One thing we all appreciate about time off for the holidays, is time off to spend
with our families.
But just what makes a modern family? The standard from 100 or even 50 years ago no longer applies in today's world. For many people today, "family" is our "work" family, and that's alright with me.
Think about it, we spend several hours each day with these people, often time spent with our real family is limited due to distance, death, or other sometimes complicated reasons, so the only companionship, emotional support we get is through our workmates.
Just like family, we can't pick who that may be. Even when you're the boss, your smart decisions should come from the people whose talents best benefit the business, not just who you would hang out with. And like real family, sometimes we step on each others toes. But you know, when times are hard, they are the ones that will have your back.
So let me tell you a little about ours. Many of our employees have been with us for years. They are loyal, conscientious, people who genuinely care about the bakery, it's not just a job. Anyone that has worked at a place where that's not the case, knows how great that is. They all have unique and interesting personalities and have there strong points that benefit the bakery.
Yes, our family is great and we are proud of them. And it's not our location of 72 years that make the company. It's our employees, our family.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
~Fall Fun~
It’s funny how when the weather starts getting colder and things start changing color, how the cravings for pie and bread start ruling our thoughts. Good thing for us!! I do love this time of year, it’s always a little difficult to adjust at first but the scenery and the cooler weather are definitely a plus. The last six weeks of the year are always our busiest, when it comes to sweet things other than cake; it’s a nice change, for a little while anyway. We have all been tossing around ideas for delicious new ideas for this season, maybe some tasty pecan treats, pecan brittle has been mentioned more than once. Of course, we will be making all of our usual goodies, pies, dinner rolls, cookies, cobblers, cakes, you name it! (Be sure and check out our website www.annsbakery.com for a complete list.) We are also working hard preparing for our big wedding show coming up in January. The Tulsa Wedding Show, it has always been a good show for us, and we look forward to planning for it and meeting new brides-to- be every year. If you didn’t already know, we are part of a wonderful wedding vendor referral group, The Tulsa Wedding Society, www.tulsaweddingsociety.com , it is a great, very professional group of highly talented individuals that specialize in weddings, and some are also involved in other areas but have come together in this forum to provide outstanding wedding services. They have proved to be a great group to be involved with and have become great friends in the process. I hope you check out the website!
Another idea we have been tossing around is the “gluten-free” options. I found out a few years ago that I have a gluten allergy, not severe, but definitely have improved health upon eliminating it from my diet. Imagine that!! Practically born and raised in a bakery and now I can’t eat most of it anymore! I still sneak some icing now and then, (often) and we do make our Turkish macaroon cookies without flour, so I can munch on those when I need a sweet. But….back to the point, I’m hoping I can make some gluten free options, in particular, cakes. If any one has any input, please email me at the bakery, annsbakery@sbcglobal.net, I would love to hear any ideas, feedback, etc… Our icing is already free from any gluten issues, so I’m just working on finding some good gluten free recipes. I will probably start small with just a few flavors of cake. And I am dying to have pie, so one of my sons is working on a gluten free pie crust. Our cream pies are all flour free excluding the crust, so that’s a good start!! Yippee!!
So happy to be in Tulsa, It’s such a great city! I can’t believe the wonderful growth in the past few years, makes me feel like there is a renewed pride in our fun little town! I was called to do a phone interview concerning the construction on the Tulsa streets. If you haven’t been down Harvard toward our place, it has been a mess for almost a year. Anyway, even though it has been a mess, we have gotten to know some of the workers; we made the effort to go out and approach them and ask them about the project. We also suggested (insisted) that while working in front of the bakery, while our main entrance was blocked, that they needed to come in for breakfast, and lunch to help us out!! Well, not only did they come in, they helped get us a sign posted to reroute our customers to an alternate entrance. Now that our entrance is back open, they still are coming in, buying goodies from us, and we feel we have made some good friends! Oh! Back to the interview…. I think they were wanting more of a negative, “I’m so tired of this mess…wish they would hurry…..etc etc etc….” but I decided to be positive, and praise them for doing a good job, being so conscientious about our business and helping us out. Little did I know that they actually played my interview and some of the workers heard it!! They were soooo appreciative that we spoke about them positively. I feel for them, they are just doing their jobs.
