Kosher Gifts

Fairytale Babies!

Thursday, September 2, 2010 by Melissa Eisenstein

This has been an extremely eventful week here at Fairytale Brownies. As our loyal readers know, one of our Customer Service Team members is having a baby. Well, she's due anytime now, and we decided to throw her a Fairytale Surprise Party!

Needless to day, any good party here at Fairytale includes the best brownies on earth! (No, the cake is cake, brownies were later.) Tanika was so surprised and pleased...and I hope Mackel will be pleased with all the love shown by all our people here, and I'm sure he will be.

On Tuesday, we're kicking our season into high gear with the arrival of our seasonal employees here in Customer Service. They will be here until just before Christmas to help us send brownies, cookies, and all of our other corporate food gifts for the holiday season. We have one who is with us for his fourth season, and has started with us already! Welcome back Tony "The Confrontation" Sanders!

As a side note, Rosh Hashanah will commence at sundown on September 8th this year, so, Happy New Year!

Fairytale Brownies prepares for the holidays in September

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 by Alyssa Andrews

It's September! Sixteen weeks from today is the Wednesday before Christmas. How's that for time flying?

No need to panic though. Fairytale Brownies has everything you need to guarantee your gifts will be well received. New tower gifts, new gourmet cookies, new gift bands, new truffle flavors - the hardest part of purchasing will be deciding who is getting what new gift!

Personally, I like the tower gifts because they include a little bit of everything we bake - brownies, Sprites, Magic Morsels and cookies. I love to reuse my boxes so once the fudge brownies are gone, something else will fill their place.

September is also is the month when our retail store goes back to winter hours. Beginning Tuesday, September 7, we will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Once the holiday season officially begins in December, we will be open Saturdays, but until then we are on a Monday through Friday schedule. Find our address and retail store hours here!

Although most of the country is enjoying some cooler temperatures, Arizona still is experiencing high 90- to 110-degree temperatures. Fairytale Brownies will continue its practice to ship all gifts in an insulated box with cold packs Monday through Wednesday. October soon will arrive with cooler temperatures and our regular Monday - Friday shipping schedule will resume. Getting brownies delivered or cookies delivered is easy!

Hmm. All of this talk about the holidays is making me want some hot chocolate. Who has the marshmallows?

Homemade Chocolate Chip Banana Waffle Recipe - Using Fairytale Brownies!

Monday, August 30, 2010 by Hilary Lee

Hi Fairytale Fans!

I am writing this blog on behalf of our Human Resources Assistant, Janet. Janet recently sent a package of fudge brownies to her cousin Liz, and Liz's grandkids, Carson and Riley. Carson and Riley were so excited about the brownie gift that they decided to create a homemade waffle recipe using the best brownies, Fairytale Brownies! I have to admit, while writing this blog my mouth began to water. The recipe sounds delicious and very simple to make. Thank you Carson and Riley for such a yummy homemade waffle recipe. I can't wait to try these at home with my own son, Austin. What a great way to spend quality time together while eating delicious fudge brownies! If you'd like to use Fairytale Brownies for your recipe too, just visit brownies.com and send brownies to yourself today!

Fairytale Chocolate Chip Banana Waffles

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1 and 3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large or 2 small bananas (mashed)
1 crumbled up Chocolate Chip Fairytale Brownie

Directions:

Preheat Waffle Iron
In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs until fluffy
Add remaining ingredients and mix together
Spray waffle iron with non-stick cooking spray
Pour mix into hot waffle iron and cook until golden brown.
Keep warm in oven while remaining waffles cook.

Carson & Riley pictured below.

The Holidays Already?

Thursday, August 26, 2010 by Melissa Eisenstein

This week has been extremely fun-filled and interesting. Here at Fairytale Brownies, we are gearing up for the Holidays! We've brought in additional staff to help bake the best brownies for holiday gifting, and we're working on ramping up our staff here in customer service too! The holiday boxes are coming, and they're gorgeous! Those should be up on our site soon, as well as the new delicious Fairytale Cookies, which are eagerly anticipated!

