!  Check it out. We have some life-changing kitchen tips on there, too! The link is on our Lizbeth Lane Cuisine website.


Happy entrees to you!! Later.

Lizbeth Lane Cuisine YouTube Channel

Hello Sauciers! As we continue on in our food adventure we are growing our online community. We are gaining more fans on our  Facebook page  and more followers on our  Twitter account  (@lizbethlane). Our most recent addition has been our YouTube channel! 

On our  Lizbeth Lane YouTube Channel you can find fun and helpful videos. We have uploaded videos that show you how you can prepare you favorite simmer sauce and created playlists such as New & Updates and Tips & Tricks. 

If you want us to create any specific videos or have any ideas, we would love to hear them! 

Be sure to check out our channel and let us know what you think!

"Incoming!!!!!

Well.... the holidays have come and gone. I feel like my mind has done the same.  It was fun but also exhausting!  We aint getting any younger you know!!

Had a blast with my grandkids who came for a late Xmas from their home in Scarsdale, NY.  We shredded gifts open and messed up the house...oh, it was grand!  Then on New Years Eve...and right in the middle of an Elmo story, the phone rang.  "Just saw your story on CNN- how do I order?"  Holy Piccata! Here we go again.  I'm not complaining mind you, it's just that Michael A. and I thought the CNN deal was over and that things would now be a little calmer here at Lizbeth Lane Cuisine.   Oh no...not a chance.

Another call. Then another. Web hits rising through the top of my computer!  Orders setting off Michaels smartphone.  Yes indeed...CNN was running our story again...and again...and....

We were happy as could be!  Happy friggin new Year!!!  Time to dive into peanuts, tape and boxes again!

It's now the 5th of January and all is calm...all is bright.  It's time for us to focus on 2012. And it's looking good.  We will expand our markets north and south. I'm chomping at the bit to go west because so many inquiries have come from CA, OR and WA.  It's a huge opportunity. But, it's also a logistical monster.

We can't ship our sauces out there unless people are willing to pay $20/ bottle! Shipping a load across country would cost a fortune. That aint gonna happen. We are going to have to manufacture our fabulous babies out there and find distribution.  That will take some doing.

But fear not western state folks-- be patient. We will be there eventually, if not sooner... maybe later this year. Right after I finish reading that Elmo story to my granddaughter, Chloe.