Lexi Levang, Associate Brand Manager at Raybern’s

The host of the RN Shea Morning Program in Northwest Jersey discusses picnic planning with guest Lexi LeVang, the Associate Brand Manager at Rayburns. They talk about hacks and snacks for a more enjoyable picnic experience. Lexi suggests using natural bug repellent, particularly peppermint, to keep ants away. She also shares ideas for light snacks like mason jar salads and pre-made charcuterie boards. They discuss Rayburns' microwave-friendly sandwiches, including the pastrami and cheese sandwich. Lexi mentions that the bread is specially formulated for the microwave. She provides information on where to find Rayburns products and invites listeners to visit their website and social media pages. The host thanks Lexi for the information and wishes her a great picnic season. in Northwest Jersey. Good morning to you. It is the nine o'clock hour of the RN Shea Morning Program. It's Birch. Hello there. We'll do our impossible question coming up a little bit later on here in this nine o'clock hour as well. We'll have our spotlight artist and spotlight song of the day. That's coming up as well. Well, maybe picnic planning for you is something that you would describe as impossible. It's so much fun to go on a picnic in Jersey, isn't it? But sometimes you just got to figure out what's the best way to go about it. How do we make it easier? How do we have that much more fun? My guest who's joining me this morning at the RN Shea Morning Program as we continue our celebration of National Picnic Month is the Associate Brand Manager at Rayburns to talk about some hacks and some things that and some picnic snacks as well, just to make our picnicking experience that much more enjoyable. We do have joining us this morning Lexi LeVang at the RN Shea Morning Program. Hey there, Lexi. It's Burt Barron. How are you this morning? I'm great. How are you? Doing wonderful. It is a terrific day for a picnic here in New Jersey. A little bit on the warm side. We're back around 90. We had about five inches of rain on Sunday. So and there's no smoke in the air today. So that's good as well. So not a bad day for a picnic today. What are some things that people should keep in mind if they're getting ready to prepare to maybe go out on a picnic either today or at some point over the weekend? Well, I don't know about you guys, but I feel and especially with like the rain that you said that you guys got, but I feel like I'm getting bug bites like crazy this year. So like my big thing for picnicking that I'm making sure that I pack is I'm trying kind of some natural bug repellent. And I don't know if you know this, but ants hate the smell of peppermint. So apparently it disrupts their scent markings. So if you have any sort of like peppermint on the surface of your picnic area, it tends to keep some of the ants away. So I think that's really cool and anything that I can do that's not that nasty sticky bug repellent stuff is a huge win for me. That's cool, too, because nobody invites ants to a picnic. They just kind of crash the party when they want to have like your food and stuff. They really do, don't they? Right. Unwelcome guests. Exactly. Yeah, that's good to keep in mind. And we got the spotted lanternflies are a problem around here, too, Lexi. So we want to keep as many bugs out of our picnic as possible. Well, the instructions here in New Jersey are if you see them, stomp on them because that's the only way to get rid of them. But yeah, it's picnic season, of course. What's the ideal picnic for you? Just some light snacks. You bring the blanket. You're in a nice setting with maybe some running water, some beautiful trees or something. That's all you need to have a nice picnic, I would think. Yeah, I mean even just picnicking out in the backyard tends to be a fun time if you make the right environment for it. I am really into a lot of light snacks. So like making some mason jar salad with just simple ingredients in there. I always bring Rayburn sandwiches just because it's a really quick and easy way to have a sandwich that I don't have to like sit and spend a ton of time gathering ingredients and putting something together. I can just throw it in the microwave and then throw it in some aluminum foil and bring it out to my picnic. But yeah, I also am like a big charcuterie fan, too. So I always either get like the pre-made charcuterie stuff or make a really simple charcuterie board that I can bring out to my picnic as well. Yeah, that's a great idea, too. And you mentioned about this. What did you call it? It was a mason jar salad. Is that a thing nowadays? Oh, yeah. It's super easy. You can just throw what your favorite ingredients. So like I'm on a chickpea, and I'm kind of like a Greek themed kick right now. So peppers, feta cheese, chickpeas, and lettuce. And I just put it in a mason jar. And then lately I have been very big on time-saving ingredients. So I just get some store-bought Greek salad dressing and then put that in and shake it up. And then I don't have to like dirty multiple containers when I'm prepping salad. So I love doing that. Yeah, what a great idea. You like you put it in this mason jar, and you just put it, you park it right in the fridge. You don't have to put it in like a separate bowl or anything. You just kind of take the jar, put it in the picnic basket, and it's chilled and away you go. And you're ready to chill with with some cool salad. Exactly, exactly. Lexi Levang is my guest this morning here at the RNJ Morning Program. She's a big picnic fan like I am, and she's also the Associate Brand Manager at Rayburns. You guys make some things that are really handy, really convenient to take along on a nice summer day picnic here in New Jersey. Yeah, of course. So my favorite thing about Rayburns is it gives you that deli-fresh warm sandwich without having to do all the work to have that deli-fresh warm sandwich. So I think a great one is for picnics would be our pastrami and cheese sandwich. So we have specialized bread that is specially formulated to be cooked in the microwave. A lot of sandwiches that you throw in the microwave have that bread that kind of just gets hard or doesn't cook all the way through, but ours is perfect for the microwave, and you don't get that sensation. And we have a pastrami and cheese that is just your classic pastrami with some, I guess it's a Dijon mustard. And it's just perfect for summer picnicking. Pastrami and mustard, that is a Jersey favorite that you mentioned right there. That's like a home run. That's good. I love that. And you're right, you know bread, I've noticed, doesn't microwave well, very well, but the bread on your sandwiches is good to put in the microwave? Yes, it's specially formulated for the microwave. So I introduced our sandwiches to my grandpa recently, and he was like, it was the first thing that he brought up without me even telling him anything. He was like, you know what, I always microwave sandwiches, and like bread's always inconsistent. This is perfect, though, and he's a very particular man. Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure. You became his favorite granddaughter, at least for a little while there, right? Good for you. Excellent. Where can we find Ray Burns? Where can we get some more information when we're planning our picnic? Where can you send people to, Lexi? Awesome. Yeah, so you can go to www.rayburns.com And we have a fun little functionality on our website where you can just type in your zip code and find the store closest to you that carries Ray Burns, but you can find us at Dollar General. And then you can also learn more about us on social media. We have Facebook and that's at Ray Burns, Instagram at Ray Burns Sandwiches, and on Twitter at Ray Burns Tweets. Very nice. We'll check all that out before we plan our next picnic, that's for sure. Lexi LeVang from Ray Burns Sandwiches, my guest this morning here at the RNJ morning program. Thank you so much for joining me. Great information as always, and I hope your next picnic is the best one you ever have, and you are going to be doing some picnicking as we go through the summer, right? Oh my gosh, at least if not this weekend, every other weekend besides this weekend. Beautiful. Enjoy that. Thank you as always for the time here, and enjoy the rest of the week, and we'll talk again soon. Thank you, Bert. You're welcome.