Archive for the ‘Fine Dining’ Category
Fine Dining with Children – What You Need To Know
Dining at a luxury restaurant is a wonderful way to relax and have great wine and food. Many parents have concerns about taking their children to a fine dining restaurant. Below are a number of tips to help make your fine dining experience with children pleasurable and not embarrassing.
1. If you have made a reservation several days or a week before, you can practice good behavior and manners with your children at home. Help them learn to say thank you, and please. Use positive reinforcement techniques. As well, if they are old enough, you will have to teach them to use cutlery and drink a beverage without spilling it. As well, if they are old enough, you can teach them how to properly order food. When you reserve a table, ask for a corner table for privacy.
2. When you arrive and park at the restaurant, it is time to have one more gentle and positive talk about how the children are to behave. Explain that they cannot yell, scream, and run around at the restaurant. Remind them that they have to consider the other people dining.
3. It can be a real hassle and distraction taking children to the restroom at a fine dining restaurant. Before you arrive, make sure the children have gone to the restroom.
4. When most people attend a fine dining restaurant, for example, a restaurant in Ottawa, it tends to be between 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM. This can be very late for children who may get hungry and cranky. Bring some snacks such as carrots or apple pieces for them to munch on while waiting for the main meal. While you are waiting for your meal, have some activity books such as crossword puzzles or coloring books to keep them occupied. Include the children in the table conversation. You can also ask your server for some bread or crackers for the children. To make ordering faster and easier, make sure you know what your children like and don’t have them experiment with new or spicy foods.
5. Children are curious and love to pick things up and put them in their mouths. Keep candles, sugar packets, cutlery such as knives and forks, and flower displays out of their reach. For very young children, take along a bib, bottles or a child’s special sippy cup for drinking. Use high chairs safely.
6. When the meal arrives, look after the children first. Cut the meal up in small pieces for better eating. Make sure you have ordered the beverage to come with the meal. When the children are finished, ask the server to take their plates out of the way. If your children are anxious, skip dessert.
7. Very young children do not like to sit for a long period of time. Once everyone has finished eating, it may be a good time to leave. Older children will be able to sit for a certain period of time before they start getting fidgety and want to leave.
8. Be patient and try not to let small incidents bother you. Children can pick up on frustration.
Fine dining is a wonderful way to spend the evening. When taking children to an elegant restaurant, you greatly improve the chances of having a successful meal without any unpleasant incidents by planning ahead.
Looking for an Edmonton restaurant? Then be sure to check out the local Canadian directories online to find everything from an restaurant in Edmonton to an restaurant in Ottawa and beyond. Search by city region or by dining category.
Tags: dining, Fine Dining, good restaurant, local restaurant, Ottawa restaurant, restaurant, restaurant guide, travel, travel guide
Add Some Pumpkin Soup Varieties to Your Life
Pumpkin soup is one of those recipes that has many variations. While most people think of only classic pumpkin soup, there are many other ways to create a soup out of pumpkin. One of the easiest recipes is for a honey roasted pumpkin soup. The ingredients are drizzled with honey before roasting. Then it is made into soup.
Another easy pumpkin soup variation to try is pumpkin and cheese. This is a simple soup you can make using canned pumpkin puree. Simply add in your ingredients like spices, cream, broth, brown sugar and some grated cheddar cheese. Serve this soup with some fresh rolls or melt some grated cheese on top until it is bubbly and delicious.
Alternatively, you may want something a bit sweet. Add some real maple syrup and a little Marsala wine and you will have an incredibly flavorful bowl of soup. Always use real maple syrup for this recipe… imitation syrups will not hold up during cooking to create the flavor you want.
You can also influence your pumpkin soup by changing cuisines. There are pumpkin soups in Thai, Haitian, Mexican and Jamaican cuisines. The common spices of each cuisine make the difference, creating new flavor variations with the pumpkin.
For a more exotic flavor, try pumpkin ginger soup. Ginger will give this creamy soup a bit of heat and Asian flavor. If you like it hotter you can add some chilies as well. Garnish the soup with a little chopped cilantro and pumpkin seeds. If you like a whiter soup, try using white pumpkin. This soup is not your average pumpkin soup! Serve it as an appetizer for an Asian themed meal or serve it alone.
