Three Great Kitchen Redesign Options

By Stacy Pollack

There are several things you can do to make an immediate impact on the look of your kitchen. Painting the walls a different color is right at the top but it is something you should consider carefully before you jump in. The kitchen is usually one of the most used rooms in a house so you must make sure you make the correct color choice.

A color that might look good in the living room or den may not turn out to be an appropriate color for the kitchen. Additionally, if you choose to paint it a bright color that really stands out, you want to make sure that you are really going to like it. You don't want to have to paint it a second time just because you used the wrong color the first time.

Another thing you can do to make your kitchen look different is to change the flooring. New houses all seem to be being built with wood floors now as they are very popular but that might not be the right surface for your kitchen. Bigger kitchens might look good with wood but if yours is small it might look better with tile or some other material. The floor color will of course be very important and must match with the walls.

Other than wood and tile, you can choose floor materials like stone, laminate, and granite. Laminate floors are common in older houses while wood and granite floors are quite rare but very nice when done in the right kitchen environment. Putting in a new kitchen floor is usually a big job but it is something that will make a big impact on the look of your kitchen and help greatly to modernize it.

Lighting also plays an important part in your kitchen and changing or upgrading the lighting can also make a big difference. Track lighting can be used to highlight parts of the kitchen and many homes have lights that hang down over the counters or island. These lights are similar to what you might find in a bar or nightclub and they make the kitchen look very modern. Ideally, you should have the lighting help show off the colors of your kitchen and they can work to give it a unique feel.

About the Author:

Are you looking for some good kitchen color ideas? If you are, please visit my site Great Kitchen Ideas.

Creative Ways to Promote a Restaurant

By Jose L Riesco

There are a variety of ways to promote a restaurant and the truth is that it is only limited by your creativity and imagination. If you have the drive to open a restaurant in the first place you should be able to brainstorm and come up with a long list of ideas. In the restaurant business you have to set yourself apart from the competition and you have to have a unique selling proposition.

A great way to come up with tips to help you effectively promote a restaurant is to actively study the competition. Go out and visit rival establishments and determine their strengths and weaknesses. You will be able to enjoy a few nice dinners as well.

As a promoter, your approach must be twofold. The first is to get new customers to come to your establishment initially and the second is to make sure that they come back. To attract new people, offer some samples of your product. Try and find a way of going out in the marketplace and delivering these samples; maybe this will mean co-promoting with another establishment for mutual gain.

Consider offering specials for certain demographic groups if you find that you have a slow night or two. This is a good way to promote a restaurant and can have a viral effect, as people may make it a regular date because of the social interaction. For example, offer early bird specials for senior citizens.

Have you heard of social proof? This means that people like to hear that their peers also participate in the same things that they do. Advertise testimonials on your website, together with pictures. The visual image is very powerful. The hottest new way to promote a restaurant is a development of this theme. Take some videos including a testimonial and post this on YouTube. This will undoubtedly get a good exposure.

Employ some star power to your mix, as one of the great ways to promote a restaurant is to offer complimentary meals to local celebrities. If you find someone with influence to visit and enjoy your meal, get some photographic evidence and display it in a prominent place. This kind of exposure definitely goes a long way.

In times of recession many people attempt to cut their marketing budgets. This is almost always the wrong thing to do. To ensure its survival, it is always best to promote a restaurant as aggressively as you can. If you need to cut costs, do so in other areas and note that marketing is the lifeblood of this industry.

To promote a restaurant successfully takes a dedicated plan. It is not done overnight, but you should not be swayed by the many setbacks that you encounter along the way. Employ numerous different strategies and have short, midterm and long-term review points where you can tweak your initiatives as you go.

About the Author:

Expert Jose L Riesco shows you the best methods for getting more people into your restaurant at www.myrestaurantmarketing.com. Learn more about how to promote a restaurant here.

Fresh Shellfish, Great To Have For For Dinner?

By Shannon Linnen

Wild varieties are equally delicious. Clams are a very popular addition to pasta dishes. Hard clams, also called quahogs, live in sandy coves and can be caught when the tide is low.Fresh shellfish is a wonderful thing to eat all year round. It includes clams, scallops, mussels and more. Farm-raised cultured mussels are fresh and readily available. A great dish to enjoy with butter and garlic is stuffed quahogs. And, of course, there is always clam chowder!

In the summer, fresh shellfish will take your mind off the hot weather. For a light yet delicious meal, consider an appetizer of raw or barbequed oysters. These tasty treats can be bought in most markets as well as chosen farms that specially breed them to sell. If you are lucky enough to live by a port or in a town near the ocean, you will probably find oysters easily and for an affordable cost.

