Mission: Small Business℠ is an effort by Chase Bank USA and LivingSocial, Inc. to increase awareness of the important role small businesses play in local communities and to help small businesses grow.  The Program, which will provide up to 12 individual grants of $250,000 was developed to provide small businesses with resources needed to make a positive impact on their business.

Mission: Small Business℠ invites small business owners who have been in business for at least two years and have less than 100 employees to apply for a Grant for their business.  Small business owners will be required to tell us why their business is unique, outline a proposed plan for utilizing the Grant to grow their business and describe how the business is involved with its community.

Consumers are encouraged to get involved by clicking the “Support” button at missionsmallbusiness.com and voting for their favorite registered small businesses.  Each time a consumer clicks to support small business, Chase will add five dollars to the Grant Pool, up to a maximum of $3 million.  Each registered small business must receive at least 250 votes to be considered for a Grant.  The voting period is open from May 7, 2012 through June 30, 2012.

At the end of the Voting Period, small business applicants that have received 250 votes will have their applications evaluated and Grant Recipients will be chosen.  Grant Recipients will be announced on or before September 15, 2012.

To be eligible a small business must:

• be a for-profit only organization organized and resident in the fifty (50) United States or the District of Columbia;
• have been actively engaged in its current business activity for at least two (2) consecutive years immediately preceding the start of the Program;
• be owned by natural persons who are  legal residents of the fifty (50) United States or the District of Columbia, and who are at least eighteen (18) years old (or as required by the laws in your state of residence)(Note:  A sole-proprietor shall be deemed a business and not a consumer for purposes of the Program);
• have a valid employer identification number or taxpayer identification number;
• employ less than one hundred (100) employees for the duration of the Program;
• not be owned by an employee of Sponsors or  a company wholly owned by a Sponsor or Sponsor’s parent company
• produce evidence of the foregoing upon request.

To apply, fill out the application here which requires a 500 word essay.

You can Register to apply here. Registered applicants will have thier business name, logo and tag line on the Mission: Small Business website and should encourage their customers and fans to vote for them on this website.

Click here for full rules and regulations.

These Challah pans are on JDeal right now at $11 off for only $29 (regulalry priced $39).  The Kosher Cook, makers of these challah pans are even throwing a free crumb buster into the deal!

You can use your new Challah-Shaped pans with my best ever Challah Recipe that is incredibly easy to make, requires only your hands, no fancy huge mixers, and is absolutely delicious.  If you’re really daring, try the challah with my awesome Tomato Dip and wow your family and friends this Shabbat! 

Buy this JDeal today, and enhance your Shabbat table by filling it with warm challot, (and emptying it of resulting crumbs).

Gluten Free Tiramisu…ish!

In honor of Amazon’s Gluten-Free month, try this dairy free, delicious recipe of brownie, cake, coffee and custard that comes from Chef Miriam Pearl of Delicious Without Gluten-Free living . It is verasatile and can be made to any size…..Follow these steps and make your own creation!

Don’t forget to check out Amazon’s great sales & deals on Gluten-Free products going on now.

You will need…..

• Gluten-free Brownies enough to fill bottom of pan  (recipe below)

• Gluten-free Marble cake or sponge cake cut in thin layers

• Dairy free custard (recipe below)

• Coffee syrup (recipe below)

Gluten-Free Brownies

115g  (4 oz) bittersweet baking chocolate cut into small pieces

3/4 cup of parve (non dairy) margarine(170g)

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup Gluten free flour mix (I use Better Batter®, but any will work)

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

In a big saucepan, place chopped chocolate and margarine and melt at low temperature and whisk until all dissolved. Move pan away from heat.