I guess that’s enough from me this week! My crazy other half will be in next week to entertain, I have to say I’m looking forward to it! Don’t forget to order your cakes, pies, rolls, and cookies!!! You will not be disappointed!
Another idea we have been tossing around is the “gluten-free” options. I found out a few years ago that I have a gluten allergy, not severe, but definitely have improved health upon eliminating it from my diet. Imagine that!! Practically born and raised in a bakery and now I can’t eat most of it anymore! I still sneak some icing now and then, (often) and we do make our Turkish macaroon cookies without flour, so I can munch on those when I need a sweet. But….back to the point, I’m hoping I can make some gluten free options, in particular, cakes. If any one has any input, please email me at the bakery, annsbakery@sbcglobal.net, I would love to hear any ideas, feedback, etc… Our icing is already free from any gluten issues, so I’m just working on finding some good gluten free recipes. I will probably start small with just a few flavors of cake. And I am dying to have pie, so one of my sons is working on a gluten free pie crust. Our cream pies are all flour free excluding the crust, so that’s a good start!! Yippee!!
So happy to be in Tulsa, It’s such a great city! I can’t believe the wonderful growth in the past few years, makes me feel like there is a renewed pride in our fun little town! I was called to do a phone interview concerning the construction on the Tulsa streets. If you haven’t been down Harvard toward our place, it has been a mess for almost a year. Anyway, even though it has been a mess, we have gotten to know some of the workers; we made the effort to go out and approach them and ask them about the project. We also suggested (insisted) that while working in front of the bakery, while our main entrance was blocked, that they needed to come in for breakfast, and lunch to help us out!! Well, not only did they come in, they helped get us a sign posted to reroute our customers to an alternate entrance. Now that our entrance is back open, they still are coming in, buying goodies from us, and we feel we have made some good friends! Oh! Back to the interview…. I think they were wanting more of a negative, “I’m so tired of this mess…wish they would hurry…..etc etc etc….” but I decided to be positive, and praise them for doing a good job, being so conscientious about our business and helping us out. Little did I know that they actually played my interview and some of the workers heard it!! They were soooo appreciative that we spoke about them positively. I feel for them, they are just doing their jobs.
I guess that’s enough from me this week! My crazy other half will be in next week to entertain, I have to say I’m looking forward to it! Don’t forget to order your cakes, pies, rolls, and cookies!!! You will not be disappointed!
Monday, November 15, 2010
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging symbolic elements in a way that influences and affects the senses, emotions, and/or intellect. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, photography,sculpture, and paintings
Personally, other than music, art rarely has an affect on me. I can't remember when a film or a painting caused a second thought. Well, just twice.
In 2006, walking thru the Louvre, past the the Venus de Milo, past hundreds of beautiful paintings, nothing made me hesitate to give a second look. Not until a walked into a room, and in the middle on a wall, she made me stop in my tracks, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I'm of course talking about the Mona Lisa, and really wasn't prepared for that reaction. It was not as if walking by another painting, but walking into a quiet room with a beautiful smiling lady. I can only remember feeling that way once before, years before.
That time, was with a movie. Movies were big with my family, but I could always take them or leave them, even walk away in the last ten minutes of a film with no regret. Star Wars left me wondering....what's the big deal?
But in the infancy of the VCR, my sister rented movies that were somewhat obscure, and most were for good reason. But there was one that was different, one that gave me cold chills.
That movie was Badlands, a movie that excited me as to the possibility, of what film could be.
Years went by and I remember reading in the late 90's about the director, Terrence Malick,
(born November 30, 1943) an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer. In a career spanning decades, Malick has directed four feature films.
