Oh Nuts Blog

Purim's coming up so I gotta mention something very important. They fill your dreams but haunt your waistline. And what is it about them that necessitates mass production to skyrocket during the months of February and March? Sheer thrill electrifies the air at the mention of this delicious commodity. Wait a minute! Mass production, delicious, dreams, fat? What am I talking about? Sorry, I always get ahead of myself. I meant the famous fabulous Purim Hamantashen! Oh, right. Just you wait - this is gonna get good!
Let me give you a little background about Hamantashen so you may better understand me. The most popular explantion of why Jews eat this three cornered pastry on Purim is that Haman wore a three-cornered hat. Eating an image of Haman's hat is a way to symbolically destroy his memory.
In Yiddish, the word "hamantaschen" means "Haman's pockets." According to "The Jewish Book of Why," the name refers to Haman stuffing his pockets with bribe money. The cookies are folded to form a pocket that is filled with from a variety of jams, jellies and assorted flavors.
In Hebrew, the cookies are called "oznay Haman," or "Haman's ears."

Historically, hamantaschen have always been baked in the home. I still remember my mother recruiting all of us children to bake those delicious pastries. She would prepare the dough first while we at school as as soon as we came home, we eagerly scrubbed our hands clean and lined up at the table. We watched her roll out the sweet smelling dough with a pinwheel and as soon as it was flat enough we all got glass cups. We would sink the rim of the glass into the soft dough and create round, even circles. The excess was removed from the sides and was subsequently rolled out, flattened and made into circles again etc. Then we chose from an array of different jams and jellies and spooned a glob of jelly onto the middle of the cut circle of dough (though alot of it found it's way into our mouths!).
When that was done, we kids painstakingly pinched the edges of the circle into a triangle (which my mother would perfect when we weren't looking!) Placed on trays in rows, we would assist in sticking them into the oven and impatiently wait for the Hamantashen to bake and be ready to munch on. We went through this process a couple of times in the weeks before Purim, but it was such a fun experience we didn't mind. Even now, the heavenly smell itself wafts into my memory and permeats my very being. Oh, those days! Don't mind my nostalgic memories!
Nowadays, in modern times, the Hamantashen practice has spread to commercial bakeries. Although the pastries are usually filled with a prune filling or poppy seeds hamantaschen, some bakeries offer other flavors, including cherry hamantaschen, raspberry, apricot hamantaschen, pineapple, chocolate hamantaschen, mango and more! Whatever the ingredients, hamantaschen hold a special place among Jewish culinary delights.

Valentines Day is fast approaching. Here is a few interesting clips featuring Valentines Day Candy.

We are ready for Purim with our huge selection of Mishloach Manot baskets and Purim Candy and special Mishloach Manos for kids. We also have yummy Purim Hamantashen Cookies and many more fun Purim stuff. So whatever your Purim Baskets need are we have it .

Everyone loves Purim, there's no doubt about that! But when it comes to thinking about Mishloach Manot...that's a different story. Some people will just purchase the products themselves and make the Purim gifts at home. While you, aaah, you have so many people to send to that it's not worth the hassle. So your search begins!

You look at scores of websites, searching for the Purim gift Basketwhen you finally come to Oh! Nuts. You are so excited that you finally find a website that offers quality gifts and delivers virtually anywhere. Whatmore, you can choose from a large variety of kids Purim gifts and other, unique Purim gifts and Purim baskets and trays that fit your budget!

What I'm here for is to provide you with the information that you need and well, some info that just might interest you as well.
When you look at, say the beautiful Purim basket gift, you ooh and ahh and you purchase it! I wish it were as simple as that for us. The amount of work that goes into one basket is out of the ordinary. Think it's a one month production? No way! The process begins way before Purim - in the summer. In quest for the best and most unique, new products and baskets, the boss and his top designer travel to numerous trade shows all over the US. Food shows, basket shows, gift shows, novelty shows, craft shows and more! After a hectic summer or buying, tasting and sampling products, the boss comes back to NY with a large bill but an extremely happy heart.

In a couple of months though, the pressure is on. All the baskets and items he ordered arrive and we begin to design gifts. Split among a few basket designers at Oh! Nuts, each Purim gift is carefully and thoughtfully designed and when done, is subject to scrutinizing approval by the other designers and the boss. Among the critiques are that the basket is not classy enough, full enough, cheap enough, too much paper, too much glue, too little flowers, too big, too small and well, you get the picture!

After discarded ideas and enthusiastic suggestions, it's decision time. Which gifts stay, which go and which will be 'just in case'. After that, the game plan is set. How many gifts of each design should we make? Who makes what? Cost price is determined, selling price subsequently follows and bulk discounts figured out.

Think it's over? Far from it! The next step in the process is the actual making of the gifts. Additional staff is hired and put to work making basket after basket, gift after gift. For our website, descriptions are written and pictures are taken. For the store, special trailers are rented and stationed outside every one of our retail store locations. The trailers are constantly stocked and restocked with tens and tens of gifts all throughout the weeks preceding Purim, until the actual day.

The stress, the pressure and all those overtime hours are all worth it when we see our gifts being bought and shelves emptied. Anxious shoppers come out happy bearing gifts galore whether on the website or the store!

Wheww! Once Purim madness is over we can relax...Or can we? Which holiday is next??
See ya next time!

Please take 1 Minute watch it, I GUARANTEE you will feel better .
And do not forget your Purim Baskets Mishloach Manot and all the purim gifts.