Once luke warm, add eggs and vanilla and whisk in. If chocolate is too hot, the eggs will cook, so make sure your chocolate is cooled down enough. Batter should get thicker. Add dry ingredients into the wet and continue to whisk together by hand. Use spatula to scrape down bowl.  Empty thick batter into an 8×8 pan lined with parchment paper and some cooking spray. This will make a thick brownie. If you desire thinner brownies, use a larger pan. Bake at 325 for 35-40 min. Check if done by using a toothpick to make sure it comes out clean or atleast not raw or liquidy.  If making with larger size pan, you will need to decrease time.  This recipe doubles well. If you double it, use a 9″x13″ pan.

Once brownie is ready, let cool for an hour and then place into freezer. Once frozen, remove brownie with parchment paper.  You can wait a few moments to allow for easier cutting. Squares will be straight and clean using this method. If you want to store brownies in freezer until ready to eat, place each square or portion in plastic wrap and then you can store in your freezer. Take out an hour before you plan to eat. They are fabulous cold, so don’t be shy to keep them in the refrigerator until ready to eat!

Custard

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup granualted sugar

1 cup or 225 g  non-dairy cream
cheese

1 cup  non-dairy whipped cream

1 tsp vanilla or liquor

Beat egg yolks & sugar with a paddle attachment in your mixer until very light in color – almost white & fluffy. Beat in cream cheese and vanilla to the mixture. In separate bowl with a whisk attachment,  beat whipped cream until it is fluffy and light.  Add to egg mixture and continue beating until custard is stiff.  The
custard freezes well, but will need to be beat again if taken out of freezer.

Coffee syrup

1 cup of water

1 tablespoon instant coffee (or more for stronger taste)

1 cup sugar

Dissolve coffee in hot water in a small saucepan over heat. Add sugar until mixture is heated through and sugar is dissolved. Take off heat and cool. This mixture can be bottled in fridge for several weeks.

Tiramisu-ish Directions

1. Take any size pan with a high edge. I like to use a loaf pan. Line it with parchment paper. Fill the bottom with brownie squares so that there are no spaces and tightly packed to the edge. Don’t worry if you see lines.

2. Using a pastry brush, brush the brownie top with coffee syrup. Spread a layer of custard on top.

3. Cut vanilla or marble cake in slices and arrange pieces in one layer on top of custard.  Once again, pack it in so that edges are filled.

4. Using a pastry brush, brush the cake with a generous amount of coffee syrup. Spread a layer of cream on top.

5. Repeat step 3 and 4 one or two more times until close to the height of your pan.

6. Spread last layer of cream on top. Using a straight or rippled edge, run knife flush over top of pan to get a clean finish.

7. Freeze the cake. After an hour, you can run hot water on a knife and run through sides of pan between cake and parchment paper. Place back in freezer for a few hours. Freezing the cake makes it easier to take the cake out of pan.

8. Pull out the parchment paper and remove cake from pan. You can cover sides with cream for decoration if you like. You can also dust top with cocoa powder using a sifter or top with cookie crumbs.  This dessert freezes well. Take out an hour before you want to eat it.

9. Let sit in refrigerator until ready to eat.

May is Gluten-Free Month on Amazon 

Some of the best buys include Ancient Harvest Quinoa Pastas at over 40% off with Gluten free Bread, pancake & pizza crust mixes on sale as well.

Many of the best selling Gluten Free Cookbooks like Gluten-Free On a Shoestring, Gluten-Free for Dummies & 100 Best Gluten Free Recipes are on sale this month as well.

For all my Gluten-Free fans, my friend and awesome gluten-free chef, Delicious Without Gluten-Free Living, has shared with us some of her best dessert recipes like gluten-free brownies & Tiramisu-ish dishes that will be adored by everyone.  Click here for these great recipes.

Click here for Amazon’s full line of Gluten-Free items on sale this month.

Here are some Basic Do-it-Yourself Website Creation Basics.

Basic WordPress

WordPress is the most widely used tool for website creation and management today.  It is very professional and technologically sound.  You’d be amazed at how many of the leading professional websites are running on wordpress.  It is also very current and features intuitive click & drag technology that makes it easy to use even for the most technologically impaired person.

