Most Americans aren’t gourmet cooks. That’s right, they live
Most Americans aren’t gourmet cooks. That’s right, they live full lives. Between work and school and other activities they’re lucky if they have time to stop at a fast food joint much less prepare quality meals at home. Often it’s not a matter of cooking itself, but rather of coming up with dinner ideas for quick, healthy, inexpensive meals for the whole family. People who have trouble with this, however, must not be paying much attention. Because between cooking shows, the Internet, and a wide variety of easy prepare wholesome foods at grocery stores, it’s not hard to come up with a seven day menu that satisfies everyone at the table. Here are a few good ideas for delicious meals the whole family can enjoy.
Corn dogs are an all American tradition, usually served at state fairs and by street vendors. While not a healthy food, it is a tasty one that is easy to prepare. Make a batter with some flour, corn meal, salt, sugar and baking powder mixed with milk, dip the hot dogs and then deep fry them until the batter is golden brown. If you want the feel of the fair, insert a popsicle stick.
In colonial times, dinner was an afternoon meal, followed by a later light meal called supper. As time went by this changed based on social class and schedule. Physical laborers needed an afternoon dinner to keep up their strength throughout the grueling day. As times change and we move away from regular meals at home, dinner has become the anchor that keeps families together and signals the end of the out of the home portion of the day and the beginning of at home leisure time. But supper and dinner have become intertwined, often interchanged in meaning this big meal. That doesn’t mean the meal has to be large, especially for people watching their waist lines. Go the traditional supper route with a light soup or roast chicken salad.
Crock pots were made for busy schedules. Add the ingredients, set it on low in the morning, so by dinner time the food is ready to eat. Great food is possible in a crock pot, the entire meal too. Add some meat and some potatoes cut into quarters for a terrific pot roast. Serve it with a fresh baked loaf of bread picked up on the way home from the local supermarket. Or, skip the bread to avoid the extra calories.
The possibilities are endless with simple but delicious meals like veal cutlets, pork chops, even steaks on the grill. For more dinner ideas, Google the term. There are tons on line.
Thanksgiving is a time of food. It’s a celebration
Thanksgiving is a time of food. It’s a celebration of the Pilgrim’s early successes in America, won through hard work to tame the land in what was for them a new world. The menu is usually the same. Turkey, sometimes ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls or bread, pumpkin pie and apple pie, and a variety of other trimmings adorn the holiday table. Families gather not only to celebrate the historic event, but just to catch up with everyone’s lives. The food may be similar, but Thanksgiving dinner recipes have as much variety as the colors of the leaves on the November trees.
How about this recipe for a delicious appetizer? Move the pumpkin from dessert to the start of the meal as a savory Pumpkin soup. Heat a tablespoon each of oil and butter over medium heat. Add three sliced leeks (only the white) and saute until the leeks are soft. Add 15 ounces of pumpkin puree, a pinch of cloves, one tablespoon of ground cinnamon, one teaspoon of ground ginger, and a pinch of salt. Stir that until well mixed, then pour in 32 ounces of vegetable broth. Stir in one quarter cup of brown sugar. Bring it to a low boil then let it simmer for 10 minutes. If desired pour a tsp or so of cream or half and half into the bowl before adding soup and a dash of cinnamon. That sounds good.
For the main course try frying the turkey instead of broiling it. Don’t worry, fried turkey isn’t greasy. The oil is so hot it sears the skin, thus the oil can’t penetrate it. For this task a big oil pot and propane burner are used. Turkey fryers can be found in stores like Walmart. A meat thermometer is also needed, along with a deep fry thermometer to check the oil for the correct temperature. Make sure to fry outside in a clear area. Heat the oil to between 325 degrees and 350 degrees F. The turkey takes about three minutes per pound to fry to about 170 degrees F in the breast. It’s common to inject spices into the turkey during frying, but the dressing is usually not fried along with the turkey.
For some other soup ideas try curried pumpkin apple soup, butternut squash soup, or pumpkin and sausage soup. But there are other good appetizers for the meal. Try something different like cheese wrapped asparagus. Use two cheeses, one spread and one sliced. One idea is swiss cheese slices with a softer blue cheese spread. Spread the soft cheese on the slices, wrap it around a few asparagus spears, then cook in a 230 degree C oven for about 15 minutes, or until the asparagus is soft. Sure wrapping cheese around asparagus turns a pretty healthy food into something a little more fattening. But Thanksgiving isn’t a time for a diet. Live a little!
