Linda's Southeastern CT Real Estate Blog

These are a few of my favorite things - Part 2 - Food Edition!

As an Italian kid, growing up in the City of Pittsburgh, food was an important part of my life.   Besides the typical Italian fare, we were a family of bakers. As a little kid, 50 years ago, my sister and I used to call grandma's favorite cookies, "goofy cookies".   We didn't like them because they just weren't sweet enough or chocolatey enough.  I was really surprised many years later to find out that grandma's "goofy cookies" were actually biscotti.  I still use her recipe today.

For a number of years, I would start baking the day after Thanksgiving until right before Christmas.  I'd share my treats with my office, clients and my favorite lenders, attorneys and vendors.  The goodie plates, like my photo here from 2002, were a great hit.  Although I loved baking, the project seemed to grow every year until I finally decided it was time to put my Kitchen Aide mixer away. Of course, the Italian Catholic guilt took over.  Just knowing that people depended on me and would be expecting their holiday goodies presented a dilemma.  It was at that point,  I decided to go on a food finding mission via the internet.   I set out to find the very best sweets and snacks online.  And I wouldn't send or deliver anything to a client that I had not personally taste tested myself. 

In addition to Christmas, I use these products many times throughout the year, as thank you gifts, for birthdays and other "thinking of you" occasions.

Here's the list:

Cheryl & Co.   I feel like Cheryl and I are old friends.  I've probably put her kids through college.  I order buttercream frosted cookies from Cheryl about once a month and put in a big order at Christmas.  I often deliver a few cookies to my sellers on holidays like Valentines Day.  Her butter frosted pumpkin cookies are always a big hit on Halloween.  But for the chocoholic....her frosted triple chocolate cookies are to die for.  OMG.

Speaking of chocoholics:   Fairytale Brownies are better than homemade.  These Gourmet Belgian chocolate brownies come in a ton of flavors like Raspberry Swirl and Espresso Nib.  One Christmas I ordered a box of brownies for everyone on my list.  My personal favorite is toffee crunch.

This Christmas I ordered Apples from Mrs. Prindable for everyone on my list.   I've convinced myself that her Double Peanut Butter Chocolate Almond Caramel Apple is actually good for you.  Hey, there is an apple in there somewhere!

Along with a gourmet apple,  I included some Dale and Thomas Popcorn in each goodie bag this year.  This treat has been called the Rolls Royce of popcorn and is Ophrah's favorite.  It's my favorite popcorn too and comes in really nice packaging. 

I first tasted a Penn Street Bakery cake at the NAR Trade show where they were giving out samples.  These cakes are HEAVY and very yummy.  Their flavors change depending on the season. 

This year for Valentine's Day, I gave all my current sellers, a tin of Chocolate and Caramel Covered Pretzels from The Popcorn Factory.  I was pleasantly surprised at how very good these were.  Yes, I ordered a tin first as a taste test.                                                                                                                                                                                

And finally, Shari's Berries.   What can you say about an individually dipped chocolate covered strawberry?  The biggest problem?  They really are too pretty to eat.  

On certain holidays, we'll often create what we call "Theme Bags" like the Halloween ones pictured here.  We'll include a few cookies, an apple, some popcorn and a few brownies and deliver each bag to some of our favorite people.  Maybe I'll include some bicotti next time, in memory of Grandma.

Many bloggers here are super geeks aka techy genuises.  You know who you are. You can look away now. For those of you still looking, I'd like to share a tiny corner of my REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY TOOL KIT: 

Contact Management:  Agent Office is my contact management software of choice.  It works well especially if you have a team.  But what I use doesn't matter.  Just use something.  "How you gather, manage and use information to serve the needs of your customer will determine whether you win or lose in your business" - Bill Gates in "Business at the Speed of Thought".   For a complete list of Real Estate Contact Management Programs, visit Gary Hall Online.  This is not an advertisement for Gary - at least he's not paying me to say this.  I think he is a great guy and he was very helpful to me when I was upgrading my Agent Office software. 

CMA Program - I use Tool Kit CMA by Realty Tools. The CMA presentation is professional looking and pretty impressive for such an easy to use web based program. 