Try adding some specialty ingredients to change your soup. Shrimp adds a nice seafood flavor to the soup, while chocolate can create an unusual dessert soup. Make your soup spicy or mild. Peppers will add some kick to your soup if you like it hot. Use chipotle if you want a milder heat. Peanut butter can be combined with pumpkin soup to make an unusual flavor. Add bacon or sausage to bring it all together. This fast recipe can be done at the last minute.
It is common for fall produce to be used in pumpkin soup. Apples are often added, as are other winter squashes and even sweet potatoes. These ingredients will give different levels of flavor to your soup and make it more complex. Add some herbs to create more of a savory flavor. In the heat of summer, make a chilled pumpkin soup that will keep you cool as a cucumber.
It really does not matter what variation of pumpkin soup you make. The results will be a rich, delicious soup that will fill you up and warm you to your core. The velvety texture of this creamy soup is satisfying on all levels. It may become a new favorite for your family or friends. If cooking time is at a premium, throw your ingredients in the crockpot and let them cook all day long. You can enjoy it in the evening at your leisure.
Every canned pumpkin soup recipe is simple, yet delicious. Using canned pumpkin speeds up this recipe by an incredible amount. You don’t need to worry about roasting the pumpkin or pureeing it afterwards. It is so very easy! Try some tonight – your family will amazed that pumpkin has another use other than pie.
Tags: cooking, diet, eating, family, Food, food and drink, Health, home, home and garden, lifestyles, pumpkin, recipe, recipes, Recipies, soup
10 Cocktail Party Ideas
The cocktail party can be held as a business function, or for family and friends. They were traditionally the before part of a dinner party where guests would gather in a room and drink themselves silly. It has now evolved to become a party theme in its own right.
Take a look at the following cocktail party ideas for some suggestions and inspiration:
1. Your invitations could be in the shape of a cocktail glass cut out of cardboard. Try and fashion a straw and umbrella out of the card if you’re good at crafts.
2. Consider hiring a professional cocktail maker if you’re charging your cocktail party to the company. They provide great entertainment and are well worth the money!
3. Failing that you should allow your guests to make up their own cocktail. Provide instructions and ingredients for a range of classic cocktails.
4. I would put up some black and white balloons for your decorations. Lots of them!
5. For those with a budget, you could hire out a butler for the evening.
6. For music, you could hire out a pianist (budget dependant) or play Classical and Jazz. I would recommend something like Tosca, Eddie Harris or Bill Evans.
7. For food, you need to go for finger buffets; small portions but lots of them and lots of choice. Consider hiring a waiter to serve the food on trays and go through the full delicious range from hors d’ oeuvres right through to desserts with plenty between.
8. Finally the most important part of your cocktail party…cocktails!!! Make sure that you don’t leave anything to chance, so over prepare for everything so that your guests are not disappointed. You will go through an enormous amount of the following; ice, glasses of all shapes and sizes, fruit for garnish, little umbrellas and straws.
9. Stock up on wine and champagne as cocktails will not be to everybodys taste. The most popular cocktails will be the cosmopolitan, the dirty and many different variants containing martini. Stock up on martini!!! Of course, also get in soft drinks and mixers such as orange, cranberry, lime and lemon juice.
10. The most important thing to remember though is that the whole point of a cocktail party is that it is meant to be a classy occasion. A little bit of extra expense will go a long way. You should consider the extras such as butlers, waiters, cocktail makers and even a valet to park the cars.
Tags: business party, cocktail ideas, cocktail party, cocktails, entertaining, entertainment, Fine Dining, food and drink, leisure, parties, party, party ideas, recreation, reference
Bon Appetit Recipes
Bon Appetit recipes are some of the best of all the cooking magazines!
You’ve probably noticed that the cost of a single issue of most cooking magazines will buy you a whole cook book these days. It’s hard to justify the price, especially when most of the magazine is filled with ads. However, Bon Appetit has somehow managed to stay reasonably priced and full of valuable content for the foodies. I’ve been a fan of this cooking magazine since I was in my teens. The Bon Appetit recipes are some of the best I’ve run across in all these years.
In each issue, the publishers include a regular feature which is my all time favorite. Readers write in, describing a restaurant at which they enjoyed a delectable dish that they’ve been thinking of ever since. The only trouble is, they don’t have the recipe. The readers often come across these remarkable dishes while traveling and are unlikely to be dining at that restaurant again, any time soon. Sometimes they want to recreate it for their spouse at home, or serve it for a special party occasion.
