Legislative Update and Immediate Action is Needed!
Our legislative update and request from the MN Cottage Food Producers Association which will benefit our cottage food producers in many ways.
We are asking for emails/letters of support for shipping to be sent to jlynncarriveau@gmail.com
Please address them to “Whom It May Concern” because these are going to be shared with more than one lawmaker. We need for our lawmakers to hear from ALL CFP’s. The more letters/emails the better. We are putting together a file to be shared so they realize how not being able to ship impacts our small business, our ability to grow, the impact on our customers, rural producers, people with disabilities, and more.
Note: Shipping will only be within the State of Minnesota. This will align us with 35 other states. This means that you will be able to use the mail, UPS, FEDEX, Grub Hub, etc. to deliver your products or have a representative of a farmer’s market pick up items at your stand for a customer (something that we could not do during COVID).
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You Make the Difference!
Take note folks, the primary is August 9th. Be sure to get out and vote. This is the place We the People have the loudest voice. These candidates running to speak for us are our neighbors. They are the ones we wave at as we shop at our local stores and dine at our hometown eateries. These are the people our children go to school with. We know them. Make sure they will be Your voice. Make sure they will stand for what you believe. Those big shots in Washington D.C don’t know us from Adam. But right now, right here, on August 9th, we get to choose the people who do know us. The people who will represent us. This is where We the People take back power over our own state and our own lives. Don’t let it go to waste.
Just Be Nice!
It’s almost the 4th of July. The day America celebrates freedom. They say that this country was founded on integrity, morals and the constitution. Here’s the thing with that, it was a really long time ago and it’s history. The good, the bad, the ugly of it, all in the past. Not one person here today lived then. Not one person here today knows what actually happened. If you read social media you would think that a whole lot of people traveled back in time and they were right there, because they sure think they know what they’re talking about. But they don’t. Nobody alive today knows.
I’m a patriotic American girl. Born and raised a military brat and I am proud of that. I’m thankful I grew up here. But guess what, stuff changes. History is great. One of my favorite subjects. But history is the past and we have to live and deal with the present.
The country we only know through history, the country we know from our childhood and the country we live in now, are all vastly different.
Right now things in our country are not so great. I don’t care if you are following the donkey or the elephant but I can guarantee one thing, they are all leading you through their crap.
We the people MUST stop listening to the media, crazy politicians and other groups that are seeking to divide this country. Start talking to each other again and actually hearing what each other is saying. Stop following the Facebook lynch mobs and really find out the truth behind the smoke and screens. Start thinking for yourself. Nothing is ever as it seems.
It’s time to bring back love and empathy for each other and accept that we can agree to disagree. It’s alright to differ. Because united we will stand, divided we will fall.
On this 4th of July we have to get our acts together. Just be nice! It’s not that hard. If we don’t get the United back in the States of America, we may see our last Independence Day sooner than we know.
We The People, Wake Up!
It’s been a while since I wrote anything for this blog. It’s been quite a busy couple of years with everything that’s been going on with our so called “new normal”, a term that literally makes me cringe every time I hear it.
But I was thinking about the upcoming caucuses and how very important it is for everyone to be involved. I don’t care what side you are for or against, I care that We the People get involved with our own destiny. If we just sit back and let our government, all of our government, take control, then we only have ourselves to blame.
This is where we make the difference in who represents us in the government. It begins here. Now. With the family and friends who WE will be electing to speak for us. These are the people we personally know and who actually care about us and who will work to represent us. We have to make these decisions now.
It’s not enough to sit and arm chair quarter back. These people have control of our every day lives. From your student council, city council, sheriffs and judges, all the way to the governor of our state, you are the one giving them the ability to influence everything that happens in your life.
More than ever, it is imperative that We the People remember this. If you can’t run for office yourself, then do your homework. Really find out how the people you vote for are going to impact your life. Will they stand up for what you believe?
It’s time to get involved with your local elections. This begins with the caucus. Because I guarantee that if arm chair quarterbacking was enough the Vikings would have won the Super Bowl a long long time ago.
Over the years I have written a few blogs posts about how I went from literally not caring about politics to realizing how important and vital it is for We the People to be involved in our own futures. You can read them if you click the links below.
You can find the location of your local caucus here: 2022 Caucus Locations
Remembering
As I sit here staring at my screen so many thoughts are running through my mind. Life is a strange thing and it really doesn’t matter how well you think you have it planned out, let’s face it, those paths very rarely take you where you think you are headed.
When I was a kid, I was never going to be married and just become a businesswoman. Instead, my path led me to Israel where I would meet and marry a man born in Minnesota and have six beautiful children. My next great thought was that Israel would be our home forever. Well, tomorrow it will be 18 years since our little family moved back to the United States. I was never ever going to have anything to do with politics. Who knew that simply wanting to bake cakes would lead me to eleven years of cottage food lobbying efforts with a pitstop as treasurer for a state wide senate campaign along the way?
