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Ocean City's Crazy Susan's Cookies Excited for TV Show Premiere

Catch a sneak peek episode at 10 p.m. Sunday on Food Network. The official premiere airs at 10 p.m. Monday.

Butterflies, blueberries and banter—mostly banter—are on the menu Saturday morning at Crazy Susan's Cookies. There are cookies to bake and orders to fill, all while anticipation builds.

In about 37 hours, proprietress Susan Adair, along with her sister and business partner Linda Brand—and the rest of the world—will get their first look at Tough Cookies, the Food Network show about the antics inside the West Avenue shop and the controlled chaos that surrounds the sisters' big, boisterous family.

"It's weird, it's definitely weird," says Adair, who was getting ready to mix up a batch of blueberry pie cookies, reacting to to seeing Tough Cookies commercials running frequently on Food Network in recent weeks.

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"I have butterflies in my stomach," admits Brand, who handles the business end of the shop, while her sister is cookie mastermind.

The sisters will watch Monday's premiere with their parents, siblings, spouses, some cousins and friends at Brand's house in Gloucester Township, where their mother and father, Carmie and Jim Scurti, also live.

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The premiere revolves around the sisters planning an 88th birthday party for Jim Scurti, a World War II veteran, and creating a new cookie recipe—banana split—in his honor.

"We feel very fortunate to have our parents enjoy this with us," Brand says of the stroke of luck that led a TV production company to approach them about a show. "It's a really wonderful opportunity. What were the odds?"

While the odds, indeed, were slim of Sharp Production approaching Crazy Susan's out of the blue, it no doubt was the sisters' wackiness that landed them the gig.

"(My dad) has an uncanny sense of humor," Brand says. "That's where were get it. Even through tragedy, our family has learned to laugh again."

It was the death of cousin Joy Iuliano from ovarian cancer that inspired Adair to open the shop in 2006 after years of baking cookies for friends in her home oven.

Persevering is in the family's DNA.

Two years ago, Adair's childhood friend, Jill Snell, died suddenly at age 51; her niece's Sweet 16 party, for which Adair creates a s'mores cookie, is the subject of today's sneak peek episode. A sign Snell gave Adair hangs prominently in the shop—reminding the family that "Life's Short... Eat Cookies."

It remains to be seen if Tough Cookies will catch on and lead to another season—perhaps even boost Crazy Susan's to notoriety like TLC's wildly successful Cake Boss has done for Valastros Bakery in Hoboken.

Brand says the shop already has seen increased traffic, thanks to pre-show publicity. Chocolate chip is the most popular flavor.

"We are conservatively prepared to double, triple and quadruple (the amount of cookies) we make now" for in-store and Internet sales, Brand says, with tentative plans to keep the store open seven days year-round. A boardwalk kiosk opens at 4 p.m.

So, with the first show's airing still more than a day away, it's business as usual Saturday morning.

Good-natured banter flies back and forth between Adair, Brand, first cousins Lisa Poniatowicz and Theresa Behan, and close family friend Robin Heckman, who baked in the wee hours to stock cases for a busy summer weekend. 

Brand said filming for eight episodes of Tough Cookies, which began in the spring, "really was reality."

"The only time we have to stop (shooting) is when we all start talking over one another, which we do constantly," she laughs. "They capture the hustle-bustle of the cookie store"—and the multi-generational squabbling that keeps it all fun.

"Do we get on each others' nerves? Absolutely," Brand says. "Am I bossy? Yes."

To prove her point, she directs a sarcastic comment to Behan, who has left a sliding door gaping a tad too long: "Are we just going to keep that case open, just airing it out?"

"This is what it's like all the time—one smarta** comment after another," Brand says.

Hey, can you say that on TV?

Stop by the shop—1345 West Ave., or between 9th and 10th street on the Boardwalk—for some cookies to munch on while you watch Tough Cookies at 10 p.m. Sunday and Monday on Food Network. Call 609-391-1919.

Or check out crazysusanscookies.com.

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