Numerous critics consider Malick's films to be masterpieces. Malick was nominated for an Academy Award for both, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director for The Thin Red Line.
Why is this now important ? Because he over the last few months he has been making a movie in Bartlesville! ( his parents live there)
Can you imagine living in the time of Leonardo? ( the painter, not the actor) and watching a genius for all the ages, be creative?
I do think film is the most important art of the 20th-21st centuries. Hundreds of years from now, what will it be that stops them in their tracks? Transformers? Jurassic Park? Not likely.
I don't know what film it will be. But, I'm betting that whatever is, the artist name will be Terrence Malick.
Written by Faron Harris
Personally, other than music, art rarely has an affect on me. I can't remember when a film or a painting caused a second thought. Well, just twice.
In 2006, walking thru the Louvre, past the the Venus de Milo, past hundreds of beautiful paintings, nothing made me hesitate to give a second look. Not until a walked into a room, and in the middle on a wall, she made me stop in my tracks, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I'm of course talking about the Mona Lisa, and really wasn't prepared for that reaction. It was not as if walking by another painting, but walking into a quiet room with a beautiful smiling lady. I can only remember feeling that way once before, years before.
That time, was with a movie. Movies were big with my family, but I could always take them or leave them, even walk away in the last ten minutes of a film with no regret. Star Wars left me wondering....what's the big deal?
But in the infancy of the VCR, my sister rented movies that were somewhat obscure, and most were for good reason. But there was one that was different, one that gave me cold chills.
That movie was Badlands, a movie that excited me as to the possibility, of what film could be.
Years went by and I remember reading in the late 90's about the director, Terrence Malick,
(born November 30, 1943) an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer. In a career spanning decades, Malick has directed four feature films.
Numerous critics consider Malick's films to be masterpieces. Malick was nominated for an Academy Award for both, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director for The Thin Red Line.
Why is this now important ? Because he over the last few months he has been making a movie in Bartlesville! ( his parents live there)
Can you imagine living in the time of Leonardo? ( the painter, not the actor) and watching a genius for all the ages, be creative?
I do think film is the most important art of the 20th-21st centuries. Hundreds of years from now, what will it be that stops them in their tracks? Transformers? Jurassic Park? Not likely.
I don't know what film it will be. But, I'm betting that whatever is, the artist name will be Terrence Malick.
Written by Faron Harris
Monday, November 8, 2010
Stories, Movies and Our Lives
Growing up in Oklahoma, history was a subject at school that seemed a recital of names and dates that had little effect on our lives.
That was until the 7th grade(1977) and the Oklahoma history teacher gave us a short list of books from which to do a book report. I chose "Hell on the Border", which is the story of "Hanging Judge" Parker, and his court over Indian Territory ( Oklahoma ) in the latter part of the 19th century. This book was amazing. It was violent, quirky, and opened my eyes to an amazing world that took place right where I lived.
The way they dressed, talked, and lived was far removed from Hollywood Westerns and I was mesmerized.
So later that year, when I picked up an issue of The Saturday Evening Post and realized the a story they were featuring in a serial was a fictional account of the Judge and his Marshals , I had to read it. The title was "True Grit", and was compiled and released in book form, so I went to the city library and checked it out.
Here was an author that "got it", Charles Portis had written an American classic. He may have lifted stories and events directly from "Hell on the Border", but like the Beatles once said, steal from the best.
Of course it had been made into a movie some years earlier(1969) and John Wayne had won his only Oscar for his portrayal of the one-eyed Marshall Rooster Cogburn.
I was so excited to watch it when it came on one Saturday afternoon. My thoughts on the movie? Certainly entertaining, but as my vision of being true, it fell far short, just another formula- looking western with a better than average story.
Years late, while on " the million dollar highway " in the San Juan mountains of south western Colorado, I remember reading a marker proudly boasting of being the site for the filming of True Grit. Beautiful country but little does it look like Oklahoma, even the rugged, green southeast corner of the state. Of course there, along Talimena drive, you'll find a marker explaining that this is the setting for the climatic scene from the book between the Marshall and outlaws.