This weekend is memorial weekend. We remember the brave men and women who have sacrificed their lives to keep this country free. So free that many Americans are just a bunch of self-centered spoiled brats who don’t even realize what freedoms and blessings they have been granted by the blood of their fellow Americans.
I remember. I remember wondering if my dad was coming home every time he left. I remember my friend, whose daddy never did come home. Many people forget that the families of the soldiers, the ones left behind, also sacrifice so much.
In Israel, Memorial Day is a day of remembrance, a day to honor the fallen with trips to the cemetery and stories of bravery. The children learn this in school, it’s not a day off. The theaters are closed, there are no barbeques. We need more of this in America. We need to remember.
Life is a series of events that take you where you never imagined you would go. We need to remember that we have these lives to live, these crazy random paths to follow, only because someone else gave theirs.
My Cottage Food Journey Continues
It’s been awhile since I actually wrote something for my personal blog. I have been busy working on amending our MN Cottage Food Law. I am really happy to finally see all of the time and effort has paid off and the two bills we had in legislation this year have been passed and signed. It’s not as good as it could be, but so much better than it was and it only took 11 years to get here. 🙂 I am sincerely hoping to get some time to start actually running my own Sweet Eats by Shelley home bakery soon, at least by this autumn.
Here’s the recent blog I wrote about the passing of the bills if you would like to read it: Time to Celebrate!
In January 2020, together with a few of my cottage food friends, we set up the only official cottage food producers association in the United States. It was a big step forward for cottage foods. However, thanks to covid-19 it has been pretty slow going. But I think we are finally gaining momentum and I am excited for the future. Our united efforts as an association are much stronger than just me and a few others going around knocking on representative’s doors. I really think the many collaborated voices of our coalition made a huge difference in our bills passing this year. I think that covid-19 itself also played a part by making people realize how important local foods are. When the stores ran out of bread and other staples it was the cottage food producers and farmers who stepped up to the plate. If you would like to check out our association page it is here: MN Cottage Food Producers Association.
FYI, our logo was created by a fellow cottage food producer, Virginia Loudan of Ginny Bites. She is amazing!
Recently my fellow Wisconsin cottage food friend Lisa Kivirist started the Wisconsin Cottage Food Association. So a huge congratulations to her and her fellow producers as they try to further the cottage food laws there. It’s been several years of struggling with a very unsympathetic legislature for them. However it was really exciting to attend the the very first Home-based Food Entrepreneur Virtual National Conference which was hosted by Lisa and her husband. It was unbelievable and had so much going on! It was as if you were really attending a national conference. Literally hundreds of people from all over the United States attended and I even saw a few people from Canada and Australia. I wrote about it on my MN Cottage Food Law Blog.
This summer will be busy with organizing the new and updated laws, events and hopefully working on a grant. Never a dull moment. 🙂 Have a great summer everyone!
THE THINKS THAT WE THOUGHT …
So very well written and true…
In honor of society’s most recent “cancelee” (Doctor Seuss), on his birthday, I thought I’d jot down some thoughts in rhyme …
It started well-meaning; pure-hearted enough
just to clean up the flagrant, mean-spirited stuff
All the frowns and turned noses, every soul-crushing word
In the sees that we saw and the hears that we heard
We wanted inclusion, in this great game of life
every daughter and son – every husband and wife
No one should be banished, alone or left out
that is certainly not what this game is about
We should all have the rights to jump ropes and fly kites
and we all should be safe in the days and the nights
And no one would argue those points to the herd
in the sees that we saw or the hears that we heard
So our actions were judged and pure justice was sought
the only…
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4am Reflections ~ Thanksgiving Memories
It goes without saying that 2020 has been quite a year. I often wake up at four in the morning and can’t get back to sleep, which leads to many wandering thoughts. This morning my thoughts led me to this year and trying to put it into perspective. All things considered; it hasn’t been the worse year our family has ever endured. We’ve encountered loss of loved ones, businesses, property, and endured illnesses before. It wasn’t easy, but we got through it.
Growing up in the military you learn to be prepared for the unexpected. You learn that life is fleeting and that you should enjoy every moment because in the blink of an eye it can all change.
My earliest remembered Thanksgiving ended up with dumping hot gravy on myself when I was about three. I’m not sure if I actually remember that or if it’s one of those things your mom tells a lot so you think you remember it.
I do remember that my dad was in Vietnam the year I was five. That was a rough year for us. But my mom, brother and I got through it and we were some of the lucky ones, our dad came home.