Many more delicious Thanksgiving dinner recipes are available on the Internet.
You’re enjoying a meal. Suddenly there’s a commotion at
You’re enjoying a meal. Suddenly there’s a commotion at a nearby table. Two customers appear to be arguing. The argument turns to shoving. One man shoves the other to the floor. He rises, grabs a knife and stabs the man through the heart. But wait, things may not be what they seem, at least not according to the police detective who rushes onto the scene. The deceased didn’t die of a knife wound, he’s been shot in the head. Did you hear a gun shot? Such is a dining experience during a murder mystery dinner.
Murder mystery theater has been around a long time. Combined with dinner theater, these shows are interactive and often held at smaller venues. People enjoy the food as well as the chase. They can eat their steak and like Sherlock Holmes engage their minds once the game is afoot. These mysteries can take on many different forms. One is a simple interactive play where the actors talk to the patrons but stick to a general story in which one of the actors’ roles is to solve the mystery. Another is a game in which the diners have to discover clues to solve the murder. There can be a lot of twists and turns along the way including some participants given information others do not have.
These mysteries have become popular for parties, special occasions and even entire weekends and cruises. They’ve leaked into popular culture. One example has been done a few times in television and movies. A group of people is invited to a dinner, then one by one they’re killed in mysterious ways. Murder by Death is a funny comedy based on that premise. In other versions, a mystery dinner is taking place when someone is really murdered. In an episode of the detective show Monk, the lead character has been banned from a murder mystery weekend bed and breakfast because he solved the murder in three minutes, thus ruining the weekend and losing the establishment a lot of money.
Many of these dinners take place at locations associated with death. Many dinner theatres that specialize in murder mysteries boast that their location used to be a morgue, or is built on a graveyard, or that someone was murdered there in the past. True or not, such stories add to the atmosphere. Patrons are willing to suspend disbelief enough to enjoy themselves, even if in the real world they wouldn’t believe the tall tales.
A murder mystery dinner can be fun. They’re not just for adults. Kids love a challenge and a show. Consider it for your next family outing.
People are busier today than ever in history.
People are busier today than ever in history. Modern technology may make things faster and easier, but the world has compensated by demanding that people do more. What suffers is home life. There’s less time for daily chores. That includes meals. That’s why people are always on the look out for ways to make dinner recipes easy. Fortunately there are many sources and ideas for quick recipes and easier ways to prepare food.
Forty years ago people cooked a lot more from scratch. If they ate sausage, they bought casings and meat and stuffed the sausages themselves. When they ate pasta they used home made noodles and home made sauce made from tomatoes and other ingredients. Cooking was an all day affair. With far fewer women in the work force that was hard, but not impossible. But as people began to realize they wanted more from life than cooking and cleaning every day, more and more pre-packaged and pre-prepared foods began to appear. Cake baking, for example, slowly converted from mixing flour, eggs, vanilla, milk, carefully melted chocolate and many many other ingredients to opening a box and mixing in some eggs and milk. Today baking a good cake is a matter of about an hour, only 5 or so minutes of which are mixing and measuring. In the old days it could take half a day to properly make a cake. The world has changed.
There are many sources for tips on cooking more easily. One of these is television cooking shows. In the old days Julia Child explained complex recipes while the Galloping Gourmet got drunk on his cooking wine. Today there are hundreds of cooking shows, many focused on methods for regular people to prepare food. From the 20 minute meals to partially home made, techniques include spicing up pre-made elements with some fresh ingredients. This isn’t just hot dogs or scrambled eggs. These shows focus on quick and easy pot roasts, fast Veal Parmagen, and roast chicken for working families.
Pre-packaged and ready made foods are a lot better than they were, too. Many grocery stores now carry deli meals including already cooked chickens, meat loaf, pot roast, mashed potatoes and more. It’s like buying a restaurant meal at the store, then bringing it home to eat. Many of these foods can be refrigerated or frozen to eat another day. That’s another idea. It’s often easier to prepare all the meals for the week on the weekend, then freeze them for reheating during the week. Many foods including lasagna are actually better reheated.