If you'd like to see a preview of all our new offerings, go to www.brownies.com/new to take a look. I'm sure those beautiful new packages will inspire you to ship brownies to your friends, neighbors, and business associates.

As for customer service, we're helping businesses gear up for the holidays already! We're offering up to 30% off their holiday brownie orders if they prepay before the end of this month. Just think of the awe when your customers or collegues receive a beautifully wrapped brownie gift delivered right to their door, and they don't have to know you received a large discount!

Delicious, wonderful fudge brownies are a great way to celebrate any holiday! Remember, only 4 months left until Christmas - visit brownies.com today!

They sell the best brownies in the world... What is Fairytale Brownies?

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 by Alyssa Andrews

Every month during the off season, Fairytale Brownies team members gather for an all staff meeting that includes lunch and a celebration of staff birthdays and anniversaries. For the last few months, we've been reviewing each department's duties and procedures. We call these gatherings, "Learning Lunches."

The Marketing Team (Catalog, Web, PR, Corporate Sales and Wholesale) shared its procedures today with a friendly game of Fairytale Jeopardy!

Emcee Eileen (pictured in top photo) read the clues from five Marketing categories (Fairytale Potpourri; C's The Day; Around The World; Sell, Sell, Sell; and It's In The Mail) while three different teams vied to answer with the most correct questions.

Team Brownie: "Around the World for 100, Eileen."
Eileen: "Also known for its beer, this European country produces the fine chocolate we use in our brownies."
(A bell rings.)
Eileen: "Team Sprites, your answer?"
Team Sprites: "What is Belgium?"
Eileen: "That is correct!"

Donna and Leslie are pictured here cheering Team Sprites's correct answer.

Some of the answers were a little tricky, so our Marketing Judges were called upon to determine a question's correctness. You can barely see our judges, Kari and Holly, way in the back of this photo.

The first-place team received mini board games for each member, while second- and third-place teams received "lovely" parting gifts of their own.

Coming Soon: Fairytale Cookies!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010 by Kari Gayes

I know we've posted about our soon-to-be-launched Fairytale Cookies before, but I have to share some of the feedback we've gotten from early tasters. These new cookies come in two flavors (Double Chocolate and Caramel Pecan), and come in the same gift packaging as our gourmet brownies, so you can have your cookies delivered the same way you send brownies.

A bunch of our local Phoenix friends tasted the new cookies last week at Buzzcation, and have been tweeting their reviews ever since. Thanks for all the kind words, everyone!

@Littlebitofmoni - I am finally eating my @ftbrownies Double Chocolate cookie from #buzzcation, and it is muy delicioso!!! Perfectly sweetened, great texture..

@JRFox10 - holy cow that chocolate cookie you gave out at #buzzcation w/ @districtkitchen was one of the greatest treats eva!!

@erinjohnston - I can't even believe how good this cookie is. Wow.

@lafinguy - Just have to say, I had @ftbrownies double chocolate cookies with my coffee this morning and they were FABULOUS! (my kinda coffee cake)

@paulvalach - mmm mmm mm JUST opened a caramel pecan cookie from you,, WOW moist and deeee...lish...

@CordMoorhead - I do have to say, those are some very tasty cookies @ftbrownies Looking forward to seeing them in the next catalog.

@DankaMarketing - umm yeah. i MAY have killed the entire chocolate cookie before i got out of the parking garage.

*Get ready, cookies are coming Sept. 8th!*

Triple B: Beer, Brownies & Buzzcation!

Monday, August 23, 2010 by Hilary Lee

Last Thursday, Fairytale Brownies participated in Buzzcation (Buzzcation is mostly a networking and happy hour event attended by local media and professionals) at The District Kitchen, Sheraton Hotel in Downtown Phoenix. The event was a fundraiser to help raise money towards our KaBOOM! playground build scheduled for April 2011. The event had over 200 attendees and raised over $1,500 towards our fundraising goal!

