When you love to cook, entertaining usually revolves around food. Whether you’re hosting an intimate dinner party or setting out an elaborate buffet, having the right serving pieces is crucial.

After fussing over a variety of rich-flavorful foods for your guests, you want to make sure you serve them in peak condition. You’ll want to keep the hot foods hot, the cold foods chilled, and everything should be presented attractively. There are several different serving pieces that every hostess should have in order to be prepared for any food oriented event.

What Do You Need?

Chafing dishes are incredibly versatile for keeping foods warm all evening. Larger chafing dishes are often oblong with a hinged lid that’s easy to open and close, but you can also find round or oval ones. A small can of fuel or an electric heat source keeps food warm for several hours.

Attractive condiment jars are another staple every hostess should have. These are usually glass or ceramic and hold generous portions of sauces, condiments or syrups so that you don’t have to put messy plastic bottles of ketchup or other condiments on your dining table. Insulated pitchers are perfect for keeping cold drinks icy or hot drinks steamy. By filling large insulated pitchers with beverages you make it easy for guests to refill their own drinks and give yourself more time to socialize.

A few gravy boats in varying sizes are also great for serving salad dressings, sundae toppings, and gravies or au jus. Look for ones with generously sized handles that make it easy for guests to pour without dripping. Investing in a few top quality service pieces from a restaurant supplies store will mean you can serve any food you like with style and keep your guests coming back for more.

Food speaks the universal language. It is food that connects us all together, be it a company picnic, a holiday meal with family or a quiet get together with friends.

Food, like people comes in all shapes and sizes, and satisfies each of us in different ways. If you have a sweet tooth, then ice cream speaks to you with its different flavors. If you love something hot off the grill, then the rich taste of authentic barbecue is probably more to your liking. If you like Italian, or Mexican or Indian food, then having this food at your disposal is likely to be a high priority.

Food has become so big that it has its own network. Food aficionados like Rachel Ray have parleyed their success in the kitchen to affiliate programs across the globe. So successful have the marketing campaigns of stars like Ray and entrepreneur Martha Stewart been, their success is now measured in audience viewership rather than quality of food.

Within the Food Network are several food shows that have taken the culinary world by storm. The Iron Chef is a television show on the Food Network that has a visiting chef battle one of the Iron Chef’s, like Bobby Flay. The two chefs square off in Kitchen Stadium, using a special ingredient to meld their food together. Competition is fierce on the Food Network’s, battle to find who the next Food Network star will be. Amateur food experts show their wares in front of esteemed food critics, being judged on appearance of food, taste and the presentation in which they describe their food.

So while food is the great provider, it has transcended from something we eat to survive, to something that is competitive and viewed by millions via the television, internet and other electronic media.

With the explosion of on-line learning institutions, earning a degree in a life-long discipline that will stand the economic test of time has never been easier. In particular, people that have an interest in cooking or managing a restaurant for a living, now have multiple on-line options to earn a degree.

Prior to this explosion of online culinary schools, training to be a food specialist was a drawn out, away-from-home experience that sometimes took years to complete. Before the advent of these cyber-culinary institutions, food lovers moved away from home to a food city like New York City, Boston or Portland to attend the finest schools.
No longer must a food lover spend years away from home perfecting their craft. An online learning institution specializing in the creation of culinary delights can be done from the comfort of one’s own home.

New culinary programs offer the flexibility of learning online while working towards a culinary-management degree. For many already employed in the food-service industry, news of a potential culinary management degree can mean advances within the culinary, restaurant and hotel management fields in which they may already be employed.
These culinary management courses allow students to study areas of accounting, human resource management, customer service and marketing while helping the student improve their overall skill. Many of the culinary management courses get away from the cooking aspect of the food-service industry while building a resume that will improve one’s restaurant management skills.

If you love food and are looking to make a career out of your passion, committing to an online journey could be just the break you’ve been looking for. Online learning institutions that specialize in advancement towards a culinary management degree give the participant the flexibility of learning from home as they journey towards their final destination in the culinary world.

Americans have a funny relationship with food. We eat too much, and often eat the wrong things. Obesity is growing, as empty-calorie junk food becomes the food of choice for harried Americans. At the end of a crazy day, it’s easier to just head to a fast food restaurant rather than prepare something healthy to eat. The result: our health is going down the tubes.

