Get Organized! Solution #34 Reclaim Counter Space

The Small Baker's Rack is one of my favorite items.  I use one in my kitchen to hold a fruit bowl on the bottom shelf, and tea bags in a one pint crock with a sugar bowl and creamer on the top shelf.  I still have room underneath to tuck away my  two wrought iron trivets as well.  At right, you see it being used to hold dishes for a buffet setting. The bottom shelf also holds the 9x13 baking dish.

You can earn the wrought iron Baker's Rack plus two furniture-quality maple wood shelves for  just $69 plus an additional half-priced item when you host a $350 home show.  Call me to schedule your show today (541-752-8247).

Quick Dinner Solutions: Nachos!

Longaberger's handled platter is the perfect piece for preparing and serving nachos.

Layer tortilla chips on the platter with shredded cheddar cheese and top with canned black beans (drained), shredded cooked chicken or pork, black olives, diced green chilies or jalapeno peppers and more shredded cheese. 

Bake in the oven at 300F until cheese is melted.  Top with Salsa Fresca* and sour cream or guacamole (or both!) and serve on your Longaberger wrought iron trivets. People can eat straight from the platter with just a napkin! 

One dish does it all--simple and beautiful!

The Woven Traditions Handled Platter comes in all the pottery colors including the new chocolate color.  Get yours for $60 plus S/H or for just $30 when you host a $150 show or more.

*Fred Meyer has a nice Salsa Fresca in the Deli section near the prepared fruit and vegetable platters.

Quick Dinner Solutions: Spring Salad With Chicken and Fresh Fruit

This is another family favorite for summer.  Before all the fresh berries are gone, you need to try this refreshing and healthy salad!

Ingredients (Per Serving)
2-3 chicken tenders, cooked & lightly browned
Prepared Spring Salad Mix
4 strawberries, sliced
1/6 apple, thinly sliced
Brianna's Blush Wine Vinaigrette (strawberry on label)

Preparation
Cook and brown chicken tenders in skillet with a small amount of olive oil or butter.

Fill plate with salad greens, top with sliced strawberries and apples followed by chicken tenders.  Drizzle with vinaigrette and enjoy!

Get Organized! Solution #21: The Medium Market Basket

The Medium Market Basket was Founder Dave Longaberger's favorite basket and he fashioned the company's home office after its design.

This basket can serve multiple purposes when you also have a plastic liner or two and look beautiful while its doing it:

1. Put one in your car to corral all the "stuff" that seems to accumulate there.
2. Remove the liner with the "stuff" and carry the basket into the market when you are picking up just a few items.  How green is that!
3. Keep one near the front door or kitchen to store the unopened mail that usually accumulates on the dining room table.  Sort & open the mail when time allows.
4. Put one in a place that you like to keep neat and use it as a cache for stray items around the house.  With a woodcraft lid you can keep things covered until you can carry the basket around the house and put things where they belong!
5. Put a lidded Market Basket in the kitchen to store accumulating newspapers until you can recycle them.  It looks just beautiful.  Imagine how that will make you feel!

Ever Considered a Marketing Career?

Last year I decided to sign up to be a Longaberger Home Consultant because I loved the product, but also because I wanted to expand my world and the people in it.  What has amazed me since that time is how unpredictable people are in what they buy and when.  Being a scientist by training, this has been perplexing because I cannot see any pattern (yet, anyway).  Mind you, my current list of customers are my friends and neighbors so you would think I would know something.  It strikes me that this business is an excellent opportunity to gain some marketing skills and experience, especially for those who are interested in the subject, but not able to find a career position in this economy.  Here is what I have learned or am doing as part of my Longaberger home-based business:

