Food | Bon Appetit

4 Essential Halloween Party Items You Will Need

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You’ve invited the guests. You’ve picked out your costume. You are ready to throw a Halloween party. And then you realize that you haven’t thought about what to serve for food and beverages. Don’t panic. Here are four party items that will make your get together stand out from the rest.

Steamy Brew

Anyone can serve punch at a party, but does it include the smoke and steam from a cauldron? You can still serve the regular punch, but kick it up a notch with dry ice. Everyone will love carrying around their own potions and brews as they mingle. If you are really looking to make a statement, toss in a plastic toe or finger for someone to scoop up into their glass.

Halloween Themed Desserts

Most of your guests aren’t coming around for a four-course meal. They are going to head straight for dessert. Check out a few unique Halloween dessert recipes to throw together. Many are just traditional treats with a little extra decoration or creativity added in. Experiment on a few. If they don’t turn out beautifully, you can still serve them. Tell your guests that zombies broke into your fridge.

Finger Foods

For those that aren’t interested in sweets, an appetizer or two will be perfect. Consider some of the things you can make that will literally look like “finger” food. Add a little ketchup to anything and you instantly have some blood. You don’t have to make complicated items. You just need some creativity.

Candy

Whether you are putting together a party for kids or adults, candy is a must. Use it as a Halloween decoration by sprinkling it on all the tables. Your guests can walk around and pick up a small treat no matter where they are. Just make sure it all leaves with the guests! You don’t want to wake up to mini candy bars all over the house!

Filed Under: Food Tagged With: Dessert, Halloween, Home

How to Cook

Clearly cooking is not for everyone. Many people like it, and others can’t imagine themselves in a kitchen, but the truth is that cooking at its basic level is rather easy. You might not think so but it’s true. Here are a few tips to change you from a culinary dolt to an ace in the kitchen, or at least to be able to fool people into thinking you are.

The first thing is to learn the basics. A lot of people think that their favorite dishes are hard. Chances are if there is a dish you have quite often, it’s because it’s so easy to cook. People don’t make rack of lamb every week. People fry and egg every single day. Learn how to fry and egg and use your stove. Knowing how to do these simple things will already put you at an advantage.

Something else to consider is looking up some recipes. Just finding a good cookbook could be key to getting what you want. You will find that most of the things you want to cook aren’t hard to cook at all. What they require is just a little prep and a basic understanding of how to get around your kitchen. Just picking up a cookbook and giving it a try is half the battle.

Cooking isn’t complicated to do what most people want to do. Once you understand the basics of cooking you can expand that into almost anything like the master chefs you see on direct.tv cooking specials. You can go from novice to intermediate anytime.

Filed Under: Cooking Tips, Food Tagged With: Cooking, Home, Kitchen

How to Encourage Customer Loyalty

Vegetarian restaurants cater to a very specific audience, so they have to instill a sense of loyalty in each customer. There are several ways to help ensure that your customers will return over and over again. When use strategies to retain customers, you can encourage customer loyalty.

Stay in Contact With Your Customers

Don’t expect the customers to remember the great experience that they had at your restaurant. Remind them of your delicious dishes by staying in contact. Offer coupons to customers who sign up to receive updates from your restaurant. That way, you can send them postcards, emails and menus. This should encourage them to return frequently.

You might also want to offer coupons and gift certificates to loyal customers. Create an incentive plan that offers a free appetizer after guests have purchased a certain number of meals. You can also hold a monthly drawing for free food.

Get Customers Involved

Customers are more likely to support your restaurant when they feel like they are a part of something special. Vegetarian and vegan restaurants can instill a sense of loyalty in their customers by reminding them of the positive aspects of cruelty-free dining.

Send postcards and emails reminding guests about upcoming events that support animal rights. This allows you to accomplish two goals at once: reminding them of your restaurant and encouraging them to eat more vegetarian foods by getting involved.

The specific strategy that you use to encourage customer loyalty will probably depend on your restaurant’s personality and target audience. Talk to your customers to decide which options appeal to them most.

Filed Under: Food, Restaurants Tagged With: Customer, Loyalty program, Vegetarianism

Eating Healthier by Using Organic Foods

Nearly all of us want to eat a more nutritional diet, yet some may find it hard due to a lack of time or incentive. One way to better your diet is to use, when possible, organic foods. Organic foods that are properly registered as so, at least provide the consumer the assurance that the food products have not been doused in chemical pesticides. They can also help cut down on food born illnesses due to the fact that they way the food is grown is monitored more closely. Many cases of E.Coli are started when consumer’s choose vegetables at the store that have been grown in foreign countries that do not have strict regulations as far as safety is concerned.