When I was seven, we moved to North Carolina. We lived in a neighborhood that was one street with trailers on each side. My dad never knew a stranger. He always told us, “To have a friend, you have to be a friend.” My dad was friends to anyone in need and we always had extra people in our home, especially during the holidays. That year we somehow ended up with the entire neighborhood at our house. Everyone just brought what they were cooking and we sat around eating and talking. I remember some guy sitting in our yard, strumming his guitar. It was so cool. Luckily mom had cooked a huge turkey. It was one of the best Thanksgivings ever.
One year we found ourselves too tired to cook a big meal, I believe we had just moved. So, we ended up at Mc Donald’s. It was perfect for the moment. It was so much better than the year we were on a bus from Chicago to Arizona and literally everything was closed! I think we ended up having gas station sandwiches or something like that.
One year we were in England where we met a very nice lady who invited us to her home to make us a Thanksgiving meal. Her version of Thanksgiving was steak & kidney pie and apple sauce pie for dessert. It was so very sweet of her to do that for us but I admit, I gave mine to dad when she wasn’t looking.
The year my then fiancé and I celebrated our engagement we combined our Thanksgiving feast with our engagement party. As time went on, we had our own little family and usually celebrated with my husband’s family. Often times, Thanksgiving was a huge dinner with many guests. One year we hosted it at our house and there were 82 people in our home! Even now I try to follow my dad’s example and we often have new faces at our table.
I guess the point that I am making is that it doesn’t matter how big or how small your Thanksgiving dinner is. It doesn’t matter if you eat a sandwich or a huge turkey dinner. It doesn’t even matter if you celebrate Thanksgiving on that designated Thursday. What matters is that you remember who you have to be thankful for and cherish every moment you have with them. Not just at Thanksgiving, but every single day.
Magic Coffee Whip
Hi Everybody! I really hope you are all staying healthy and sane during this crazy COVID time. It’s definitely been an experience that will be told to our future generations.
It’s been awhile since I posted anything on this blog. I’ve been really busy with among many other things my blog Minnesota Cottage Food Law. We set up, as far as I know, the only Cottage Food Producers Association in the United States, so that’s been exciting. We spent a lot of time trying to get some laws amended this legislative session but because of the virus that was put on hold.
I have also recently set up a blog for my sister-in-law. She owns a beautiful restaurant called Izgara, with her husband and one of our nephews in Florida. I’ve written about it before. She also gives cooking classes and likes to share the things she makes. You can check it out here: Izgara Mediterranean Cuisine.
With all of the time we have had to stay home I did a lot of baking and experimenting with new recipe ideas and the latest fads. One of these fads is called, Magic Coffee. I am a self-confessed coffeeholic so I had no trouble joining this fad. First, I tried a simple recipe with ice coffee from Pinterest. It was pretty good. But then my daughter sent me this video, Magic Coffee Whipped Cream from Emmymade. I made it and it is total coffee heaven.
According to Emmy’s video you have to use coffee crystals. Luckily, I happened to have some. 😊 You put about 1/3 cup of coffee and 1 cup of sugar in your mixing bowl. Pour in about ¾ cup of icy cold water. Give it a stir, then slowly start whipping it with your mixer. It takes about 3 minutes to make a beautiful looking whipped cream. I then heaped a good portion of this amazing concoction on top of a lovely brownie cake. Let me tell you, this combination of brownie with whipped coffee is literally the richest dessert I have made in a long time. Then we added a little vanilla ice cream, it was perfection.
In the spirit of experimenting we waited to see how long the topping would hold its shape on top of the brownie. After about 4 hours the coffee had begun separating from the whipped foam and seeping through the brownie. The conclusion was that although this is a fabulous dessert, it should be served soon after making it. I had toyed with the idea of making it to sell but that’s probably not going to happen.
We put the remainder of the whipped coffee in the refrigerator overnight to see how it would hold up. At first glance it looked pretty good but once you moved the you layer with your spoon you could see that the coffee had separated a bit from the top. However, after re-whipping the coffee cream it was as good as new.
So, I decided to try to make a hot beverage with it. I heated up a cup of milk and then I heaped some of the whipped coffee on top of the milk. It looked beautiful, but it wasn’t the ideal way to drink this. Then I tried putting the whipped coffee into the cup first and then adding the hot milk. It wasn’t as beautiful but it tasted much better. If you are a fan of sweet milky coffee you will love this.
All in all, it was great fun to experiment with and I will definitely be using this recipe and making the brownie dessert again. I think I’ll name it the Double Threat Dessert.
My Creations of 2019
We’re already into the 4th month of 2020 and I’m just getting around to posting my creations from last year. As usual 2019 was full of highs and lows. But isn’t that what life is all about? I hope you enjoy this collection of sweet treats and have a safe and healthy 2020.
If you would like to order one of my 2020 calendars just send me a message on my Facebook page, Sweet Eats by Shelley. I have a few of them left and they are now 50% off.
Cupcakes & Pearls 
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