Fairytale Brownies was there armed with brownie gifts donated for the raffle and with hundreds of gourmet brownies and new cookie flavors for attendees to indulge in. We asked attendees to try our new Caramel Pecan Cookie and Double Chocolate Cookie and then tweet about how they liked them. We had an overwhelmingly positive response to the new cookies and are very excited for their debut in a few weeks.

Altogether, Buzzcation was a great way to support a fantastic cause and have fun with Phoenix locals! If we had the chance, we'd most definitely do it again! Below are some pictures of the event.

Alyssa (Fairytale Brownies PR/Marketing), Hunter (Fairytale Brownies IT), and Hilary (Fairytale Brownies Web Designer) taking a rest toward the end of the night. Alyssa counted up the donations and we grossed over $1,500! Great thanks to Buzzcation and to all who donated!!

Jo (Fairytale Brownies Customer Service), Lisa (Fairytale Brownies Corporate Sales), Hilary (Fairytale Brownies Web Designer, and Michelle (Fairytale Brownies Accounting) having a great time together!

Our new cookies ready to be sampled! We asked attendees to tweet with our @ftbrownies Twitter handle on how they liked the new flavors!

Daphne Monroe of ABC15's Smart Shopper stopped by too! (photo courtesy of Christopher Stark www.BauhasPhotography.com)

Lars, Yvette, and Mike - the creators of Buzzcation! (photo courtesy of Christopher Stark www.BauhasPhotography.com)

Happy Buzzcation attendees! (photo courtesy of Christopher Stark www.BauhasPhotography.com)

Alyssa (Fairytale Brownies PR/Marketing) thanking attendees for their generosity! We raised over $1,500 towards our KaBOOM! playground build goal! (photo courtesy of Christopher Stark www.BauhasPhotography.com)

What's the buzz? Beer, Brownies, Buzzcation at The District

Wednesday, August 18, 2010 by Alyssa Andrews

I just want to remind everyone about the event Triple B: Beer, Brownies, Buzzcation happening Thursday at The District American Kitchen in Phoenix.

Bring your appetite for food, beverage and gourmet brownies because there will be plenty available beginning at 5:30 p.m. A suggested $5 donation at the door will go towards Fairytale Brownies' (and Aerotek) playground project with the nonprofit KaBOOM!

The District has reserved the wine bar room for for all buzzcation participants, and the house DJ will begin playing tunes around 7 p.m. Happy hour appetizer and drink prices will be in affect all night long.

Bring extra cash or your checkbook to purchase $2 raffle tickets for the following prizes: Two fudgy brownie gift towers from Fairytale Brownies; gift certificates provided by @BarterGroupAZ to Campus Flowers, Greene Video, Organic Cleaners, Az Powerchutes for 2 people, and a Hot Air Balloon Ride; a gift certificate to Famous Dave’s BBQ courtesy of @charshaff; and dinner for two at The District American Kitchen, from @DistrictKitchen.

Each person leaving The District for the evening will receive a Chocolate Chip Sprite and a NEW Fairytale Caramel Pecan or Double Chocolate cookie. We would like for you to tell us what you think of the cookies by tweeting @ftbrownies or commenting on our Facebook page. We LOVE feedback!

Come join in the fun while helping raise funds to build a playground for disadvantaged children in the Phoenix area.

Best Brownies for a Thank You Gift

Tuesday, August 17, 2010 by Kari Gayes

My husband and I have had a contractor in our house the last couple of weeks remodeling our master bathroom. I am ecstatic that he is almost done with the renovation, and want to give him a little extra treat to thank him for his hard work. Of course this means he will be getting a some deliciously fudgy Fairytale Brownies! In my experience, gourmet brownies make a very memorable thank you gift, and I want him to remember us. We have another bathroom we'd like to freshen up a bit in the next few months, so I think a delicious brownie gift will help remind him how much he enjoyed working for us. :)

Save up to 30% on holiday gifts with early order discounts!

