Marlas Mandel's Weblog

Lucy’s Birthday!!!

marlasmandels — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:54:59 +0000

Today my good friend Lucy turns the big 3-0!! (Lucy – if you see this, please don’t get mad that I’ve disclosed your age. You make 30 look hot!)

I made custom mandel bread packages for her party – and because Lucy is obsessed with poodles, just look at what we did. People were obsessed- they were stealing multiple packages at the end of the night!!

Custom Mandel Bread

I am a bad blogger!!

marlasmandels — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:55:15 +0000

Well – It is a good thing that my New Year’s resolution did not have to do with blogging because I’ve been a REALLY bad blogger in 2009! I guess that I can blame my lack of blogging on the mandel bread business which is supposed to be the reason why I blog. Go figure!! Anyways after working day and night most days of the week on the mandel bread business, I nearly forgot about my blog!

So here are some fantastic recent developments . . . .

1. Marla’s Mandel Bread was featured as a Snack of the Day on Rachael Ray on February 26th. Who knew, but Rachael Ray loves mandel bread!! Must be something about the name Rachael.

2. Valentine’s Day was so very busy for us. Again, who knew that mandel bread makes a fantastic Valentine’s Day treat. Well – I did!! Plus our packaging for V-day was so very adorable. Missed it this year . . .? Be sure to check it out next year.

3. A new place to buy Marla’s Mandel Bread . . . 2009 had been the year of the new retail customer. Maybe that’s why I can’t blog, I’m too busy getting new customers set up!! For Marla’s Mandels, go to Foodstuffs in Chicago. Plus two more new locations to be revealed within the next week or two!!

3. Ahh, there is a recession. We hate it too! But our customers spoke and we had to listen . . . we’ve lowered our shipping rates to $8 ANYWHERE IN THE U.S. from $12-21 previously. You gotta have your mandel bread and we don’t want you to shy away because of shipping charges!

OK – That is it for today. I guess if I don’t blog too much at least I’ll have lots of updates when I do!!

Marla’s Mandel Bread in the News!

marlasmandels — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:51:14 +0000

News moves faster than I can think on a daily basis, and it certainly moves faster than I can email my web designer to have them update my offical Marla’s Mandel Bread website . . . So, I, Rachael Halstuk, the most technilogically challenged of all business owners , will be taking over the news aspect of our business using this blog!! From now on, please come here to check the latest and greatest on what the press is saying about us!! Links to all articles are below the logos.

2009

Marla’s Mandel Bread featured as a Snack of the Day on the Rachael Ray Show!!

2008

Marla’s Mandel Bread nominated for Daily Candy’s Sweetest things 2008!

Marla’s Mandel Bread featured in Daily Candy!

Marla’s Mandel Bread featured in the Chicago Tribune!

Marla’s Mandel Bread featured in Oy!Chicago / JUF News!

Marla’s Mandel Bread featured in Posh Cravings!

Marla’s Mandel Bread featured in Food 411!

Local Food A Focus in Chicago!

CakeSpy: Cookies So Nice They Baked Them Twice!

Reviews on Yelp!

Marla’s Mandel Bread featured in the Pioneer Press! (See below)

Pictures Tell A 1000 Words

marlasmandels — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 20:29:39 +0000

Just check out these two adorable babies eating our mandel bread!! Yum yum yum and cute cute cute!!

Cutie with Marla's Mandel Bread!!

Oh and here’s another!! This is Naomi’s (owner of TipsyCake) adorable son!

PLEASE VOTE FOR US!!!

marlasmandels — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 05:05:08 +0000

Dear Friends and Loyal Customers -

2008 has been quite the year for Marla’s Mandel Bread. From launching in April, to having an extremely busy holiday season, every second has been fun and exciting for us.

We need your help for our last goal of 2008 – Winning Daily Candy’s Sweetest Things contest. We have been nominated and hope that you will vote for us. Please use the link below to vote. Also – it would be GREAT and so HELPFUL if you can pass this along to your family and friends and ask them to vote too!!

http://www.dailycandy.com/sweetest_things/2008/chicago/bite.jsp

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Sweetly,
Marla and Rachael

Check out our website at www.marlasmandels.com

Happy New Year, Hanukkah, Christmas, ETC!!!

marlasmandels — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 02:54:53 +0000

Wow – I can almost say that over the past several weeks, I forgot that I was keeping my mandel bread blog, as Marla’s Mandel Bread totally took over my life for the holiday season! I found myself working 16 hour days from the beginning of December through Christmas – wondering at times whether I’d made a major mistake to not hire some extra help in advance of the holiday season. I managed to keep my sanity this year and did have fun doing it . . . but next year I’ll certainly be hiring the troops for help.