At any rate, they write and ask the Bon Appetit recipe editor if they might prevail upon the chef to part with the recipe. The chef in question is flattered that his or her creation made such an impression on the diner and responds to the Bon Appetit recipe editor with a scaled down recipe, suited to home preparation, along with every little detail of how to prepare the dish. This column of Bon Appetit recipes has been in the magazine each month, all these many years, so it must strike a chord with most readers.
Bon Appetit has many other outstanding virtues for the foodie. They often issue special editions which focus on a particular cuisine or region. For example, one of their special editions was devoted to Mediterranean cooking. The issue includes some very special selections from the Bon Appetit recipe editors, gleaned by the food travel writer who personally visited restaurants all over the region for the cream of the crop in dishes. They then convince the chef to part with the recipe and subsequently publish it in the special edition. This works out marvelously for everyone involved. The restaurant receives spectacular publicity, the readers get to experience the dish at home, wowing friends and family with their gourmet cookery and the lucky food writer gets to partake of all this wonderful food on locale.
In addition, these special editions take you on a virtual cooking vacation, with feature stories such as a local artisan cheese maker, with photos, interviews and details on how the cheese is made. By the time you’re done reading, you feel ” almost ” like you’ve made the visit in person. Bon Appetit absolutely covers the region or cuisine, with maps to help you find your way around, visits to off the beaten path, romantic farmhouse restaurants, wineries and local marketplaces.
It’s no small wonder that Bon Appetit recipes are some of the very best you’ll find in any of the cooking magazines. Next time you’re browsing the magazine rack at the supermarket, check this magazine out and keep your eye peeled for those special editions. They’re as fat as some cook books and the price is the same as the regular issues. You’ll see what I mean!
Tags: baking, bon appetit, bon appetit recipes, cooking, Food, home cooking, recipes, Recipies
Live Maine Lobsters are Great for Dinner Parties
When you’re daydreaming from your desk, do you ever think about taking a long, relaxing vacation to Maine. Pack up the kids and the dog and just head to the beach with a cooler and some lawn chairs. You could relax while they play, and when it’s dinner time, all you’d need to do is buy some fresh lobster from a local fisherman and build a fire. You could simmer them with some veggies and then all crack into a lobster for the delicious meat. The vacation may just be a dream, but the dinner doesn’t have to be, now that you can buy live Maine lobster online.
Yes, that’s right, you can buy the best and freshest lobster online right now, for less than you’d pay in the grocery store, and have it delivered the next day. That means you can have it in time for that great weekend brunch that you’re always planning, but never get around to, or in time for the dinner party you have planned in two days. Live Maine lobsters offer fresh and succulent meat that you can’t get anywhere else, and your friends and family will be surprised and amazed that you’ve got such a high quality dinner waiting.
How do you get your live Maine lobsters so quickly though? You can’t really get them the day after they’re caught, can you? By cutting out the middleman and ordering online, you can. Instead of waiting for lobsters to be trucked to your local store, you’re buying the lobsters direct from the fisherman, as they catch them. It’s a great way to support the fisherman and get the lobsters that you crave without the wait, and without the trip to the store!
When you buy live Maine lobsters online, you also save money by doing it! When you buy lobsters in the store, not only are they old, but they’re expensive. That’s because you’re not only paying for the lobster, you’re also paying the middleman’s markup, the transportation costs, and the store’s surcharge. By buying direct online, you’re only dealing with the costs of the fisherman, who’s selling to you at a record low price. It’s a great way to get an amazing deal on lobster.
Live Maine lobster dinners are a great way to bring your family together. What could be better than relaxing in a warm cozy house while the smell of lobsters and fresh vegetables simmering wafts though. And eating lobsters as a family is great fun. Even kids will want to get in on the action, and take a crack at using their shiny steal claw crackers. It’s a delicious meal that’s sure to be remembered.
So why not get the party started, invite over some friends, and order live Maine lobsters online today. They’re at a price that can’t be beat, and they’ll be at your house tomorrow, all without a trip to the store. You’ll see what a great time you all have with fresh, succulent lobsters!