Busy people can eat well in the modern world without spending a lot of money eating out every day. Sources to make dinner recipes easy are everywhere. Take advantage and eat well.
Not many people have time for the type of food
Not many people have time for the type of food Julia Child used to show off on her PBS cooking show. The world has changed. Food television has changed along with it, featuring easy dinner recipes instead of the fancy French cooking Julia made famous. These simple recipes don’t have to be bland. In fact, some of the French recipes are so rich that people couldn’t even eat them every day.
There is more than television as a source for these dinner cooking ideas. The Internet is full of food. That doesn’t mean just the cooking show web sites, although they have a lot of terrific information. There are sites dedicated to simple meals, sites specializing in cheap meals, sites about quick meals, and sites about healthy meals. Every type of meal and food are covered not only by one web site, but by thousands. Someone who decided to read every food related web site online would never finish in a lifetime.
Simple food doesn’t have to be boring food. Easy meals aren’t bad meals. Sure hot dogs are easy to make. They’re good, but it’s a little common or generic. Then try some corn dogs. Kids love them, and they’re not hard to prepare. Some corn meal, flour, milk, salt and sugar, coat the dog, fry it. You can even find a stick to make it just like the corn dogs at the amusement park.
But corn dogs aren’t very healthy. Simple foods don’t have to be unhealthy foods. Broil a chicken breast, remove the skin, cut it into strips or chunks, toss it into a salad. That was easy. It’s also healthy and delicious. Try it with chicken soup. In fact a lot of soups are very healthy, and salads can be made from almost any ingredients. Use leftover ham, diced, some hard boiled eggs, and a pre-mixed salad from the store as a supper.
Here’s a little history lesson. Back in colonial times supper and dinner were two meals. Supper was a lighter late afternoon pick up, needed by people who worked hard at physical labor. Dinner was the heavier meal at the end of the long, hard day. As the years went by the realities of living and personal taste changed supper and dinner for some people, even combining them into one meal. But physical laborers continued the supper, dinner plan into the 1970’s, and many people still follow that formula in the 21st century.
You don’t have to have a separate supper and dinner. But you can try lighter, traditional supper style meals at dinner time (or does your family call it supper?) Either way, with some easy dinner recipes found online, it can be called delicious.
A popular entertainment and tourist destination in the Twin Cities,
A popular entertainment and tourist destination in the Twin Cities, Minnesota is the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre. Since 1968 there have been over 193 productions on its various stages, with over 8 million guests in attendance. That number is staggering, but not surprising given the quality shows appearing at Chanhassen.
The 90,000 square foot facility was constructed and designed by Herbert and Carolyn Bloomberg on what was once a corn field. It all started when they built a new facility for the Old Log Theater in Excelsior. They decided to follow that project by building their own theatre complex 30 minutes from downtown. To add to the risk their vision included a restaurant. Given the failure rates of new restaurants and the distance from downtown, the project appeared to be a pipe dream doomed to fail.
But on October 11, 1968 the theatre opened. Fittingly, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying was the inaugural production. That ran for a month and a half before the Fantasticks took the stage. So here’s a pun. The stage was set for what is today the largest professional dinner theatre in America. It can also boast being the largest privately owned restaurant in Minnesota. Not bad for such a risky venture.
On February 18, 1971 a production of I Do! I Do! opened in the Playhouse, a smaller theatre space in the Chanhassen facility. It ran a staggering 21 years. What’s more staggering is that it included the original cast for the entire run. How’s that for job security? It became a cornerstone production for the Playhouse and Chanhassen, known all over the country. It ended in November of 1992, but after I Do Love the Holidays took over for a few months, I Do! I Do! returned for a short run from late January to early December of 1993. It was then replaced by Stevie Ray’s Comedy Troupe which had a nearly two year run. But nothing compared to the amazing run enjoyed by I Do! I Do!
Both Stevie Ray’s Comedy Troupe and I Do! I Do! later returned to Chanhassen, but in a different room. The Courtyard, now called the Club, hosted each of the plays in 1995. Today the Club is a popular spot for wedding receptions, private parties and even business meetings. Other well known plays that have appeared at Chanhassen are Camelot, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Guys and Dolls, 42nd Street, Oklahoma, and Dial M for Murder. This is by no means the complete list. That can be found on the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre web site: http://www.chanhassentheatres.com.
