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This is now one of my clans’ favourite dinners:

• Take 4 portions of chicken. I have used thighs and breast meat. I generally buy a family pack of thighs and make them all.
• In a bowl mix : 2 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp grated fresh ginger, 2 tsp soya sauce. If cooking more adjust accordingly. I usually add more ginger.
• Marinade the chicken for 30 minutes. While marinating does help, I have made this with success without letting it sit.
• Pre heat oven to 375F
• Turn and baste with remaining marinade when you think of it. (3-4 times) 
• If the chicken in not browning up when it is cooked crank the heat to 425F and move the chicken up to the grill and carefully brown – watch it as it will burn!

Serve with rice and some veggies. 

My customers are very creative!

I love getting pictures from them showing the product of their labour. This is a great example of a delicious looking cookie made by Leah Rosch owner of What a Cookie.

00655- Bathtub Cookie Cutter

She requested an antique bathtub on our Custom Cookie Cutter form. Leah gave me some great help in the design process. I made up the cutter and she sent the picture. Too bad I didn’t get some cookie’s!

For more information on Leah Rosch‘s baked goods and her company ‘What a Cookie!’ visit www.whatacookie.biz.

You can visit her at:

227 Fordham Drive

Lake Worth, FL 33460

561-547-5707

Old Rosie was my second love. She was always there. I will miss her.

Rose 1997-May 2nd, 2008

I will remember her stinky breath wake up call,
I will remember her supportive walks to the wood stove – she keeping watch from the corner of the house
I will remember the groans – of what? – we never knew.
I remember how well she fit in – despite her size and smallness of our house – she was never in my way.
I will always remember her gentleness. Even though she was in pain and the twins trod on her she never did more than growl. And that was OK.
I will remember defending our yard from fearsome squirrels- although chipmunks were fine.

1. Find an image or draw your own.
2. Keep the design simple. Think about the fact that ultimately it will be baked!
3. Fax or email me the image.
4. I’ll price it and send it back to you for confirmation.
5. Place the order and in 7-10 days you will have your cutter!.
6. All I ask is that I can sell copies of your design.

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Make your own cookie cutter

Every wanted to make your own cookie cutter? Our guide shows you how in step by step colour photographs. We show you all the steps in creating a cookie cutter including making of a jig and how to join ends together without having to solder.

Cookie cutters are fun to make. They are a welcome change to the day to day products we make.

Here are the steps I use to make a cookie cutter

1. Put on a good podcast. This is key.
2. Pick a subject. Some sort of noun.
3. Do a Google image search. Make sure you have safe search on, other wise you will be surprised at the variety of images you will see! You are looking for a simple shape. Or guide has some tips on what kind of image to select.
4. If you are having trouble finding a good image, add “outline” to the image search. Also try a Google web search with your subject and “coloring book”
5. Once you have found the image print it off in the size of the cookie cutter you want. You can resize the image with most image editors. Windows Live Photo Gallery or Picasa are free programs you can use
6. Now the fun part grab the cookie cutter jig (we show you how to make this in the guide) and start bending.
7. Take your time. As with any craft there is some skill behind it.

Leasing is very serious commitment. Although it has helped us, it has also been a major financial stumbling block. Make sure you really think it over. It only takes a few minutes to make a multi year commitment.

Here are 3 things you should be wary of before you lease:

1. Will the equipment be needed in year 3,4 or 5 of the lease? This has caught us once or twice. The biggest was with a postage meter. If you do bulk mailing this is an amazing piece of equipment. When we leased our unit 75% of customers required information through mailing. With in a year it was less than 25%. With ink, and reset charges it became more expensive to  operate than what we were paying in stamps. In the end this cost us $6000 in lease payments for a machine we didn’t need. By the way we tried to talk to Pitney Bowes about our situation. May as well have talked to a wall.
2. Do you need all the features? Leasing makes upgrades real cheap. But over the life of a lease it can add up. Only lease what you need! That collating stapler on a photo copier may sound cool – but how much does it really save you. One employee can staple a lot of documents in an hour.
3. The Contract. Read the contract – twice! Here are some key questions
   1. What are the penalties for breaking the contract?
   2. Who pays for repairs? Remember you might not mind the scratch on the front on the photo copier – but they may demand you fix it before returning it.
   3. What are the buy out conditions?
   4. What is the warranty?
   5. Are there any fees due at the end? Reconditioning fees etc

Things I have leased:

• Car/Van
• Postage Meter
• Printers
• Computers

Companies I have Leased From:

• CITI
• GFL
• Nordun Computers
• Pitney Bowes

Companies I would not lease from:

• Pitney Bowes – READ YOUR CONTRACT. These guys are not your friend. Since they have
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  a virtual monopoly they donÂ’t need to have customer service.

Classic Reasons

Gain tax advantages
Lease payments are entered in your accounting records as a monthly operating expense. The monthly lease payment, therefore, becomes a 100% deductible, monthly operating expense. The tax advantages are taken monthly rather than at year-end.
Conserve capital and lines of credit
When the cost of equipment is known and fixed in advance, the budgets of various departments can easily be forecasted, as can the profitability of various marketing plans, allowing your company to make more informed and accurate decisions.