It was SO fun though sitting around at night and watching orders just pour in through our website. And orders came from all of the country which was so cool. I had no idea that so many people across the country, both Jewish and not, love Mandel Bread. Hopefully everyone will also realize after ordering that ours is the MOST delish!

Anyways . . . aside from work work work and some occasional sleep there really isn’t much to note. That being said . . . I’m hoping that 2009 is a big year from us. We have lots of exciting ideas underway and I can’t wait to spread the word as soon as we have some of our newest ideas finalized and rolled out!

The mandel bread madness continues!

marlasmandels — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 04:30:31 +0000

I just finished my friday night dessert of vanilla ice cream with apricot white chocolate mandel bread crumbles on top. YUM! I’m sure I’ll be asleep momentarily, but I just wanted to provide an update on the mandel bread madness. See below for a little note that I sent around today!

Friends and Family -

It has been a whirlwind few months for Marla’s Mandel Bread, so I wanted to provide an update of the press we’ve gotten lately. I’m sure you’re sick of me telling you how fab our mandel bread is – so I’ll let the reporters do it from now on!

Also – We are offering FREE SHIPPING for all individual orders over $30 through December 31, 2008.

Instructions for FREE SHIPPING: Enter code FREESHIP in Additional Information About Your Order box at website checkout to receive discount. Discount will not appear at checkout, but will be included in receipt sent to you.

Happy Holidays!
Rachael

Chicago Tribune Spot
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/chi-shelf-3dec03,0,7806833.story

Pioneer Press – Chicago’s Suburban Paper
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/1312523,pp-mandel-120408-s1.article

OY!Chicago
http://www.oychicago.com/article.aspx?id=1932

Posh Cravings
http://www.poshcravings.com/blogs/eliza/archive/2008/12/04/You-don_2700_t-have-to-be-Jewish_2E002E002E00_.aspx

Daily Candy
http://www.dailycandy.com/chicago/article/39214/Mandel+Schmandel

CakeSpy
http://www.cakespy.com/2008/11/cookies-so-nice-they-baked-them-twice.html

Food411
http://food411.com/blog/?p=178

Medill – Northwestern’s Journalism School
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=101727&print=1

Check the Net

marlasmandels — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:49:55 +0000

OMG! I knew that OY!Chicago was running an article on Marla’s Mandel Bread today, but I had no idea how cute it would be. Check it out!! I’m spending part of my day on Thursday baking up a special mandel bread gift for my friend Annie. Annie lives in Portland, and is one of my oldest friends. Our dads went to medical school together. Annie’s favorite mandel bread flavor is a bit of an exclusive . . . coconut chocolate chip. It’s not available on our website, but should it be? How does it sound to you . . . let me know! You can be just like Annie too . . . if you have a mandel bread favorite that we don’t make, please call us to order. We can whip up almost anything your heart desires with a few days notice. Sounds like a fab holiday gift idea to me, for even your pickiest mandel bread eating friends!

The One Bad Thing . . .

marlasmandels — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:11:11 +0000

So . . . What is the one bad thing about being a mandel bread expert and business woman. . .MANDEL BREAD!! What does that mean you ask . . . well, it’s 10 AM Saturday morning and I am procrastinating, and I MUST go to the gym. Why you ask . . . well, tasting and eating mandel bread is part of my job. It is delicious, but won’t look so good if I don’t work out. But it’s cold in Chicago and I’m tired and let’s be honest, I’d rather eat another piece of mandel bread with my morning coffee than go running! OK . . . venting is over . . . I’m going to go lace on my sneakers and do it. I’m sure I’ll be happy once it’s over!

This Weekend

marlasmandels — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:43:49 +0000

It’s the end of the day Friday, and boy am I tired, but there will not no (well, not a lot of rest) for me this weekend. This is the official start of the holiday season for us! We’ll be living, breathing and dreaming mandel bread for the next 4 weeks and I’m excited, and of course, a little nervous! We’ve stocked up on our packaging, and started production planning, and have some good press all lined up!! Don’t forget that we make fantastic mandel bread gifts at Marla’s Mandel Bread and we cover all price ranges!! Order in advance on our website and we’ll hold the order and ship right in time for the holidays! YUM – what better than fresh mandel bread and milk for Santa on Christmas Eve night!