So,memorable stuff from being a kid, but years go by and life happens , and in 2009 I find myself with a new family and life in Tulsa, traveling to Little Rock to pick up my 12 year old daughter from a previous marriage. Now let me tell you a little about Mandy. She's a platinum blonde , 80lb, 5'3" outdoor type, a living doll.
Always excited to see us , she begins to tell us of an audition for new movie that she attended. The name of the movie? True Grit!
A quick search by my wife Shannon on her smart phone revealed that the Coen brothers were re-imaging and directing the film more closely to the book with Rooster being played by Jeff Bridges, and also starring Matt Damon and Josh Brolin.
The auditions were part of an nation wide search with over 15,000 girls trying out.
Mandy did get a call back and film test. They liked her hobbies( caving, riding a unicycling, repelling ). Eventually the part went to a beautiful 13 year old in California, but it was exciting for her and us just to think about having a part in a book and movie that was so important to me as kid.
The movie was filmed in Texas and New Mexico this past summer( still not Oklahoma!) and will be released December 25th and already there is talk of Oscars for the movie and Jeff Bridges. Deja Vu ? The trailers do look spectacular.
But two things are for certain, I'll be first in line, and Mandy, you are my star.
That was until the 7th grade(1977) and the Oklahoma history teacher gave us a short list of books from which to do a book report. I chose "Hell on the Border", which is the story of "Hanging Judge" Parker, and his court over Indian Territory ( Oklahoma ) in the latter part of the 19th century. This book was amazing. It was violent, quirky, and opened my eyes to an amazing world that took place right where I lived.
The way they dressed, talked, and lived was far removed from Hollywood Westerns and I was mesmerized.
So later that year, when I picked up an issue of The Saturday Evening Post and realized the a story they were featuring in a serial was a fictional account of the Judge and his Marshals , I had to read it. The title was "True Grit", and was compiled and released in book form, so I went to the city library and checked it out.
Here was an author that "got it", Charles Portis had written an American classic. He may have lifted stories and events directly from "Hell on the Border", but like the Beatles once said, steal from the best.
Of course it had been made into a movie some years earlier(1969) and John Wayne had won his only Oscar for his portrayal of the one-eyed Marshall Rooster Cogburn.
I was so excited to watch it when it came on one Saturday afternoon. My thoughts on the movie? Certainly entertaining, but as my vision of being true, it fell far short, just another formula- looking western with a better than average story.
Years late, while on " the million dollar highway " in the San Juan mountains of south western Colorado, I remember reading a marker proudly boasting of being the site for the filming of True Grit. Beautiful country but little does it look like Oklahoma, even the rugged, green southeast corner of the state. Of course there, along Talimena drive, you'll find a marker explaining that this is the setting for the climatic scene from the book between the Marshall and outlaws.
So,memorable stuff from being a kid, but years go by and life happens , and in 2009 I find myself with a new family and life in Tulsa, traveling to Little Rock to pick up my 12 year old daughter from a previous marriage. Now let me tell you a little about Mandy. She's a platinum blonde , 80lb, 5'3" outdoor type, a living doll.
Always excited to see us , she begins to tell us of an audition for new movie that she attended. The name of the movie? True Grit!
A quick search by my wife Shannon on her smart phone revealed that the Coen brothers were re-imaging and directing the film more closely to the book with Rooster being played by Jeff Bridges, and also starring Matt Damon and Josh Brolin.
The auditions were part of an nation wide search with over 15,000 girls trying out.
Mandy did get a call back and film test. They liked her hobbies( caving, riding a unicycling, repelling ). Eventually the part went to a beautiful 13 year old in California, but it was exciting for her and us just to think about having a part in a book and movie that was so important to me as kid.