WordPress is an incredibly powerful tool and the basic WordPress from www.wordpress.com is completely free!  There are the more professional upgraded Worpdress packages from www.Wordpress.org that require you to host your website yourself (which I discuss below).

If you are a real novice, use the FREE wordpress.com as your training center until you are comfortable with the technology, and then, upgrade to one of these inexpensive Premium WordPress packages.

Premium WordPress Packages

Using the free wordpress.com has serious limitations in terms of Search Engine Optimization (which I’ll write about soon) and limits your ability to generate income from your blog.  Therefore, if you want to take your blog or website up a notch an make it truly professional, there are many Premium WordPress Packages, most for under $100 that you can use.  My favorite of the Premium Wordpress packages is StudioPress with the Genesis Child Themes.  That’s what I used to created The Kosher Shopaholic and it has served me well, especially for Search Engine Optimization.  Did you know that 80% of my website traffic comes from Search Engines without me paying an penny for SEO?  Its because its built in to the premium wordpress package I use.

A package like the one I use costs about $60-$80 and is simple and intuitive.  Like I’ve said, they have SEO built into the design automatically so you don’t even have to worry about this complicated piece of it.  All you have to do is select your look & feel, click and drag and, of course, make sure to write your own unique copy.  StudioPress has excellent tutorials, help and support in place as well to assist you along the way.

Hosting

Once you begin building your website, if you want to begin making money from it from advertising and affiliates (which I will discuss in a later post), you will need to host it through a third party.  I have been very happy with BlueHost to host my site and colleagues have shared with me that BlueHost has been excellent at protecting them from hacking attempts as well.  The package I have costs only $10 per month and is incredibly easy to install and use.  They also have excellent tutorials and support for the novice users.  By hosting your website through a third party like BlueHost, you are also able to have your own domain name, like www.koshershopaholic.com instead of www.wordpress.com/koshershopaholic.

Domain Names

Having your own domain name is much more professional looking and is not as complicated to do as it might seem.   To purchase a domain name, go to a site like  GoDaddy.com and run a search on the names that you would like to use.  If someone else doesn’t already own it, you can buy it strait from GoDaddy.com for $10.  You can also purchase your domain names from hosting sites like BlueHost.

So there you have the basics of creating your website on a budget.  I wish you much success.  Please let me know if this post was helpful to you in the comments section below or by dropping me an email at coach@kosherworkaholic.com.  Feel free to ask me any business related question to be answered on the blog for my Coach’s Couch section here.

In my family we don’t necessarily give each other gifts on time.  We kind of just get gifts as they are needed and attribute them to the nearest gift giving date.  That being said, I will share with you some of my favorite gifts of the year – which you can choose to use for Mother’s Day or simply buy and attribute to Mother’s Day (like us).

1. A Professional Cappuccino Maker

I received our Cappuccino Maker about a month ago so we call it an early Mother’s Day gift.  I was able to justify the hefty price when I figured out how much I was spending going to my local kosher Dunkin Donuts once (and sometimes twice) a day for a Cappuccino.  Figure $3 a day times 300 days a year (I don’t buy any on Shabbos) comes out to $900 a year on Cappuccino.  Our machine cost around $800 and came with the first few pounds of coffee beans.  For some reason, I can’t tolerate the caffeine in regular coffee and with 4 young kids in the house, my Cappuccino addiction is justified.  I can’t begin to tell you how much we are enjoying this Cappuccino machine.  Aside from my morning fix, I make sure to make one right before my kids come home from school and wow – I can almost keep up with them!

Amazon is the best place to buy a machine like this (Amazon is the best place to buy most things these days).  We bought the DeLonghi Compact Automatic Cappuccino, Latte and Espresso Machine from Amazon for $799 which was and still is $200 off its regular price.  This machine is computerized and grinds the coffee beans fresh and makes the espresso automatically and has a steam/frothing mechanism.  But Amazon carries a full range of manual and automatic machines ranging from under $100 to over $1000 so you can truly find a machine to fit any budget.  You can view Amazon’s full line of Espresso/Cappucino machines here.