As anxiety over obesity grows, many people begin to see food as the enemy. The thought is, if only we could avoid food, we’d be thinner. But all we’ll get is hungrier.

The reality is that good food is our ally; it’s one of the best medicines we can possibly take. A diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables keeps us healthy in a myriad of ways, such as fighting heart disease, cancer and digestive disease, and keeping blood pressure lower. Due to the fact that these foods are naturally high in fiber and low in calories, they help maintain a healthy weight. Fresh frozen fruits and vegetables are healthy too, and food dehydration (drying tomatoes, bananas or strawberries) can be a smart way to store fresh food.

Create a strategy for getting more fresh food in your diet. Prepare meals and snacks in advance when possible, making the trip to the grocery store a time for planning. Choose dark leafy vegetables that are rich in nutrients, and then add a variety of colors — red, yellow, and orange – to your grocery basket. Your dinner plate should be “colorful,” with 2/3 of it fruits and vegetables.

In a rush? Make healthy choices. Load up with vegetables at the salad bar and forgo the fries. Choose broiled chicken instead of a cheeseburger. Order a fresh fruit smoothie. Simple choices can change the way you feel. Make the choice of eating well.

Although not a solution for everyone, payday loans can be your last resort for quick cash if you’ve already tried other methods like borrowing from family and friends, selling personal property or getting a bank loan.

Shop around when deciding which payday loan company to use because there are differences in requirements and fees. Since most grant you the loan by holding a check for the loan amount, you will need a checking account to get the loan. Remember that a payday loan is a short term loan with very high interest. If you are unable to pay the loan off on the designated day—usually your next payday—you will have to “rollover” the loan, which is borrowing the same amount again for an additional fee. People get into trouble when they roll over the loan for many pay periods and are unable to pay it off.

If you really need the cash and want to get a payday loan, here are a few things to keep in mind. Check several companies and choose the one with the lowest loan fees. Borrow as little as you can while still meeting your needs. Make sure you pay the loan amount by the due date, and never borrow from more than one payday loan lender at a time. The fees can add up very quickly.

Payday loans are controversial and are developing a bad name because people feel taken advantage of during hard times. But no one forces a person to take a payday loan and they do fill a need for some people who have no other means of getting emergency cash. Several states have now enacted stricter regulations on payday loans, so check to see the rules for whatever state you live in before applying.

We may live in a digital world these days, but it is still hard to get around printing some things. Business cards, fliers, posters, postcards, and door hangers are just a few of the paper-based products that many companies heavily rely on. In fact, many businesses use mass quantities of these products. It is not unheard of for people to go through hundreds of business cards in a week, especially if they are traveling for business or attending a professional conference.

A great way to save money for your business, whether you are a sole proprietor or work for a large corporation, it is use discount printing. Discount printing is a great way to save on overhead costs, which is always a very good thing for businesses, especially when the economy is on shaky ground.

Another great thing about discount printing is that with the money you save on basics such as business cards and fliers, you can invest in promotional materials, which can also be created through discount printing. You can print book marks, calendars, or note pads, just to name a few examples, emblazoned with your company’s logo, tag line, and contact information. These sorts of basic products, which you can also save money on by using a discount printing service, can lead to increased sales and recognition for your business.

Another great thing about using discount printing to boost recognition for your company is that you can rely on the staff and services at the discount printing company to help you design the perfect items for your clients or customers. There are plenty of templates to choose from if you want to take care of this part of the printing process on your own, but there are also design professionals ready and willing to help you design the perfect discount printing items.

This may not be true about other breeds of dogs, or even other dogs, period, but our Pomeranian likes to eat vegetable and meat salads. It happened quite coincidentally. We were in the food court of a mall here where they have a strange, but nice, dish. A nice Asian woman will hand you a list of sauces and spices you want to choose from, and a list of meat, seafood and cheese items available. There will be a large buffet lookalike table with a choice of pasta, noodles and chopsuey, and about 25 different kinds of extremely tasty, fresh, exotic vegetables. The usual vegetables – baby corn, lettuce, spring onions, jalapeno and mushroom – are all there, but there’s a bunch of Thai, Chinese, Mexican and other vegetables that I had never seen before.