Monday, August 16, 2010 by Hilary Lee

I know it's only August, but it's never too early to think about Holiday Gifts! If you are thinking about ordering early to save money, Fairtyale Brownies has the deal for you! Now you can Save up to 30% when you order your holiday gifts by August 31st! If you're not sure what decadent brownie gifts to order, just place a deposit to secure your discount. Call customer service at 800.531.5209 and we'd be happy to help you get started! Or, you can visit our website, brownies.com for more Volume Discount/Early Order Discount details.

With Early Order Discounts:

No addresses or brownie gift selections needed.
Just prepay now and place your order when you're ready.
We'll help you find the best holiday gifts for your budget and follow up as the holidays approach!

Don't forget to look for delicious NEW GIFTS and delicious new Fairytale Cookies starting September 8th. With Fairytale Brownies, you'll not only be sending the finest all-natural gourmet brownies, but you'll also receive our world-class service. Visit brownies.com/new for a sneak peak at our new gifts coming your way soon!

Another Fairytale Birthday, and a Little Surprise!

Thursday, August 12, 2010 by Melissa Eisenstein

This last weekend was an extremely eventful one for me. Not only were there two birthday parties, but as my friends here know, I was surprised by my husband with a trip to Las Vegas! A second honeymoon...and my kiddo got to have two day sleepover at Grandma's! She was excited.

The first party was a nice dinner for Cousin Kaitlyn, who turned 9. She's extremely excited about being in the 4th grade this year, and loooooves Fairytale Brownies. Last time I was at her house, I left her a peanut butter brownie to share with her little sister. This time, I decided that it was time she had her own stash, since she's 9 now. I brought her a Magic Morsel Dozen in all four flavors to go along with the ZhuZhu pet playset we got her. She was SOOO pleased!

Her mom was jealous because she loves our fudgy chocolate brownies as much as her daughter does! Knowing Kaitlyn the way I do, she'll share with everyone, so no problems there!

I brought home another brownie gift for my daughter to take to her second party on Saturday afternoon. That was for a neighbor/friend of ours whose daughter was turning 11. Elizabeth was thrilled to take her the best brownies in the world as part of her present. And I'm sure she was very pleased as well.

As you can tell, I completely advocate the heavy use of Belgian chocolate brownies as great gift ideas, and they work for all ages! Gourmet brownies = Happiness!

10-Year Anniversary Celebration

Wednesday, August 11, 2010 by David Kravetz

Yesterday we celebrated the 10-year employment anniversary for a number of our team members. When you order brownies from Fairytale Brownies, remember that there is a dedicated and professional team behind the scenes.

There were three team members celebrating anniversaries in August. Kim Brandimarte is our Shipping Team Leader who makes sure that when we ship brownies around the world, everything is packed to perfection. Chris Corn runs our retail store here in Phoenix and provides gourmet brownies with a warm and welcome smile to our walk-in customers. Donna Baker is our Controller and she ensures that every time we send brownies, all of the financial accounting is complete and accurate. We also honored Jen O'Flynn with a belated recognition plaque. Jen oversees the customization of packaging for our corporate gifts. She has been a team member for over 10 years.

Fairytale Brownies would not be the success it is today without the hard work and dedication of these incredible team members! Eileen and I learned early in business that we cannot succeed alone. We have spent many years building an empowered workplace filled with dedicated, hard working and, most importantly, happy people. Thank you to all of our Fairytale Team Members!!

Kim, Chris and Donna celebrating 10 Fairytale years!

Eileen, Jen, Kim, Chris, Donna & David with 10-year recognition plaques

Customer's Rave about Belgian Chocolate Brownie Gifts!