Organic fruits and vegetables may be slightly higher in price then others, but the benefits usually outweigh the few pennies extra that are spent to be assured that you are not feeding yourself or your family members pesticides. In a recent scientific study, apples were said to contain vast amounts of pesticides, even after washing them thoroughly. Many fruits that have soft outer skins are also usually contaminated. Fruits such as strawberries and peaches are very on the list of fruits that contain large amounts of chemicals, even after being peeled. To save money when buying organic fruits and vegetables, try shopping at places such as the local farmer’s market instead of health food stores or regular grocery stores.

Filed Under: Food, General Tagged With: Food, Organic food, Pesticide

Dieting During the Holidays

The holidays are an important time of year for many people. Much of the festivities are based around food, so it can be a difficult time to watch your weight or simply eat healthy. There are a few simple tips you can follow to make this easier however.

If you know you are going to be going to a party where food will be served, you may consider eating a healthy, balanced meal before you go. Then you will not feel hungry and be prone to gorging and eating more than you planned. Then, when you are at the party, you can try one or two bites of your favorite dishes and you can enjoy them guilt free.

If you are going to a dinner party where you are expected to eat a full meal, you will simply have to choose your food well to not wreck your diet. Watch out for tricky dishes. You may see a vegetable dish and think that is the best choice, but if it is covered in cheese and a creamy sauce you may be better off eating the meatballs or potatoes.

If you are at a party where alcohol is being served it is very easy to drink hundreds of calories without realizing it. If you are looking for a drink that will not ruin your diet, you may consider a light beer, glass of wine or a simple mixed drink like a vodka tonic. Avoid anything frozen or sweet, as these are the beverages that have the most calories.

If you follow these simple guidelines, you’ll find that you make it through the holiday season without putting on weight or making yourself feel bad because you ate horribly. You’ll be glad when January first comes around and you don’t have to resolve to lose 10 extra pounds you gained!

Filed Under: Food Tagged With: Eating, Health, Weight loss

Making Chinese Food Healthier

Many of us enjoy eating take out Chinese food, but the tastiest dishes are not very healthy. However, there are some simple ways to take a Chinese take out meal and help it to fit in with your diet.

The first thing you should keep in mind is that often the portions at Chinese restaurants are huge. If you share a meal with your partner or a friend you are automatically cutting the calories right there. If your entire family enjoys Chinese maybe you can find two or three dishes to split.

Whether you are sharing, or saving your leftovers, an easy way to cut calories is to lose the fried rice. If you must have rice, prepare your own brown rice at home and serve it with the main Chinese dish. Even better is to serve the dish with some steamed vegetables or a green salad. This will greatly reduce the carbohydrate and calorie count of the meal without sacrificing the taste.

Often the meals at Chinese restaurants are served with a heavy sauce, and the meals are swimming. Have the restaurant prepare your meal with the sauce on the side and you will save lots of calories and still be able to enjoy the flavor. An added bonus is that you can use the leftover sauce another day to prepare your own Asian inspired meal at home.

There are many other ways to reduce the calories and fat in your Chinese meal, you just have to use some creativity. The most important things is not to deprive yourself. If your favorite part of the meal is a fried egg roll, enjoy one. Just don’t overdo it, and don’t eat one every single day. You’ll find that by making a few small changes you can still enjoy your favorite foods even when you are watching your weight or trying to eat in a more healthy manner.

Filed Under: Cooking Tips, Food Tagged With: Chinese cuisine, Fried rice, Meal

Mexican Food at Home

Mexican food is an extremely popular type of cuisine. There are hundreds of thousands of restaurants devoted to this type of food. However, Mexican food is very easy to prepare at home if you have some basic knowledge.

Many of the more popular dishes are all based on the same basic ingredients. Tacos, burritos, and tostadas are all the same dish just prepared slightly differently. You start with a tortilla, either soft or hard and fill it with your choice of meat and cheese, perhaps some beans. Then you top it with lettuce, tomato, sour cream and/or salsa. If you learn how to prepare one of these dishes you can prepare them all.

Many of the most popular parts of a Mexican dinner are the dips. Salsa, guacamole and cheese dip are many of the things that we all enjoy when we go out for a Mexican meal. Luckily, it is very easy to prepare these items from scratch, or you can buy premade dips in the grocery store. Guacamole is probably the trickiest, because it tastes the best when it is fresh. The dip only has a few basic ingredients though, so you will find it easy to prepare at home.

Mexican desserts are simple too. Sopapilla is a fried tortilla served with cinnamon, butter and honey. Flan is easy to find in the grocery store or make yourself; it is a baked Mexican custard. Another common Mexican dessert is the churro. You can purchase them in the grocery store and bake or fry them at home.

As you can see, eating Mexican food does not have to be expensive or complicated. The best part about preparing it at home is that you can change the recipes around to fit the nutritional needs of you and your family. It is simple to make Mexican meals that are gluten free, dairy free or vegan if you just make a few simple changes.

Filed Under: Food, Restaurants Tagged With: Food, Mexican cuisine, Tortilla