2. Apple iPad Tablet

I also received the Apple iPad 2 a few months ago, we’ll call it a late Anniversary gift (our anniversary is in December).  Its probably the only thing I love more than my Cappuccino machine.   As I often meet clients and do a lot of my work at Starbucks or in kosher restaurants, I wasn’t so comfortable lugging my laptop around with me everywhere I went.  Yet, since I have a Dell Laptop to manage most of my professional documents and files on, I didn’t need all the fancy new features of the iPad 3 (retina display, faster processor, 4G Internet).  So, we opted for  the older model, the iPad 2 and saved a few hundred dollars.  Between the iCloud and simple FREE apps like DropBox, all of the documents I need are easily up to date and accessible whether I’m away from my office using my iPad or at my home office using my Laptop.  Even if you don’t need it for work, welcoming someone to the world of  Tablets and Apps is a pretty awesome gift that says, ‘I love you’.  I LOVE MY iPAD.  This gift will surely make the ‘mom’ in your life very happy.  You can find Apple iPad 2 on Amazon for $389 (16GB memory) and the iPad 3 for $565 (16GB).

3 & 4. Tablet Accessories

In my opinion, an iPad Tablet is a necessary office supply today for most professionals -whether you’re a blogger, entrepreneur or business executive.  I often recommend that clients buy a soupped up iPad 3 instead of a new laptop, saving a lot of money and offering  the same features plus a lot more features (Apps anyone?) than a laptop today.   So for the mom who already has an iPad, or to bundle with the new iPad you’re getting her, here are my two favorite accessories.  I personally have the Snugg, iPad case which is very functional and nice for $29 .  I am in love with the Kore Tech (TM) Leather Folio Case (Purple) with Flip Stand for Apple iPad 2/iPad 3/**The New iPad**(Built-in magnet for Apple Smart Cover’s sleep & awake) + (USB Sync/Charging Cable for iPad/iPhone/iPod) – SPECIAL PROMO SALE for only $16.21 in purple.  How gorgeous is this!

I also really love my messenger bag/purse/handbag, whichever you call it, that fits the iPad along with my wallet, keys and other necessities.  I AM SO IN LOVE WITH MY BAG.  I slip my iPad into it and go out to a meeting and my virtual office is with me – i’m organized and professional and barely carrying a thing.  This Coach messanger/crossbody bag om brown is really beautiful, fits the iPad and will be adored by whoever owns it.

5.  Bling

Bling is very in right now – the bigger the better.  A nice watch is a classic gift for mom’s and you know that because Amazon has some of them at 80% off for Mother’s Day.  You can find copies of high end designer watches for as low as $43 like this Sartego Women’s SRFK11 Click Interchangeable Bands Watchwhich is a nice replica of this TechnoMarine Women’s 208020 MoonSun Ceramic Mini Gold-Plated White Watch that sells for over $1,000.

Other great gift ideas can be found in some of the products I’ve reviewed like ShopYourCloset, Not2Shabbey and M&MDesigns.

What is Mother’s Day?

Mother’s Day 2012 will be this coming Sunday, May 13.  Mother’s Day is traditionallay observed on the second Sunday of May and celebrates the important roles that mothers serve in society.  The holiday was started by Anna Jarvis in 1908 to pay tribute to mothers and in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson made the holiday official by signing it into law.

Mother’s Day is one of the most commercialized  holidays in the United States, and sales for gifts peak during the days preceding Mother’s Day. It is common for children to buy gifts, flowers, and  cards for their mothers on Mother’s Day.  England also has an equivalent  holiday to Mother’s Day called “Mothering Day” that is celebrated on  the fourth Sunday during the month of Lent.