Seller Communication - This is a cool little program.  HomeFeedback.com.   Seller's love it and agents really do give me feedback at a pretty high percentage of return. 

Printing -  I love Express Copy.   L-O-V-E.  $39 for 100 flyers.  I don't want to be in the printing business so I order my printing online and usually have it the next day.  And they are in California and I'm in Connecticut.  I also use Color for Real Estate.  This is a fun company with some creative stuff.  Good prices, fast turnaround. They even have a secret handshake club. 

Screen Capture - If you don't use Snag It, run don't walk to get it.  Or just get out your credit card.  NOW.  This is one of my all time favorite programs. 

File Organization - Some kids were born with artistic abilities.  My sister was born beautiful. I was born organized.  I'm moving to paperless with Paperport 11.   I don't bother to scan. I just fax the stuff to "my magic fax number" at MaxEmail. It arrives as a PDF which I file in my perfectly organized Paperport files. 

Online Backup  - Carbonite is "non-stop, unlimited, automatic backup over the internet."  UNLIMITED and CHEAP.

Marketing - The small town I live in is my niche. I have a neighborhood website from My Online Neighborhood.   And I send a newspaper every 60 days to my whole town.  Custom House Publishers makes it easy!  I got a listing last year because the seller said he received my newspaper "every week".   I like Agency Logic to do individual web sites for my listings like the one at 29 Sawmill Drive.   Imprev produces some very professional flyers and I've also used HP Real Estate Marketing Assistant.  And of course, there is the old standby, Microsoft Publisher.  I've been using MSPub since the day it was born. 

Photographs - I use the wonderful Flickr for online photo management and sharing.  I get most of my photos, including the one here, at Istockphoto and at YotoPhoto.   I keep it simple and use Microsoft Digital Image Suite for my photo enhancement.

 That's just an itty bitty corner  of my Technology Tool Kit.   I'm working on a followup called "When you want to eat, technology is sweet".   Stay tuned. 

Ledyard, CT is a small town.  Although we have the world's largest casino, Foxwoods Resort Casino, within our borders, we are a mostly rural community with a population of about 15,000.  Technology came late to the Ledyard area.  We have only had high speed internet service available within the last 5 years. We used analog cell phones well after most areas had digital available.  Stopping at a Starbucks to use their wireless connection isn't an option in Ledyard.  Heck, we don't have a Starbucks.  Probably never will.  It's just not that kind of town. But we do have a McDonald's at one of the few traffic lights in town.  AND imagine my surprise to drive by today and see them advertising Free Wi-Fi.  I've since discovered that McDonald's has over 7000 wi-fi spots around the world.  At 540 calories, a Big Mac with wi-fi is probaly not an option for me, but it is nice to know it is available. Ledyard has entered the technology age. 

                McDonald's in Ledyard, CT.   Wi-Fi is here!

Today in the Norwich Bulletin, our local newspaper, is a story that involves 2 neighbors fighting over a busty mailbox.  Yes, I said "busty"  not rusty.  Two neighbors on Route 44 in Pomfret, CT are fighting over a mailbox disguised as a busty mermaid.  It seems that the creator feels the mailbox is "artistic expression".  Her neighbor does not agree and thinks it is driving her property value down. Although on private property, the US Postal Service does have regulations on the size and dimension of the mailbox, but not on how it is decorated. 

Many homeowners in Eastern Connecticut have curbside mailboxes which are served by postal trucks.  I've always loved how creative some folks can be in regards to their mailboxes. Over the years,  I've  had a few listings where the remarks for buyers read "mailbox does not convey", due to the personal nature of their mailbox creations.   I thought decorating mailboxes was a New England thing until I came across this website about the subject. It appears that I'm not the only one fascinated by home built mailboxes.  There are plenty of cute, funny and unique mailboxes on the site, but I especially liked the ones I would categorize as "clever".  My personal favorite was the "hammer" mailbox in Boone, NC. I also found a wonderful poster called "Mailboxes of Altadena", a collection of mailboxes found in Altadena, CA.  I think that would be a wonderful project, and now instead of just admiring the mailboxes when I see them, I'll capture them for a future poster or perhaps, a jumbo postcard.  I don't think I'll include the busty mermaid.  But if you are interested, you'll find the photos and story HERE.