Monday, August 2, 2010 by Hilary Lee

I just wanted to share some of the great comments and raves that we've had pouring in to our customer service center about our great Fairytale Brownies and our excellent service! Here are some of the best ones from this week:

Fairytale Brownies offers a huge selection of brownie gifts in every price range - the quality is top-notch. My families request for birthdays is that I send birthday brownies! So easy to order brownies online and the shipping is a great value. ~ Stephanie B., TX

Our entire family enjoys the fudge brownies from Fairytale Brownies, and when there is a time for a special treat, we always look to Fairytale. Thank you for such an excellent product! ~ Ruth B., PA

I received Fairytale Brownies recently as a housewarming gift and loved them so much that I'm sending brownies to my Dad for his birthday! ~ Vic J., AZ

Great product! Ordering brownies online couldn't have been easier. I really appreciate the reduced shipping promotion. ~ Mary S., PA

I enjoyed Fairytale Brownies when I received them as a gift. The people I have sent them to raved that they were the best brownies too! ~ June F., IL

Visit us online at brownies.com for more information or to order brownies online!

Brownies on Vacation!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010 by Kari Gayes

I am very excited this week, because Thursday morning I am heading out of the Phoenix heat to some (hopefully) cooler temperatures on the Connecticut coast to spend a week with my parents and my sister's family, including the two most adorable nieces in the world (I may be biased, but they're pretty stinking cute). If there's one thing I've learned about being a cool aunt, it's to always have some fudgy Fairytale Brownies when I visit! I'm taking a Magic Morsel Dozen for the girls so they have their very own bite-sized gourmet brownies to devour. Since my dad just turned 60, I decided I should take him a Happy Birthday brownie gift as well. I think I'll take the Birthday Sprite 24 so he has plenty for himself and to share with the rest of the adults, who are always very happy when I send brownies for the holidays.

Order NEW holiday brownie gifts & save with early order discounts!

Monday, July 26, 2010 by Hilary Lee

Fairytale Brownies is excited to announce that we have many new and delicious gourmet brownie gifts coming your way, including our long awaited New Fairytale Cookies (available September 8th). We have New Christmas and Holiday gift packaging, New Towers, and New Keepsake Tin gifts! Check out this exclusive link to our New Products page here: brownies.com/new!

While you're browsing our new gift selections, why not consider thinking about placing your order for Holiday Gifts? If you order now for the holidays, you can and Save up to 30%! If you're not sure what to order, just put down a deposit to secure your discount. Call customer service at 800.531.5209 and we'll help you get started!

No addresses or gift selections needed.
Just prepay now and place your order with you're ready.
We'll help you find the best brownie gifts for your budget and follow up as the holidays approach!

Call our customer service team today at 800.531.5209 to take advantage of these early order discounts! For more information on early order discounts, please visit the volume discounts page on our website brownies.com, or click here. Thank you and have a Fairytale Day!

Don't forget ladies' night with Fairytale Brownies and AZ Girls Pint Out

Wednesday, July 21, 2010 by Alyssa Andrews

I want to remind all of our 'lady' Fairytale Fans about Thursday's brownies and beer night.

AZ Girls Pint Out is hosting a brownie/beer tasting at 6 p.m. at Sleepy Dog Saloon and Brewery in Tempe. Entry fee is $15 and most of the proceeds will go towards building a local playground with the national nonprofit KaBOOM! The fee will include 6 beer samples and 6 brownie samples, and an informative introduction to the brews being sampled.

There also will be a $1 raffle to win a gourmet brownie tower gift or an iPod.

Sleepy Dog is located at 1920 E. University Ste 104, east of McClintock Road on the north side of the street.

It's going to be a Fairytale evening. See you there!

Brownies.com getting a fresh update

Monday, July 19, 2010 by Hilary Lee

Every year the catalog & web team here at Fairytale Brownies discusses improvements and updates to our catalog and website based on what our customers are asking for. We listen very closely to what our customers' requests are and plan for updates and upgrades. We do this not only to stay close to our customers, but we strive to stay technologically competitive and implement features and benefits that are industry standard.

For example, on our website brownies.com we've just added a great new feature called "Enlarge/More Views" for our product details pages. This allows the customer to see close-up beauty shots, or "zoomed views" before they buy brownies. This will help the customer in understanding exactly what they are purchasing when they buy brownies for themselves or send brownies as a gift from Fairytale Brownies. For example, based on a simple product photograph, some customers did not realize our gourmet brownies are individually wrapped for freshness with all nutritional information listed on each brownie wrapper.