Weddings can be a complicated affair. Every step has
Weddings can be a complicated affair. Every step has rules of behavior that must be followed. Families preparing for a wedding often receive a crash course in party planning and guest accommodations. The rehearsal dinner is an important element of a wedding, and rehearsal dinner etiquette can be pretty complex. But if the rules are understood, there’s no reason for it to be anything but an enjoyable element of an overall enjoyable wedding experience.
The groom’s parents are considered to be the hosts for the rehearsal dinner. That means the organization and decisions should be left to them. For couples who prefer to host the dinner themselves as a thanks to the families and wedding guests, make sure to explain the reasoning to the grooms parents so as not to insult them. And if they take it hard, include them in some way. Why take on more work when letting others manage it makes them happier?
The dinner should take place the day before the wedding, directly after the wedding rehearsal. This ensures that all the guests and family are in town, available to attend. It’s very bad form to hold the rehearsal dinner too far in advance of the wedding. It potentially excludes some people. The last thing needed from a wedding is hurt feelings in either family. Remember, for the bride and groom both families are soon to become their family.
It’s a must to invite the immediate relatives of both the bride and groom. The entire bridal party, each with a guest, should also be asked to attend along with any other friends and family the bride and groom would like to have at the dinner. The preacher or whoever officiates the wedding, offers the vows, should also be invited. Just like with the wedding be very careful with who is invited or not. Maybe uncle Albert is a little rude, but is it worth a lifetime of bad blood to exclude him?
Include a social time before the dinner so people can relax and talk. It’s important to consider the feelings of all the guests and to provide a pleasant atmosphere. Keep this dinner in line with the budget of the overall wedding. If it’s a million dollar wedding then the rehearsal dinner should reflect this. By the same token a budget wedding should have too fancy of a rehearsal dinner. Finally, make sure the dinner ends fairly early so people can be well rested for the next day’s festivities.
Toasts are generally made to everyone involved in making the wedding a success. This includes both the bride’s and groom’s parents, and anyone else who has helped. The toast follows the main course and should be made by the bride and groom. The best man and maid of honor toasts are appropriate at the reception, not during the rehearsal dinner.
Don’t ruin a nice wedding by stepping on toes at the rehearsal dinner. Keep rehearsal dinner etiquette in mind.
Dinner recipes can be hard to come up with day
Dinner recipes can be hard to come up with day after day, meal after meal. Many people get into a menu rut, rotating between the same recipes endlessly. Families often find, when examining their food selection, that they constantly eat the same meals while ignoring some old favorites. It’s all haphazard and kind of random. Now that more people are more focused on other things like work, it’s not easy to plan and execute a healthy menu.
When coming up with that menu, and the recipes to fill it, keep in mind that prior planning prevents future problems. That is, if you take some time to think about the menu in advance, you’ll find that your recipe selection becomes a lot more varied and exciting. Food isn’t only about the taste and nutrition, it’s about presentation and the whole experience. Even the same basic foods can be prepared a variety of different ways to make up meals everyone will enjoy a lot more.
Take ground beef for example. Add some flour, vegetables such as onions, tomatoes and lettuce. That’s a hamburger, right? Well, it’s also tacos. Tacos and hamburgers have a lot of the same basic ingredients, but to most people they’re very different foods. One food can make many different recipes and thus meals. Let’s try another one. Chicken and potatoes. Fried chicken and French fries aren’t too healthy. But roasted chicken and potatoes are. Still chicken and potatoes. Chicken salad and chips make a good lunch. Chicken pot pie. Chicken Teriyaki may not include potatoes, but it includes a starch in the white rice. There it is, a lot of variety from only a few basic foods.
Mixing meats can be fun too. Cut up chicken and steak, potatoes and vegetables. Put them on skewers or sticks and grill. Those are delicious kebabs. Steak and lobster can be very elegant for a parents only dinner date, or pretty basic to include the kids too at a family meal. Some people even like to roast a turkey and serve fish and chips as an early appetizer. It’s all made in the same deep fryer.