The scallops are meatier than clams and require very little preparation. Sea scallops are delightfully large, though must be shucked (removed from their shells) almost immediately after capture to ensure they don't lose moisture and die. It is important not to overcook scallops, or you will end up with a chewy, inedible taste.

Mussels come with blue-black shells and brown hairs called byssal threads attached to their shell. Their meat is usually an orange color and they are full of protein. As with clams, mussels taste best steamed and should remain encased in their shell until cooking.

They are truly tasty and are a symbol of excellence in every type of cuisine. Lobster is a cuisine favorite in fancy, high-end restaurants and is the most expensive of all fresh shellfish. Other fresh shellfish includes lobster and crab. Both are bigger and more substantial than their other, small shelled relatives.

Once you get down to the meaty goodness of crab legs, you will want to make this fresh shellfish part of your everyday meal planning. Crab is maybe the most popular shellfish and is widely bought and eaten. The crabbing industry is a multi-million dollar one. While eating crab can be messy and often difficult, special tools have been created to make cracking crab easier.

People are so busy and life is so fast paced it is often difficult to slow down enough to eat healthy. With processed foods all around us it is refreshing to enjoy a tasty and healthy seafood dinner on occasion. The ocean does not add harmful ingredients to its bounty. It simply nurtures its inhabitants until they are delivered straight to your door. Stay healthy by including tasty shellfish items into your busy lifestyle.

Do not worry about not living close to the ocean or in a coastal region. Even if you live in the central United States you can still get fresh shellfish to appease your tastebuds. Online seafood vendors, such as Quality Fresh Seafood offer a great selection at excellent prices and can ship your ordered seafood and shellfish straight to your door. It is no longer necessary to only have fresh shellfish during a coastal vacation. You can enjoy it anytime you like.

About the Author:

You can easily get lobster clambake if you live close to the coast, but if you live inland, it may be much more difficult. Of course the best place to always get readily available seafood is from Quality Fresh Seafood.

Super Deluxe Lobster Clambake Brings Some Sunshine To Winter

By Shannon Linnen

Summer is a great period for entertaining, and a very fun way to entertain is to invite your friends and family over for a clambake. Lobster and clams cooked over a fire, some exotic drinks, brightly colored decorations and appropriate music make for a great time for everybody.

However, when the weather is not cooperating, or even when winter hits, why not hold a lobster clambake indoors? What a great way to bring the illusion of summer to a cold winter day! And it's a fun, easy and healthy way to entertain.

In place of just any old lobster clambake, consider having a super deluxe lobster clambake, which is sure to please a variety of tastes. For your indoor clambake, purchase some fresh lobster, clams, shrimp, mussels, and maybe even some crab. You might also want to include some lobster bisque or clam chowder on the menu, in addition to corn on the cob and roasted potatoe.

Besides the food for your super deluxe lobster clambake, you will want to have a good supply of lobster bibs on hand, claw crackers, lots and lots of napkins, and a good supply of pre-moistened towlettes. Seafood is delicious but it can be very messy indeed.

You are probably wondering how you can have an indoor clambake, when the clams and other seafood at a clambake are traditionally cooked in a pit over an open fire. Easy! For this super deluxe lobster clambake you will be doing all of the cooking on the traditional indoor stovetops.

Lobster stock pot is the only special equipment required to complete the cooking of lobster. A variety of models are available in the market and some incorporate a steamer rack and basket. Cooking supply stores and Internet are the places one should look for. As you search the net for your lobster stock pot , you should do an extra search for an indoor clambake recipe that sounds good.

To make planning and preparing for you party even easier, there are many super deluxe lobster clambake kits available. They can easily be found by searching the Internet. Many of the kits contain everything you need, including wetnaps, claw crackers and cloth napkins, in addition to the seafood itself. All you'll need to shop for are the vegetables and you'll be all set for the most popular party of the season.

Just because you don't live near or on the coast does not mean you do not have to suffer without a Super Deluxe Clambake! Now that both Fedex and UPS offer overnight shipping it has never been easier to have some quality fresh seafood sent straight to your door. All you have to do is contact one of the various online seafood vendors, give them a call or visit their website. From there you can order up your clambake and start the countdown until it arrives.

About the Author:

You can easily get smoked shrimp if you live close to the coast, but if you live inland, it may be much more difficult. Of course the best place to always get seafood is from Quality Fresh Seafood.