The movie was filmed in Texas and New Mexico this past summer( still not Oklahoma!) and will be released December 25th and already there is talk of Oscars for the movie and Jeff Bridges. Deja Vu ? The trailers do look spectacular.
But two things are for certain, I'll be first in line, and Mandy, you are my star.
Friday, November 5, 2010
VIB (Very Important Bridal) Room
After much thought about what to write about this week, I settled on “Wedding Consultations”. One reason being a bride came in to see us this week and she was so grateful for the time we spent with her, and it really helped us to see that the decision to make our VIB room (Very Important Bridal) was a great one! Of course, we love to have appointments scheduled in advance, but some times we get, and welcome drop ins, anyway, we can meet with brides in a more personal setting, not many distractions, and take some time with them to work out the kinks or just listen to what they are wanting. Some brides come in with it all figured out, some come in with a blank slate. We want to be here to handle each situation as it’s presented. We try to make sure we have all or most cakes available to taste everyday. Especially when brides take the time to call ahead and schedule. We realize planning a wedding can be very stressful and we definitely don’t want to add to the stress. Think about it, you get to come in with your closest friends, mom, your fiancé’ and EAT CAKE!!! Yay! We also have beautiful monogram letters for the top of your cake, 5 or 6 different styles. We also have the traditional and nontraditional bride and groom tops. For your bridesmaids and groomsmen, we have gift options that we can order and have personalized, invitations, save the dates, wedding favors and more!!
Some recommendations for helping in go smoothly:
Check out the website http://www.annsbakery.com/; see what flavors, fillings etc. that we have to offer, and check the basic pricing.
Jot down questions, ideas, flavors that you would like to discuss
Look at pictures!! On our site, other websites, “The Knot”http://www.theknot.com/ is a great source for ideas.
Print pictures off that you like, even if it’s the border on one cake and flowers on another, we can combine styles that you like and make it special and personal.
Pick the 3 or 4 people, important, that are the most reasonable, to come with you. Don’t forget it’s YOUR cake, YOUR day; you make the decision on what you want!!
We have really enjoyed the past year, getting to work with brides in our new room; it has definitely made it easier for us also! Please come in and see us!
Some recommendations for helping in go smoothly:
Check out the website http://www.annsbakery.com/; see what flavors, fillings etc. that we have to offer, and check the basic pricing.
Jot down questions, ideas, flavors that you would like to discuss
Look at pictures!! On our site, other websites, “The Knot”http://www.theknot.com/ is a great source for ideas.
Print pictures off that you like, even if it’s the border on one cake and flowers on another, we can combine styles that you like and make it special and personal.
Pick the 3 or 4 people, important, that are the most reasonable, to come with you. Don’t forget it’s YOUR cake, YOUR day; you make the decision on what you want!!
We have really enjoyed the past year, getting to work with brides in our new room; it has definitely made it easier for us also! Please come in and see us!
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Bigfoot and Baking
Now , let me ask you this. What do these seemingly different subjects have in common?
Well I want you to think back , back when you were a small child and you wanted to play outside in the cold. Didn't your Mom make sure you were bundled up? What does that have to do with anything? Nothing , but isn't this a good memory? Yea, I thought you needed it, the way this day has been going...and your welcome.
But I guess what I'm saying is that hunting Bigfoot and baking will teach you a couple of things, and those things are (1) patience &(2) faith.
And isn't that something the world needs more of? Along with more jobs & less crime. But maybe if people would do more of the former, it would fix the latter.
Anyway I hope this helps.
Well I want you to think back , back when you were a small child and you wanted to play outside in the cold. Didn't your Mom make sure you were bundled up? What does that have to do with anything? Nothing , but isn't this a good memory? Yea, I thought you needed it, the way this day has been going...and your welcome.
But I guess what I'm saying is that hunting Bigfoot and baking will teach you a couple of things, and those things are (1) patience &(2) faith.
And isn't that something the world needs more of? Along with more jobs & less crime. But maybe if people would do more of the former, it would fix the latter.
Anyway I hope this helps.
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