My little 4 year old daughter is going through a huge Hello Kitty faze right now – especially requesting Hello Kitty bathingsuits.  So I was really excited to find this awesome deal – Girls Hello Kitty Swim Suits for only $15 on Totsy!  Plus, if you use coupon code VIPMOM at checkout you’ll get $15 off your order of $60 or more! That total can include anything across the Totsy site.

Visit Totsy now & grab some of these Hello Kitty brand bathingsuits, flip-flops, sundresses for a steal!

Clinique wants to help you get ready for summer with a FREE gift! Come in to Macy’s for a consultation & leave with a 14-day supply of Super City Block sunscreen. Soak up the sun while keeping your skin happy – who’s coming with me?

Check out the Macy’s Facebook page for more information.

That’s me in my super-slip skirt extender

Just before Passover, Shell Sheli sent me samples of their brand new, exclusive Super-Slip Skirt Extenders to try out.  With the mad rush of Passover, the slips were placed in my closet and all but forgotten about… until a function that I attended last week.  I wanted to wear my newest basic black dress, the dress that should be in every woman’s closet, but noticed that it was a tad too short for my standards.  Instead of the typical cotton hard tail black shell skirt that I usually wear to extend dresses, I decided to try my Super-Slip Skirt Extender from Shell Sheli.  I have to tell you, it looked perfect and I LOVED wearing it!

Super-Slip Skirt Extender

The super-slip skirt extender is made of satiny comfortable slip fabric and was so comfortable to wear and was so easy to move around in, especially when compared to the tight cotton shell skirts I usually wear.  It was very liberating.  It also looked nice, the fabric used in the extension is a dressy fabric and blended well with my black dress.

Shell Sheli is the exclusive maker and retailer of these super-slip skirt extenders.  You can buy them on sale now from Shell Sheli for $25.99.

KikiRiki Layering Dress

Shell Sheli carries a large variety of popular Kiki Riki shells in all sizes, styles and colors for adults and children and the newest, hottest Kiki Riki Layering Dress is also on sale for $43.99 for the 3/4 sleeve and $45.99 for the long sleeve dress.

Visit Shell Sheli for all your shell and skirt extention needs!

For those of you who are ‘in the parsha’ as we like to say, those who have 3 year olds ready for an upsherin, 3 year old grandsons, nephews or close friends, M&M Designs makes some really special edible treats customized for your special party.  Some of the most popular of these treats are the custom upsherin cookies.  (by the way, they also make cookies, brownie bits, cake bites and pops for any of your occasions).

It is a common Jewish custom to allow a boy’s hair to grow untouched until he’s three years old.  On his third birthday, friends are invited to a haircutting ceremony—called an upsherin in Yiddish, and a chalakah by Sephardic Jews.  From this point on, a child is taught to wear a kipah and tzitzit and learns his first Hebrew letters, alef – beis with some honey to remember that Torah learning is as sweet as honey.

There is also a very different German/Yekkish custom to create something called a wimple for a boy to use to celebrate his turning three, instead of an upsherin.  A wimple is a beautiful large piece of cloth (about 10 foot long banner) that the child wraps around the sefer Torah.  It is designed with the child’s name and some pesukim wishing the child to grow up to be a great person who does Mitzvos.  It contains beautiful pictures and designs.  Check out this beautiful custom made wimple made by Not2Shabbey.com.  You can also find custom embroidered Yarmulkes & hand painted tzitzit for that special 3 year old from Not2Shabbey as well.

Lag BaOmer falls this year on Thursday, May 10, 2012.  It is celebrated with outings, bonfires, and other joyous events.  Lag BaOmer also carries the theme of the imperative to love and respect one’s fellow and, back to my upshurin theme, many use the celebratory day as a time to give their 3 year old son their first haircut, since the days from Passover until Lag B’Omer, are considered a period of mourning.