So the recipe basically goes like this, you mix the things you want in your food, choose your condiments, sauces and spices, meat or seafood, and the chef fries that up in a wok and hands over. It’s simple, it’s delicious, and it’s just what my dog wants when I need him to take his daily petmeds.

Yes, I brought that stuff home once, and gave him the leftovers. He just loved it, and that’s the first time he when he did not quibble over his medication. So that gave me the idea; its bean a few years now, but I always do a daily dish of veggies and meat salad for him, and he takes his meds as nonchalantly as ever.

That’s something strange about a dog – or about a man, if you look at it the other way – a dog can eat the same good food for years on end without getting bored. But give a man something good, and he will eat it for 2 days; and start grumbling on the third. So, anyways, my dog still likes this stuff, and I have never had a problem feeding him his meds since.

It’s a warm sunny day in October and I am sitting at a sidewalk café with my bff M. having coffee and crepes.

This area of town is one of those,” up and coming” neighborhoods which has been going through the gentrification process for as long as I can remember. And quite frankly, I like that it is still rough around the edges and not too tidy or crowded with the stroller set.

It’s a rare opportunity in the Midwest to dine outside in October and the mood was festive. The couple behind us was drinking Champagne in the middle of the afternoon. I felt practically continental!

This place is very small and definitely has a European flair. The crepes are their signature dish and they come both in sweet and savory varieties. I must say that the dessert crepes take the prize.

We had café ole and a Nutella, banana, peanut butter crepe! Need I say more?

I am glad that I took these photos before I cooked the scallops and shrimp because as soon as they were cooked they were eaten.

First of all it was so easy, second of all it took maybe 15 minutes.

I picked up some nice looking jumbo shrimp and large Bay scallops. I had some lemon, garlic and butter. That was it.

We were drinking Trapiche Malbec. Probably not the best choice with seafood but it was what we had and it was yummy.

I started by melting the butter in a large skillet then added crushed garlic which I placed on the 2 tablespoons of butter, so it wouldn’t get brown, then squeezed lemon into the skillet.

I put the scallops on the bottom and laid the shrimp on top of them. They cooked for maybe 8 to 9 minutes on high.

People were picking them out of the pan! I plated these then squeezed on more fresh lemon and they lasted for about 10 minutes!

This meal was low calorie, delicious and nutritious.

A lazy Sunday afternoon all to myself; many might find this to be a lonely prospect, however, I savor the opportunity like a rare and special gift.

On days like these I find myself drawn to the book store, especially when it is particularly dark and gloomy outside. I enjoy the smell of the paper and coffee mingling in the air. I pass by old friends in the “Classics” section. I can’t resist browsing through a fashion magazine or flipping through the latest celebrity “confessional”; mostly for the pictures!

And, of course, there are the cookbooks. One glossy book after another filled with food porn, right there out in the open for everyone to see. I could sink into a big over-stuffed chair for hours devouring the photos with mouth watering anticipation.

Eventually, spent, I head upstairs with my coffee and lose myself in the Jazz section of the music area. Listening to Dinah Washington and Ruth Brown, I close my eyes and feel like I could be in 1950’s New York, walking along the Avenues.

I inevitably come across Charles Mingus and Miles Davis. Now, Kind of Blue is an old favorite of mine, as it is for so many. I think that many of whom born on the tail end of the Baby Boom generation don’t realize that a lot of this kind of music provided the background for their childhood.

Anyone who has ever watched I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched or any Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis film and countless other movies and television shows from that era will find the jazzy sound familiar and evocative of the milk man, soda in glass bottles, and station wagons, just to name a few.

I can remember rainy afternoons as a child, sitting in front of the record player, reading the liner notes on the record sleeves and looking at the artwork on the album covers. This time period, around 1959, had some particularly great artwork. S. Neil Fujita provided the memorable art on Charles Mingus’ Ah Um and on many Columbia Records releases. These works have become generational icons both musically and artistically.

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Just as I did as a child, I wiled away a Sunday afternoon listening to great Jazz, gazing at captivating artwork and transporting myself to a time and place which lives only in my dreams and in the melodies of Miles and Mingus.