Another feature we are adding both to our website and catalog (coming September 1st) is a full and complete description of the gourmet brownies including quantities/flavors in each brownie gift. Previously, we've included a product description with a descriptive photo for the customer. Now, we will be including all flavors, inclusions, weights, and their respective quantities in every brownie gift.

Along with some really cool new features and benefits, we are debuting a fresh new look for both our catalog and website. Our corporate branding will remain the same, however, both channels will be updated with a modern and airy look and feel. We're excited for our customers to see these updates! Our catalog and web team has been working hard to get these updates ready for the Fall/Holiday 2010 rollout. Request a catalog here if you aren't already on our mailing list, and/or visit brownies.com after September 1st. You won't want to miss these updates :). Oh, and the delicious gourmet brownies are divine too, tee hee.

Fairytale Brownies gears up for the holidays . . . in July?

Friday, July 16, 2010 by Kim Silva

It might not seem like the holiday season is just around the corner, especially considering the extremely high temperatures in Arizona right now, but peak season for Fairytale Brownies is coming and plans are already being set for the upcoming holidays.

We're in the final stages of putting together our staffing plans and projections for the coming holidays and will be bringing on temporary seasonal staff beginning in late August. We typically stagger the teams for each department. Our brownie bakers will be coming first, followed by some of our CSRs, gift packers and data entry teams. We will have a few rounds of hiring up through November. We are lucky enough to have most of the same team members return year after year, but we also have to source new team members as our volumes continue to increase each season. By the time it's all said and done in December, we'll have brought on 100+ additional temporary team members to help us bake and ship delicious gourmet brownies to customers all over the world!

If you are interested in temporary seasonal employment, or any other available positions with Fairytale Brownies, you can download an application at www.brownies.com or send resumes to careers@brownies.com. We also accept applications in our Retail Store Monday through Friday from 8am - 3pm. For more detailed information on the various positions, requirements and start dates, contact Janet at 602-489-5154 or via email at janet@brownies.com.

Gourmet Brownie Catalogs - Down to the Wire!

Monday, July 12, 2010 by Kari Gayes

We are down to the wire with our Fall and Holiday Fairytale Brownies catalogs this week! We've been working hard for months, and will be sending the files for our gourmet brownie gifts catalog to the printer on Friday. The photo on the left is a stack of all the edits we made just in the last week! All this hard work can make us a little crazy, but it is always worth it in the end to see the mouthwatering catalogs full of our fudgy brownies and cookies that will be on their way to you soon! We've made some changes this year, and we hope you love these catalogs as much as we do. And if you aren't on our mailing list yet, fill out this form to ensure you'll have a catalog when you want to send brownies or have cookies delivered to your friends and loved ones this fall!

No guilt with Magic Morsels at this party

Wednesday, July 7, 2010 by Alyssa Andrews

I'm planning a "going away to dental school" party for my son at the end of the month and asked him what foods he would like to serve his guests. Fudgy chocolate brownies from Fairytale Brownies made the list.

Kevin's undergraduate degree is in Exercise and Wellness, and with 6% body fat, he is a walking billboard for healthy living. He can eat anything and everything and not gain weight.

Let me say this right now - Kevin does NOT get his body from his mother. I have a shape. Some call it "round." The difference between my son and I is that Kevin understands the meaning of the word "moderation." I'm still learning it.

Fairytale Brownies has a brownie size for every appetite - full-size 3" x 3" squares for those who love their Belgian dark chocolate; 1 1/2" x 3" Sprites for those interested in portion control; and 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" Magic Morsels for those who can be satisfied with a few bites of delicious chocolaty goodness.

Kevin likes the Chocolate Chip Magic Morsels. The great thing about the Magic Morsels gift is that four different flavors come in a box so one can eat an Original, Chocolate Chip, Caramel and Walnut morsel, and technically only have consumed one brownie.

I'm serving Magic Morsels at Kevin's party. No guilt for any of us!