1. Learning to talk to people about this product when I am not always comfortable doing so.  I can see that without a God-given gift for sales or public speaking this can take some practice.
2. But, I have been saved by a recent decision on the part of The Longaberger Company to allow home consultants to advertise online and in print advertising.
3. I have since worked with a marketing person at our local university to create an ad for placement in the alumni magazine.  I took product photos and he laid the design out in Photoshop with my feedback on the image placement and ad copy.
4. I have obtained a domain alias for my Longaberger website so that my print ad URL will be shorter and more relevant to the ad content (www.TailgateBaskets.com will forward to my site at www.longaberger.com/cindypaden).
5. I took a web design class a few years ago "just for fun."  After a grueling quarter, I created my first website, having learned HTML and CSS.  Since then I have been recruited by my family's business to help them with their website where I learned more about Content Management Systems and understand what is behind the Longaberger website to some degree.
6. I will now be creating a one-page website at www.TailgateBaskets.com to highlight the Team Spirit, Collegiate, and NFL baskets from Longaberger and then direct people to my consultant website to purchase.  More online marketing skills.
7. I have read about inbound marketing and find myself enthralled with the internet and social media.  So today I decided to learn how to use ConstantContact so that I could send out weekly (hopefully) newsletters to my Longaberger customers with "inbound" links to my online store.
8. I have contacted another, larger university to inquire about placing an ad in their alumni magazine, only to find out that the prices there are 5-10 times higher!!  I guess it would make sense because they have a larger readership than our local university and are much more well known.
9. We had a meeting last night for our Branch (our group of Longaberger consultant's under one leader) and discussed the recent conference and how to enhance our social media presence by adding a page to our Facebook account.  Of course we only have Facebook accounts (being of a certain age) because people have asked us to be their "friend", not because we "write on our wall".  Being in sales with a company like Longaberger forces one to consider multiple marketing avenues and to stretch and learn the new technologies that are available.

All this made me think of my niece, Lauren, who recently received a degree in marketing.  She finally was able to find a job that was not 60-80 hours a week at a start-up company when she accepted a position as an administrative assistant at Stanford University. It occurred to me that starting a Longaberger business would provide one with a lot of opportunity to practice and learn marketing skills.  For only $49 plus S/H you can get a sample basket and catalogs plus your own website.  You are automatically part of a team that meets and communicates with one another to learn how to promote the product.  But most of all, you have a real life opportunity to see consumer spending habits and likes and dislikes.  What better way to keep on learning and growing while you move up the career ladder to your final marketing position.  To join, got to my website and click on "Join My Team" near the top of the home page and follow the instructions or call me for questions and/or help.

Quick Dinner Solutions: Chicken Enchilada Casserole

The eternal question:  What to serve for dinner tonight?  This recipe is one of our family favorites. 

Using your 9x13 Woven Traditions Baking Dish, you can make an easy and delicious casserole that can be made ahead or in less than an hour.  This is also fairly low in calories if you watch the amount of cheese that you use (and, of course, the amount that you eat!). 

With Longaberger's vitrified pottery, clean up will be a snap as well.  Just scrape out the baking dish with a rubber scraper and place it in the front of the lower rack of the dishwasher (dirty side facing the back).  You will be pleasantly surprised!  (The glaze on your pottery makes for easy clean-up as long as you are careful not to scratch it too much by heavy use of metal utensils).
Ingredients:
1 pack of 12 corn tortillas
1 large can of green enchilada sauce (Winco is cheapest)
2 pounds of chicken tenders or chicken breast meat
Pepper Jack Cheese, Shredded
Optional:  1 can cooked black beans
Optional:  Light Sour Cream
Preparation:
Microwave or cook chicken until just cooked through and dice or shred the meat.  Pour half of the enchilada sauce into a shallow dish and the other half over the diced cooked chicken.  Dip several corn tortillas into the sauce and layer them into the bottom of your lightly oiled Woven Traditions Baking Dish.  Spread a layer of the chicken and sauce mixture and another layer of coated tortillas.  Top with shredded cheese.  Add another layer of chicken, tortillas, and top with cheese.  You will most likely need to adjust your ingredients based on how much chicken versus tortilla you prefer.
Bake in the oven at 350F for 30 minutes or until sauce is bubbling.  Let cool for 10-15 minutes. This casserole is GREAT the following day.  You can also add a layer of canned black beans for a more substantial meal and serve with a salad.  Serve with Light Sour Cream (Tillamook is the best!).

Longaberger's New Fundraising Program

Starting in September, Longaberger will offer a whole new fundraising program in which organizations will retain 40% of their sales with no up front costs.  Longaberger is also introducing a complementary food line for gift-giving that will be a part of the fundraising pacakge, as well as the new 'Sisters' line of colorful quilted wallets and cell phone cases that can be sold as well.