What about sources for meal ideas? There are a lot of food shows on television, even an entire channel dedicated to food. Those give great ideas, and most have web sites where more information, including recipes, can be found. Speaking of on line, food ideas abound on web sites. Try a Google or MSN search for dinner ideas. You’ll never have time to read all the resulting information. There are more dinner recipes out there than the average person can ever eat in an entire lifetime.
The term dream dinner may bring to mind a perfect
The term dream dinner may bring to mind a perfect date at a candlelit table, violin music in the background, with the meal capped by a wedding ring hidden in the champaign glass. But Dream Dinners is also a unique food franchise that’s quickly growing. It involves locations where people can go to cook according to menus, then take the food home to serve throughout the month. It’s one of those ideas that has people slapping their foreheads while exclaiming why didn’t I think of that?
Americans are busier than ever before. Work and school and a variety of other activities for family members mean it’s harder than ever to eat well. Sure there are many quality frozen and ready made foods, but somehow it’s never the same as a good home cooked meal. But when the typical day involves so much, who has time to cook, much less time to plan a menu or learn how to make the items on it? That’s where this franchise steps into the picture.
The program works like this. People visit the location and then choose up to all 14 items on a provided menu. Food is then purchased by serving. Then the consumers cook the meals, at the store. This can be accomplished either in public or private sessions, with cooking pros directing the preparation action. It’s a little bit like a cooking show where the show gives the viewer the food then helps them prepare it along with the host.
The meals are a lot less expensive than it would appear when the concept is first described. A 14 item menu costs about $3.50 per serving, with side dishes and extras like salads and potatoes purchased separately. This can bring the cost per serving for a complete meal up to around the $5 mark, but for a busy working family it’s not bad. Not only are the meals provided, but the family can enjoy the cooking experience in a setting where it’s ensured that they’ll prepare the meals the right way.
This is a franchise business. And there’s been some controversy behind the franchise. It’s not the food or menus or preparation, but rather the franchisees. Forbes Magazine profiled Dream Dinners in March 2008. The story didn’t look good for the company. It expanded very quickly, attracting entrepreneurs with its unique concept. But it seems the business plan wasn’t strong, as many of these people found themselves unable to continue the business after a short time and a lot of investment. The article detailed what was described as misrepresentations of the profit possible, and thus the overall valuation of franchises.
Business controversy aside, Dream Dinners is a wonderful concept that allows busy people living the 21st century fast-paced life a way to return to some of the home spun food value of the past decades.
One of the most important elements of a wedding is
One of the most important elements of a wedding is the invitation. Along with the photo album and video, the invitations are keepsakes that last a life time. They also set the stage for the wedding by giving invited guests a feel for the overall class and production of the occasion. Just as the rehearsal dinner is a big part of the wedding, the rehearsal dinner invitations can be just as important as the wedding invitations when it comes to giving a positive impression on the event. Keep in mind too that years later, this invitation will be something the bride will proudly show her children and even their potential spouses.
One element of these invitations is to whom they’re sent. It’s pretty simple. Anyone who has had a hand in making the wedding happen should receive invitations to the rehearsal dinner. This includes the parents of the bride and groom, as well as the bridal party, and any other family and friends who the bride and groom think should attend. The person who officiates the wedding should also be invited. Remember, this isn’t something for all the wedding guests, but rather for all the people who play a role in the ceremony whether they helped planned it, or will walk the aisle or participate in another way.
There are a lot of options for designing and printing these invitations. Many people opt to have the people who create the wedding invitation create these as well. It makes good sense. This tactic means one vendor provides all the services, making it easier in general to handle the invitation portion of the entire wedding. Also important is a consistent design. The design remains the same, or can be a kind of riff on the main wedding invitation design, if the same artist or designer is involved with both. Consider too the element of bulk discount. It’s more likely to get a little discount if all the invitations are designed and printed by the same entity. But the reception dinner is generally handled by the parents of the groom. While the bride and groom will be involved in every aspect of the wedding, the groom’s parents may feel more special if they can deal with these invitations outside the parameters of the actual wedding invitations. A slightly different design might also add some variety and spice to the wedding.
The wedding reception is a big part of the overall experience. It’s almost like a free throw in basketball. It seems pretty mundane, but if handled correctly the rehearsal dinner invitations add an important element to the wedding, while if handled poorly the entire wedding could be ruined.