• Last updated 2/16/10 by singer4660

November 1, 2002 - I left New Paltz, NY with mixed emotions. I had really wanted to stay over a few more days and visit New York City. However, I had been keeping a weather eye open and instinct told me that the weatherman was wrong. It was bright and sunny as I left the farm but when I had gone fifty miles I ran head on into a full blown winter storm complete with heavy snow. Fortunately, I had decided earlier that I would bypass the big cities as much as possible and headed West towards Scranton, PA. Just outside Scranton I turned South towards Harrisburg, PA driving... read more

• Last updated 2/16/10 by KYHeirloomer

After languishing as a footnote to culinary history, Dutch oven cooking is making a comeback. There are several influences behind this, ranging from the vast numbers of historic reenactors who use them on open fires, to the Dutch oven cooking competitions waged as part of the food-fight phenomenon that’s grown exponentially across the country. There are even a few inns that specialize in Dutch oven cookery. Dutch ovens are the most versatile cookware you can use. Name the cooking technique---from braising to baking, sautéing to deep frying, and you can do it in a Dutch... read more

• Last updated 2/16/10 by kroyse

One of the basics of excellent service is to treat your internal customers as you would your external customers. You can't move forward and win customers without the passionate devotion and commitment of your employees. People are the heart and soul of your company and also the public face and we must take great care of them. We can't ever miss the opportunity to reinforce, recognize and reward behavior. This is one of the major reasons that service people give bad service to their customer; they reflect the way they are treated by their bosses and they pass it right on... read more

• Last updated 2/16/10 by mvogel

It's the Great PumpkinAccording to an Irish myth, one day a man known as "Stingy Jack" for his miserly inclinations had a drink with the devil.  True to his name, Jack convinced the devil to transform himself into a coin in order to pay for the drinks. The devil did so but Jack kept the coin for himself.  He placed it in his pocket next to a cross so the devil could not change back.  Jack then freed the devil under the conditions that he would not bother him for a year and could not claim his soul upon his death.  The following year, Jack trapped the devil in a tree by... read more

• Last updated 2/16/10 by hbrody

If you like horseradish - I mean really like horseradish - then everything that is remotely edible is fair game. For instance, with apple pie, and that's not apocryphal. At the annual horseradish festival in Collinsville, Illinois, horseradish is revered with the kind of passion one usually associates with baseball in the "glory days" at Brooklyn's Ebbets Field. The farmland around Collinsville produces ten million pounds of horseradish a year, and has been appropriately named by the town's promoters as the "horseradish capital of the world." For centuries this member... read more

• Last updated 2/16/10 by sross

When the economy struggles as it is now, people want to tighten up the purse strings and watch every penny spent.  The restaurant industry feels this just as surely as the malls and department stores do this year, perhaps more so.  Dining out is a luxury most of us cut out first when watching our respective budgets.  Does that mean we ease up on our customer service skills?  Absolutely not!  I believe you cannot afford to let people eat in your restaurant once, only to determine that they will not come back, either in the near future or when their money flows... read more

• Last updated 2/16/10 by hbrody

Although it was in 1926 that A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh exclaimed "& the only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey. And the only reason for making honey is so as I can eat it," humans for as many as 10,000 years have been wondering why a bee makes honey. No less a thinker than Aristotle seemed equally bemused and puzzled at the bee's handiwork. "One cannot well tell what is the substance (the bees) gather," he said, "nor the exact progress of their work." To metaphorically dispose of this imponderable question, honey has been romanticized by poets and... read more

• Last updated 2/16/10 by crenfrow

Don't ask me why, but I've sometimes daydreamed of building a working 17th century-style malting house. The malt produced could be used for onsite brewing demonstrations using 17th century techniques and recipes, with the resulting brew given out as samples or sold to the populace. I think it would also be fun to work out a slapstick sketch for a 'maltster' and a 'lazy assistant' who lets the malt burn. Such a demonstration would be a good 'draw' for a brew-pub, and a great conversation piece. Gervase Markham, in his "The English Housewife" gives detailed directions on... read more

• Last updated 11/21/11 by Nicko

Learn how to: Create A New Article Edit An Existing article Revert An Article To A Previous Version Report An Article     Create A New Article Navigate to the Article home. (Sometimes called a Wiki) On the main article page, you will see several tabs- locate the section you would like to contribute to.   Within that article section, you will see a button to create a new article.  If you do not see this button, you do not have the ability to create articles in this section. Click the "Create Article" button. A popover will... read more

• Last updated 2/16/10 by kroyse

We all want to make a difference, to create magic moments in the lives of our customers and employees. I will show you how you can make a difference. My goal is to get you so excited, you can’t wait to try this out because you know you are going to be awesome. The first thing I ask my clients who want to improve their service is, "What's it like to work for you? Do your employees feel respected and appreciated?" Before you can ask your employees to deliver service with a smile, you first have to ask yourself, "Am I giving them anything to smile about?" One of the... read more